Comparison w/ The Economist and GMAT Prep

[VW720]

Hello,

I've been studying for several weeks now, and am a bit surprised with the difficulty levels of MGMAT.

MGMAT 1 - 590 Q39 V33 -- 25 October 2014
MGMAT 2 - 570 Q38 V30 -- 08 November 2014
MGMAT 3 - 640 Q44 V34 -- 14 December 2014
MGMAT 4 - 640 Q42 V35 -- 08 February 2015
MGMAT 5 - 630 Q45 V32 -- 06 March 2015
MGMAT 6 - 660 Q45 V35 -- 10 March 2015
EGMAT 1 - 640 Q50 V29 -- 29 November 2014
EGMAT 2 - 650 Q45 V35 -- 10 January 2015
EGMAT 3 - 680 Q50 V35 -- 07 February 2015
EGMAT 4 - 670 Q49 V34 -- 28 February 2015
EGMAT 5 - 690 Q48 V38 -- 09 March 2015
GMAC 1 - 660 Q47 V34 -- 07 March 2015

Clear improvement in Verbal, but the Quant scores in MGMAT are noticeably below than in The Economist and GMAT Prep.

Is this what other students/MGMAT is also seeing?

[StaceyKoprince]

Some people see this, yes, and those people tend to have timing issues or computation issues or both. If you are having issues with either of those areas, they will show up more on our test - and you should consider that a warning sign. Things might still go fine on the real test, or you might hit a wall and have a score drop (relative to those other practice tests).

The first thing that you need to do is read this (literally right now, before you keep reading my post):
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... many-cats/

According to the dates you gave me, you took 4 tests in the last week. At that point, you shouldn't actually expect any major consistency, because you're just burning yourself out and that's going to affect your performance at times - not consistently down, but up and down. It's like you ran 4 marathons in a week. :)

So. Your goal is to get better? (I'm asking because it's possible that you are at your goal score. But you keep taking more tests, so I'm assuming that you're trying to score higher.)

Now you know, from that earlier article, that continuing to take tests is not actually how to get better.

Here's how you get better. Read these two articles first:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Then use this to analyze your most recent MGMAT CATs:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

Then come back here and tell me what you figured out about what you need to do to get better. :)

[VW720]

Here are the results:

GMATPrep 2 - 650 (Q44) (V35) - 12 March 2015
GMAT - 670 (Q48) (V34) - 14 March 2015

I'm definitely disappointed with my verbal score. It hasn't really advanced for the past 2 months. I'm planning to take the test again.. target score is 690+ (it's ambitious, but I'd like to achieve a 710).

What's the strategy forward? When do you recommend I re-enroll for the test - in one month, two months?

[StaceyKoprince]

Nice work! I know you want an even higher score, but take a moment to be proud of what you've already accomplished!

Okay, the path forward is based on replying to my questions in my last post. :) You'll need to analyze your recent CATs and figure out what you need to do differently (based on the resources I linked in my last post), and come back and tell me all of that. Then we'll use that to come up with a re-take plan.

You may also want to look at this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... take-gmat/

[VW720]

Stacey - I'm planning to take the test again. Can I skip the AWA and IR sections? The admissions officers can see my performance on my first attempt. Have admissions officers been known to be picky on this for test-retakers? Schools seem to only report on 0-800 scale and nothing else. (Obviously the rest of the application profile is important)

[StaceyKoprince]

No, don't skip those two sections. First of all, GMAC (makers of the GMAT) reserve the right to cancel any test administration for reasons that they deem "suspicious" and one of those reasons could be skipping a section. (This does not mean that they will cancel your score if you skip a section, only that they could.)

Second, schools typically will look at only one administration of a test - so, all of the scores from that administration. if they see that you skipped or generally blew off the first two sections, then that gives you a mental stamina advantage that other people taking the full test don't have, so they could discount your Q and V scores accordingly.

You can, though, minimize your mental investment in those sections. Aim for a score of 5 on the essay and 5-6 on IR (both goals give you a buffer to drop a bit and still have a "good enough" score). So study enough for those sections that you can put yourself in that range without using up a ton of mental stamina.