I just Beat The GMAT!

I am very happy with my result over the weekend after several months of preparing to various degrees. I used the OG books plus Manhattan GMAT book set & online materials. I won't dive too much into my approach, as it may not work for many others (short version: read OG & a few practice questions surrounding 2 OG practice tests, final month I then tackled each section one at a time with practice essays, IR sessions, Manhattan guide books, OG Quant & OG Verbal, and Manhattan CAT usage, one final MGMAT full practice CAT, lots of timed quant sprints), but I do want to post for the benefit of others regarding the MGMAT CATs.

I know this has been covered in other places, but to reinforce the message: MGMAT QUANT CAT is WAY!!!! harder than the real thing. If you are preparing for the GMAT now and using MGMAT and are worried because you're struggling - DON'T WORRY! Their CAT questions are much harder and take much longer than the real questions. Here is my evidence:

Two official practice tests: Q49 and Q45, finished all questions first time, came up short by 2 second test. 200+ Quant questions from the OGs over various times sessions, both easy and hard, completed in avg < 2 min/question, ~95% correct. Real GMAT: Q49, all questions completed.

Compared to 116 MGMAT CAT Quant questions compmleted in 3 full 75 min sessions, 2 30mins sessions: Q31, Q38 and Q38 in full sessions, overall 56% correct and overall average of > 2min 30sec. Never completed more than 30 of 37 questions in any of the 3 full sessions.

These are statistically significant differences in results. I wrote to MGMAT and they replied that they do review their results based on student feedback for MGMAT vs GMAT scores and that I am an outlier...but I only buy that to a certain degree. It shouldn't be possible that someone like myself, who is clearly a far-above-average Quant performer on real GMAT questions (and on the real GMAT itself), could struggle so mightily on MGMAT if their questions are truly representative. They need to strive for a smaller standard deviation, and those who should see the greatest divergence in scores should be those in the middle of the bell curve (who are harder to predict and have most room to improve), rather than top performers being made to look below average.

So, to sum up - don't sweat it if you are having a similar experience on MGMAT CATs but feel like you're doing fine on the OG questions and practice tests. Use MGMAT to practice, review what you get wrong and remember those key lessons for when they show up on real questions, use the extra CATs to similate real testing conditions...but don't get caught up in the scores or the timing. Do time yourself on OG questions and make sure you're averaging 2min or less there.

Good luck all!

Did you guess strategically on MGMAT Quant Questions ? Some questions are way too hard and can take 5-10 mins. Some questions are relatively easy if you figure out the trick, then you can solve in 2min else you may find yourself spending 4-5 minutes. These are the type of questions that you would not face on the GMAT. If you get stuck somewhere you quant score can take a beating.

woah. i love this post - thank you very much for sharing your success story! congratulations! and very nice to read that quant manhattan practice is harder than the real thing...because i can getting beat up with it currently, and i have another one waiting for me this weekend!!

very well done - congrats!

AbhiJ wrote:Did you guess strategically on MGMAT Quant Questions ? Some questions are way too hard and can take 5-10 mins. Some questions are relatively easy if you figure out the trick, then you can solve in 2min else you may find yourself spending 4-5 minutes. These are the type of questions that you would not face on the GMAT. If you get stuck somewhere you quant score can take a beating.

This is just my point - some (many?) questions are way too hard and take too long. I did start to try to guess on later MGMAT CAT sessions, but often I would simply burn too much time solving it accurately. And, as you say, you don't face many (if any) of these on the real thing. Sure, there are questions that have tricks you need to recognize in order to solve efficiently. That is why I do say to study what you get wrong / take too long on and remember the tricks & lessons. But on the real test there was only 1 of 37 questions that I encountered that really had my scrambling & taking too long, versus every other question on MGMAT being like that. So, again, use MGMAT to simulate the pressure and really study their explanations & note the keys to the questions...then apply that to OG questions to practice timing & accuracy.

@bass25 - Thanks. Glad you found this helpful. I really wanted to spread the word, because I was getting beat up, as you say, in the weeks leading up to the test and found someone else's post about MGMAT quant very soothing to my nerves.

However, I definitely don't want anyone to interpret this as 'don't worry at all if you're struggling' - my message only applies if you feel like you're doing well on OG but bad on MGMAT. If that is the case, then put your faith in your OG results & be confident while continuing to try to improve using all the tools you have available. If you are struggling with timing or correctness on BOTH guides, then that is a different story and you need to ID your problem areas and improve.

Cheers

modll: makes sense completely; thanks for the reply.

yes, in my situation i still have some conceptual work to tighten up on quant. verbal is coming along nicely, SC is not giving me any difficulty thus far, and CR and RC are shaping up nicely. i'm really hoping for a v40 score to carry me over the 7xx mark. do you think that's possible?

ok, i'm off to take another manhattan quant practice test now...wish me luck, weee!

basso25@ wrote:modll: makes sense completely; thanks for the reply.

yes, in my situation i still have some conceptual work to tighten up on quant. verbal is coming along nicely, SC is not giving me any difficulty thus far, and CR and RC are shaping up nicely. i'm really hoping for a v40 score to carry me over the 7xx mark. do you think that's possible?

ok, i'm off to take another manhattan quant practice test now...wish me luck, weee!

Good luck and hope you're feeling the progress a couple weeks later. Certainly if you're feeling comfortable with verbal then a V40 should be attainable, and combined with a high Q score could get above 700 - though I'm no expert on score combos and I'm not familiar with your verbal performance so far. Best wishes on your final prep.