Additional official practice tests?

Hi Anonamy,

There are several 3rd party CATs that are 'close enough' to the Official GMAT to provide you with a reasonably accurate score assessment (when you use the CATs correctly). You mentioned having some already, but have you used any of them?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich!

I've used all of the manhattan tests and found them to be demoralizing and of not much use in either the verbal or quant. My verbal scores on those tests were significantly lower than on GMATPrep tests (and ultimately on the exam as well), and I found the manhattan quant to contain areas and concepts that are far and above anything on the GMAT (maybe I wasn't as right as I thought though...). I liked their advanced books much more than their practice tests.

That being said, since I still have access to the Manhattan tests, and since I've already done all of the GMATPrep tests at least once, I plan on using the Manhattan tests again.

I haven't taken the free Veritas, Kaplan, Economist and GMAT Pill tests yet. I might take those.

Come to think of it, I started out my studies with the general Princeton Review book and that contained a practice test. I found that book to be great for gaining an overview of the test but little else.

I should add, I did do some gmatclub quant tests this weekend and found those to be useful learning resources but not a good gauge of score.

By the way, I'm retaking in 5 weeks.

Rich, I also should mention that two days before I took the GMAT, I'd scored 78 percentile on a GMATPrep practice test. I booked my retake date for 5 weeks out because I strongly feel that a 44 isn't reflective of my quant aptitude. On test day it took me some time to get comfortable with the test conditions unfortunately.

78 percentile is about as high as I need. That along with a V42 will put me between 730-750. The school I have my eye on wants all scores above 60th percentile and around 85th is ideal.

I did take a look at the quant score booster supplement. I'm trying to decide which resources I need right now. If I find that I am at a point where I'm consistently scoring 78 percentile, then I might not invest in more resources but in just maintaining my score.

If you a looking for a quants specific study material, you can have a look at our quants booster course too: https://www.optimus-prep.com/shop/gmat/g ... t-booster/

Hi Anonamy,

These days, the 78th percentile in Quant is about a Q49; that is a high-level performance, regardless of how you might interpret the percentile. You mentioned how you don't think that a Q44 isn't indicative of your true abilities, which might be true - but you haven't truly defined your Quant skills, so I have a few questions about how you took your CATs:

1) How did you score on each of your practice CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores?
2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
3) Did you take them at home?
4) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
5) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
6) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

Taking a CAT two days before your Official GMAT was NOT a good idea. A CAT requires a great deal of effort and energy, and requires a certain amount of recovery time - so it's likely that you experienced a bit of 'burn out' before Test Day.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

How would you rate Veritas test series?

Hi Rich, sorry for the delay in my response. I feel oddly deflated after writing the GMAT last week. I am GMAT'ed out.

To your questions -

1) How did you score on each of your practice CATs (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores?
Nov 14 - Q44 (second time taking)
Dec 6 - Q45 (second time taking)
Jan 1 - Q40 (was sick this day, first time taking)
Jan 4 - Q48 (first time taking)

There were also some Manhattan tests in between, which I won't post because their experience was radically different from the GMAT and GMATPrep practice tests.


2) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?

I did on the latter two tests.

3) Did you take them at home?

Yes, where I have a needy cat and there's construction noise.

Perhaps worth mentioning, when I wrote the actual test I wasn't at all comfortable with the giant monitor and giant text... Took until half way through to get used to it. The text was so big I had to read and reread.

4) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?

All of them at 4pm.

5) Did you ever do ANYTHING during your CATs that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?

I think I paused once when my partner came home and began talking - he didn't realize I was taking a practice exam but then I immediately got back to work. Think that was in December.

6) Did you ever take a CAT more than once?

Yes, but not the latter two.

Hi Anonamy,

This extra information you've provided is helpful - it points out some of the areas of your approach that didn't properly prepare you for the Official GMAT. These are some of the big areas that need to be fixed.

The only real way to measure your progress during your studies is to take FULL-LENGTH CATs under 'test-like' conditions. That means that you have to take the ENTIRE CAT, away from your home, at the same time of day as your Official GMAT, without doing anything unrealistic (such as skipping sections, retaking a CAT, pausing the Test, etc.). The more 'differences' there are between how you take your CATs and how you take the Official GMAT, the more likely that your CAT scores are to be inaccurate (and the scores are usually higher than they should be).

Since you've refused to include your scores from the MGMAT CATs, I'm going to assume that the Quant Scores are collectively lower than your GMAC CAT Scores. Factoring in that information, and considering that two of the four GMAC CATs were retakes (with outcomes that were likely inflated), the Q48 seems like a big outlier - so we cannot trust that that performance is a true reflection of your ability. Based on all of the other data, the Q44 that earned on the Official GMAT not only appears accurate, but it also might be what you can expect to score if you continue to study/practice in the same ways as you did before.

Thankfully, almost all of these issues can be dealt with - however, you have to PLAN to make your CATs match the Official GMAT in every way possible and you have to put a greater emphasis on Quant Tactics during this next round of studies.

1) Although you did not explicitly state it, did you take your GMAT on January 6th at 4pm? Is there a specific reason why you would retest in the 'middle' of the week and do so in the evening?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich