Kaplan Practice tests Vs. Kaplan quizzes

Question

So I'm scheduled to take the GMAT in about a month. Been studying for about two months now and have taken several GMAT CAT tests (from Kaplan and GMAT prep) and paper tests. I also have some study materials from Kaplan and TPR, though I have not taken any of their classes. I've noticed a trend though.

I'm doing quite well on the Kaplan practice quizzes right now. Consistently scoring at least 80%. I scored 19/20 on a practice Data Sufficiency quiz this week, and went into my 2nd Kaplan CAT with high hopes. When I finished though, I had a total score of 540. Have other people noticed such a huge difference in the difficulty of Kaplan practice quizzes vs. their CAT tests? And how difficult is the GMAT is relation to that?

KapTeacherEli · Answer

Hi Pollux,

Sorry that you're feeling nervous about your practice test scores. I'm happy to help, but I'm not exactly sure how; which Kaplan quizzes are you referring to?

In our GMAT Advantage course, our quizzes are actually organized by difficulty, with low, medium, and high difficulty questions sorted out for you. Thus, it's hard to compare their difficulty to that of our adaptive tests. Are those the quizzes that you're referring to? If not, let me know and I'll do my best to clarify!

Pollux · Answer

Actually I've been using the GMAT Premier 2011 book with CD-ROM. The practice quizzes on the CD are what I'm referring to.

KapTeacherEli · Answer

All right, I'm not to familiar with those. I know that, when you review the answers to a Kaplan advantage course, the individual questions are labeled by their difficulty. Take a look at the quiz explanations and see if you can locate the difficulty markers. Failing that, contact our customer service line for books, booksupport@kaplan.com, and I'm sure they'll have a better sense than I do about the relative difficulty of the quizzes. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance!

jb2010 · Answer

Just a word of caution. you may score 20/20 in practice if all questions are of your difficult level. CAT is adaptive, in the sense that it adapts to your level, and gives you higher difficulty questions. In my GMATPrep CAT, more than 10 out of 37 were incorrect, and still my score was Q50! The reason is that I was facing difficult questions. So my advice, go for CAT if you want to assess your level. Practice is just for practice, and use it for making sure your fundamentals are strong.

djchrisw · Answer

I am experiencing similar issues scoring at least 50% on Kaplan quizes classified as hard but much lower on medium questions on the CATs.

KapTeacherEli · Answer

What's your timing like on these quizzes? This may not apply to you, but when I see this pattern in my students, my first suspicion is that they are devoting 100% of their effort to the hard problems while getting complacent and rushing through the ones they think are easy. This is understandable--if you're aiming for an elite score, then the adaptive test means you'll see a lot of high difficulty questions! But you need to consistently ace those first ten or so medium-to-low difficulty questions to get to the tough ones, first.

I hope this helps. If not, please feel free to share more of your experiences, and maybe I'll be able to get a better picture of what's going on. Either way, keep on studying!

djchrisw · Answer

It is not a timing issue. After going through my latest CAT I realize that during my practice quizzes I have not been adding enough data sufficiency questions.

While I tend to do reasonably well on PS questions, the DS questions are really the source of my lower scores on the CATs.

Having narrowed down the problem at least I have more direction for my study this week!

Thanks!

hemanthp · Answer

Eli, how are the quizzes named after some colors - orange, violet, seafoam, syracause (or something?). I will take them if they have challenging questions (more on verbal would be useful).

Thank you.

djchrisw · Answer

What are these coloured quizzes you are refering to?

I could go for some seafoam.....

hemanthp · Answer

In the online account (which comes along with the Kaplan premier book) has some of these quizzes.

KapTeacherEli · Answer

Haven't got a clue! :-)

Try booksupport@kaplan.com for this one.

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Kaplan Practice tests Vs. Kaplan quizzes

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