GMAT Strategy

Hi All,

I have been preparing for GMAT for close to 2 months now. I started with Manhattan mock exams and below are my scores -

Date Exam Quant Verbal IR Total
22/5/2016 Manhattan #2 44(Q) 33(V) N/A(IR) 640
5/6/2016 Manhattan #3 46(Q) 34(V) 3.1(IR) 660
30/6/2016 GMAT Prep #1 50(Q) 38(V) 8(IR) 720
9/7/2016 Manhattan #4 45(Q) 36(V) 4.57(IR)670
17/7/2016 Manhattan #5 44(Q) 35(V) 3.73(IR)650

These scores include one mock from Official GMAT prep (the only one where I managed to cross 700) and does not contain the one free mock from Manhattan as I appeared for that close to a year ago.

I wanted to know how accurate Manhattan mock exams are, as I really felt that both Quant and Verbal were more difficult in Manhattan compared to the GMAT mock. In almost all the Manhattan mocks, I was running out of time in the Quant section (with 3-4 questions left towards the end and no time left). For the official GMAT mock, I was able to finish both Quant and Verbal in time.

The last two mock results have really thrown me off-track and made me reschedule to 18/08 instead of 30/07. Can anyone help with interpreting these scores? And know if the Manhattan mocks are in general difficult than the original GMAT?

Thanks a ton!

[email protected] wrote:Hi RocketScience77,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. The most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC. It's also worth noting that practice CAT scores are only as realistic as YOU make the process of taking the CAT. The more the 'CAT-taking event' deviates from what you'll face on Test Day, the more likely the score is to be inaccurate (and in most cases, that means "inflated").

When you took your CATs:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at home?
3) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Thanks Rich!

To answer your questions above, I did try and take all the mock exams in more or less the same environment as it would be for an actual exam.

I do have another question.
What can I do to improve my timing? Especially for Quant. I have noticed that most of the questions that I get wrong are because I'm hurrying through them due to lack of time. I have tried practising questions outsidethe mock exams and I am able to solve them within 2 minutes(when I solve the OG questions), but struggle with Manhattan questions. Am I missing on something very obvious?

Thanks again,
Anshul

Anshul,

Personally I find the level of difficulty of the Manhattan quant questions harder than the OG. I find the reverse to be true for the verbal. Go by the OG as the questions are retired GMAT questions. The Manhattan tests were good while I was studying but I did see a difference between my performance on those and the GMAC practice tests.

Good luck with the studies.

RocketScience77 wrote:What can I do to improve my timing? Especially for Quant. I have noticed that most of the questions that I get wrong are because I'm hurrying through them due to lack of time. I have tried practising questions outside the mock exams and I am able to solve them within 2 minutes(when I solve the OG questions), but struggle with Manhattan questions. Am I missing on something very obvious?

Thanks again,
Anshul

There are two things that you are missing.

One of them is that most OG quant questions are easier than the questions you will see on a test given the level at which you are scoring. So naturally, generally you will answer the OG questions more quickly than you do the ones you see on tests.

Secondly, answering Manhattan quant questions often takes a step or so more than answering official quant questions. So completing that extra step or so is taking time.

That having been said, two ways to speed up in quant are to improve accuracy and to improve skills.

Improving accuracy helps because better accuracy means less time spent recalculating when your work is not getting you to a right answer.

Improving skills is best done topic by topic. You can go over your Manhattan tests to see which questions you spent the most time on, and then work on questions of those types topic by topic, developing skill in answering those types so that you can burn through them when you see them. In doing that, not only will you answer questions of those types faster but also you will give yourself more time to answer other questions.

To get some categorized quant practice questions, one thing that you can do is to sign up for a free practice account in the GMAT area here, https://bellcurves.com.

Hi,

I finally appeared for GMAT and scored 700. Please assess my profile and help with deciding if I should reappear?

GMAT - 700 (Q:49 V:36 AWA:4 IR:6)

10th - 84.33%

12th - 77.33%

B.E. (MIT, Manipal) - 7.2 (Information Technology)
Work Experience - Total (>4 years) Worked as Associate Applications Engineer at Oracle India Pvt. Ltd. for 1.5 years (also interned here for 6 months). Currently working as Associate Consultant at ZS Associates (>2.5 years) with 2 teams
I was associated with an NGO for some time. Also, I was an organizer in the college cultural fest.


Is it good profile for ISB Hyderabad. Is this GMAT score good enough? Or should I retake? I think I can get 720 - 730 with a little more preparation.



Thanks!