Practice Tests vs. Real GMAT

[donkey_man_88]

Not to be a downer, but I'd definitely say that the Gmat Prep tests are better at indicating your true performance. My lowest score was a 680 on Kaplan. I scored over 700 multiple times, and scored a 710 on the UTP. Ended up with a 600 on the real exam. Overall, the Kaplan exams are much easier than the real exam. The real verbal is way tougher. The SC questions in Kaplan are so simple that it's not even funny. The Gmat Prep SC questions are tougher. This is just my biased opinion. Honestly, go in thinking confidently, but don't think about a specific score. Just pace yourself well. Remember, guessing on the real thing is not a bad thing to do. The hard bin questions are just too time consuming to get every question right. Good luck!

[jmdgirish]

Hi st,

First Wish you a very Happy New Year '2009.

As you said I tried the first CAT today. Managed 720 (Q51,V39) but barely managed to complete the sections. Also I must admit this was my worst show so far in Verbal, not oo sure what happened. I realised later that in the first 29 questions I had 3 wrong and in the last 30-41 i had 7 wrong so maybe time management did me in.

I was wondering st on one thing so I thot I'd ask, I read on some forum that Princeton may not be a good indicator of the real GMAT exam, what do you think since you have been thru both.

Also any strategy you could suggest to improve my timing, I'd really appreciate.

Many Thanks again.

-Regards,
Girish Malik

[NewYorkGirl28]

Thanks st, Tatum and all! - gmat prep is def way more realistic, even though I got way too nervous in the quant section. Scores below:
Actual GMAT: 730
GMAT prep 2: 710
Kaplan cat 4: 780
Kaplan cat 3: 670
Kaplan cat 2: 680
Kaplan cat 1: 690
GMAT prep 1: 730
Kaplan diagnostic: 690
Kaplan free diag (2 weeks earlier): 600

[st191200]

congrats NYG... 730 is awesome!!

i got my AWA score today - 5.0

girish - if i give gmatprep a 5 on 5 as regards comparison to real GMAT then princeton will be 4 on 5....

so that's the closeness i felt... regardless, it is a good excercise course

good luck folks!

-st

[jmdgirish]

Thanks St. And 5.0 is good I believe. Any particular practice you can recommend for the AWA part.

Congrats NYG.

Regards,
Girish Malik

[st191200]

well, as for AWA my total practice time was 1 day (day before real GMAT)

I went through OG11 AWA section. Couple of things

1. Stick to the Structure
2. Make sure the subject, verb , tense , parallelism and other things that you learned in sentence correction section are implemented properly while you write your analysis.
3. Do not make spelling mistakes
4. Keep 3-4 minutes spare for review (i failed to do so for the analysis of issue part in real GMAT - could not review my last para)
5. Trying to use intricate vocab might be futile, if you think its important. Its the structure and flow of idea that is important. Its like a movie screenplay - should make sense and should be coherent. Cannot spill the beans in middle of your analysis i.e. for instance keep conclusions for the end part

I thinks that's about it... you should be ok if you have done an avg amount of reading and have done a lot of professional emails

good luck

-ST

[ikchicago]

My name is I.K i will be taking the gmat in april this year but i need advice on these books because i am aiming for scores within the 700 range. I have OG11 and OG10, Kaplan 800, princeton review 2006. Reading the blogs of some of the people who have scores in the 700's. They used these books and Kaplan verbal and math, Princeton verbal and math and Kaplan Gre and Gmat with the books i already have. Please I would really appreciate it if anyhone can tell me if i should go ahead and add these other books to what i already have or stick with my OG11 & OG10, Kaplan 800 and Princeton review 2006. Thank you very much in advance.

[jessetheguy]

Hi Everyone,

I imagine everyone here wonders how close the actual GMAT marks are to the GMATPrep software. I copied the gmat scores and GMATprep scores reported on this forum into my favorite spreadsheet (numbers not excel!) and came up with some fairly interesting results...

The data is the last 84 reported scores from here on the Test Magic forums (dating back to around page 10 and 2005ish). Where multiple attempts with the GMATPrep software were reported by the same individual I only counted the first attempt. The scores for the GMAT prep exams listed here are the averages of GMAT Prep 1 and GMAT Prep 2 for each individual.

The Results: average reported actual GMAT score was 692 and the average reported score on the GMATPrep exams was 694. This shows a clear relationship at first glance.

However, please remember that a score of 692 is not representative of the whole GMAT test taking population (I think the mean score is somewhere in the low 500s?). Additionally, many test takers attempt the Prep software early in their preparations to gauge their current situation. This can skew the results downward. Keep in mind these are self reported scores.

Perhaps the most important piece of information is that of the 84 reported scores only 46 (55%) reported an actual score that was +- 30 points of their GMATprep scores. Of the remaining 38 test takers outside the 30 point range, 21 (55%) reported an actual score that was more than 30 points less than their Prep results. (Sentence correction anyone?)

One other little tidbit is that fully 58% of test takers showed an improvement on their actual scores versus their Prep scores. To me this is an indication of people using the tool as it is intended. As a diagnostic indicator.

Alright I hope my wasted sunday night helped someone!!

The Report Card:
Actual avg. 692
Prep avg. 694
Showing increase over Prep: 58%
Within +- 30 points: 55%
Outside of 30 point range showing a 'Large' negative: 55%

If anyone wants to get a hold of the raw data and do anything else with it just PM me!

[bear&bull]

Originally Posted by jessetheguy

Hi Everyone,

I imagine everyone here wonders how close the actual GMAT marks are to the GMATPrep software. I copied the gmat scores and GMATprep scores reported on this forum into my favorite spreadsheet (numbers not excel!) and came up with some fairly interesting results...

The data is the last 84 reported scores from here on the Test Magic forums (dating back to around page 10 and 2005ish). Where multiple attempts with the GMATPrep software were reported by the same individual I only counted the first attempt.

The Results: average reported actual GMAT score was 692 and the average reported score on the GMATPrep exams was 694. This shows a clear relationship at first glance.

However, please remember that a score of 692 is not representative of the whole GMAT test taking population (I think the mean score is somewhere in the low 500s?). Additionally, many test takers attempt the Prep software early in their preparations to gauge their current situation. This can skew the results downward. Also keep in mind these are self reported scores.

Perhaps the most important piece of information is that of the 84 reported scores only 46 (55%) reported an actual score that was +- 30 points of their GMATprep scores. Of the remaining 38 test takers outside the 30 point range, 21 (55%) reported an actual score that was more than 30 points less than their Prep results. (Sentence correction anyone?)

One other little tidbit is that fully 58% of test takers showed an improvement on their actual scores versus their Prep scores. To me this is an indication of people using the tool as it is intended. As a diagnostic indicator.

Alright I hope my wasted sunday night helped someone!!

The Report Card:
Actual avg. 692
Prep avg. 694
Showing increase over Prep: 58%
Within +- 30 points: 55%
Outside of 30 point range showing a 'Large' negative: 55%

If anyone wants to get a hold of the raw data and do anything else with it just PM me!

[Gmater-1]

Originally Posted by jessetheguy

Hi Everyone,

I imagine everyone here wonders how close the actual GMAT marks are to the GMATPrep software. I copied the gmat scores and GMATprep scores reported on this forum into my favorite spreadsheet (numbers not excel!) and came up with some fairly interesting results...

The data is the last 84 reported scores from here on the Test Magic forums (dating back to around page 10 and 2005ish). Where multiple attempts with the GMATPrep software were reported by the same individual I only counted the first attempt.

The Results: average reported actual GMAT score was 692 and the average reported score on the GMATPrep exams was 694. This shows a clear relationship at first glance.

However, please remember that a score of 692 is not representative of the whole GMAT test taking population (I think the mean score is somewhere in the low 500s?). Additionally, many test takers attempt the Prep software early in their preparations to gauge their current situation. This can skew the results downward. Also keep in mind these are self reported scores.

Perhaps the most important piece of information is that of the 84 reported scores only 46 (55%) reported an actual score that was +- 30 points of their GMATprep scores. Of the remaining 38 test takers outside the 30 point range, 21 (55%) reported an actual score that was more than 30 points less than their Prep results. (Sentence correction anyone?)

One other little tidbit is that fully 58% of test takers showed an improvement on their actual scores versus their Prep scores. To me this is an indication of people using the tool as it is intended. As a diagnostic indicator.

Alright I hope my wasted sunday night helped someone!!

The Report Card:
Actual avg. 692
Prep avg. 694
Showing increase over Prep: 58%
Within +- 30 points: 55%
Outside of 30 point range showing a 'Large' negative: 55%

If anyone wants to get a hold of the raw data and do anything else with it just PM me!

Great Job, Really appreciated