My Experience of Manhattan CAT vs. actual GMAT

[DavidT689]

Hi Everyone,

Just took the GMAT last Saturday. I prepared for approximately 1.5 months, with most of my focus on the Quant Section. I did not study IR or Verbal. I wanted to share my experience because of my enormous discrepancy between my CATs and the GMAT. My scores were:

GMAT PREP 1: 700
Manhattan CAT 1: 660 (Q43, V37)
Manhattan CAT 2: 650 (Q41, V37)
Manhattan CAT 3: 650 (Q44, V35)
GMAT PREP 2: 740 (Q49, V42)
Actual GMAT: 740 (Q 50, V40)

For every CAT, I ran out of time on the Quant section and became discouraged about my stagnating progress. I found the questions far more difficult than the problems from the OGs.

On test day, I ended up misjudging the time on my Quant section, and finished about 10 minutes early. Because of the way I format my scratch paper, I thought that I was four problems behind, and rushed to catch up. I skipped 2 problems because of my perceived time constraint. I finished Verbal about 30 minutes early (this was typically for the CATs and GMAT Prep).

Those who score poorly on the CATs should know that the Quant portion involves more time consuming, difficult problems than the GMAT. While this is only one sample point, I think that a 90 point disparity is enough to raise some issues regarding the CAT scoring/problem choice. It may be more beneficial to practice with harder problems, but people preparing for the GMAT should definitely not be too discouraged by the CAT scores.

I will say that the FDP and Number Properties books were incredibly useful!

[StaceyKoprince]

Congratulations on your score!

The standard deviation on our test (last CAT in our system compared to official test score) is about 50 points. You are an outlier - your experience was nearly 2 standard deviations away from the norm. (The standard deviation on the real test is about 30 points, FYI.) By definition, most people are falling within one standard deviation of their last CAT in our system. (I think most people also don't realize how wide the standard deviations really are on these kinds of tests!)

I agree with you that our quant problems are tougher in certain ways than the real ones. Someone who is struggling with certain computations, with using "test-taking strategies" as work-arounds to the algebra, or with timing overall is going to struggle more on our test than on the real thing. (And I'm okay with that: If anything, I want the real test to feel easier to you, not harder!)

[YeseniaF574]

Congratulations David!

You stated the FDP and Number Properties books were incredibly useful, did you take a course with MGMAT or did you just purchase the self help books ?

[StaceyKoprince]

Would love to hear how you studied, David!

[MattC642]

I noticed a big difference in scoring as well between GMAC and MGMAT CATs.

GMAC prep 1: 640
MGMAT prep 1: 550
GMAC prep 2: 660
MGMAT prep 2: 570

It looks like I get -90 points constantly on MGMAT cats! I did notice that my score drops significantly in verbal...maybe the MGMAT is a little bit tougher there.

Opinions?

[StaceyKoprince]

There are a few reasons this could be happening.

Did you take all of those under 100% official conditions - including essay and IR? Skipping either of those sections (or just sort of half doing them), or taking longer breaks than usual, can give you more brain energy recovery, making it easier to keep performing well through the last section (verbal).

If you haven't studied IR much yet, then you'll likely find our test tougher (our IR is tougher). Also, if you did IR, did you notice that the GMATPrep 2 IR was the same as the GMATPrep 1 IR? So GMATPrep 2 isn't going to use up as much brain energy along the way, leaving you more for verbal.

If you are struggling with computation on math, then you may also have gotten more mentally fatigued on our test, leading to a drop on verbal.

You could also have messed up timing on any of the tests, leading to a drop in the scoring for that section.

Any of those things going on?

[KakakkdeK400]

Many thanks for sharing good info…!!!)

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome