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GMAT Prep Test

by tohin » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:40 pm
Hi everyone,

This is my first post but I hope to be able to contribute soon with a nice story to tell :)
I'm taking the GMAT at the end of the week and I have 2 questions.

1. I just finished one of my two CATs and was not able to find the actual answers to the questions I answered incorrectly. Is it actually possible? If so, how can I access these answers (I'm using the CATs provided by mba.com?

2. I was actually very surprised (positively) with my score (750, 49Q, 42V). I have the feeling the system was quite generous as I made a lot of silly mistakes and ended up with a high % of incorrect answers. As this test was provided by GMAC, can I expect a similar level of difficulty on test day and a similar scoring system?

Thanks for your replies.
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by InkyBinky » Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:03 pm
750 is a really great score, especially for taking the test the first time and you should expect a similar score on the real thing. You can access the questions you missed by reopening the same test. It'll list all those that you got right or wrong and will give the right answer (but no explanations). However, if you restart the test, it'll erase your scores.
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by Dan@VinciaPrep » Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:14 am
tohin wrote:Hi everyone,

This is my first post but I hope to be able to contribute soon with a nice story to tell :)
I'm taking the GMAT at the end of the week and I have 2 questions.

1. I just finished one of my two CATs and was not able to find the actual answers to the questions I answered incorrectly. Is it actually possible? If so, how can I access these answers (I'm using the CATs provided by mba.com?

2. I was actually very surprised (positively) with my score (750, 49Q, 42V). I have the feeling the system was quite generous as I made a lot of silly mistakes and ended up with a high % of incorrect answers. As this test was provided by GMAC, can I expect a similar level of difficulty on test day and a similar scoring system?

Thanks for your replies.
1) Did you take the test under test like circumstances (did the essays and only took 8 minute breaks?)
2) The scoring on the GMAT Prep tests should be very close to the score you'll get on test day if you took the test correctly
3) If you want the way to solve the questions that you answered incorrectly you can type the first five words of the question into google and someone will have answered it.

Cheers!
If my post helped you- let me know by pushing the thanks button ;)

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by tohin » Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:24 am
Thanks a lot for your replies.

Daniel, you have a good point regarding test conditions as I skipped the AWA part of the test yesterday.
For the rest, I did take a 5 min break between the quant and the verbal parts.
Tomorrow, I'll try taking the full test in exam like conditions, including AWA.

Finally, thanks for the tip regarding the explanations to the test questions.
I find it odd that the GMatprep test does not include them in their program... Would be a great addition.

Regards

Vincent
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:05 am
Hey Vincent,

I just saw this thread and wanted to weigh in with a few things:

1) Congratulations on a 750...that's a fantastic starting point (or, really, ending point, too)!

2) You mentioned that you made a few careless mistakes, which is also great news - if you're simply aware of the kinds of mistakes you tend to make by being distracted or rushed, you can make quick notes to yourself to check for those and minimize them pretty easily (it's much easier to fix careless mistakes than to have to learn entirely new strategies or concepts). With this test and your future tests, keep a running log of the mistakes you make and be ready to note your most common 3-5 mistakes on your noteboard so that you can have a quick checklist to save yourself from those silly errors on the test (one of mine was that I tended to make assumptions about variables - that they were positive, or integers - on DS questions, and lo and behold I caught myself about to make that one on one of the first ten questions on the test - fixing that and moving on confidently was a great feeling!)

Good luck this week - we're anxious to hear the great news once you're done!
Brian Galvin
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by tohin » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:32 pm
Good evening.
Second CAT test tonight... under test-like conditions (including the essays) as suggested by Daniel.

710 was the score.

I did "poorly" on the Math side this time (46) while Verbal remained ok (41 down from 42).
I'm happy with my performance on Verbal but quite disappointed with the Quant part of the test.

Here are my questions:

1. Last time I took the test, I used the GMATprep software. Even though a few questions were tough, I had the impression that the difficulty was not very high overall.
Today, I used the MGMAT prep software and was puzzled by the difficulty of the questions I got, especially at the beginning of the test.

Is it just an impression, or is the bar slightly higher in terms of difficulty on the MGMAT side?

2. I could not finish the Q part (missed the last two questions). Is there a difference between not answering a question and answering it incorrectly? In short is it better for my score to randomly select an answer choice than not answering at all (assuming the answer is wrong)?

I probably should go back to my prep instead of posting questions that won't make me improve, but if someone has an opinion, I'll take it :)

Thanks

Vincent
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:58 pm
Hey Vincent,

That's actually pretty decent news...a few points here:

1) Regarding the score/difficulty differentials, I think you'll often find that the "corporate" tests may skew a little tougher than the official tests. It's not even self-serving in the "look how much we made you improve" way - it's more that GMAC has an unrivaled research functionality to determine question difficulty and develop its scoring algorithm, and the companies can only try to (admirably) replicate it. Because there's bound to be some variability inherent in the scoring, the smart move is to err on the side of encouraging you to study harder than to let you get complacent, so you'll find that we'll often underestimate the difficulty level of a question for scoring purposes or round down on the score for your combination of quant/verbal ("it could be either a 690 or 680...let's have the algorithm say 680 just to be safe).

Simply put, your 710 on a corporate exam is much more indicative of "above 700" than it is of "below 740"...it's pretty unlikely that it corresponds to anything lower than 710, and fairly likely that it corresponds to an official score 20 points or so higher.


2) There's definitely a penalty for not answering questions, so you should make sure that you at least try to answer them. If you're 700+ overall, there's a better than 20% chance you'll get it right through educated guessing, and the GMAT has a built-in penalty that's "surprisingly steep" for not completing each section, so definitely leave at least enough time to make an educated guess on the last few problems.


Lots to be enthusiastic about - keep up the great work this week!
Brian Galvin
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by tohin » Wed Aug 25, 2010 2:09 pm
Many thanks Brian for your reply.
Thanks a lot for your encouraging words as well.

I've been studying alone for a month, and it's a great thing to be able to come here and get answers to my last minute questions.

Going back to work :(
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by tohin » Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:29 am
It's over :)

After taking a final CAT test yesterday (GMAT Prep 2 - 740), I took the actual exam this morning.
I received a 750 (50Q, 42V). This is a 98 percentile score (no longer 99).

In conclusion:
GMAT Prep 1: 750
MGMAT Prep : 710
GMAT Prep 2: 740

Final Exam: 750

Thanks Brian, Daniel and InkyBinky for your replies, I truely appreciated your help and advice.

Will be posting my (rather short) GMAT story soon.

All the best.

Vincent
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:46 am
Congratulations, Vincent! I love when hard work pays off for good people. We look forward to reading your story...but go and celebrate first!
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by Dan@VinciaPrep » Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:50 am
Fantastic!
Indeed, you should go celebrate :)
tohin wrote:It's over :)

After taking a final CAT test yesterday (GMAT Prep 2 - 740), I took the actual exam this morning.
I received a 750 (50Q, 42V). This is a 98 percentile score (no longer 99).

In conclusion:
GMAT Prep 1: 750
MGMAT Prep : 710
GMAT Prep 2: 740

Final Exam: 750

Thanks Brian, Daniel and InkyBinky for your replies, I truely appreciated your help and advice.

Will be posting my (rather short) GMAT story soon.

All the best.

Vincent
If my post helped you- let me know by pushing the thanks button ;)

I'm a private tutor in Paris, I provide online and in person consulting for the GMAT and MBA application essays.
GMAT tutor paris
Prepa GMAT
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by InkyBinky » Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:53 am
If I manage a 750, I'll get so drunk celebrating I won't even remember taking the test! :D
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by beatthegmatinsept » Fri Aug 27, 2010 11:34 am
InkyBinky wrote:If I manage a 750, I'll get so drunk celebrating I won't even remember taking the test! :D
Haha I agree!!
Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
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by tohin » Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:19 am
I actually took a much needed rest and slept 12+ hours.
Preparing for GMAT has been very demanding.

Party starts tomorrow, with one week of well deserved vacation in Barcelona ;)

Good luck to everyone! Your hard work will be rewarded...
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