GMAT Strategy

Just registered here, forum seems great!

I'm taking the GMAT in another three days. I've been taking the MGMAT CATs. My scores are worrying me a bit, I'm aiming for 740 at the least.

It'd be great if you could shed some light on these:
1. Is MGMAT CATs' Quant section tougher than the actual test?
2. Many Verbal section questions seem ambiguous and I find myself having to somewhat guess after eliminating two or three choices. The explanations sometimes seem inadequate/unconvincing. May be I'm missing the subtleties. How representative of the real test are the MGMAT CATs' Verbal sections?

My scores so far:
CAT1 - Q49, V34, 680 (Didn't complete both Quantitative and Verbal sections - left 4 questions in each unanswered)
CAT2 - Q48, V38, 710
CAT3 - Q50, V39, 730 (Didn't complete last 2 questions in Quantitative section).

As you can see, I'm a bit poor with time management, any tips there? Given these MGMAT scores, any guesses on what I might get?

Thanks!

I was also worried about my MGMAT score and if it may reflect what I would get on the real exam. Then I took a GMATPrep CAT...and wow it was like a different exam entirely. The math was very different. It took much less time to solve than the MGMAT math and my score was higher. But to that degree, the verbal seemed much more difficult. The last MGMAT CAT I took, I think I got a 42 on the verbal. The first GMATPrep CAT...I got a 35. HUGE drop. I wouldn't judge your score just by the MGMAT results. I kindof saved the GMATPrep CATS for the very very end and now regret it.

Thanks guys!

Brent - I'll watch that video, thanks for the pointers!

I have taken one GMATPREP and one free MGMAT CAT and the MGMAT CAT's Quant was definitely much tougher than what I saw on the GMATPREP

Jason25 wrote:I have taken one GMATPREP and one free MGMAT CAT and the MGMAT CAT's Quant was definitely much tougher than what I saw on the GMATPREP

Yep that's what I learned today (just got back from taking the real test). While taking the MGMAT CAT's, I often found myself short of time. But on the real test, I was able to complete the quantitative section with around 10 minutes to spare. Not to mention, the questions were way simpler and easier.

I am somewhat disappointed at MGMAT for failing to realistically represent the difficulty of quantitative questions.

I agree 100%. As part of my GMAT preparation, I took all 6 MGMAT CAT exams. I never scored higher than the 68th percentile on the quant section of any of these exams because I never managed to finish more than 27-29 questions. In fact, as recently as three days ago, I scored in the 30th percentile on the quant section of one of these exams (Exam 5). I only finished 24 questions.

Well, today I took the GMAT and not only did I finish all of the questions in the quant section, but I earned a 51! In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I had only 6 seconds to answer the last questions on the test, so my timing was off by one question.

But the overall point is that the MGMAT quant sections were very difficult for me to finish, whereas the real test was not. So if you are having a hard time finishing the quant section of the MGMAT CAT exams, don't freak out!

This is not to say that the MGMAT tests were not helpful. I think they were. I studied for 3.5 weeks and raised my score from 690 to 780.

MrCastle444 wrote: I never scored higher than the 68th percentile on the quant section of any of these exams because I never managed to finish more than 27-29 questions. In fact, as recently as three days ago, I scored in the 30th percentile on the quant section of one of these exams (Exam 5). I only finished 24 questions.

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Well I didn't see that much of a difference - on the MGMAT CATs I was only a question or two short of time, I used to get Q47-50. Like you, I too got a Q51 on the real gmat. Somewhat disappointed that the real one was so easy (my verbal skills are poor so I was relying on my Quant to gain an advantage over others).

Looks like we took the gmat on the same day. That's an incredible score you got there, highest I've heard so far, congratulations!
I got a 740.

harshuw wrote: Well I didn't see that much of a difference - on the MGMAT CATs I was only a question or two short of time, I used to get Q47-50. Like you, I too got a Q51 on the real gmat. Somewhat disappointed that the real one was so easy (my verbal skills are poor so I was relying on my Quant to gain an advantage over others).

It's hard to see a big difference when you are already rocking upwards of 50 on the MGMAT quant sections! To me, this says you not only have a handle of the the necessary math concepts and the typical GMAT tricks, but you can also complete lots of calculations in a short period of time. Based on my limited experience, the real GMAT tests the former much more than the latter.

Basically, you are a lot better at math than I am right now, but you are better in ways that the GMAT doesn't test very heavily. Congrats on your score, though! And I'm sorry they don't make the quant section harder! Haha. (But not really, because then this lawyer would have been screwed.)