Score in Manhattan CAT vs Score in actual GMAT?

[Arjun51]

Hello everyone!

Can anyone please tell that what score can one expect in the actual GMAT if one has been taking Manhattan CATs? What is the range of scores that one can expect?

Thanks in advance!

[StaceyKoprince]

First, let's talk about standard deviation. Our tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points, meaning most people will score (on another one of our own exams taken soon after) within 50 points in either direction. (The real test has a standard deviation of about 30 points—same deal, in either direction.) In other words, standardized tests in general are a lot less precise than most people think.

Next, an outside expert examined our tests a couple of years ago and here's what he had to say about their accuracy / validity:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -endorsed/

In a nutshell, he said that our exams "do an excellent job of predicting a student’s score on the actual GMAT examination." But I had to tell you the information about standard deviation first, because this does not mean that you'll necessarily score within 10 to 20 points of your final practice test score. Most people score within 50 points either way. Some do score even higher—and some do score even lower.

In general, if you have taken both our test and a GMATPrep test under 100% official conditions (including breaks) and you score (on both) in the range that you want to score on the real test, then you are probably ready to take the real test.

[Arjun51]

Thanks a lot Stacey for your reply!
Would you mind addressing another query?

In one of your articles I read that one shouldn't look at the clock after every question, that'll perhaps drive one crazy!

But, what if one follows the following strategy:
Starting from the first question, noting the time by which one should have completed a question? For example, if I'm on the 1st question, then before solving it, I note that I should complete it by the time the clock shows "73 minutes left". Will this work for all the questions?

Best,
Arjun Khurana

[StaceyKoprince]

It might work for you—but I think most people would be very distracted by that approach.

Further, you don't need (or even want) to spend exactly 2 minutes on every single question. Some will only take you 1 or 1.5 to answer and some will take you 2.5 or closer to 3. On still others, you'll bail because you know you don't know how, so you might only take 30-45 seconds. And so on.

It's better to do this in blocks of questions, since that's really what you're doing: deciding how to allocate your time, within reason, across many questions, not just one at a time.

I detail the various stages of time management in this series:
blog/2016/08/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-gmat-time-management-part-1-of-3/

And this article delves more deeply into how to manage within an entire section of the test:
blog/2014/09/23/set-gmat-scratch-paper/

Take a look and see what you think!