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Non Official GMAC Results

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Non Official GMAC Results

by pelz0023 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:42 am
I've tried to make the OG11 the cornerstone of my GMAT study schedule. But when not practicing and analyzing official GMAC quesitons from the OG11 I also study with guides from Kaplan and Manhattan GMAT. I took a MGMAT practice CAT about 3 weeks ago as a "baseline" test to see where I stood. After using the OG11 for a significant portion of my studies I took a second MGMAT CAT in the last few days and found myself getting "hung up" slightly due to the way the problems were structured and some of the verbiage used in explaining certain questions - more specifically, how these differ from offical GMAC ways of structure and verbiage.

Has anyone else experienced these rather minor, but very annoying nuances when not using official GMAC questions? I feel as though the CAT score (620 on both exams) was not reflective of the true score I would acheive on the GMAC CAT due to the subtle differences in wording and structure.

Is/has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, do you have any tips that helped you make all of your study materials more universally applicable to official GMAC type quesitons?

Thanks in advance for any help.
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by cbenk121 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:40 pm
pelz0023 wrote:I've tried to make the OG11 the cornerstone of my GMAT study schedule. But when not practicing and analyzing official GMAC quesitons from the OG11 I also study with guides from Kaplan and Manhattan GMAT. I took a MGMAT practice CAT about 3 weeks ago as a "baseline" test to see where I stood. After using the OG11 for a significant portion of my studies I took a second MGMAT CAT in the last few days and found myself getting "hung up" slightly due to the way the problems were structured and some of the verbiage used in explaining certain questions - more specifically, how these differ from offical GMAC ways of structure and verbiage.

Has anyone else experienced these rather minor, but very annoying nuances when not using official GMAC questions? I feel as though the CAT score (620 on both exams) was not reflective of the true score I would acheive on the GMAC CAT due to the subtle differences in wording and structure.

Is/has anyone else experienced this issue? If so, do you have any tips that helped you make all of your study materials more universally applicable to official GMAC type quesitons?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Frankly, you can't make 3rd party sources like the official GMAT questions. Try as they might, MGMAT and other companies don't work for the GMAT service, and ultimately are missing out on some information / standards / etc.

The good news is, it doesn't matter! You should really downplay any score you get on ANY test that is NOT from the GMAT makers. For example, I always got lower scores on MGMAT math test sections than I did on official GMAT practice tests. Why? Who knows, but my score rose when I took an official practice test.

So I would suggest that you keep these third party sources in perspective. They are most useful to give you strategies on solving problems, but are just OK at practice. My suggestion is to go through the third party books, then try out the strategies on the OG (i.e., real) problems.

By the way, I noticed you didn't mention you had taken a practice test from the GMAT makers. If not, you need to do this ASAP! I always always always recommend people baseline with an official practice test, to truly understand their strengths & weaknesses, as evaluated by the people who will ultimately be evaluating your abilities.
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