GMAT Strategy

Hi guys,

I been a long time reader of BTG and first time poster. I started studying back in mid Sept with my test date set at this Sat.

My scoring history has been

610 Q44 V28 <--GMAT simulator from veritas
600 Q43 V29 <----same simulator

680 Q44 V40 GMAT Prep 2 month ago

640 Q44 V34 MGMAT free CAT
700 Q46 V39 MGMAT CAT 2
690 Q47 V37 MGMAT CAT3
700 Q47 V39 MGMAT CAT4 <--- I feel like I could have done better with verbal since I finished with 11 min left when before I would always use the entire 75 min.

All test has been timed, I am wondering realistically what kind of score should I expect on the official test? taking my GMAT prep 2 today or tomorrow.

Thanks,

Mike

You can easily score a 720 on the real thing.

For me its very easy to understand MGMAT scores: quant is much easier on the real thing and verbal is quite similar.

MGMAT has too much questions about number's properties instead of having more algebra questions.

You will get in the 700 club!

Hey, thanks for the reply, I am just a little worried about not getting myself familiar with gmat language.

It looks like you'll score above 700. You should check out my first post on this forum....i put up my MGMAT scores and GMAT Prep scores. So you can use me as your data point.

Good luck.

Hey humblebee, thanks for the reply,

Talk about randomness, yea your score had some range! well the highest one happened to be the one that counted the most so thats all that matters.

I actually just took my GMAT PREP 2 and got a 650 Q47 V33, made some careless mistakes on quant, but overall definitely were not on the same caliber has MGMAT quant, I think Verbal was quite a dip since my CR and SC took a huge hit. I am thinking (hoping) that I am just over analyzing the CR question since the real GMAT questions weren't as convoluted as the MGMAT ones.

My personal opinion has been that MGMAT scores are slightly lower than the actual test scores. There are a few reasons for this (my opinion):

1. Difficulty level in MGMAT quant questions is only by making the question very tedious. The actual GMAT increases the difficulty a lot more elegantly - by introducing some data points, and obfuscating the application of the formulae.

2. MGMAT seems to excessively reward/penalize (depends on which side you are) the initial questions of the test.

3. MGMAT doesn't penalize you enough for a string of mistakes towards the end.

4. MGMAT RC questions tend to have detailed questions, answers to which are found all over the passage. On the actual GMAT you just need to read 1 line above and 1 line below.

5. In MGMAT CR I feel some of the answer choices are retro-fitted to work with the "logic" that is taught. Doesn't work on the actual GMAT.

Arun

Hey Crackverbal, thanks for the reply!

From what I read from your post, did you mean that the MGMAT score is higher than a real GMAT instead? The reasoning you gave seems to point it towards that direction.

I did some more studying last night and felt that the official gmat CR is more straight forward with less .......thinking outside of the box than the MGMAT ones. I almost feel like MGMAT is "purposefully" making a question just that much convoluted. I agree that the GMAT is just more polished and clean in its approach, somewhat refreshing in contrast to a MGMAT test. Don't get me wrong though, I feel like the MGMAT CATS are the best ones out there by far and properly prepare for the real test in terms of ability. Although I do see a difference in official language in SC and CR on the real test. Math is like you said not as tedious, in addition to having less numbers property than MGMAT.