MGMAT Scores

[Guest]

Hey Guys,

I took 5 MGMAT practice exams and Iam not sure how representative are the scores when compared to the real GMAT.

My MGMAT scores are:
MGMAT CAT I 690 (39V, 44Q)
MGMAT CAT II 680 (39V, 43Q)
MGMAT CAT III 700 (V39, 46Q)
MGMAT CAT IV 660 (V38, 42Q)
MGMAT CAT V 730 (V44, 46Q)

I am planning on taking the GMAT exams on March 31st, however, I am not sure whether the MGMAT exams are truly representative of the score I should expect. I am shooting for a score of 700 and I would like to know whether that score is truly achievable, especially after taking my MGMAT scores into consideration.

I would really appreciate any help I can get with this question from anyone in the forum, especially anyone who can speak about his/her experience.

Thanks in advance.

[StaceyKoprince]

The MGMAT exams have a standard deviation of 50 points, which means your "true" scoring range at a particular point in time is within 50 points of the score you got on that test.

The official test has a standard deviation of 30 points - which means the same as above, except it's a 30 point range instead of a 50 point range.

So it looks like you're within range of your goal score, but the range is fairly wide (for both our test and the official test). You should also try a GMATPrep test (if you haven't already) - the standard deviation for that test hasn't been published officially, but I think of it as 30-40 points (depending upon how closely that software actually mimics that of the real test, which we don't know definitively, unfortunately).

If your GMATPrep score also shows you within range of your goal score, you should feel good heading into the real thing. There's always some variability involved depending upon the specific mix of questions you happen to get and how they match to your strengths and weaknesses (not to mention how you handle the additional stress of knowing it's the real test) - hence the fairly wide standard deviation even on the real thing. But everybody's up against that, so it's no worse for you!

[Guest]

Stacey,

I have a quick question concerning the MGMAT scoring algorithm. For some reason, I found the MGMAT CAT V exam easier than the others I took. Also, I thought it was veery interesting that I saw far less questions in the 700-800 range, especially for the verbal portion of the exam. Does MGMAT adjust the tests so that they are easier after a certain point? I thought the scoring was fairly lenient given that I scored a 44V with 11 wrong questions that were distributed more around the 600-700 range. In addition, I finished the quant portion of the exam on time without guessing in the end, and this is very different from the previous tests that I did.

[StaceyKoprince]

We don't artificially adjust anything to get easier (or harder) as things move along. Also, the scoring algorithm for a CAT is not a function of average performance throughout the test - it's a function of the scoring level you are at when the section ends. So you can actually have questions wrong at a lower level earlier on but work your way up by the time the section ends.

It is the case, however, that the algorithm does not permit any repeated questions on the first 6 tests. If you are scoring consistently at a very high level from test 1 or 2 in a section (math or verbal), then you may begin to exhaust the pool of very hard questions by test 5 or 6.

I'm not sure if you fall into that category or not. Are you the original guest who posted the above 5 tests? If so, you started off at the 90th percentile in verbal, so that may have been a factor there. That's probably not what's happening in math - in that case, your percentiles are a little lower (though still very good!).

Finally, I agree that it is unusual to be able to finish the quant section without guessing! Part of this test is serendipity - do you happen to get a mix of questions / topics that you find easier, on balance? It can happen sometimes, so that may have happened as well. Just hope that happens on the real test!