MGMAT CAT1 Results & next steps

[vinay.rsm]

Hi All,

I am MGMAT customer and let me first congratulate you on the wonderful material that your institution has developed for GMAT preparation. I have all MGMAT books + ofcourse CAT tests and am currently working towards my target score of 750.

Prep so far:

I have been preparing for GMAT over the last 2 months on and off (~10 hrs a week).

Quant: 65% of my overall prep time has gone into Quant. I think I am good in quant (engg background but graduated 10 yr ago) but still wanted to get a hang of all concepts before diving into problems. Completed all MGMAT Quant Strategy books (except a bit of word problems) + Question Bank of Number Properties & Geometry + practice Qs from Jeff Sackmann's Challenge sets (Number properties, geometry, word problems).

Verbal: 35% of prep time gone into Verbal. I have spent most of this time on SC and CR. I think I am okay in RC (reading obsure articles while completing my PhD is coming in handy). For SC: partially read MGMAT guide; CR: partially read MGMAT guide. For practice, done a bit of Aristotle SC Grail questions (have not read the concepts section of it yet), RC99 passages for RC. For CR, some questions from OG based on MGMAT's chapters.

It was getting a bit boring and I was losing track of what to prepare/study over the next few weeks. I understand that I have enough basic material to go through (MGMAT SC, CR, RC guides) but I thought its best to take my first CAT to see how I am doing and which areas I should focus on in the coming weeks.

MGMAT CAT 1: 670 (Q47, V34)
Further breakdown:
Q: Accuracy PS (64%), DS (47%): questions in 700-800 group 25 out of 37; accuracy on 700-800 questions ~44%
V: Accuracy SC (47%), CR (50%), RC (58%): questions in 700-800 group 30 out of 41; accuracy on 700-800 questions ~43%

I took the test under timed conditions i.e. 75 mins for each section. I finished both Quant & Verbal with ~1 min to spare. I am okay with my Quant score but a bit disappointed with my Verbal score. I was expecting Verbal to be atleast 3-4 points more. I know that I have not practiced Verbal much yet and I can expect some improvement in that area after practice. I would like to get guidance and advice from MGMAT instructors and fellow members on these questions/areas:

Questions for Advice:

1. I felt quant on this CAT to be slightly tough. I could feel that I can complete the problem but that it is going take over 3-3.5 mins so I guessed and moved on. Do others feel the same?
2. I felt CR to be quite tough as well and sort of not clean CR i.e. statements were fine but questions and answer choices seemed to be very hotch-potch. Testing logic can be done in a clean fashion and still be difficult (which is the case with OG problems) but on this test it seemed like they are trying to make things difficult by using difficult wordings such as 3 negations in one sentence. Do others feel the same?
3. On Accuracy, MGMAT suggests that it is normal to get half the questions wrong i.e. ~50% accuracy. What do you guys think? I got 16 wrongs in Quant and 20 in Verbal.
4. What prep tips/suggestions would you give me for the next few weeks? My target score in 750 and GMAT date is around 2 months away.
5. Also, what is the best source for practicing CR questions? i.e. not concepts but practice questions.

Thanks a lot in advance. The reason for posting such a long post is also to help others you might have got similar results from their first CAT exam.

[StaceyKoprince]

Good analysis. Note: percentage correct means very little without the difficulty level and timing data attached to it, so you don't need to include that data in future.

If you want to dive into an even deeper analysis (and I recommend it!), you can use this article:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/

Did you do the essays? If not, do them in future. Skipping the essays can cause your multiple choice score to be artificially inflated (because it's tiring to write essays for an hour first!).

I felt quant on this CAT to be slightly tough. I could feel that I can complete the problem but that it is going take over 3-3.5 mins so I guessed and moved on. Do others feel the same?

Yes, people feel that way. No matter how good you get, you'll always have some questions that are too hard or are going to take too long. Don't spend more than 3m on any quant question ever. If it takes that long, even if you get it right, you're just costing yourself points later because you've used up too much time.

I'd recommend reading this article:

http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... anagement/

and also the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered Guide (it's already in your student account - go take a look!).

Q2 (CR). Yes, it can happen sometimes that non-OG questions don't feel as "clean" as OG questions. Question writing is a difficult task, especially so on verbal, and some of what you're seeing is a different in the basic styles of the people who are writing the questions. OG questions are the best (since they're the real thing), but you're also obviously going to be studying from other sources as well, so you'll just have to live with it. :) (Sometimes I want to argue with OG questions, too!)

Q3 (accuracy). Yes, that's right. Most people get about 50-60% of the questions right in a section, though that skews at very high and very low scoring levels. Take a look at that Scoring section of our free e-book that I mentioned earlier.

Q4 (prep suggestions). Use the link I gave above to analyze your most recent practice test. Give us that analysis here and we'll give you more detailed advice.

Q5 (practice Qs). OG. OG / official questions are always the best. :)

[vinay.rsm]

Hi Stacey,

Thanks a lot for your response! Over the last 2-3 days, I have read those 2 articles you referred to and lots of posts written by none other than yourself.

I spent quite a few hours (over 5+) analyzing the results (using one of the best source on how to analyze result by yourself: http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ice-tests/)

For Quant:
1. I found that I was poor in Overlapping sets (I had specifically practiced them but like 2 weeks ago), Fractions Decimals Percentages and Inequalities. Out of these, I made silly mistakes in the last 2 areas and the first one is indeed my weakness - not so much the content but the approach or process.
2. My accuracy in Quant was higher but the difficulty level of questions answered correctly was only 680, so need to work on 700-800 level questions to make sure that I improve my accuracy (~44%) on these. Let me know if I am correct?
3. The most insightful finding was that out of 8 questions on which I spent more than 3-3.5 mins, I got 7 wrong. Clearly, I should have guessed and moved on once I was unable to get a feeling that I am on right track. I have been working on developing the 1 minute sense (i.e. to have this feeling that you have spent 1 min on this question without constantly looking at the time), this is esp. useful in quant because it is very easy to zone out and take the problem head on at severe costs. In these questions, I could feel that I have spent more than 1 min and still I have not found strong clues about how to proceed. At about 1.5 min mark (in my mind), I should have guessed and moved on.

For Verbal:
1. I found that I was poor in RC as compared to SC and CR as per the difficulty level of questions. Although, my accuracy in RC (58%) is more than my accuracy in SC (47%) and CR (50%) level of difficulty of correct answers is lower for RC (680) than for SC (720) or CR (710). I think this is very insightful. You want to get the difficult questions as quickly as possible during the exam and then do your best to stay at that difficulty level even though this could mean that your accuracy is between 45-55% .

Please let me know what advice would you give me based on this analysis. For Verbal: I still have SC foundations book to finish. For CR and RC, I have just started practicing them. So, over the next 3-4 weeks, I should be getting better. For Quant: I am indeed surprised that I could only correctly answer 680 level questions, need to be cautious of silly mistake and this can go upto 720 I think.

Did you do the essays? If not, do them in future. Skipping the essays can cause your multiple choice score to be artificially inflated (because it's tiring to write essays for an hour first!).

No, I did not include the essays but will do that going forward.

Also, this what I found as general response for my questions while researching in the last 2-3 days.

Q1: While researching on several forums, I found that quite a few people stated that they found quant to be slightly more difficult than actual GMAT. MGMAT's staff mentioned that they have heard just as many people saying that it is more difficult as they have people saying that it is slightly easier. IMO, I think quant was not difficult due to tricks but more computational, more steps required to get the answer.

Q2: Well, after doing LSAT CR questions, I think MGMAT CR is just fine (and much better). I mean CR can get really complex due to several steps in building the logic. CR questions that I got wrong in MGMAT 1 were 750 level on average. I think for anyone aiming for 750 you should be focusing on CR from other sources than just OG. MGMAT content looks much more manageable to me vs. LSAT CR questions

Q3: Accuracy for anyone taking the test will be in the region of 45-55%. The catch is basically to reach higher difficulty questions quickly so that you maintain this accuracy rate for 750+ questions.

Q4: Currently, working on Verbal. RC99 (4 passages per day), CR questions (from GMAT Club and other forums - keeping OG for next week), SC: stuck at idioms chapter in MGMAT book :( I do practice quant everyday, around 15 DS questions and 5-10 PS. Keeping a combined error log for everything that I get wrong or get right but not sure if I can get it right next time.

Q5: Got a response that in general LSAT material can be used. started working on that from yesterday, need to get a hang of LSAT questions as they seems different that GMAT ones in some inexplicable ways (or maybe its just playing with my mind)

Thanks again!

[StaceyKoprince]

FDPs and inequalities can be common. Overlapping sets are not very common, so I'm not worried about those - just don't spend too much time on them.

difficulty level of questions answered correctly was only 680, so need to work on 700-800 level questions to make sure that I improve my accuracy (~44%) on these.

As an overall summary, yes, but two things: if you get too many sub-700 questions wrong, you won't get offered that many 700+ questions, so make sure you don't have any big weaknesses that will lead to lots of sub-700 questions wrong. Those are more important than the 700+. Also, for the 700+, you'll have certain strengths and weaknesses - you don't need to get them all right. So make sure you're focusing on appropriate areas (the 700+ questions you can answer correctly are more likely going to be in your stronger areas).

FYI: it's the case for almost everyone that RC difficulty levels are lower. You're given 3 or 4 RC questions for each passage, but not all are going to be 700+, even if you're doing really well, because there usually aren't that many 700+ questions for one passage. Main idea questions tend to be lower-rated, for example.

Your test shows a difference in avgs of only 30 or 40 points. That's within the normal range. RC is a strength for you.

I agree that our quant is a bit harder than the real thing in terms of computation. Our verbal is about the same (some people think it's harder, some people think it's easier).

Accuracy is in about the 50 to 60% range - almost what you wrote.

I think LSAT RC is decently similar to GMAT RC. Some CRs are similar in both, but CR is more different (and most people think LSAT CR is harder).

[vinay.rsm]

Thanks a lot for your feedback, Stacey!

I'll post more questions as and when they come up.

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome!

[vinay.rsm]

Hi MGMATStaff,

I took MGMAT CAT 2 yesterday. I would like to share the results and get some guidance.

MGMAT CAT2: 710 (Q48 V38)

VERBAL:
Sec. # Corr Wrng %Corr Time-Cor Time-Wrng Diff-Corr Diff-Wrng
CR 14 11 3 79% 2:01 2:06 650 720
RC 12 8 4 67% 2:04 2:20 680 650
SC 15 7 8 47% 1:32 1:12 660 750

QUANT:
Sec. # Corr Wrng %Corr Time-Cor Time-Wrng Diff-Corr Diff-Wrng
PS 22 15 7 68% 1:52 2:16 720 750
DS 15 11 4 73% 2:06 1:50 740 730

Question:
1. I am a little bit puzzled when I compare my CAT2 results with CAT1. In CAT1, in verbal for SC and CR my average difficulty of Correct answers was 720 and 710 but my accuracy was 47% (SC) and 50% (CR), in CAT 2 I have lower average difficulty of Correct answers, yet I got a Verbal score of 38 (as compared to 34 in CAT1). In both tests, RC level and accuracy was same. Can you please shed some light on how my score increased?

[StaceyKoprince]

You can't look at that kind of data and figure out how the algorithm got to that score - it's WAY more complex than averages of certain data points. :)

It also depends upon things like trends across the section. You could, for example, be performing at a very high level but taking too long, so then you'd run out of time at the end and your score would drop. Your averages might still look pretty good, but the penalties at the end would hurt your final score. Or you could make a few early careless mistakes on lower level questions, but recover with enough time to pull your score up by the end, even though the overall average might be a little lower.

Oh, and also - you got a MUCH higher percentage of the CR questions right this time around as well. The scoring is a blend of diff level and what you got right vs. wrong.

Nice work overall! For your next test (after studying some more), you may want to take GMATPrep, just to make sure that your numbers hold up on the official practice test. If you do take GMATPrep, time yourself on each question so that you have that data available when you're done.