GMAT Verbal & Essays

Hi guys,
I have a question and I'd like your opinion.

Last year I took the GMAT and I scored 680, with a 40 on the verbal part.
I remember taking 6 Manhattan GMAT practice tests, and scoring between 34-36 all the times. I was frustrated because I couldn't get past it!

Then, I took GMATPrep and I scored 42, and then I scored 40 on the real test!

Then again, I'm studying to improve my gmat score, and I scored 36 on the verbal part AGAIN!

I bought the OG10, and I did the last 25 questions of SC, scoring 24/25 right. Then I took Manhattan GMAT SC 25 questions bank, and I only scored 16!

My view is that their questions, also at 500-600 level, are more difficult than real questions, and that their structure is basically different for the one of the real test. What are your thoughts about it?

thanks!

Hello? Does anybody have an answer? Why did I score lower on ManhattanGmat verbal than I did in the real test and GMATPrep??

I don't have an answer but I took a sample Manhattan test and felt the same way. Certain questions were in a format that I haven't seen anywhere else, and certain quant questions were extremely hard / time consuming.

If anyone who has done Manhattan could share how closely Manhattan questions are to the real test that would be very helpful!

Hi,

Its been a long time since this post thread started. Does anyone have a answer to this question. These guys might have taken the test by now and would the know the answer to their questions.

I feel the same way too.. I am yet to give the gmat though. But if you tak ethe CATs in MGMAT, maybe the last 2 tests be close to GMAT difficiculty
because the harder questions are already used up

I think the accuracy of MGMAT material varies by topic:

*Sent Corr: very good
$Crit Reas: ok
Read Comp: very good
Quantitative: not accurate (some questions are too involved/difficult)

I have faced the same frustration with the MGMAT books. I did not find their problems representative of the actual test. They primarily rely on OG and OG contains retired questiosn that do not seriously represent the real GMAT as it is administered now. MGMAT makes up its math questions and make them totally impossible to do in less than 2 minutes. GMAT is not a math test but a reasoning test. MGMAT has not gotten the hang of this test because the person who runs the company is allegedly a law school graduate and has no idea what the test is about. Secondly, contrary to their claims, MGMAT hires instructos who are not MBA's and who have not taken the GMAT. The result is that you get to work on problems that are unrepresentative of the real deal. If you sign up with MGMAT, it is even worse. they offer no guarantee to back up their minimal training. I have heard reports that MGMAT promises 27 hours but the classes get dismissed at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time. In effect, MGMAT offers about 18 hours of in-class prep for $1500 and supplies unrepresentative books. Buyer beware!

Savetheearth - Almost everything you wrote in your post is wrong or a flat out lie.

A moderator should consider deleting his post.

MGMAT courses are not at all as described by savetheearth! I found the course very useful as it provided me with discipline and instructors who answered my questions expertly (Horacio, Ron, Emily, Chris, Stacey).

The SC guide is very good just like the PowerScore guides. The math books provide you with core foundations necessary to master a variety of questions. I believe PowerScore CR is better than that of MGMAT. For me, the courses often exceeded the allocated times by 10 to 15 minutes due to Q&As. The few things that can be improved about the course are faster response times to specific questions and more than one office hours per week. But other than that, the course is very good.

Also, MGMAT may not be representative of the real GMAT exam as its quant questions are much harder than that of the GMAT exam, but it's like a marathon. You practice on a mountain to make sure that you are well-conditioned to run in a meadow. I also found that Verbal is similar to OG but not of the same caliber as many of its rules that are being tested are static, but those rules provide you with the core foundation that will enable you to learn the nuances of OG verbal problems. Practice with OG problems is still the best way, but MGMAT complements OG very well.

Savetheearth, you seem to be a shill for a company that goes around slandering other companies.

Everyone else, don't believe everything that you read!

Scott

Hi Mjjking,

As you have scored 720. Can you please answer your own question now about MGMAT.

Thanks

Hi all

Scott has pretty much said everything that there is to say about savetheearth's comments.

However, after reading these comments I couldn't just sit back and say anything.

Altough for professional reasons I haven't taken the GMAT yet, I have been using MGMAT books since November. I've bought all the math books + SC, and I tell you that they are really good.

I was very poor at Math, but after finishing the math part I noted that my math skills were a lot better.

The only part which I think MGMAT could improve is on the exercises that their books have. The exercises at the end of each chapter are great to solidify the content you learned, but are a bit far from the ones that are presented on the GMAT OG. However, the books are above all concept/strategy books, not pure exercise books, and the ones they have on the question bank are similar to the ones of the OG's.

I would only like to have in the books more exercises like the ones in the question banks, because they are so good .