~90 pt discrepancy between CAT scores and actual GMAT score

[sriramkri]

Hi guys,

I've learnt a lot from these forums so thought I could also chip in. I obtained a 710 (Q51 V36) on my GMAT 3 years ago (took it for fun, didn't know what this bschool thingy meant) and wanted to repeat to get a higher score. I signed up for the Veritas online course. I was supposed to take the GMAT today but the servers crashed (!!) and am typing this while waiting for the GMAT coordinator to get back to me with a new test date.

My Veritas CAT practice tests were:

Test Date Completed Quant Verbal Score
CAT 2014-03-07 43 48 730
CAT 2014-03-07 49 41 730
CAT 2014-03-08 49 41 730
CAT 2014-03-08 49 40 720
CAT 2014-03-09 48 50 780

I then took the GMAT Prep tests and obtained the following:

Test Date Completed Quant Verbal Score
GMAT Prep 2014-03-09 47 37 690
GMAT Prep 2014-03-10 44 35 640

I just completed the Manhattan CAT test 1 and obtained the following:

Test Date Quant Verbal Score
MGMAT 2014-03-11 45 33 640

Now, I am slightly discouraged, of course. Study time has been 2-3 weeks; that was the amount I wanted to allocate. I'm in between jobs right now so I'm spending 15-18 hours a day studying.

The results above are very varied so I don't know what to believe. I'm assuming the worst here and taking the GMAT Prep scores as indicative.

I initially thought I was stronger in math but it looks like this needs polishing. I'm able to comprehend and answer the questions but make too many silly mistakes along the way (falling for traps, etc). I thought my Verbal was better than before but this isn't true according to MGMAT/GMAT Prep so I'll likely revise this as well.

I've got one more Veritas CAT test to go and 4 more MGMAT tests to go. Planning to use MGMAT as base to build my math / verbal ability as it's tougher.

Special thanks to the OP for providing context. Certainly very uplifting.

[floricele]

hi! I think I understand your situation with the veritas vs other tests. I took a practice test from veritas in january and scored 680. I only took 1 manhattan gmat cat test so far and scored 700, but on my following veritas tests i scored 710 and then 740. I'm taking another manhattan test next week and I'll see how that goes, but in general I noticed that the quant part on manhattan gmat was a lot harder than veritas.

[SGK]

For those looking for more tests similar to what you will see on the actual GMAT get the Exam Pack 1 sold by GMAT Prep. Best $40 I have spent!

[hadd2022]

Hi Guys,

First of all thanks for sharing your experiences. It is a great help to those following your same path.

Second, let me start off by saying that there is definitely something up with the Quant section on the MGMAT CAT.

I scored near perfect on the GRE and got absolutely hammered by the MGMAT quant. Ran out of time and got like 6 in a row wrong towards the end. Kind of gave up too a few questions before that due to just being discouraged. End result was:

MGMAT CAT 1 : 41 Q / 35 V (630)

I am just at the start of my studies so it makes me hopeful that my scores will end up in the 700 range similar to the rest of you.

Seems like you all took a GMATPREP exam. Is this official CAT exam from the makers of the test? I am guessing this is on their website? Can anyone recommend when I should take my first one as a benchmark? Looks like we can take 2 for free and then pay 40 dollars to take 2 more?

Thanks for any of your help.

[chiba.pawan]

Thanks guys for giving this insight.

I am highly disappointed as today i scored a mere 670 on Manhattan Mock(CAT-3) while 10 days ago I had scored a 720 on Official Mock (1st Exam).

I really don't know if I made a mistake purchasing these exams as instead of a motivation it has become a huge discouragement, mental pain & burden

I Sincerely pray and wish that the real exam does not turn out to be on the lower side, as being consistently predicted by Manhattan CATS.

Any comments by Manhattan staff would be most welcome.

Thanks

[bipul.jeet]

Hi,

This thread has been quite motivating, given the low scores that I too encountered in my practice tests. I took my GMAT a week back and scored 740 (Q-49, V-41, IR-7, AWA-4.5). I am reasonably satisfied, although I know I should have done better at Quant and IR. Am clueless about AWA though!

My sincere thanks to Manhattan for their amazing tests, to Stacey whose various posts helped me formulate my strategy and to all the posters on this forum and elsewhere for their valuable inputs. I turned back to this particular thread every time I felt frustrated with my own score.

I too feel that the Quant section of Manhattan tests are tougher than GMAT, Verbal is comparable and IR is way too cumbersome. My MGMAT CAT scores were 680, 600, 640, 680, 680, 740, in that order. 600 was an aberration though due to some external factors and 640 was taken on the very next day, out of frustration of getting a 600. I consider 680 my reasonable evaluation as I got it thrice and in near test conditions. I did score a 740 in my last test, only a week before GMAT, and it was a huge confidence booster. The test series and analysis are amazing and I owe most of my improvement to these tests. I'd any day prefer a slightly tougher test than GMAT for practice purposes as I feel it is a good way to mimic the extra nerves which one may encounter during the actual GMAT.

So, overall a big thumbs up to Manhattan team and all the best to everyone for their upcoming tests and applications!

Cheers!

[TedS838]

GMAC CAT 1 (which I took before I started to study): 700
GMAC CAT 2 (after a few weeks of studying): 730
Manhattan CAT 1 (after about a month of studying): 680
Manhattan CAT 2 (after about two months of studying): 680

Actual score: 750

Obviously I am happy that I scored 70 points higher on the actual GMAT than on the the Manhattan CATs, but I think Manhattan GMAT should probably revise their scoring formula to give their clients a better idea of where they stand. Scoring 680s on the Manhattan CATs caused a lot of stress in the weeks leading up to the actual GMAT.

That being said I found Manhattan GMAT's series of books a fantastic study aid, and would recommend them to anyone who is planning to take the GMAT.

[AlexanderY990]

Just wanted to chime in with my own data. This passage will provide supporting evidence of the author's argument. (Sorry, still in verbal test taking mode.)

I studied by taking the 9 week online course, then taking three weeks of CAT exams on weekends with review on unclear subjects during the weekdays.

Weekend 1 (the day after last class)
CAT 1: Q46 / V36 : 680
Weekend 2
CAT 2: Q47 / V36 : 680
CAT 3: IR6.6 / Q45 / V40 : 700
Weekend 3
CAT 4: IR5.9 / Q44 / V45 : 720 (nearly ran out of time on IR and quant)
CAT 5: IR5.9 / Q46 / V45 : 740 (nearly ran out of time on IR and quant)
Weekend 4
CAT 6: IR0? / Q45 / V45 : 730 (nearly ran out of time on IR and quant)
Weekend 5
GMAT: IR8 / Q50 / V47 : 770 (finished IR and quant comfortably)

My take is the same as has been stated:
1) IR on CATs are much harder/time consuming than on the actual GMAT. Whereas I was constantly pulling up the calculator and writing down numbers on the CATs, I found most of the IR questions to be the simple dropdown menu answers and less of the "Look at 20 lines of data and do 3-4 calculations for an answer"
2) Math on the CATs are much harder/time consuming than on the actual GMAT. Although I would *always* make mental errors, simple math errors, and such on the CATs, the subject matter was also much more difficult and the problems were much harder. If it makes any sense, the actual GMAT questions seemed more like SAT questions than the CAT exam ones. My Data Sufficiency accuracy was around of 41% in my CAT analysis and I was not improving on quant through the weeks, even though it was the only thing I was studying, but it turned out alright for me on the real test. I *felt* that the questions were much easier on the actual GMAT but part of me wondered if it was because I was messing up and on my way to a bad score.
3) I initially found it odd that my verbal score sharply jumped up over the course of two weeks from consistent mid 30s to mid 40s (basically 80th percentile to four straight 99th percentiles). I was hitting 99th percentile verbal for the last three CAT exams and though it was a fluke each time, but repeated it during the exam, although I felt the actual exam verbal questions were harder. I actually thought I was doing very poorly on the GMAT verbal until I saw my score. I feel like the CAT exams helped me MOST on verbal. Once I got used to the logic of how they phrase questions and how they wanted to trick you and what they wanted, it became much easier to figure out what the right answers were.

I didn't take any MBA.com GMAT tests, but I do believe that the CATs are much harder on IR and quant than the real test. Although I'm glad I didn't read this thread until after I took the test -- the fear of difficulty of math made me work harder. So... just forget you read this post.

(Finally, is there any way to E-Mail and personally thank my instructors? I've been all over the site and can't find a way to do it other than to post on the forums, which they probably don't read anyway.)