How Close Are Powerprep Scores to Real Scores?

[buckykatt]

Can anyone give me an idea how close scores on the Powerprep practice test were to scores you got on the actual GRE? I'm working on getting an 800 on the math section. After reviewing a bit, I took the first practice test and got a 790. But I don't know whether this means I'm close to ready to take the real test. Powerprep could be easier than the real thing, or it could be not very well correlated (given that it's fairly old at this point).

[GRE_Kickboxer]

Hi BuckyKatt. You are in luck. There is a VERY long thread directly related to this topic. Generally speaking, it appears that PowerPrep scores are VERY good at predicting actual scores. You might want to start by looking at the most recent posts in the thread and work you way backworks. There are 20 pages of posts starting here:

http://www.urch.com/forums/just-fini...-real-gre.html (Practice GRE Tests vs. Real GRE)

Regards,

GRE_Kickboxer

[theGrin]

That is a very good question... Apparently, people that have taken the GRE say that the actual exam is a bit more difficult than powerprep. But I'm not sure if there is a difference on the difficulty level or it is just an effect of the pressure when you're doing it for real...

In my opinion you are fairly close to get an 800 (or around that) on the GRE, not only based your powerprep score but also on comments I've seen you post... If I were you (and that's what I did for me) I would just continue practicing until I start getting consistent high scores on mock tests, including different CAT's, bigbook... This may mean missing 0 or 1 questions on powerprep and BB and 2 on tougher preps... I think this is good to build confidence so the pressure does not affect so much on the big day...

[buckykatt]

Thanks guys.

I figured there must be a thread about this, just looked in the wrong places.

I think, for me, the time constraint is significant for the math section, so I need to keep practicing to get faster.