How to use GMAT Club Tests [Suggestions]

Question

How to Best Use GMAT Club Tests

Several new members have asked me this question recently and I wanted to address it with a comprehensive post. The goal of this topic is to maximize the time and value of the GMAT Club tests to make sure you take advantage of all of the features and also fit them best into your strategy for the maximum impact. Welcome your questions and suggestions about the best use of GMAT Club tests (or tests in general).

What are GMAT Club Tests?

The tests were created by a number of Moderators and Quant experts, including myself and Bunuel, over the years. As we have prepared for the GMAT and fell for various traps, we realized that it would be great to create a question or two that would illustrate those traps. Think about devious things - such as making sure you plugged -1/2 as an option or stumping you with a question pattern you have never seen before. The goal of the tests is to avoid a lot (but not all) of the simple and easy questions and jump straight to the interesting stuff. We also continuously improve these questions - we have feedback mechanisms built into explanations where users can flag them, improve the explanation, or bring a technical issue to our attention. Out of 1,500+ questions, about 3/4 are quant and only about 380 are verbal. All of these questions are unique, written by us, and generally harder (do not get surprised if you miss 10 and still get a Q49 score - the algorithm compensates for extra difficulty). These are not licensed, copied, or in any way copied questions - they are original.

What can you do with the Tests?

We call these GMAT Club tests and more accurately, we could probably call them GMAT Club Questions since you can take them in many forms:

You can take these as CAT tests, obviously. The tests are adaptive (we use our own proprietary algorithm) and they are built to simulate the GMAT experience where test difficulty will change and jump around due to the experimental questions used on the real GMAT. The quant algorithm and scoring is very accurate (verbal is less so since the database of questions is small and verbal is harder to gauge in general). We evaluate the algorithm based on the comparison of user results in our tests and their final official scores (from debriefs, reviews, and other verifiable sources). We have found the results for quant to be very accurate for scores above Q40 (the lower ones we don't have as much data).
Quizzes- you can custom built a quiz based on the topic, difficulty, or previous attempts. Thus you can take questions from DS Geometry for example that are 700+ level OR you can take PS Arithmetic that you answered wrong OR CR Weaken that took you more than 3 minutes to solve (whether answered correctly or incorrectly). The quizzes are a great way to refresh, review, and keep an error log. Important note: the "Incorrect" trigger is based on your latest attempt/result, so if you have taken 1 question 4 times and answered it I, I, I, C, the system will consider this question to be answered Correctly. If you want to keep a question in your error log even after you answered it correctly, you can use one of the options below or just answer it incorrectly later.
Collections- you can create your own question collections or browse and attempt those created by other members such as Bunuel or Myself - Tricky DS questions or Hardest CR questions. This tool is useful if you want to build custom practice sets for yourself.
Practice Mode - tests support what's called a "practice mode" where your practice is timed but not limited by the timer (your test or quiz won't be terminated when you get to 0 mins left). This mode also allows you to check explanation/question answer as you move through the test or quiz. You will receive a score even in the practice mode - the accuracy of the result will depend on you. Tests or quizzes taken in practice mode are clearly identified/marked.
Error Log- whether you are taking tests or quizzes, you can mark questions in 3 ways: bookmarks, notes, and guesses. The quiz system has an option to filter questions based on these parameters and it is a quick and automatic way to segment or split up your previously attempted questions for a later review. Here is a screenshot of the quiz page with various options:

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When Should You Take/Use Questions?

Unlike with GMAT Prep, you actually get quite a few CAT's, and Quizzes allow you to use up all of the questions as you need them.

If you have not taken your first GMAT Practice test yet, then I would suggest you do, at least the quant one and use it to check your starting score
In the middle of your prep, I would recommend focusing on quizzes and using them to work on each area/topic as you go through your books or a course. Please make sure you don't exhaust questions of a particular topic completely as that will limit the number of CATs you can take - the question database is shared between Quizzes and Tests. You can refer to the CAT page that will recalculate the number of remaining CATs based on your attempted questions.
Throughout your prep, you should be working on your mistakes - organize them, track them, and make sure you won't make the same mistake if you see a similar question on your test (chances are you will).
If you are coming to the end of your prep, start taking CAT's and doing reviews of your results (more on that below)

How is question difficulty determined?

The difficulty is determined by the collective user practice results. For example of more than 75% of users make a mistake on a question or take more than 2 mins to answer the question correctly, we identify it as a harder question (the actual algorithm is more complex). However, the difficulty is constantly updated, tweaked, and refreshed based on the attempts of the questions.

How to Review Tests

There are a few ways you can analyze your test performance. Including just test analysis and quiz analysis areas in My Performance as well as my favorite (screenshot below) - Best & Worst. You can also find some useful stats if you take a look at the Analysis by Time.

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Are there any Official Guide or GMAT Prep Questions in the GMAT Club Tests?

I don't know why but we get this question at least weekly. The answer is short - "NO". There is no OG or GMAT Prep Questions in the GMAT Club tests - neither copies, "cousins" or anything that would compromise your scoring on the GMAT Prep. Hope this is clear enough.

Senthil7 · Answer

Great post! I was about to send a PM on this to you but eventually saw your post on exactly the same questions I wanted to ask!

felippemed · Answer

Great post,  bb

I'd like to suggest to include a link from explanations to the excellent preparation material you compiled and made available to us - not only the answer explanation.

Perhaps, some answers, especially from the moderators, are far more efficient and out-of-box than our "simple mortals" answers. Learning to think and respond as a test preparer would significantly improve our ability to reach extra miles or actually teach us the "right-way" to think it.

bb · Answer

Thank you. I just added some review suggestions. Will continue updating this topic. Also wanted to mention that we are working on bringing forum discussions into the test interface. Currently we have a dedicated forum discussion for every question - linked at the bottom but it seems not everyone finds it, so we will be displaying the full discussion within tests. Screenshot to the link is below.

You will be able to see the discussion and alternative explanations by other moderators and members (thank you) without leaving the question. You can also post your questions without leaving the Tests area. This is coming in a few weeks.

In regards to the materials - what do you have in mind Link to what would you be looking for? Something from our math book or link to more questions for practice or ? Can you give an example, in case of fractions or DS geometry - where would you find it helpful to be linking to?

Best Regards
BB

felippemed · Answer

Hello bb , I always appreciate your openness to new ideas, which makes this forum the most excellent place to reach greater scores. You got the idea right. For people like me, who didn't have any math background, the explanations from the moderators are far too "straightforward" sometimes. For instance, in this question, someone would present a 10 secs formulaic approach - which is nice for the GMAT purpose - but for people like me who is still climbing the mountain can be overwhelming and many times incomprehensible. Then, "linking it" to the math book, to the basics, would shine a light on it and increase the capability of understanding for everyone. Democratically. :-D

Of course, I reckon that problem like the one you presented require more than one knowledge to solve it. In this specific question, we must understand "absolute values" also. So, multiple links, ranked from the primary to the least needed knowledge to respond the questions would be extremely helpful - at least for mortals like myself.

bb · Answer

We have just added a new feature - Forum Discussion is visible in the question explanations in its entirety.

We have always offered a link to a question discussion but it was not always very visible - now we are going a step further and bringing in the entire discussion of the topic into the explanation area of the question (explanations are visible after you take the question OR if you are taking the test in study mode). Please note that some questions have no comments (there is a discussion topic dedicated to the question but it has not received additional comments from users) in this case, you will not see any discussion and only a button to post your question/reply/comment.

Welcome your other ideas/questions/suggestions for the GMAT Club Tests.

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Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Pretty good feature  bb . It will be helpful to have a look at forum discussions along with official explanation.

Senthil7 · Answer

Good feature man really appreciate it seeing the solutions and discussion in the same window!

bb · Answer

We have added some additional features to the GMAT Club Tests - you now have an ability to print out/download all of your notes.

Just click the  Download Notes  button on the "With Notes" page

felippemed · Answer

nice job!

One good thing to do would be a "test mode" for simple selections from the Forum

ENEM · Answer

Hi  bb ,

I currently have 176 points out of which 76 are redeemable...will I be able to extend my gmatclub tests subscription with these points? If yes, for how long?

Will I still have access to my data of questions I answered incorrectly after I renew/buy the tests? I have a premium subscription.

bb · Answer

You can find all that information in the  Rewards Area 
45 points gets you 2 weeks...

ENEM · Answer

thank you for replying  bb  ...I did check the rewards section but I couldn't find the answer to my doubt, 
"Will I still have access to my data of questions I answered incorrectly after I renew/buy the tests?" Sorry for the trouble.

bb · Answer

No worries. Your question is not clear really. I will attempt to answer it. You will have access to questions past or future after you get access to the tests. You will not have access to questions past or future after you subscription expires.

RussianWinters · Answer

Hi bb,

Thoroughly enjoying the CATs, however, the export to PDF (notes or the whole thing) isn't working. It throws an error. I have attached a snapshot.

Thanks

bb · Answer

Thank you for reporting this - this is unusual. I will have the developers look into it ASAP.

RussianWinters · Answer

Thanks for your quick revert bb.

BTW Excel feature works absolutely fine.

bb · Answer

Hi. This has been fixed on Saturday - not sure if you tried but i just heard that it has/supposed to be fixed. Can you try please?
Thank you.

RussianWinters · Answer

Hi bb,

Working like a charm. The Export Notes functionality is immensely helpful.

Thank you for your quick turnaround.

rperaalv · Answer

Hi  bb  ! Somehow I clicked on the botton "Finish test" while doing my test, so the final result appeared in the screen. It has happened to me a couple times, and is really anoying because I cant go back to the test to finish it and as a result I have less tests to do (from the 27 I initially bought). Is there any way I can go back to finish the tests?

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