Friday, September 9, 2011

Analyzing MGMAT Free Test Results

About 10 days ago, on 30.08.2011, I took MGMAT's free online test. While the overall score of 730 97% (Q50 95%, V40 91%) showed a little progress from the previous two 710s (Q50,V36 and Q49,V36) that I got from the GMAT Preps, the detailed breakdown of the quant and verbal sections helped me to understand more about how I did, and where my weaknesses are.

When you open MGMAT's exam review page, it takes you to a main review menu, from where you can pass to the overall score, verbal, quantitative and AWA review sections. Now, I want to analyse my quant and verbal section results one by one.

QUANT SECTION

For the ones who haven't taken any MGMAT CAT yet, the quant section breakdown looks something like this:

Regarding my quant results, the following are the facts that I understood:

- Except the first 500-600 and the last 600-700 questions, all the others were 700+, so I should get myself ready for the intensity without any breaks to get a top notch quant score.
- I had 11 mistakes, comprised of 6 problem solving and 5 data sufficiency; still I managed to get a %95 percent Q50, which means that GMAT allows mistakes and I shouldn't bust my ass back off spending 5 minutes in a question.
- I was thinking that I don't need to waste time studying for quant. Although now I know that I'm weak in some subjects as inequalities and factors-multiples.
- I need to be more careful in order to avoid making silly mistakes on trivial questions. It means: practice practice practice!
- If I can achieve a Q51, my overall score will come directly to a 750 even with my current verbal level. On that ground, I now know that I need to take the final step to reach the top in quant.


VERBAL SECTION

OK, the verbal. My observations are as follows:

- The verbal section was a little bit more diverse in means of question hardness than the quant. There were 24 700+ questions and I messed up so bad in the beginning that the exam even gave me a 300-500 question.
- I made six consecutive mistakes in the middle of the exam, but I was going so good prior to that, it only dropped my percentage from 99% to 81%.
- My total 15 mistakes in this section consists of 4 CR (2 600-700,2 700+: 28,6% wrong), 6 RC (2 500-600, 2 600-700, 2 700+: 50,0% wrong), 5 SC (5 700+: 33,3% wrong). The most important lesson I learned after checking the wrong answers one by one is that I need to improve my vocabulary. At least half of my mistakes was because I didn't know some key words or I misunderstood a sentence. I decided to study some vocabulary every day before sleep (They tell that brain memorizes best before sleep). In addition, I believe that when I excel my sentence correction skills, I will be in the place that I want to be.

ABOUT MGMAT CAT

As a result, MGMAT CAT provides a lot of detail in the review, as the difficulty of the question, time for each question, question topic and an estimate of your percentage after each question. Therefore, in my opinion, it act as a better source of self-evaluation than the GMAT Prep itself. On the other hand, GMAT Prep can more concretely show where you stand as a prospective test taker.





7 comments:

  1. I have subscribed to the MGMAT test series. Scored a 710 on the first test. Do you know about any other good test series?

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  2. Well actually I haven't taken the others yet, but what I read from forums and blogs directs me to go with GMAT Prep, MGMAT and Kaplan. I don't fancy using a lot of sources and get lost within different styles. About Kaplan, although it may not be the best as a mock, I want it in a way a runner wants to run with weights on his/her ankles.

    There is the link from gmatclub which can be helpful to you, which lists all the tests out there and comments about them:

    http://gmatclub.com/forum/all-gmat-cat-practice-tests-links-prices-reviews-77460.html

    p.s.: I'm also purchasing the MGMAT tests today.

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  3. Thanks for the link. I decided to stick with just the Manhattan tests and a lot of reading to improve my CR and SC.

    When are you planning to write the GMAT?

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  4. No problem. I think that is a good idea.

    I'm taking the legendary GMAT in almost 2 weeks =)

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  5. How is your preparation coming along?

    I did the free manhattan test and got 680. Had 30 minutes left I completed the verbal section.

    Back to book for SC.

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  6. Do you write the AWA essays when doing the practice tests?

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  7. Hi missionm,

    The preparation is going fine. I'll write about it soon in detail in my next post.

    Imho if you had 30 minutes left on the end, it means that you don't take it as serious as the real thing, which may skew your score anticipation.

    And yes, although I really don't like the AWA, I take it in order to get used to the heavy load and stay vigorous throughout the GMAT.

    ReplyDelete