Should I keep taking MGMAT CATs? Running out of 700+ verbals

[j.william.bell]

I've taken 4 MGMAT CATs. Got 45V on the first three, dropped to a 42V on the 4th mostly because I stopped getting 700 level questions. Is it worth the practice to take the last two? Or is just answering 600-700 level questions a waste of time?

I'm working on bringing up my quant - I have scored 43, 45, 48, 48, so I should have plenty of tough questions left there. Maybe I should just take the quant section these last two times?

[StaceyKoprince]

45V is 99th percentile, so you have basically been using up the hardest questions right from your first test. The CAT isn't designed to have 6 tests' worth of 99th percentile Qs because if you're already scoring at that level... you're ready for the real thing. :)

You can get away with only doing quant because quant comes first. (For anyone else reading this: if you are in the reverse situation, don't skip quant and only do verbal, because verbal comes after quant, so there are stamina factors involved.)

Also, one thing - even if you use up the hardest questions and the algorithm has to start giving you lower questions... your score doesn't actually go down as a result. The algorithm still calculates as though it had given you the harder question because that's what it wanted to do - the question just wasn't available. So you may want to go take a look at that 42. Maybe you inadvertently uncovered a couple of weak areas that would be good to know about before the real thing.

Either way, you're definitely looking good to go on verbal. :) Have you done GMATPrep as well?

[j.william.bell]

Thanks Stacey. I always seem to get 2-3 SC questions wrong regardless of whether they are 600-700 or 700+ level questions, and 1-2 CR 700+ questions wrong. On the earlier CATs, it seemed as though I made it up by answering a number of 700+ questions correctly, whereas almost all of the last 15 questions on the recent CAT were 600-700.

I just took my first GMATPrep and got 49Q 42V. On the verbal, I got my customary 2 CR questions wrong, but got more SC questions wrong (4) than usual (two of them were the kind of sentences that sound terrible in all options).

I know I can definitely improve my SC, I just didn't know if taking a CAT mainly composed of 600-700 level questions would be the best way to work on it.

[StaceyKoprince]

Agreed on the CAT issue.

two of them were the kind of sentences that sound terrible in all options

Ah, okay. This comment is actually pretty revealing. I'm going to guess that you have a good ear in general, so you mostly get away with relying fairly heavily on it, but when they write a question specifically designed to trap those who are relying mostly on their ears... then you're more likely to fall into that trap.

So, when studying, that's where you need to dig in deeper and really understand what's going on and why from a grammar and meaning standpoint - actually be able to articulate well enough that you could explain to someone else. Then, you're actually training your ear specifically for the GMAT test-writers. :)

In particular, think about:
1) Why does the wrong answer seem right? Why would someone pick it? Why did I pick it? (And now you know that reason is a bad reason to pick something.)
2) Why did the right answer seem wrong? Which part, specifically, "sounds" wrong? Why would someone (or why did I) eliminate it? (Be as specific as possible.) (And now you know that reason is a bad reason to eliminate something.)

Also think about: did I make a mistake with something that I did actually already know? Did they get me to overlook something / distract me / make me not notice or see it? How did they do that? What should have been my clue that I needed to think about that? How am I going to notice that same kind of thing in future?

Finally, of course, if the hard question was testing some little rule that you just didn't know before, then do whatever you normally do to learn new rules - take notes, make flashcards, whatever that is.

[DART]

Hi Stacey, I found that in MGMAT CATs the percentile variation in first 10 questions is much higher (around +/-10 for every correct or wrong answer) and it decreases to around 4-6 in the next 20 odd questions and then the variation still drops to 2 -3 percentile marks in the last few. So is it how the real GMAT is gonna be? I think in MGMAT, if I concentrate on the questions in the beginning to get to 99 and alternate on the last few questions, the percentile stays high with little affect from number of wrong questions. Even if I get two three wrong at the end the percentile just drops by 4-5 points.

[StaceyKoprince]

What you're describing is one aspect of how the algorithm works, yes, but it's just ONE aspect. There are other components of the algorithm as well - less obvious - and those other components offset those early wider swings. The last question ultimately counts towards your score just as much as the first question - it isn't the case that the earlier questions are "worth more" (even though it can feel like that).

The penalty essentially "accelerates" if you get multiple wrong in a row, and the higher your score, the worse the penalty. You could be scoring at 99th percentile and get the last 5 in a row wrong and drop 15 or 20 percentile points.

So don't think about earlier questions as "worth more" or anything like that - that will get you into trouble. You see a question. If you can do it, do it. If you can't do it, make a guess and move on. If you think you can do it but it's going to take you more than 30 seconds longer than the average for that question type, make a guess and move on. The test WILL give you questions you can't do, so just try to recognize when it has done so and move on before you spend more time than you should. Then you won't have timing problems later on! :)