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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 03:43
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Hi all,

My official GMAT is on 2 May...

I recently gave a Veritas Prep CAT (700 q49v37).

A week later gave an official GMATPrep (660 q47v34)...

Ofcourse offical GMATPrep CAT is more reliable...
But my question is that I got 10 out of the first 12 right and in total got 27/37 questions correct.
In the earlier official GMATPrep CAT, I had a q49 with only 26/37 correct.

In verbal I got 15 out of the first 18 correct.

I'm not complaining. I understand I didn't do well, for my target of 720-730. Just want some pointers with the experienced people here...

Thanks so much :)
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 04:15
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I don't think you can be sure about anything unless you take the second gmat prep cat. Prepare a little and take the second one. No need to waste your time and energy on comtemplating what is your real score. I did before and now I quit.
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 04:21
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I have already taken the 2 cats......

In 1st scored 690 (q49 v35) and got 26/37 in Quant right.
In 2nd scored 660 (q47 v34) and got 27/37 in Quant right.
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 04:23
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Then it seems your quant is not stable for some reasons. You are the only person who can find it out. Don't pay attention to how many you answered correctly. It is not the only criterion.
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 04:31
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You're right... I have to do better.

I value your opinion. Thanks for your interest.

:)
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 11 Apr 2015, 11:10
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Hi gmathopeful90,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. It takes into account a number of different factors, including the relative difficulty of the question, whether you were expected to get it correct or not, the placement of the question, what's going on "around it", the "strings" of correct and incorrect answers, whether the question even counts or not (some questions are "experimental" and are worth 0), if you leave questions unanswered and incur a penalty, etc. As such, you shouldn't be spending time trying to figure it all out. You'd be better served working on building up your skills.

Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. Your scores are all 'in range' of one another though, so assuming that you took the ENTIRE CAT and did so under realistic 'test-like' conditions, then these scores serve as a reasonably accurate assessment of your abilities.

A far more useful gauge would be to review each CAT and determine how many questions you SHOULD have gotten correct, but didn't (due to a silly/little mistake). Those mistakes are the things that you have to fix to score at a higher level.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 13 Apr 2015, 13:48
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Take a look at this sample score report: https://gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-test/ ... 841-2.html

This is the kind of post-test analysis you would get with the free GMAT Pill Practice Test: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... ctice-test

Students generally report scores within +-30 points of what they are getting on the actual test.

Now - remember that the algorithm on the actual test is not known by anyone outside of the GMAC organization. That said, the takeaway from the test really should be on what areas you can improve on rather than the exact number that is generated at the end. Focus on actually learning from mistakes -- which you can get through our video explanation.

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GMAT Prep CAT - Reliable or not? 13 Apr 2015, 19:22
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oh my god... gmat pill :O

28 correct and a Q44... Scares the hell out of me.
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