gmatclub tests difficulty?

Question

Hi,

I spent the past couple of months working on my quant theory (studying part-time). I recently bought the gmatclub tests. I’ve taken the first two tests (including the free one) and got on OK. Overall I thought the tests were quite difficult. I clearly still have a lot of work to do.

I was wondering if anyone else thought the same? Or is this the level of difficulty the actual GMAT will present?

Cheers,

Aztec

bipolarbear · Answer

These tests are quite difficult... generally 30+ on the gmatclub test will correlate to a 48+ on the actual GMAT. There's a test correlation thread here:
result-correlation-between-gmat-and-gmat-club-s-tests-30989.html

Aztec · Answer

Thanks a lot bipolarbear. This link is very good. Exactly what I was looking for.

Did you use the gmatclub tests? If so, did they help you improve your quant?

bipolarbear · Answer

I have access to them as well. Here are my results. I've been taking ~1 per day for the past week.

Test Correct Total % Correct Mean time Percentile
m01 31 37 84% 83.4548 sec 85%
m02 33 37 89% 93.8058 sec 90%
m03 30 37 81% 111.1665 sec 80%
m04 33 37 89% 107.7445 sec 91%
m05 29 36 81% 122.0276 sec 82%
m06 24 33 73% 136.3358 sec 53%
m07 28 37 76% 121.3407 sec 66%
m08 20 34 59% 124.5703 sec 39%

I was a joint-math major (equivalent to minor) in college so I was fairly surprised by my low scores. As you can see the more I do the WORSE i get... not sure if these results are typical, but they sure as hell are frustrating. I haven't taken the official GMAT yet but am shooting for 50+.

topher · Answer

These tests are deceptive. Some questions look easy, but they test a very fine detail that you need to understand. I took two of them and got 26 and 28. Going back through the answers there were several areas where I made very silly mistakes and didn't read carfully. Also, I've been trying to get through these quickly (<1 hour) mainly b/c I do them after work when I'm braindead. But anyway, these seem like they will be good practice to really watch and interpret the words of the question.

dzyubam · Answer

We hope you benefit from the Tests and score higher on the actual GMAT. Good luck with the prep!

Aztec · Answer

From what I can gather, the overall consensus is that they are more difficult than what the GMAT is likely to throw at you. 
As I’ve said in a previous post the gmatclub tests cover the full breath of the syllabus. It makes it easier to see where you are weakest in.

Bipolarbear – If your scores are going down then perhaps you are not learning from the mistakes you made in the previous tests. You might also be hitting on weak areas in the later tests that you weren’t exposed to in the earlier tests. Perhaps if you can crack these weak areas your average will start to rise again in the second half. 
I’m a Computer Science major and have always been good at math but I’m not performing that well on these tests either. I think the key to success is understanding math fundamentals really well – even silly stuff like manipulating radicals, irrational numbers, terminating and non terminating decimals, large factions, exponents… the list goes on.

dzyubam · Answer

We've already heard a couple of times from people saying that they performed worse and worse after the first m01 test. It seems that the first couple tests are little easier than the middle part of the first ten math tests. However, the difficulty level is very hard to define. Anyway, these were my thoughts. Please don't get discouraged by worse performance in some tests. They should identify and improve your weaker areas anyway.

gmatclub tests difficulty?

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