MGMAT CAT Verbal

[suman.sourav]

Hello all,

I just finished my first MGMAT CAT and I have certain doubts regarding the way the test works and also about the content of the test. (I am retaking the GMAT. My first attempt was a dismal 710(Q 49, V 39)). As a non-native English speaker, I experience problems in the verbal section.

1) How do you compare the verbal sections of the MGMAT CATs with those of the GMATPrep and the real test? Personally, I feel that the MGMAT has a lot of easy questions, particularly in the SC and RC parts.

Anybody else has the same views? I would like an instructor to comment on this one.

2) Secondly, last time I was consistently scoring 750+ in MGMAT CATs(highest 770),but still had a dismal performance in the real test. My GMATprep tests also looked fine(I scored 720 and 760 on two attempts). I would like to point out that I took all the tests under timed conditions and with essays too. I would love some suggestions as to what went wrong in the real test.

P.S.- I was not pressurized or nervous during the test and felt perfectly at ease.

Thanking you all.
Suman Sourav.

[StaceyKoprince]

First, 710 is not dismal. It's a great score. :) I know you're looking for something better, but there's nothing at all bad about a 710!

The standard deviation on the real test is about 30 points, and on our tests it's about 50 points. So, though you were at the lower end of the range, your practice test scores were generally within 1 standard deviation of your real test score. That doesn't change your desire to get a higher score of course; I'm just making the point that you were actually within the generally expected range based on your practice scores.

People are more likely to be at the lower end of the range or drop below the range if:
- they don't do tests under 100% official conditions (but you did)
- they burn themselves out in the last few days before the test (by studying too much or taking a practice test within the last few days; generally you shouldn't study more than 1-2 hours the day before, for example)
- they have timing problems that can cause score fluctuations
- they have anxiety issues that hurt performance (note: I know you said that you felt "perfectly at ease" during the test - I don't 100% believe you. Everyone is a tiny bit nervous at least, even me, and I've taken these kinds of tests a million times, I know I'm going to do well, and I'm not even trying to use the scores to get into grad school!)

Most people consistently say that they think our quant section is harder than the real test. For verbal, I get a mix - some people think ours is harder, others think the real test is harder. I actually spoke with someone else earlier today who told me that RC seemed much easier on the real test compared to our tests!

I think it probably depends upon your particular strengths and weaknesses compared to the mix of questions you happen to get on the real test, as well as the way that you study / learn verbal.

Some people are very good at learning the "rhythm" of the language used by the test-writers, and that "language pattern" is unique to the actual writer. There are more differences in verbal questions than in quant questions when you're comparing real test questions to test prep company questions.

If that's the case for you and you mostly study non-official questions, then you may find the real test harder than you would have anticipated (because you weren't studying the particular language patterns of the test writers enough). To some extent, that can be remedied by studying official questions, but even there you're always at a disadvantage, because most questions written in the past few years have NOT been released yet as practice questions, so there can be something of a "divergence" over time even between the official released materials and the current questions on the official test.

Next, when comparing practice tests to the real test, did your score drop only in the verbal section? Or did quant drop a point or two as well?

On SC, did you feel that more questions had very long underlines and were more convoluted or had large parts of the answers changing around? Did you have multiple times when you'd narrow down to 2 or 3 and then not be sure what else to do or think that they were either all fine or all bad?

There have been more questions in this format lately, and they've also been testing meaning more, not just grammar. Take a look at the articles linked in the below article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... orrection/

That will help you to learn how to handle the more convoluted SCs out there.

[suman.sourav]

Dear Stacey,

Thanks for your valuable insights. I have always been a big fan of your magisterial articles, which undoubtedly are the most comprehensive of the myriad of GMAT articles one can see online.

As per your question on the SC from the real GMAT test, I felt that some questions were a little convoluted or let's say, confusing. But the questions that I found hard were the smaller ones(I have always found pleasure in solving the long complicated sentences).

Also, you asked whether my scores fell on both quant and verbal. I secured 49 in MGMAT quants consistently and I was expecting 49-50 on the real test. There was no fall there. My biggest let down was the verbal score. While I used to score 43-44 on the MGMAT, my actual scores were 39 on the test day(the biggest cause of my dismay).

This time around, I have felt that the questions that I earlier saw on the MGMAT CATs are repetitive. I am retaking the GMAT; I am using a new account of the MGMAT though. Could you help me in this regard? I would love some quick suggestions as to which other tests that I should be taking so that my scores are not inflated just because I see questions that I have solved earlier?

Also, on the changes in SC, could you suggest a source where I can get such questions(tough ones based on meaning issues which I could use to enhance my vision while I face the ones in the real test)?

My test is on 24th of next month, so I would really appreciate if you could revert a little quicker.

Thanks once again.
Best regards.
Suman Sourav.

[StaceyKoprince]

Sorry - I've been on vacation since you last posted. (Still am, actually. :)

Okay, so for SC, you struggled with the really short underlines? Yes, those can be quite hard because they're often only testing one or two things instead of the more usual 3 or more. Because they're only testing 1 or 2 things, the issues being tested are often more obscure / rare, and so you may not have seen them before - in which case, you're stuck.

If that's the issue, then it really is a matter of viewing as many official questions as you can, looking for obscure issues that you don't know, or don't know well enough. That's tedious, but that's what happens when your score is already pretty high and you want to push it even higher. :)

I secured 49 in MGMAT quants consistently and I was expecting 49-50 on the real test. There was no fall there.

That's not so, actually. The scoring scales for quant and verbal are different, so you can't just look at the scaled score drops. You have to compare percentiles. You dropped from 43-44 to 39 on verbal, but that only represents 8 to 9 percentile points on verbal. On quant, the difference between 50 and 49 is 7 percentile points. In other words, if you were capable of 50 and got 49, then you dropped almost the same amount as you did in verbal - even though on quant that only represented a one-point difference on the scaled score.

That's important to know because now you know you do actually need to go for 50+ on quant, not 49 - that will make a huge difference in your overall score, much more so than one point on verbal will. (Of course, on verbal, we're going for a 4-5 point improvement, not just 1.)

I have felt that the questions that I earlier saw on the MGMAT CATs are repetitive. I am retaking the GMAT; I am using a new account of the MGMAT though.

A new account won't change what questions you see - everyone taking the CATs is pulling from the same database of questions. If you recognize too many of ours, try 800Score.

Also, on the changes in SC, could you suggest a source where I can get such questions(tough ones based on meaning issues

Did you take a look at the article I linked to in my last post? That one has links to a bunch of other blog posts, including one in which I list a bunch of meaning-related questions from the OG. You really want to study official questions as much as possible. First, go back over OG questions that you've already studied so that you can really see how to study these. Don't let yourself rest on grammar - dig into the meaning issues. Then you can use other OG questions you haven't done.

If you've done them all and remember them, then try GMAT Prep Pack #1 (you can buy it for $25 through the GMATPrep software). You can't look up problems by specific number or name - you just have to do them randomly - but some of the problems in that set will be of this type and you'll find them as you do problems.

You'll also, though, need to do what I was talking about above for the shorter questions that test obscure issues.

[suman.sourav]

Thanks a lot Stacey. I will work according to your brilliant pieces of advice.

I will certainly look into the GMATPrep thing; but, I am not a big fan of the 800score.com tests. Their scoring mechanism is not quite succinct and certainly not at the standards of what MGMAT CATS provide.

Thank you anyway.
Regards.
Suman Sourav.

[StaceyKoprince]

I do think our tests are the best, too. :) But if you already recognize too many of the questions, you've got to try something else...

That may highlight something else though - make sure that you aren't taking too many tests or doing too many problems too quickly and "using up" these valuable resources without learning everything you can from them. You don't learn while taking a test or doing a problem; you learn from all of the analysis you do after the clock stops ticking.