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Practice Tests vs. Real GMAT


Erin

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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!
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
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  • 3 weeks later...

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!

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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!

 

:grad:[clap]:tup:

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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!

 

[clap][clap][clap] Great Job, Really appreciated :tup::tup:

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GMAT PREP:

690

740

760

750

710

680

 

G- day: 690( verbal: 34 maths : 49)

 

Any recommendations you could give for the last 15 days of preparations.

I took GMATPrep long back(missed about 6 ques) - got 710 and then took it again after 2-3 weeks - got 760.

 

I have not tried GMATPrep2 so far. Someone mentioned I keep it till the last week.

I have tried Manhattan CAT1-4 though so two more are left there.

 

Kindly advise based on your experience. Will be grateful.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

-Regards,

Girish Malik

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Any recommendations you could give for the last 15 days of preparations.

I took GMATPrep long back(missed about 6 ques) - got 710 and then took it again after 2-3 weeks - got 760.

 

I have not tried GMATPrep2 so far. Someone mentioned I keep it till the last week.

I have tried Manhattan CAT1-4 though so two more are left there.

 

Kindly advise based on your experience. Will be grateful.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

-Regards,

Girish Malik

 

I am stunned Mr. girish . You missed six and managed 710 . That shows you were hitting 800. I missed one in quant and one in verbal on the G- day. I guess I paid a huge price as I can guarantee( yes I mean it) that GMAT will charge you high on that ground .

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I am stunned Mr. girish . You missed six and managed 710 . That shows you were hitting 800. I missed one in quant and one in verbal on the G- day. I guess I paid a huge price as I can guarantee( yes I mean it) that GMAT will charge you high on that ground .

 

Frankly Speaking was surprised to see your score bear&bull. Was expecting something great from you.

But I guess you missed those two questions and that have really cost you a lot.

Still 690 is not at all a bad score. But would like to know how did you prepared and what are your future plans.

If you feel you can score more than 730 (which i feel you can) I guess you should take a second attempt. It's not at all late.

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Frankly Speaking was surprised to see your score bear&bull. Was expecting something great from you.

But I guess you missed those two questions and that have really cost you a lot.

Still 690 is not at all a bad score. But would like to know how did you prepared and what are your future plans.

If you feel you can score more than 730 (which i feel you can) I guess you should take a second attempt. It's not at all late.

 

 

This was my second attempt. My previous score is in fact 730 .

 

He he

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I am stunned Mr. girish . You missed six and managed 710 . That shows you were hitting 800. I missed one in quant and one in verbal on the G- day. I guess I paid a huge price as I can guarantee( yes I mean it) that GMAT will charge you high on that ground .

 

Not sure what happened, but thats what it was, I was not able to note the scaled score though.

 

Kindly let me know how to prepare in the last 15 days. i will be grateful.

I am doing sets 21-30 right now. Let me know what you think. My weakest areas as per me are CR and RC.

 

Any inputs on the study pattern / exams to take would be great. Thanks.

 

Many Thanks.

 

-Regards,

Girish Malik

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I find this discussion really interesting. I would like to add that it also depends on how well you are able to hold on to your nerves on the G'day. So even if you performance has been very good on gmat prep, the same might not be reflected on real GMAT score.

:)

 

You are in reason. I was expecting something around 660 - 670 and 620 is much lower than expected

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