Report Richness -- Official Practice Exam vs MGMAT CAT

[TheLittleEngine]

Hello,

I tried an MGMAT CAT and I can see it gives me a great breakdown of topics, accuracy breakdowns, per question timings, cumulative timing, etc. I haven't taken the "GMAT Official Practice Exam" yet. My question is whether the Official Practice Exam also gives me great detailed breakdown (topics, per-question timings, cumulative target time, etc) like the MGMAT CATs?

I have time to practice a max of 4 CATs (properly spaced) before the real exam so I am trying to figure out how to best analyze and improve my performance. I am wondering if Official Practice Exams are more representative of actual test-day but maybe the MGMAT CATs might have better breakdowns? Also, there are some awesome Interact videos and MGMAT articles on how to analyze the MGMAT CAT; on the other hand, I read that MGMAT CATs are not representative and are actually harder than the real exam.

Thank you.

[TheLittleEngine]

Additional information in case it would be helpful: I plan on writing the real exam twice and have already booked both exam sittings. I will have enough time to review and do two more CATs between my first 1st real exam and 2nd real exam.

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm glad you like the data we provide!

The official practice test report has some data but does not offer the same level of data that we offer. (For example, they've told me they have plans to add per-question timing, but I'm not sure whether that has been added yet.) They also don't have answer explanations—just the correct answer. (You can search for problems on our forums to find our own explanations.)

I do think that our exams can feel harder than the real thing (especially the quant and IR), but we actually adjust for that in the scoring. (Also...I'd rather have you think the practice tests are a little harder. The alternative would be that practice feels easier and then the real test feels harder... ) And one more thing: the one thing a practice test can never replicate is the pressure you feel when taking the real test, simply because you know the real test is real. So practice tests should feel a little harder just to try to make up for that.

Because our data is so much more in-depth, use those for your earlier exams, when you really need the data to help you figure out to improve. I recommend saving the official practice test for just before the real thing. I tell my students to take an official one 1 week before the real one. Get up at the same time of day, go take it at a library (or somewhere with a good Internet connection, and generally quiet but with some movement / noise / in public), etc. Basically pretend it's the real test and practice your whole test day routine.

They offer two free practice tests, so you can do one before each real test.