ekhildy

If your goal is to prepare for the test then Kaplan is great preparation. If your goal is to get an indication of your actual scores then use PR. Don't get caught up in predicting your score. From my experience and from reading a lot of posters, they all complain about the lower Kaplan scores in comparison to the other products, but remember Kaplan "guarantees" a higher score. I scored 120 higher on the actual than on Kaplan and I don't think it is that unusual. I read in another post that the average increase varies from 80-100. Again, if you want to be prepared use the Kaplan. If you want an idea of where you will score, the free PR test online was within 20 for me.

The Kaplan is tough! I scored 560/540/550 on CAT 1/2/3. The diagnostic was 610. I just took the GMAT yesterday and got a 670. Kaplan is very good preparation for the real thing, but don't get discouraged because of the score. A better indicator for the score would be the free online Princeton review test, or copies of the paper tests (they are in the forum). The reason Kaplan is tougher is the questions are not only difficult, they are long as well. I found the real GMAT to be hard, but the questions were not as long. In general, most posters I have read get 80-130 higher than the Kaplan CAT. They are great for time management. Good luck

yes. 14 years in the Marine Corps as an officer. Been busy for the past two years.

I can't remember if the scroll bar blinked. I did notice it at five minutes remaining. It blinked momentarily then. The Kaplan really helped time wise. On every prctice CAT I was really rushed on the final five questions on any given section. The real GMAT was easier in the fact that I was not as rushed in finishing. I think the best thing I did was the CD from Kaplan. Taking the tests sets you up for what to expects timewise. Plus, Kaplan questions were much harder. Some people didn't like it, but I thought harder you practice the easier the real thing will be. Another piece of advice is to book your test, then study to make it happen. I committed to the test two weeks prior and really worked (2 hrs a day) to make sure I wasn't wasting my time. My hat goes off to the non-native test takers who get good Verbal. I am an English major and it was not easy. I have never been good at math, but the PR strategy and the Kaplan Math Ref section (2005 p 257) were very helpful. I got my hands on a lot more stuff than I could possibly study. I never went through the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] (maybe 40 questions) or the SC note by Spider. If I had more time I might look at those. Background: Military, native speaker, 14 years of experience, 2 weeks prep. Again, good luck to everyone and thanks for the good posts and advice.

GMAT 22 Mar Like many other posters I used Kaplan. Diagnostic - 610 CAT 1 - 560 CAT 2 - 540 CAT 3 - 550 The Princeton Review free test online: 650 GMAT paper (25)-610 I only had two weeks to study, but managed a couple hrs a day. I was only looking for a 600 or so, so the 670 was quite a pleasant suprise. Overall, pretty even scoring between the Quant and Verbal. The testing center I went to was in Chicago (Lombard) and they started me as soon as I arrived. They had lockers for refreshments, headsets for quiet (I recommend them), close restroom (water in the face). They gave me 2 pencils and 6 sheets of paper. They also had me handwrite that I would not disclose test questions and the like. That is just back ground: let you know what my center was like. I did visit it prior to ensure I knew the way and location. I arrived 45 min early and as I said, they began right away. The two essays were very generic: I felt like it was very consistent with practice essays in any of the test prep books. The Quant ramped up very fast. From reading the forum here, I realised that I needed to spend more time on the first questions, so by question 11 I had burned nearly 35 mins. Quest 3 was a permutation and then there were 5 or so DS questions in a row. My test had quite a few > and I was very relieved to see some simple plug and chug ?'s in the later part of the test. I ended up finishing the Quant with 4-5 mins left for the final two questions. The Kaplan was harder for the fact that there were more steps but they were the same difficulty rating. The break was fast and furious, drink of Diet Pepsi, couple bites of Kit Kat. Verbal was easier than Kap. The one big difference was the screen with the scroll-downs for RC was quite a bit narrower than in the CATs for Kaplan. I ended up with 4 RC with 3-4 questions each. They seemed to be as hard as Kaplan in the first ten questions. I used 25 mins for the first 8 so I had to really speed up to finish on time. I guessed on two RC questions because I was pinched for time. Hope this helps. Thanks for the forum and I will follow up if there are any questions re: my post

The reasoning I used to get E revolves around R never being defined as a whole number. It could be 3.5, 1.333, 2.7 etc. Therefore it doesn't provide enough information. Now if it states : If q is a multiple of prime numbers, is q a multiple of r, a whole number (or a prime number)? 1) r 2) q = 18. Then C would be right.

:hmm: Does anyone have rules of thumb for GMAT timing. We have 75 minutes. 41 questions (Verb) 12-CR-2min ea =24 min 14-RC-4min for 1st quest of passage (2-3 passages) +2 min for remaining 11 questions = 34 min (3 X 4) + (11 X 2) 15-SC-1min ea = 15 min Total = 73 min First five questions on each section get the other 2 min (weighting is heavier on the correct answers for these questions) I haven't done the Quant, but it should be roughly 2 mins/question. This should give me an idea of how things are going. It is only a plan, but I am hoping it helps. Any suggestions?

:hmm: I am very concerned about finishing the sections within the given time limits. Are there any recommended average limits to spend on the various types of questions? For example, Kaplan suggests there are approximately: 12 CR questions 14 RC questions (I think 2-3 separate passages) 15 SC questions Given the time limit, that equates to SC- CR- RC- 1st question w/in 4 min - others This would give you 73 mins of the alloted 75 mins. The extra two minutes I plan on spending on the first 5 questions. From what I have heard, they weight the first questions more heavily. I haven't broken down the Quant. Any thoughts?

This forum is great. Thanks to all the posters that are participating. I took a very simple approach to this. All of the other answers refer to wingspan, not the quetzawhateverus. The only option that describes the quetzawhateverus is answer C.