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Significant Variations in verbal areas' Accuracy

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Significant Variations in verbal areas' Accuracy

by imskpwr » Sun Sep 16, 2012 10:54 pm
Dear Kaplan/Manhattan Experts,

I am very frustrated as the accuracy level in CR, RC, and SC sections is varying inconsistently in my recent mock exams.

Please explain these inconsistencies in the CR, RC and SC sections in these exams.
Relevant reports of Kaplan and Manhattan CATs are attached here.

kaplan cat-4: 640............................7th Aug'12
kaplan cat-5: 640............................9th Sep'12
GMAT PREP-1(Old version): 650 (Q49, V30).....16th Sep'12
Accuracy:- CR: 12/14, RC: 10/13, SC: 6/14
Manhattan cat-3: 670(Q45,V36)................16th Sep'12
Attachments
kaplan-Cat 4_ 7 Aug'12_High Level.JPG
kaplan cat-4_ High Level
kaplan-Cat 4_ 7 Aug'12_Medium Level.JPG
kaplan cat-4_ Medium Level
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by imskpwr » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:11 am
Kaplan Cat-5
Attachments
kaplan-Cat 5_ 9 Sep'12_High Level.JPG
Kaplan cat-5_ High Level
kaplan-Cat 5_ 9 Sep'12_Medium Level.JPG
Kaplan cat-5_ Medium Level
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by imskpwr » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:13 am
Manhattan cat-3
Attachments
Manhattan-Cat 3_ 16 Sep'12_ analysis by Q format and difficulty.JPG
Question format and difficulty
Manhattan-Cat 3_ 16 Sep'12_Assessment summary.JPG
Assessment Summary
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by imskpwr » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:16 am
Sectional accuracy in Manhattan-3
Attachments
Manhattan-Cat 3_ 16 Sep'12_RC content area analysis.JPG
RC content area
Manhattan-Cat 3_ 16 Sep'12_SC content area analysis.JPG
SC content area
Manhattan-Cat 3_ 16 Sep'12_CR content area analysis.JPG
CR content area
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by KapTeacherEli » Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:14 pm
Hi imskpwr,

That's a lot of data, and I'm sorry if you're feeling frustrated--but can you please specify what your concerns are, and how I can help?

Regards,

Eli
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by imskpwr » Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:00 am
KapTeacherEli wrote:Hi imskpwr,

That's a lot of data, and I'm sorry if you're feeling frustrated--but can you please specify what your concerns are, and how I can help?

Regards,

Eli
On 09/08/12, I wrote Kaplan Cat-4, It reflected a weakness in SC, but CR result was good.
On 09/09/12, I wrote Kaplan Cat-5, It reflected a weakness in CR,SC,RC

On 16/09/12, I wrote GMAT PREP-1, It reflected a weakness in SC(6 correct out of 14), moderate result in RC, and a strength in CR.
On 16/09/12 only, I wrote Manhattan Cat-3, It reflected a weakness in CR, moderate result in RC, and a strength in SC(11 correct out of 15).

I have no idea now about my current strengths/weakness.
Furthermore, the pattern of my strength and weakness is very ambiguous. Therefore, I am unable to plan my strategies properly.
I have no idea if I need to spend more time on SC or RC or CR.

Hope experts can help me at this juncture.
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by KapTeacherEli » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:40 am
hi imskpwr,

You shouldn't expect identical performance across tests. Notwithstanding the fact that no practice test is perfect, random chance, and physical and psychological factors that vary from test to test.

Looking at your overall performance across multiple tests is the best way to judge your performance--use your aggregate and average scores for focus your study.

Regards,

Eli
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Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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by imskpwr » Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:57 pm
KapTeacherEli wrote:hi imskpwr,

You shouldn't expect identical performance across tests. Notwithstanding the fact that no practice test is perfect, random chance, and physical and psychological factors that vary from test to test.

Looking at your overall performance across multiple tests is the best way to judge your performance--use your aggregate and average scores for focus your study.

Regards,

Eli
The kind of fluctuation in SC and CR is unexplainable.
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by imskpwr » Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:46 pm
Experts please reply.
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by imskpwr » Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:51 am
No help till date. Still confused and frustrated.
My recent scores:

Kaplan 5: 640. I got stuck at high level in all: SC, CR and RC.
GMAT prep-1: 640: Stuck in SC? I did well in CR and moderate in RC.
Manhattan 3: 670: Stuck in CR? I did well in SC and moderate in RC. I got stuck at high level in CR.

Why all three tests indicate different weaknesses?
What actually went wrong?
What can I do at this juncture?
Please help me...
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by imskpwr » Sat Sep 22, 2012 3:02 am
imskpwr wrote:No help till date. Still confused and frustrated.
My recent scores:

Kaplan 5: 640. I got stuck at high level in all: SC, CR and RC.
GMAT prep-1: 640: Stuck in SC? I did well in CR and moderate in RC.
Manhattan 3: 670: Stuck in CR? I did well in SC and moderate in RC. I got stuck at high level in CR.

Why all three tests indicate different weaknesses?
What actually went wrong?
What can I do at this juncture?
Please help me...
Please anyone?
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by lunarpower » Sun Sep 23, 2012 4:52 am
i received a private message about this thread.

i know little about other companies' exams, so i can't really weigh in on the kaplan tests.

one thing that might matter is this: which materials have you been using to study? and how have you been studying them?

remember that there's going to be a decent amount of overlap between any company's prep materials and its practice tests, especially in terms of SC. although you won't see exactly the same sentences, you'll see the same patterns in the practice problems as in the study books. so, if you've been using the MGMAT SC book -- especially if you've been memorizing the example sentences, rather than just noticing more general patterns of usage -- then that might explain the disproportionately high performance on SC in the mgmat exam.

in any case, a fairly large amount of fluctuation, like this, isn't unheard of. your overall scores are actually remarkably consistent (remember the standard deviation of the real exam is about 30-40 points, so the standard deviation of prep companies' exams is almost certainly a bit higher than that), so this sort of variation isn't too wild.

--

in terms of verbal preparation, here's a post with a number of suggestions for what you can do:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/retaking-gma ... tml#464164
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by sam2304 » Sun Sep 23, 2012 5:16 am
I would suggest you to use the other mocks for identifying the weak topics alone and not an entire section as every test prep mocks will be a bit biased to their strategies and none is as close to GMATPrep in imitating the verbal part. That is why you should use different materials for practice or use different strategy books and apply it only on official problems. If you find that you are totally weak in one particular section from GMATPrep, then you should probably put in more efforts to improve that section. GMAT SC is very difficult compared to whatever is available in OG, and you are comparing it with other test prep companies, which are not even close to OG. GMATPrep is the only thing reliable, others are useful only to certain extent.
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by imskpwr » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:22 am
sam2304 wrote:I would suggest you to use the other mocks for identifying the weak topics alone and not an entire section as every test prep mocks will be a bit biased to their strategies and none is as close to GMATPrep in imitating the verbal part. That is why you should use different materials for practice or use different strategy books and apply it only on official problems. If you find that you are totally weak in one particular section from GMATPrep, then you should probably put in more efforts to improve that section. GMAT SC is very difficult compared to whatever is available in OG, and you are comparing it with other test prep companies, which are not even close to OG. GMATPrep is the only thing reliable, others are useful only to certain extent.
Yup!
I agree to you.
GMAT PREP vs MANHATTAN vs KAPLAN
SC:
In MANHATTAN, SPLITS are very clear with moderate difficulty level(lower than GMAT-PREP).
In KAPLAN, SC is difficult and more similar to GMAT-PREP type questions.

CR:
MANHATTAN is more difficult than GMAT PREP.
KAPLAN is moderate and similar to GMAT-PREP.

RC:
MANHATTAN is very similar to GMAT PREP.
KAPLAN is very HARD and no way near to GMAT-PREP.
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by imskpwr » Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:33 am
lunarpower wrote:i received a private message about this thread.

i know little about other companies' exams, so i can't really weigh in on the kaplan tests.

one thing that might matter is this: which materials have you been using to study? and how have you been studying them?

remember that there's going to be a decent amount of overlap between any company's prep materials and its practice tests, especially in terms of SC. although you won't see exactly the same sentences, you'll see the same patterns in the practice problems as in the study books. so, if you've been using the MGMAT SC book -- especially if you've been memorizing the example sentences, rather than just noticing more general patterns of usage -- then that might explain the disproportionately high performance on SC in the mgmat exam.

in any case, a fairly large amount of fluctuation, like this, isn't unheard of. your overall scores are actually remarkably consistent (remember the standard deviation of the real exam is about 30-40 points, so the standard deviation of prep companies' exams is almost certainly a bit higher than that), so this sort of variation isn't too wild.

--

in terms of verbal preparation, here's a post with a number of suggestions for what you can do:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/retaking-gma ... tml#464164
Kaplan-4,
Kaplan's RCs are, in general, extremely hard. I wanted to increase my CR and RC accuracies so I spent considerable amount of time on both. But, I spent very less time on SC.

Kaplan-5,
I wanted to increase my SC and CR accuracies so I spent considerable amount on both SC and CR.

GMAT-PREP,
I wanted to increase my SC, CR and RC accuracies so I spent considerable amount on each.

MANHATTAN,
I wanted to know what went wrong with my SC so I was extra cautious with it.
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