Verbal: Analysis By Question Format & Difficulty

[OwenB669]

Hello,

Below are the results of the three Manhattan CAT's that I have taken for the verbal section. Compared to the chart on the hyperlink from MBA.com, how are these results consistently putting me just short of the 50th percentile (i.e. V 27-28-29)? It appears that SC is my weakness, but they all seem to be more or less in the upper 600 band for correct and lower 700 for incorrect. Maybe my understanding of percentiles and difficulty ranges is flawed? From the website below, a 700-800 level score is at least the 88th percentile. If I use the chart's percentiles, my V score should be ~80% - due to avg correct in upper 600's - which would land me with V of 35-36-37.

https://www.mba.com/exams/gmat/after-th ... king-means

Question Format: Critical Reasoning
Average Difficulty Correct: 670
Average Difficulty Incorrect: 720

Question Format: Reading Comprehension
Average Difficulty Correct: 680
Average Difficulty Incorrect: 740

Question Format: Sentence Correction
Average Difficulty Correct: 660
Average Difficulty Incorrect: 690

I feel confident in practice questions in the OG but have generally gotten rocked in the Manhattan CAT's based on scores, so when I look at the results above I am confused on how those figures translate to a 50th percentile . I am two weeks out from the exam and am working on my time management as I have been running out of time in the Verbal CAT's. On quant, I have happily been scoring in the mid to low 40's. So, the verbal portion can make or break my chances of getting into a good school.

Given that I am a CPA and native English speaker, I am confident in my baseline intelligence to do well on this portion of the exam given the effort that I have put in. However, I am having trouble coming to terms with lower scores than those of international folks. Any assistance is appreciated. I will be taking the GMAC official practice test tomorrow to see what my official score would more closely mirror as I see that MGMAT can be very different than official GMAT.

[esledge]

Hi Owen,

I would have to look at your actual problem lists or even into the source code (which I am not qualified to do) to see what's going on, but I suspect this is what's happening:

It is possible to have an average difficulty in the high 600s, but still "end the section badly" such that the final score is lower than the average. One way to check in our tests: On the Verbal Overview page with the problem list, the column on the far right shows your estimated score at that point in the exam on the GMAT section scale of 6 (low) to 45 (high*). Use it to review your scoring trajectory in the section. Since the GMAT is a "where you end is what you get" test, the estimated score after the last problem is also your actual section score. If your estimated score was near the mid 30s for the first half or two-thirds of the section, but then dropped to 27/28 by the end, your average difficulty could be mismatched with your final score. Are you seeing anything like that?

How did the official GMAC practice test go?

[OwenB669]

Hi Emily,

I ended up taking two GMAT practice tests this week and the actual test today. For verbal, I scored 35 on all three tests. I am now content with the verbal portion but still feel like I can make a few tweaks to pump it up a bit more to approach 40.

To answer your other question, I was frequently in the mid 30's until the end of the test where my score plummeted into the high 20's due to timing issues. This shows how important it is to finish the test on time and not leave questions unanswered.

Any tips on getting closer to 40 or 40? I plan on taking the test again in the next two weeks. Anything is appreciated.

Thank you!
Owen

[esledge]

To answer your other question, I was frequently in the mid 30's until the end of the test where my score plummeted into the high 20's due to timing issues. This shows how important it is to finish the test on time and not leave questions unanswered.

This is absolutely the correct conclusion to draw from this! It can be counterintuitive at first, but to finish on time and to give yourself a fair chance on all questions, you might have to "sacrifice" some very hard questions along the way. Getting the hardest questions wrong won't hurt your score at all, and with decent guessing, you might even get some right. By finishing the section, YOU decide which questions to skip (ideally the hard ones), rather than letting the test decide which questions you skip (the ones that just happen to be at the end...many of which you could probably answer!).

Any tips on getting closer to 40 or 40? I plan on taking the test again in the next two weeks. Anything is appreciated.

To get closer to 40 in two weeks, I'd probably focus on Verbal. You are closer there, and slight process changes can have a bigger impact. The pool of GMAT test takers overall is better at Quant than at Verbal, so work on Verbal can do more to distinguish you than the same amount of work on Quant can. I'd focus on Verbal mastery, which means:

(1) Can you explain (as if to someone else) why the right answer is right? Cite the RC passage proof, show how the choice completes the CR argument, name the grammar rules, etc.

(2) Can you name all (or most) of the flaws in the four wrong answers? Specific words that are too strong or unsupported on RC, the type of wrong answer on CR, the violated grammar rules, etc.

I tell my students to do this in a spreadsheet. Use a row for each problem and make columns for choices A,B,C,D,E, putting quick notes about each choice.

Edited to Add: On Quant, revisit some problems you've already done, this time with a "guessing" approach. I put that in quotes because often guessing on the GMAT is first facilitated by eliminating choices that are logically, provably wrong, so there's not necessarily uncertainty about the whole process. I've found that one reason people run out of time is that guessing sounds good in theory, but feels wrong/bad in practice. Drilling the guessing approach can help normalize it and keep you moving on test day.

Good luck!