GMAT Strategy

After studying for the last 4+ months (I work 55+ hour weeks), I finally took a GMAT Preptest today. My previous 3 tests were all MGMAT CAT tests and my respective scores were:

630 (Q37 / V38)
620 (Q37 / V37)
640 (Q38 / V39)

I hadn't finished all the GMAT quant guides until after my 2nd test. When I took my third MGMAT CAT, I thought the quant was really hard and I was coming across questions I didn't really recognize from my studies.

I took the GMAT Preptest today and scored 690 (Q44 / V40). I'm pretty happy with this score since it's above the median and average for the program I'm applying to.

Would you all say that the GMAT Preptest is the most indicative of the actual test and scoring algorithm? I know most people consider the MGMAT CAT's to be a bit tougher but are they really +- 50 points tougher? I just want some assurance that the score I got today will be somewhat close +- 30 points to my actual test score.

My test is scheduled for the 23rd and between now and then I'm going full assault on quant. I've been studying for 4 hours a night and will continue to do so until the test.

Any advice / feedback would be very much appreciated!

[email protected] wrote:Hi stevennu,

The GMATPrep CATs are populated with questions that were once Official GMAT questions, so you're not going to find a more realistic practice CAT. Those CATs contain a limited number of questions, so the "available pool" isn't as large as the real GMAT; other than that, the CAT is a valid indicator of your performance.

The interesting thing is that your 690 isn't that far off from your other practice CAT scores, so you either were performing at a higher level or you got lucky on a handful of additional questions and picked up those points. You should take the time to completely and thoroughly review the Test so you can gauge WHY you were getting questions correct (and note those tactics so that you can continue to maintain that high level of performance).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

I think the difference between my last few tests and the one I took yesterday was that I eliminated stupid mistakes. I actually didn't get any of the questions correct that I guessed on yesterday. People were saying that a jump from 50th percentile in quant to 60th percentile was probably the difference between getting 4-5 questions right as opposed to wrong. I'm going to be taking GMAT Preptests every weekend from now until test day just to make sure I keep sharp and work myself under true test conditions.

You say that 690 isn't that far off from my other CAT scores. Isn't 50 points a big jump? My best score before yesterday was 640.

Thanks.

I reviewed my test yesterday and I missed 19 out of the 37 quant questions. I had a lot of 600-700 level questions. It seems that my score quant score was too high given the number of incorrect answers I had. Is it normal to score in the 65th percentile with so many wrong answers? If I had done similar on the MGAMT CAT I think my score would have been in the 50th percentile?

I got 7 out of the first 10 right and 6 out of the last 10 right. I had a few good runs where I got 4-5 right but then I also had instances where I got three in a row wrong. Does my quant score make sense given the number of question I got wrong?

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:Your scores are not based on how many questions you answer correctly; they're based on the level of difficulty of the questions you answer correctly. To illustrate this, I'll share an experiment I performed.

I took GMATPrep Practice Test #1 four times, and each time I answered every second question correctly (I did this for the quant section only)

Given that I correctly answered exactly half of the questions each time, you'd expect my quant scores to be roughly the same for all 4 tests.

My 4 scaled scores were: 19, 23, 26 and 42

This represents a percentile range from approximately 8th percentile to the 63rd percentile.

So, don't worry about how many questions you answered correctly. It has nothing to do with your score.

Aside: If you're interested, we have a free video explaining the GMAT scoring algorithm: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gener ... es?id=1251

Cheers,
Brent

So you answered questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, etc. correctly on 4 different tests and got that much of a range in scores? That's crazy.

Hit a 680 (Q44 / V38) today on my second GMAT Prep Test. Did a bit worse on verbal. It was a bit surprising to me since I finished with 8 minutes left and felt like I was getting all the questions right. Oh well. I'm happy with the overall score.

Rich, I've watched the video explaining the GMAT algorithm before but am still consued with how you got such a wide range of quant scores. On the ones you didn't purposely get correct, did you instead guess and possibly get some right? I thought that if you got one right, it'd give you a harder one, then if you got that wrong, it'd give you an easier one, then if you got that right, it'd give you a harder one. Therefore, by getting every other question wrong, I thought you'd stay in a certain range. This would suggest that all 4 of your quant scores should be relatively similar. Perhaps understanding this is my key to timing success on this test. Thanks.

Stevennu -

Two things I would like to add to the conversation:

1) You said:

Did a bit worse on verbal. It was a bit surprising to me since I finished with 8 minutes left and felt like I was getting all the questions right. Oh well.

I have written an article in response to a student who described her verbal section in the same way and asked why she did not get a higher score. The article is called "why was my verbal score so low?" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2013/03/ ... ore-so-low

2) If you can need another practice test be sure to try the FREE Veritas practice test. It gives you more sophisticated tools than the GMATPrep - including fun things like "3 easiest questions missed" and "timing on the last 10 questions." The Veritas test has also shown some very reliable results. In fact, back in August Veritas announced that the question bank that the test is drawn from had reached 1 million responses! By now this computer adaptive test is well on the way to 2 million responses. With every response the test gets more accurate. Anyway, give it a try and post your score (and your thoughts about the test) if you would.

Thanks!

David

4AllTheGold -

Brent can tell you about the results of his very interesting experiment!

I will just mention that what his experiment shows is that the difficulty of the questions that you miss matters more than the number of questions you miss.

You are right to say that understanding this is a key to your timing strategy on the GMAT.

Did you notice that Stevennu mentions that his score went up when he avoided "silly mistakes"?

This is key to scoring well. Avoiding those silly mistakes. I talk about this in the article E.A.S.I questions on the GMAT. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/12/ ... n-the-gmat

You spoke about timing and the key to timing is knowing which questions are going well and which are not. You need to carefully get the ones correct that you can and know when to move on when you are not making progress.

This article gives you some drills to help you improve your timing on the Quant section. "Think like a Doctor and Diagnose your way to success" https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/04/ ... at-success


And here is bonus article from our Vice President of instruction Brian Galvin https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/06/ ... g-mistakes