GMATNinja wrote:
On average, the Kaplan CATs seem to be harder than the actual GMAT, and most people score somewhat lower on Kaplan tests than on the GMATPrep or the actual tests. But you may or may not be "average."
It isn't strange at all for Kaplan tests to overstate your scores, depending on your exact strengths and weaknesses.
I think its always best to avoid taking your practice test scores too seriously, unless you're doing the GMATPrep. I would argue that the
MGMAT tests tend to be more accurate than the Kaplan tests on average... but again, you might not be "average," and the
MGMAT tests might wildly understate or overstate your actual skills.
The GMAT is a really complicated test, and the exact scoring algorithm is a closely guarded secret. Tests from Kaplan or
MGMAT represent a sincere effort by very brilliant people to reverse-engineer the GMAT... but they aren't the actual test, and in some ways, they aren't even close.
I know that it's really hard to accept this advice, but try not to freak out about your Kaplan or
MGMAT practice test scores--they don't always mean exactly what they seem to mean. Analyze your errors carefully, take a critical look at your timing habits, and try to squeeze every bit of wisdom you possibly can out of your practice tests. But don't be too shocked if your Kaplan (or
MGMAT or PR or Veritas) test results don't ultimately match your GMATPrep or actual GMAT scores. They're great practice, but they're rarely going to offer a perfect indication of your GMAT skills.
I agree . In my case, Quant is a weakness, and i have worked hard enough to a point where i am getting very close to the 80th percentile mark on GMAT PREP. When i took the
MGMAT for the first time i was completely blown away (and as i found out i was not the first one to feel like this) with the timing on quant and managed to only finish around 28 questions before having to resort to random guessing on the last 9 or ten. I scored a dismal 40 because of this mistake. My Verbal score was around 38 which probably also suffered because i was so burned out with the quant section. When i took it for the second time (The Second CAT) i was moving faster then the first time, but had to pick and choose the questions i wanted to really go at hard ( the few questions where the extra 10-30 seconds may make the difference) so even though i finished the section i was moving way faster then i would have liked. I ended up scoring a 42, a slightly better performance but again i was not able to spend the ammount of time per question that i would have liked. The verbal score was around the same for me as in the first test. As a result i scored a 650 overall on both. A few freinds who are a part of my study group also took the
MGMAT but because they were scoring around Q50-Q51 they did not find the quant on
MGMAT CAT as brutual and were able to get around a Q47-48 even though they were too pressed for time. Their score overall was just a tad bit lower when compared to GMAT PREP. So with
MGMAT I feel that if you are very good in quant (Around Q50 for GMAT PREP) you can still do reasonably well , however if your strenght is Verbal and you just about manage 46-47 in quant in GMAT PREP the
MGMAT Quant will seem to be quite a bit of a "step up" primarily with timing.
Kaplan gave me a dismal Verbal score (translated to something like a V31 or 32) but this was at a back of a busy day and some study so i do not know whether i actually did poorly on the test, but i do recall that the CR seemed ambiguous and that is what lowered my score in V ( I got 100% accuracy in
MGMAT CAT 1 CR, and only missed a few CR questions on the CAT 2). On the flip side, quant score was the best i have had so far in my prep (85th percentile)...So my overall score was same as
MGMAT 650, and a full 50-70 points lower when compared to my last 2 GMAT PREP scores (both tests for the first time) that i took just 15 days earlier.
close
19 Aug 2012, 14:53
If nothing works, i'm going on have to sign up with either Manhattan or Knewton. 
