ABOUT MGMAT MOCK EXAM!

[syflysun]

My gmat date is at the end of Oct. I probably have about 40 days to go. I have studied for one month. Yesterday afternoon i took my first mgmat exam.

my performance is:
total: 660
Q:49 (wrong 13, overtime 15 mins)
V:32 (wrong 18, including sc:5; cr:7; rc:6)

Questions:
1
the difficulty of mgmat test is harder than real test? i feel math is very tough! verbal is normal.
2
One thing is weird. After finishing the mock, i dont have feeling on it. I mean I dont know whether I scored good or bad? Is this normal?
3
Next one-month preparation period, how often you suggest to do the mock test, one for every three days?
4
CR still kills me. I read the powerscores'cr bible, very helpful. But the score! bad. Any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

[beatthegmat]

The most accurate indicator of your GMAT performance are the GMATPrep exams, which are available for free at MBA.com. In my experience, these tests are better correlated to your actual GMAT than practice tests from any company.

You mentioned how you didn't get a good read from the test. In general, it's good to feel really bad at the end of your practice test--I know, weird right? The reason why you should feel frustrated after your practice tests is that it means you performed well and saw lots of really tough problems. If the problems you saw were too easy, that means you were getting a lot wrong.

With regard to practice tests, I recommend one per week in most cases. If you have only a month, then perhaps a test every 4-5 days would be appropriate.

With regard to CR, it's a tough area of the test and only improves with lots of practice. Post the questions you get wrong and can't understand in the Critical Reasoning section of this site. Our community and experts can help you work through the concepts.

Good luck!

[Stacey Koprince]

Received a PM asking me to reply.

You said that your quant section was "overtime 15 mins" - do you mean you set the timer for longer than is allowed on the real test?

If so, your test results are not valid. Extra time can make a HUGE difference to your score for a variety of reasons - so that test was not representative of how you would do on the real test.

It's important to take practice tests under official conditions, including timing, the essays, the length of the breaks - everything. That's the only way to get practice results that are as valid as possible (though still not as valid as taking the real test!).

In terms of frequency, I tell my students to take practice tests only once every 2-3 weeks until a few weeks before the test, when they can start to take the tests once a week.

Why? Well, CAT exams are really good for (a) figuring out where you're scoring right now, (b) practicing stamina, and (c) analyzing your strengths and weaknesses. The actual act of just taking the exam is NOT so useful for improving. It's what you do with the test results / between tests that helps you to improve.

I would recommend, however, that you take another practice test soon under strict official conditions (if you didn't last time), so that you know you are working off of valid data. If you take a GMATPrep test, you will get the most valid result (because that's coming from the people who make the real test), but you won't get all of the data about strengths and weaknesses. So, for now, I would recommend taking a practice test from a test prep company so that you can get that data - and save the GMATPrep tests for a bit later in your study.

Re: CR (or anything with which you are struggling!), the first thing to ask yourself is: why? Are you bad at ALL CR questions? Probably not. So, which ones are giving you trouble. WHY are they giving you trouble? Are you struggling to understand the argument? the question? the answers? all of the above?

If the argument - you need to study how to read and extract information from the argument. Break it down into parts: what's the conclusion? What are the premises? Are there any counter-premises? What is fact vs. what is claim / opinion? What is the author assuming, even though s/he doesn't say it? [For instance, if I tell you that the Grapefruit Diet is the best way to lose weight then I'm assuming there isn't a better weight loss plan out there, even things I've never tried or heard about!]

Re: the question itself: do you know the different kinds of CR questions that can be asked? Do you know how to recognize, from reading the question stem, the specific type of CR question being asked? Do you know what you are supposed to do for each different type?

Re: the answers: do you mostly understand the above stuff but tend to fall into traps on the answers? WHY did you think that wrong answer was right? Not just "why is this wrong" - but you picked it, so you actually thought it was right. Why? Then, ask yourself what the fault was in your thinking. By the same token, you eliminated the right answer - you actually thought it was wrong (or, at least, not as good as the one you picked). Why? And what was the fault in your thinking this time?

Finally, I very much second Eric's suggestion to use the forums. You can post specific questions to discuss all of the above with fellow students and experts.

Oh - and re: whether you scored well, it just depends on your goal! Do you have a goal score in mind? Have you taken a look at the average scores at the schools to which you plan to apply? For some schools, a 660 would be a great score, for some that would be an average score, and for still others that would be a lower score. It just depends on where you plan to apply!