How accurate are princeton CAT's?

Question

I just gave the 1st princeton CAT and scored 630 (v30, Q46)

. I got 12 wrong in verbal and 4 wrong in quant . with the same number of questions wrong i got 38 Mgmat verbal few days back so i am wondering how accurate princeton tests are. Also, i have noticed that i always seem to get questions wrong in groups..i mean its like i wiill get 7-8 questions correct at a stretch and then suddenly get 3-4 wrong at a time...and i see this apttern all the time in both verbal and quants...I am wondering is this just a lapse of concentration on my side or something else :roll:

trahul4 · Answer

No they are not very accurate. General perceptino about princeton CATs is not good. Although the quality of their verbal questions is betther than few other tests.

mayonnai5e · Answer

i've taken two PR cats and the algorithm does not seem consistent with the real GMAT algorithm. On PR, I was twice able to get a sequence of 9 questions correct. On GMATPrep 1, my longest sequence of correct answers was 3 or 4. If you think about the algorithm and how it's supposed to work, getting 9 or 10 in a row should never happen since the algorithm is supposed to find your upper limit fairly quickly. That limit is where you should get one right then one wrong in a continuous pattern. Two sequences of 9 correct in a row is half the problems without getting close to the limit. That data alone is enough to signal an inherent problem with the PR algorithm. 

As for the questions themselves, that's another matter. I've taken one GMATPrep CAT and have started working on the OG11 book and in my opinion the PR CATs do not mirror the GMAT problems all that well. Others may have a different opinion though.

nervousgmat · Answer

I didn't like PR CATs that much but they do predict your quant performance fairly well. I can't say the same about verbal though. The highest I got in PR verbal was 41 while my score on real GMAT was 47.

I'd advise to search the forums as well. There were a lot of discussions about the accuracy of PR and other CATs on this forum in the past.

shmegs · Answer

I didn't like PR CATs either. I found GMAT Prep 2 to be the best indicator, then GMAT Prep 1, McGraw-Hill and MGMAT. Not a lot of people have talked about the MGHill CATs but they were pretty close to the real thing. The interface is different but the Qs were fairly similar to the real thing. IMO more so than MGMAT especially in regards to the verbal section.

devansh_god · Answer

Well.....In my experience, princeton CATs will punish you really bad if you commit errors in the first 10 questions.

Sample this, I committed 8 mistakes in verbal of test#2 but only one in top 10 (#10 to be precise) and was rewarded with a V42.
But in test #3, while the no. of mistakes were more or less the same( 9 in this case), I committed 3 errors in top 10 (namely #2,#3 and #9) and was busted down to a V33.

Also, I think that the maths algo skews your quant score down, for reasons known only to GOD himself. I made only 4 errors in quant, none in top 15 AND all placed at comfortable distances to each other. Yet I got only a 48, I mean gimme a break; 4 errors on tough questions in such a circumstance translates to a Q50 on GMAT from what ive heard.

Personally I'll not take these scores to my heart, just check your errors. Or if you are gung-ho just compare the number of errors.

P.S: And Mr. Kaplan is no exception (in fact, he is worse!!!) :wink:

shmegs · Answer

Yea Kaplan is pretty bad...there are a bunch of bad CATs out there. But at the same time there are a whole bunch of CATs that provide a pretty good idea. 2GMAT Prep, 6 MGMAT, 6 McGraw-Hill. 14 CATs, not counting reinstalls of GMAT Prep...plenty of practice tests.

trahul4 · Answer

Is it so ? There has not been much discussion on MGHill CATs. Good to know. Can someone else also testimony these CATs?

empty_spaces · Answer

yea i think kaplan is pretty bad too, but the thing is kaplan is much harder then PR, atleast the quants part is,. As i have read in this forum MGMAT's are the next closest thing to GMAT after Gmatprep, though MGMAT quants is toooo hard.

trahul4 · Answer

MGMAT quant scoring is bit linient which compensates the high level of difficulty. 8-)

empty_spaces · Answer

i havent done any Gmatprep tests till now but how much would someone score in each section if he gets say 10 wrong on quants and 12-14 wrong in verbal....just trying to access myself

trahul4 · Answer

Well you cannot answer such kindo f questions due to the adaptive nature of the Test. You need to take GMATPrep and gauge yourself.

bsd_lover · Answer

as trahul mentioned, GMAT is an adaptive test. It doesn't matter how many you answer correctly. What matters is how many 'difficult' questions you answer correctly. Getting an extremely difficult question wrong might be better for your final score than getting a trivial question right.

To reach the 'difficult' questions you need to focus on the first few questions and try and get them all correct. You will notice that the questions will get progressively harder. 

Give gmatprep a go.

cheers.

empty_spaces · Answer

thanks Trahul and bsdlover for your reply's, as i had mentioned earlier aswell, i always seem to get questions wrong in bulk and i dont know why, its like i always get 6-7 correct at a time and then get 3-4 wrong at a stretch and i am not able to get rid of that, what should i do about it ? any ideas ?
I think getting questions wrong at a stretch hurts the score more...isnt it?


adding to above ...

I am very inconsistent, like in my first Kaplan test i scored 34 in verbal and i had around 70% hit rate with SC and 55-60% with both CR and RC ....in my second KAPLAN i again scored a 34 in verbal but this time i had a hit rate of 60% in SC and 65-70% in both CR and RC.

In the first MGMAT i yet again scored a 34 in verbal with 47% correct SC and 60% correct CR and RC 

in 2 nd MGMAT i scored 35 in verbal with 70% SC , 45% CR and 55% RC.

in my normal practice other then the exams i always have 80% or better hit rate in CR and 70 - 85% hit rate with SC and i have never practiced RC.

but my results are so varied that i cant corner out my weak area, so i am pretty confused. 

Also, this is my 4th week of GMAT preparation and although i havent taken a date till now i intend to sit for it in 2nd week of sep. 

i think i will give a Gmatprep exam this weekend to really access my current status.

kidderek · Answer

I found the PR scores to be quite accurate, not necessarily the questions, but the scores.

I found the quant questions to be very easy. I used to finish the entire section in half an hour. But they punished you for an incorrect answer. I would finish with a 50 when I only had 3 questions wrong.

The verbal questions are more on par with the real thing. 

Of course, don't forget that GMATPrep is GOLDEN.

empty_spaces · Answer

yea princeton Quan is definitely very easy, i got 46 with 4 wrong (all silly stupid mistakes) maybe because i gave the exam at 1 in the night.

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