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Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams?

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DeOe22
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Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   28 Jul 2019, 15:40
Hey all,

I made a very confusing experience. I took the first official pratice exam last week after two months of study and was overwhelmed by the wuant questions so I decided to not finish it.
However, afterwards I contacted a private tutor and he told me to do a full length exam so he can evaluate me.
So I took pratice exam 2 and felt the questions were super easy. I thought well a lot of 600points questions in that case, but when I finished the exam I got a 720 score with Q49/V40 and I was completely off the hook!
My instructor told me that he thinks I only have to focus on verbal and I will be fine for the real thing BUT I really feel like there was a difference in the level of difficulty this time...

Is this possible, or do I imagine things? lol

Posted from my mobile device
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2019, 16:49
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Hi DeOe22,

About 2 months ago, you posted that you were beginning your studies with the plan to take the GMAT on July 26th. Did you take the GMAT as scheduled (and if you did, then how did you score - including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores)?

You also noted that you had taken a CAT and score 620. Have you taken any other CATs since then - and if you did, then how did you score?

It's certainly possible that you've honed the necessary skills over the last 2 months to raise your prior 620 to a 720 on a CAT. That having been said, if you did not take this CAT in a realistic fashion that matches what you will face on Test Day, then there are factors than can impact your performance (and potentially "inflate" your Score).

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Rich
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ScottTargetTestPrep
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2019, 18:01
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I think that you may have just been nervous taking the first exam, as the difficulty levels of the two exams should be pretty similar.

Feel free to reach out with further questions. Good luck!
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AjiteshArun
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   29 Jul 2019, 19:56
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DeOe22 wrote:
Hey all,

I made a very confusing experience. I took the first official pratice exam last week after two months of study and was overwhelmed by the wuant questions so I decided to not finish it.
However, afterwards I contacted a private tutor and he told me to do a full length exam so he can evaluate me.
So I took pratice exam 2 and felt the questions were super easy. I thought well a lot of 600points questions in that case, but when I finished the exam I got a 720 score with Q49/V40 and I was completely off the hook!
My instructor told me that he thinks I only have to focus on verbal and I will be fine for the real thing BUT I really feel like there was a difference in the level of difficulty this time...

Is this possible, or do I imagine things? lol
1. Your score should be reliable (enough) as long as you were not already familiar with the questions you saw.

2. You can always take more practice tests to get more data points.

3. Your verbal score (percentile) is actually better than your quant score. I don't know enough about you, but I don't think that you should ignore quant at this stage.
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DeOe22
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   30 Jul 2019, 06:26
Thanks for the many replies!

So to answer all of you:
I did indeed take a Manhattan CAT before I started to study with quant and verbal in the 30s (can't remember the exact score)
So I started the TTP study plan and learned alot (really alot)
Then i took the official pratice Exam 1 which I felt was too dificult for me so I stopped ..
And I have never seen the questions of Exam 2 before and have done it in the time given so from that point of view it should be "reliable".

But the thing is there were only a few probability Questions and I think no Combinatorics questions and I thought most hard questions are from those topics.

But well if you guys tell me that this should be similar to what I will see on test day, I am happy!

I thought I take the gmat this week but then decided to give myself more time and I want to do it in end of August!

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DeOe22
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   30 Jul 2019, 09:29
AjiteshArun wrote:
DeOe22 wrote:
Hey all,

I made a very confusing experience. I took the first official pratice exam last week after two months of study and was overwhelmed by the wuant questions so I decided to not finish it.
However, afterwards I contacted a private tutor and he told me to do a full length exam so he can evaluate me.
So I took pratice exam 2 and felt the questions were super easy. I thought well a lot of 600points questions in that case, but when I finished the exam I got a 720 score with Q49/V40 and I was completely off the hook!
My instructor told me that he thinks I only have to focus on verbal and I will be fine for the real thing BUT I really feel like there was a difference in the level of difficulty this time...

Is this possible, or do I imagine things? lol
1. Your score should be reliable (enough) as long as you were not already familiar with the questions you saw.

2. You can always take more practice tests to get more data points.

3. Your verbal score (percentile) is actually better than your quant score. I don't know enough about you, but I don't think that you should ignore quant at this stage.


P.S. I followed your advice and bought the 4 remaining pratice exams - I just did exam 3 and scored 750 lol.
Do you guys think I am ready to take the gmat end of august?
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Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   30 Jul 2019, 22:00
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DeOe22 wrote:
P.S. I followed your advice and bought the 4 remaining pratice exams - I just did exam 3 and scored 750 lol.
Do you guys think I am ready to take the gmat end of august?
You absolutely are. As in, you could take the exam tomorrow if you wanted to. :)

1. Make sure that you don't get complacent at this stage. The GMAT brings with it exam pressure, which is something that we should plan for. You could also keep 2 of those official practice tests for a second attempt (just in case you need to take the exam again).

2. Make sure that you have a solid timing strategy in place.
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   05 Aug 2019, 19:57
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Glad to see that you are using TTP. Make sure to finish the course prior to taking the GMAT, and you’ll crush quant on test day.
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink] New post   10 Aug 2019, 03:55
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DeOe22 wrote:
Hey all,

I made a very confusing experience. I took the first official pratice exam last week after two months of study and was overwhelmed by the wuant questions so I decided to not finish it.
However, afterwards I contacted a private tutor and he told me to do a full length exam so he can evaluate me.
So I took pratice exam 2 and felt the questions were super easy. I thought well a lot of 600points questions in that case, but when I finished the exam I got a 720 score with Q49/V40 and I was completely off the hook!
My instructor told me that he thinks I only have to focus on verbal and I will be fine for the real thing BUT I really feel like there was a difference in the level of difficulty this time...

Is this possible, or do I imagine things? lol

Posted from my mobile device


The official GMAT practice exam is the same difficulty level as the real one. Even if you got lucky and scored 1-2 points higher than your skill level, you will most likely be able to gain more points from improving your Verbal.
GMAT Club Bot
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Re: Difference in Difficulty in Pratice Exams? [#permalink]
10 Aug 2019, 03:55

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