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Assessment Reports / weakness?

by chaiken21044 » Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:14 am
I'm having trouble determining where my weaknesses are, based on the MGMAT Assessment Reports. I've read the page that is supposed to explain how to understand the reports, but I'm still unclear.

Specifically, I'm trying to evaluate Verbal to figure out which area I need the most work in.

Should I be looking at the %Right/Worng or the average dificulty of the problems I get correct in each seciton?

The following results are from two exams:

Critical Reasoning
- % Right = 64
- Avg diff Right answers =700

Reading Comp
- % Right = 58
- Avg diff Right answers =630

Sentence correction
- % Right = 47
- Avg diff Right answers =670

So, the question is, am I weaker in RC or SC? I'm getting a lower % of SC right, but a higher AVG diff. I assume this is probably the result of having received a higher propotion of 700-800 SC questions.
But I'm still having trouble maing sense of it all.


Please advise.

Thanks so much for yur help,

Zach
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by michael.dinerstein » Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:20 pm
Hi chaiken21044,

The percentage of questions you get right on a given section will ALWAYS roughly equal 50%. This is because the GMAT is computer adaptive, so while you may get that 650 level question right, you might get the 720 level question wrong. Then, you'd get a 670 level question right, a 700 level question wrong, a 680 right, a 690 wrong, etc.

Still, the statistic can be useful. If the percentage of questions you get right, however, is a much above 50%, it indicates that you're getting some of the questions at the upper level of the exam wrong. If the percentage of questions you get right is much below 50%, it means you're making careless errors.

Then, the average difficulty of the right answers is supposed to provide you with a rough average score level for the questions you get right. Equally as important is the average difficulty of questions you get wrong. Because the GMAT is adaptive, the difficulty level of questions you get wrong should be HIGHER than those that you get right. Similarly, your ability level is somewhere in between those two scores.

If, however, the average difficulty of wrong questions is lower than the difficulty level of higher questions, this might mean that you are making careless errors on easier problems and need to reinforce your foundation.

Judging by the metrics you have provided, it seems like you are testing in a 650 - 700 level for Sentence Correction, a 610 - 650 level for Reading Comprehension, and a low-700s score for Critical Reasoning. Hence, I'd focus on Reading Comp and Sentence Correction. However, I'd need more information, like the average time spent on a question and the average difficulty level of a wrong question, to create a more accurate analysis.

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
Manager of Online Marketing
Manhattan GMAT
212-721-7400
800-576-4628
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by chaiken21044 » Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:45 pm
Michael,

Thanks so much for your reply. I plan to take your advice.

Also, I'm planning to take another practice test in the next few days. After that, I would greatly appreciate it if you would be willing to analyze the full details of my assessment report.

In the meantime, how do you recommend I go about improving in Reading Comp? I have plenty of notes/flash cards etc. for studying SC, but don't know how to get better at RC.

Any advice?

Thanks again,

Zach
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by michael.dinerstein » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:53 am
Hi chaiken21044,

Overall, there's no easy way to improve your Reading Comprehension skills. The best thing you can do, however, is practice some of the reading techniques that we outline in our Strategy Guide. Additionally, simply reading more and asking more questions while you are reading will greatly improve your ability to answer questions on the exam.

As for the assessment, I'd be glad to provide you with a basic overview of your GMAT skills, but I can't really provide a more in-depth analysis! That's why we have private tutoring sessions with our Instructors. If you want to go into more detail with your Assessment Reports, we've crafted this handy article about how to read into your reports.

I hope this helps - good luck studying!

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
Manager of Online Marketing
Manhattan GMAT
212-721-7400
800-576-4628
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