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My MGMAT CAT scores, and new strategy?

by crb0506 » Fri Nov 21, 2008 10:12 pm
hi,

I took 3 Manhattan CAT exams & scores are as as following

CAT1: 600
CAT2: 640 (Taken after 3 days of CAT1)

Studied OG (2nd time) & read all 8 Manhattan strategy guides. took CAT3 after 10 days...and got 560!!

I have no idea where I went wrong :(
my exam is on December 1st. Now planning to extend it because I was targeting 700 above.

could you explain what I might be doing wrong? What does Manhattan CAT scores represent?

What should I do now to improve extensivly in next couple of days?? I can study 6-8 hours everyday...

Will appreciate your help! thanks
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by michael.dinerstein » Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:32 am
Hi crb0506,

Part of the explanation as to why your scores are so disparate is the fact that the ManhattanGMAT CAT Exams have a standard error of 50 points. This means that if you are a "650 level" test-taker, you have 2/3 chance of scoring in the range of 600 - 700. However, this also means that you have a 1/3 chance of scoring above 700 or below 600!

(By comparison, the GMAT has a standard error of 30 points, so if you are a "650 level" test-taker, you have a 2/3 chance of scoring between 620 - 680 and a 1/3 chance of scoring above 680 and below 620.)

Taking this information and looking at your CAT Exam scores, you are scoring in the range of 560 - 640. Given what we know above, it would appear your score is in the 600 - 610 range.

The reason why you haven't been experiencing a significant score improvement is because you only had 10 days to learn, practice, and absorb the material from the Strategy Guides, which is not enough time to make significant headway on the GMAT. Hence, I would highly recommend looking at your Assessment Reports in your Student Center to pinpoint the areas of the exam that are your weakest. Review these concepts in your Strategy Guides and complete related problems in the Official Guides. When you feel like you've made good progress in these areas, revisit the CAT Exams, run assessment reports to see your new areas of relative weakness, and repeat the process until test day.

Does this help point you in the right direction? Just let me know if you need anything else and good luck studying!

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
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thanks...another question

by crb0506 » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:01 pm
Thank you so much for the suggestion! I have started doing it already.

Do you suggest doing KAP800 after I complete doing MGMAT & OG guides? I have also bought Manhattan GMAT'S "Challenge Problem Archive" . What's your take on that?

Thanks!
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by michael.dinerstein » Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:28 am
Hi crb0506,

I'm glad to hear that you found my advice useful. I hope it comes in handy when you're studying for the GMAT in the next few weeks.

Regarding advanced math practice questions, I know for a fact that the ManhattanGMAT Challenge Problem Archive contains extremely difficult quant problems that are at a difficulty level of at leave 700+, with the majority being at a level of 750+. Some questions are so difficult that even some of our Instructors need to take pause to answer the most challenging of these questions. Chances are, you won't see questions like these on the GMAT unless you're aiming to score a high 99th percentile on the quant section.

As for Kaplan 800, I can't quite comment on their book since I haven't gone through it, but I would highly recommend visiting the general section of the BTG Forums or check out their Amazon book page for customer feedback.

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
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thanks

by crb0506 » Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:00 pm
Thanks again Michael for the helpful suggestion. I am feeling quite confident using your strategy. Best regards
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by michael.dinerstein » Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:21 am
No problem. Good luck and keep me posted with your results!

Best,
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a little more advice.. :(

by crb0506 » Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:17 pm
hi Michael,

I followed your strategy. I had worst performance in number properties & geometry. I just took CAT4 & improved on geometry (100% correct) while scored only 17% on number properties.

I saw my CAT1 & CAT2 scores (both taken in first week of november)..and my quant was a strong 43 & 45 respectively. However, in my recent CAT 3 & CAT4...scores were as low as 38 & 35!

This scares me like anything. I already re-scheduled my exam date twice. NoW, I got it on December 6th...here's my strategy to improve on quant:
Your comments & suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Solving selected questions from OG & quant review (that are mentioned at the back og MGMAT strategy guides)

Solving quant questions from mba.com paper tests. (I know they r not in adaptive form...but I am hoping to get some practice on real questions)

Lastly, browsing GMAT prep & GMAT exam questions on this website & solving it.

I really hope to make it atleast around 700 because my essays & recommendations are exceptionally good. GMAT would be icing on cake...& moreover I am targetting the top schools. A low score would leave me nowhere!!
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by michael.dinerstein » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:25 am
Hi crb0506,

As I discussed above, do not place too much emphasis in to the raw scores on your practice exam. Instead, you should be focused on building your content base for another day or so before your exam this week. At this point, you should be studying out of the Number Properties and Geometry Strategy Guides, if you have them, in order to learn the content behind the exam. Going over practice questions can only get you so far, and without a proper content base, it might even confuse you a bit more.

With that said, I think your plan is pretty solid, but at this point, you should focus all of your attention on the OG. The paper questions are so old that they are no longer relevant to the GMAT as it currently exists, and any questions you find on the internet will not be nearly as accurate as those in the OG. Supplement your content review by going over individual OG questions that are giving you difficulty with a fine-tooth comb. Analyze what is giving you difficulty and come up with a game plan for how you should react when you encounter this concept on test day. At this point, with your test just days away, you should begin to focus more on strategy.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
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by crb0506 » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:19 am
hi Michael,

highly appreciate your prompt replies!

So, as per your suggestions, this is what my plan is until friday, december 5th::

doing Sentence correction & critical reasoning from OG verbal review book. then learning the weaknesses and working on them.

Secondly, doing all the problem solving & data sufficiency from quant review book. analyzing stregths & weaknesses.

I have already got the list of my weak quant questions from OG. So, will keep reviewing those as well.

let me know whats your take on the above.

and lastly, do you recommend practicing GMAT prep exams in these remaining days?

thank you & regards,

CRB

P.S: My apology for constantly asking you questions. but your suggestions help a lot!
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by michael.dinerstein » Tue Dec 02, 2008 8:47 am
Hi crb0506,

That sounds good to me. Then again, I'm not the absolute best person to ask for strategies, since I'm only trained to provide general advice (such as focusing more on OGs) rather than specifics. However, I think that your general outline that you have laid out looks good.

I do believe that if you were to take another GMAT Prep exam, it could be overkill. If you do have an urge to take another practice test, though, make sure to limit it to just one before your real exam since practice tests can take away from your study time.

Also, don't worry about asking too many questions! That's what I'm here for.

Good luck!

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
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Manhattan GMAT
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MY MGMAT SCORES

by kart.dirk » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:56 pm
I TOOK THE MGMAT FREE CAT AND MY SCORES WERE

47 Q
30V
630


:cry:

PLS HELP .... WHAT ARE MY LIKELY SCORES ON THE ACTUAL EXAM

GMAT PREP1 620 48Q 28 V
2 690 49Q 35V
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by michael.dinerstein » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:12 am
Hi kart.dirk,

The information contained in this post should be enough to provide you with the answer to your question. Unfortunately, I don't have any additional information that would help you with a more accurate estimate of your score. However, what I can say is that you should more heavily trust your score on GMATPrep because that test is the one that is MOST similar to a real GMAT since it is made by the same people. Additionally, it has just a 30 point standard deviation as opposed to our 50 point standard deviation.

Good luck studying!

Best,
Michael Dinerstein
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by samyak » Sat May 15, 2010 12:23 am
Hello Michael,

Sorry to bug you with result estimation questions but it's really important for aspirants to know where they in terms of real GMAT scoring standard. I also understand its hard to achieve an accurate bet, but all we expect is an probability which will indicate us about anything going terribly wrong or something to vouch for.

My scores in MG CAT2 & CAT3 are given below. I would love to have an idea regarding where I stand in my preparation cycle.

CAT2:

Quantitative 49 90 %
Verbal 34 72 %
Total 680 90 %

CAT3:

Quantitative 48 86 %
Verbal 36 81 %
Total 690 91 %

Thanks in advance.
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by samyak » Fri May 21, 2010 12:24 am
Any estimates? Anybody please!!
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by mgmat-caitlin » Tue May 25, 2010 9:55 am
Hi Samyak,

It's hard to give an estimate on where you stand in your prep without knowing more about what your specific goals are and how you've studied so far. A 680 and a 690 are both very good scores, and assuming you had a very good application, you could even apply to top business schools with those scores, though I want to remind you that our tests do have a 50 point standard deviation. Have you read the MGMAT strategy guides? How about doing problem sets from the OGs? How comfortable do you feel with each question type?

It looks like your verbal is slightly weaker than your math. Have you run the analytics we provide with our tests to see where you might be able to find improvements? Maybe you're running out of time or spending too much time on very difficult questions. Maybe you'll find it's reading comp or sentence correction where you want to focus. There are a lot of factors at play.


Try using this article to help you understand your CAT assessment reports: https://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-prep- ... rogram.cfm

You might find these two articles helpful:

https://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-s ... t-prep.cfm
https://www.manhattangmat.com/strategy-s ... ng-700.cfm

Best,
Caitlin
Caitlin Clay
Student Services, Manhattan GMAT
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