Articles published in How to Study

Insight from GMAC

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Last month, GMAC hosted a seminar to brief us on facts, data, and trends from the test-takers out there. Here (somewhat belatedly), are some of the key points that they presented:

1.  Scores are creeping upwards – the average in 2007 was 537, 12 points higher than in 2005.

2.  The Number of Hours spent studying correlates to Higher GMAT Scores – people that achieved a score of 700 or higher reported studying an average of 114 hours for the test. In contrast, people that scored between 500 – 540 reported studying for 84 hours.

3. The Number of Weeks spent studying correlates to Higher GMAT Scores – 50+% of the people that studied for 7 weeks or more received a 600 or higher. This number dropped to 43% for those who studied between 4 and 6 weeks, and 37% for those who studied between 1 and 3 weeks.

4. Taking the Test more than once Tends to Result in a Higher Score – the mean score increase for someone who takes the test a 2nd time is 31 points. It should be noted though that this tends to be inflated by a couple of self-selection factors (i.e. the numbers tend to reflect people who underachieved on the 1st test relative to their college ranking, didn’t finish the quantitative section, etc.). 30% of re-testers saw no increase (or even a decrease). 40% of test-takers had their score increase 50 points or more, and 10% had results increase 100 points or more. I think ManhattanGMAT is responsible for some of that 10%. 🙂

From the above, it’s clear that even the administrators of the GMAT realize that this a test that you can prepare for in order to improve your performance. So your scores are certainly not fixed!

GMAC also reaffirmed once again that spending extra time on the first 10 questions does not help your score, and tends to hurt your score by ruining your time management throughout the section. There is enough variability in the algorithm such that some early mistakes are not necessarily critical to your score – you can quickly push yourself up to higher levels by getting later questions right.

These were the main points. They’re working on a new diagnostic test that can be downloaded, and the next edition of the Official Guide is targeted for late ’08. Still, this would not affect the average student substantially.

Last, they also indicated that most people rely upon word-of-mouth for choosing a test prep firm. That was possibly the best news of the event for us here at ManhattanGMAT!

GMAC Briefing

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Last Friday, GMAC (the publishers of the GMAT) invited a few of the senior people from ManhattanGMAT to a presentation in a hotel in New York to let us know what GMAC has in development.

The event was very interesting, to say the least.  Much of it consisted of applicant profile data (i.e. how many people are taking the GMAT, average scores, average score increases if someone takes the test more than once, etc.).  But there was  the odd announcement concerning some of the newer resources GMAC is working on for 2008.

We’re going to be posting a more detailed write-up later this week.  However, if you’re studying for the GMAT right now, the important takeaway is likely that there are NO changes forthcoming in terms of the format or nature of questions tested.  So no major changes on the horizon, through mid-2008.

More to come!

80 B-School Applicants, 4 Admissions Consultants, 1 Panel to Unite Them All

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Last night, we hosted our first Admissions Consultant Panel Discussion at our center in New York City! We invited our friends from Clear Admit, MBA Mission, Expartus, and Stacy Blackman Consulting to engage in four separate conversations with our Director of Instructor Development, Chris Ryan, who roleplayed as four prospective students applying to business school. Afterwards, the attendees and consultants engaged in a question and answer session.

The event exceeded even our own expectations. The energy level was astounding, the consultants’ reactions to the case studies were extremely insightful, students networked, and many even stayed long after the end of the event to ask more detailed questions to the consultants. A special thanks definitely goes out to all of the consultants, who stayed until they answered every student question.

For those of you who couldn’t make the event, we’ll be posting audio from the discussion in the next week, so check back if you want to receive free advice from the best consulting agencies out there!

GMAT Score Standards on the Rise

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Recently, we interviewed a potential instructor who said that he had gotten a 99th percentile score a number of years ago, but that his total score was a 730.

This did not seem correct.  As many people know, the current score threshold for a 99th percentile score on the GMAT is a 760 or higher (out of 800).  This is a change from just last year, as even the most recent edition of the Official Guide indicates that 750 is a 99th percentile score.  But a 730?

So we examined a copy of this gentleman’s score report with great interest.  His score was reported as follows:

October, 1998

Quant Raw Score – 49

Quant Percentile – 97%

Verbal Raw Score – 41

Verbal Percentile – 94%

Raw Score Total – 730

Total Percentile – 99%

It turns out that he was correct – a 730 WAS indeed a 99th percentile score in 1998 (when GMAC first went to the computerized adaptive test format).

It is worth noting that this person’s raw scores NOW would translate to:

Quant Percentile – 90%

Verbal Percentile – 93%

In other words, over the past 9 years, it has become MUCH harder to be at the top percentile in the Math, and slightly harder to be at the top percentiles in the Verbal.   His scores now would not place him near the 99th percentile overall.

This just goes to show that it’s gotten, and continues to get, increasingly difficult to get a distinguishing score as competition heats up and preparation levels rise.

(on a side note – we did not hire this particular instructor candidate)

GMAT Test Simulation Booklet Has Arrived

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GMAT Test PadWe are VERY proud to announce that the new ManhattanGMAT Test Simulation Booklet is now available! It is virtually identical to the real thing used in the Pearson Vue testing centers, complete with marker. So now, you can practice with the confidence that you won’t be the least bit surprised by the nature of the laminated booklet they give you on test day.

Though it’s a small thing, we’re very glad to be able to remove one more variable or bit of uncertainty for students in their preparation. 🙂

If you’d like to check it out or pick up a copy, click here.

GMAT “Official Guide Stopwatch”

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One of our students (a very bright guy from the McKinsey corporate class) last month described a common problem with studying for the GMAT. He wanted to sit down and do timed blocks of practice questions, but it was cumbersome for him to use a stopwatch and time each ‘lap’ or question precisely, particularly when working out of the Official Guide. It was also an issue to record his answer choices for each question for when he wanted to review the set. He suggested that we come up with a practice center interface that would simply let students take timed practice sets of questions.

Not being too proud to immediately run with someone else’s idea, we decided to do just that! In our practice center, starting May 1st, students will find a blank interface that will simply record and time their answers to a series of questions, with the questions determined by the student. This way, students can work out of the Official Guide and still get practice with selecting answer choices on a computer screen (as with the real GMAT test), as well as have each of their questions precisely timed and recorded.

We hope that this ‘stopwatch’ proves helpful to all of our students. We will also have something interesting that one can do with the right and wrong answers from Official Guide questions in the next couple of weeks (hint – it involves an Excel spreadsheet that records one’s progress through the Official GMAT Review Guides . . . )

MGMAT Practice Test Assessment Reports are Live

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The ManhattanGMAT Practice Test Assessment Reports have officially gone live.

If you are a student at ManhattanGMAT, simply go to:

//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/practicecenter.cfm

There, you will have the option to Generate Assessment Reports. Simply mark which practice tests you would like to include (the more tests the better, generally).

We have already received tremendous positive feedback regarding this new feature of the practice exams.

Hope that you’re as excited about this latest offering as we are! It should be of immense value to students in helping to define their relative strengths and weaknesses in preparing for the GMAT.

How many times can you take the GMAT?

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Most students, during our interactions with them, assume that it’s a bad thing, from a business school’s perspective, for an applicant to take the GMAT more than once. However, this is not really the case. In fact, many business schools see taking the test more than once as a sign of persistence and perseverance, and positively regard the applicant that wants to get into the best possible program.

But what if someone embodies the extreme, taking the GMAT 5 or 6 times? Last week, at our panel in Chicago, we asked admissions officers from 3 top schools, Harvard, Kellogg, and Chicago GSB this question, with interesting results:

Harvard – HBS asks you to self-report how many times you have taken the GMAT, and if it’s five or more, they tend to discount the top result a little bit as a result of preparation.

Kellogg – 5 or more times taking the GMAT is also regarded as a slight negative in relation to one’s score, similar to Harvard.

Chicago – The number of times one takes the test is irrelevant.

They all agreed, however, that taking the GMAT 2, 3, or 4 times was not any cause for concern, and that they would only consider the applicant’s highest score.

So the takeaway for applicants is that you should get the best score you can, and feel comfortable that you have up to 4 tries without doing your application any harm. When you’re up to 4 though, you may want to accept your highest GMAT score as given and proceed with your applications at that point, at least for certain schools.

Number of Data Sufficiency Questions in Flux?

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We have had a number of reports that the number of Data Sufficiency Questions (previously pegged at 15 of the 37 Quantitative questions) has been fluctuating. A couple of recent test-takers have reported numbers higher than 15 in the past two months.

GMAC has not confirmed it, and does not share information. But we will be keeping an eye on this issue, and hope to have confirmation in the next several weeks.

In the meantime, if anyone has any data regarding this, let us know via comment.