Practice Tests vs. Real GMAT

[ilyailienko]

need help in verifying validity of different cat scores...... hello, hello all!
I am new here, after 4 months of practice and some sample cats from different companies I have the following-->

sample outdated gmat (from 2005) (1st day of study)
october 2006-530

KAPLAN October 2006 diagnostic-540

MANHATTANGMAT november 2006-560

MANHATTANGMAT december 2006-640

MANHATTANGMAT january 2007-680

KAPLAN January 2007- 590

ARCO 1 week ago February 2007- 600
(crappy software no explanations or anything at all, will not do anymore)

CRACKGMAT.COM february 2007 - 500
(the disclaimer allthough said that "your real score should be 100 points higher") so i guess that means around ~ 600

800score.com 3/4/07 today-620

Please give me some ffed back, i feel like i am lost, such different scores???
I know alot of guys here have alot of knowledge, please advise......

PS sorry for the long post

[jordan23VT]

i would only use gmatprep and powerprep to gauge your score...the others are skewed and do not represent the test very well....

[ilyailienko]

validity of gmatprep???


If I take the gmatprep practice test of their software, will it reflect my score with the upmost accuracy?

I figure since the software includes 2 tests, I'llo take one now and one in a month , besides the other practice (10) tests I took from other software/prep companies. I am sick of getting scores trhat range from 500-680, which in essense mean nothing.

please advise oh the all knowing

I.I.

[jordan23VT]

there is no perfect measurement, but gmatprep is the closest...

[cceggn]

Can someone please help me solve the following 3 problems on GMAT PowerPrep Practice Test #1:

#7: Data sufficiency - Determining magnitude of difference between 2 angles in 2 triangles

#15: Arithmetic - If each term in the sum a1+a2+...+an is 7 or 77 and the sum equals 350, which of the following could be equal to n? (Answer 40)

#18: Problem solving - Function f(x)=f(1-x)

I cannot figure these out for the life of me.

Thanks

[chameleon911]

Hi Cceggn,

Would you be able to post the whole questions including all options? It's a lot easier for us to answer if we don't have to dig through a couple hundred practice questions to find all the info we need to solve them.

Just my 2

[rachmak]

I have seen the 800score test results vary over the time of this post..2003 to 2007.

What's the latest. I'm finding 800score tests which I downloaded in late 2006 to be pretty tricky.

[chrisw123]

I have seen the 800score test results vary over the time of this post..2003 to 2007.

What's the latest. I'm finding 800score tests which I downloaded in late 2006 to be pretty tricky.

I agree - I think 800score changed their tests, although I heard that their math was easy, etc. I thought their CAT tests were very very helpful...

I thought the verbal was not as useful, but I recommend 800score for their quant. New stuff that is.

I got a 720 on real GMAT, but on a couple of the 800score CAT's I got 620... On the last i got 770 - and I think thats because my quant improved so much by the last exam...

[rachmak]

I agree - I think 800score changed their tests, although I heard that their math was easy, etc. I thought their CAT tests were very very helpful...

I thought the verbal was not as useful, but I recommend 800score for their quant. New stuff that is.

I got a 720 on real GMAT, but on a couple of the 800score CAT's I got 620... On the last i got 770 - and I think thats because my quant improved so much by the last exam...

Hey Chris,

Congrats on the great score of 720. Can you assess my situation?

I'm getting good scores in quant on GMATprep and Powerprep (49-50 range), however, when I'm taking the 800score, I'm finding the questions a bit harder and that they definetely take a lot longer to solve.

How did the actual GMAT compare to the 800score quant?

On the 800score verbal, I found that it was not as good. Difficulty level was around the same, but the questions were not clear and the RC passages were a lot harder than GMATprep and Powerprep.

Is this inline with your experience with 800score?

Thanks, Jason

[chrisw123]

Hey Chris,

Congrats on the great score of 720. Can you assess my situation?

I'm getting good scores in quant on GMATprep and Powerprep (49-50 range), however, when I'm taking the 800score, I'm finding the questions a bit harder and that they definetely take a lot longer to solve.

How did the actual GMAT compare to the 800score quant?

On the 800score verbal, I found that it was not as good. Difficulty level was around the same, but the questions were not clear and the RC passages were a lot harder than GMATprep and Powerprep.

Is this inline with your experience with 800score?

Thanks, Jason

Jason,
It is exactly in line with what I was thinking when I was doing 800score... I was panicking especially early on because my CAT scores were tough, and my math was particularly struggling for the same reason you gave - 800score quant seems harder and take longer to solve.
Naturally, I got stressed because I found it more difficult - but looking back, I now see that it was very important to my prep, it opened my eyes to some question types, and forced me to work harder... So I recommend it.

Just dont get too upset if you arent performing so well on the quant- I dont think it is all that representative of GMAT - just excellent practice. I was in the exact same position as you when I was using it - and I was searching this forum for other's thoughts and some posts even suggested that 800score was too easy! So I was even more worried! However, I think 800score have changed the CATs since then.

Agreed on the verbal - not as helpful or representative.

When do you take the GMAT?