Mapping Economist Simulated Test Score to Actual GMAT

I feel the Quant section (both PS and DS) is a little more logic driven and less calculation intensive than the real GMAT; therefore, the difficulty level, compared with the GMAT, will be largely dependent on how comfortable you are between applying logic, breaking down complicated statements to simpler equations, and doing hard core calculation intensive maths. The Verbal section is a little bit more difficult than the real thing - RC is way harder while CR and SC are closer, but still harder, to the real GMAT. How the test scores apply to the real GMAT is something I will probably be able to guess in a few weeks time after I take the real GMAT.

I agree with you on both counts. I found the quant to be a tad easier than what i am normally used to on the manhattan/kaplan/Gmatclub 700 material.

Verbal was just brutal especially the RC. This was the first passage i got (by-identifying-stable-isotopes-of-carbon-12-in-human-tissue-155938.html) and i got all of them wrong. This was the first CAT i did and am wondering how to read the Q50, V41 score (Missed the last 3 ones on Q since i ran out of time). Please do post once you do take the real GMAT.

Any feed backs about the course.

I am looking it as an option.

Plz Advise !

Rgds,
TGC!

i took this test today.

score: 750 (q50/v44)

quant:(13 wrong)
few questions were really good but didnt felt that it was adaptive ..
with 13 wrong and score 50 it was little weird.
overall i will say its a good practice.

verbal:(16 wrong):
the questions i felt were really good and test also has some good passages.
verbal i will say almost level of gmat prep .
again with 16 wrong and getting a score of 44 is little awkward.

pros:
=good question bank overall.
=userfriendly site.
=great explanation in the end with some good strategies.

cons:
=scoring pattern not accurate.(IMO deduct 50 from your score to judge your level)
=explanation for few questions were missing.
=few of the questions are already out their in the forum.

hope it helps

Whoa!! 50 points deduction? I think you are underestimating your abilities. I scored a 750 on GMAT Prep was able to hit only 710 on the Economist.

I got 530 as an over all score.

Q 44 V 20

Total Wrong in Q - 16 Though I ran out of time in last 5 question - all of them are incorrect.
Total Wrong in V - 17 Though I finished it well before the time - couple of minutes earlier.
I got 8 question wrong in RC.

Well I found the scoring is bit weird with economist CAT.

Anyone any thoughts about it??

Hi Transcendentalist,

I took the Economist GMAT test last night, and got the same score as you. Looks like we're scoring fairly similar. Below are the scores of the practice tests I've taken. I still plan on taking the rest of my Kaplans (got 3 more) plus the offical GMATprep ones before I take my exam, which I'm planning to schedule sometime in October. Mind if you share what you get on the GMATs? Thanks!

8/27, Kaplan 1 - 710, Q51, V29
9/14, Kaplan 2 - 750, Q51, V33
9/17, Manhattan - 690, Q48, V36
9/21, Economist - 730, Q50, V41

Does anyone have more insights to it? Let us get more data on this test so that people can ascertain that whether the Economist GMAT test is gaining popularity just because of the fairly easy questions, compared with those in MGMAT, Kaplan and to an extent in GMAT Prep, that people get, and subsequently the score in the 700s or because of some other factors. I think that it is fairly conceivable to deduct around 20-30 points from the score that you get on this test as the AWA and IR are missing.

Any thoughts?

I used Econ GMAT course. I'm taking the test on Wednesday. Will let you know.


For now, practice tests:

Econ Gmat
740 (Q50 V42)
730 (Q50 V41)

Gmat Prep
740 (Q49 V43)
760 (Q49 V46)


Again, the real thing is in a couple days so I'll post an update in the debrief if not here.

I think it is grossly over estimating scores.
I started preparing for gmat just two weeks back.
740;(50/42)
The reason why i say it is inflated coz i left last 8 questions and it marked everything as wrong n still gave me 740. No chance.

Need to improve my timing

I agree. It should not have given you 52 on verbal with 8 unanswered. Per GMAC, you lose about 3 percentile points per unanswered question so the highest you could get in verbal would have been 76th percentile, not 42.


Posted from my mobile device.

This update is in response to Kvazar's request. Thanks for holding me accountable buddy.

Econ Gmat
740 (Q50 V42)
730 (Q50 V41)

Gmat Prep
740 (Q49 V43)
760 (Q49 V46)

ACTUAL GMAT
740 (Q48 V44)

In my view, the econ gmat is weak in math and strong in verbal. If you are scoring a say, V42 the Econ GMAT tests, then I think you can be fairly confident in that prediction. The course provides a very cut and dry (and f***ing fast) method of dissecting SC. CR and RC questions were more difficult than I encountered in the real GMAT, by a long shot, which drove me crazy at first, but I appreciated later.

Quant: Don't rely on those Econ tests for an accurate depiction. The course material is one thing: it will help you develop structured ways to solve different types of problems (lots of overlapping set, work/rate, combinations, and probability toward the end of the course), HOWEVER, IMO it will not get you to 50. I would have scored a 49 if not for the fact that I couldn't sleep at all the night before, but the material in Econ GMAT wasn't very challenging by the end.

I would suggest paying for the GMAT CLUB TESTS to improve your quant. I wish I had utilized that resource earlier. I would strongly suggest going through the tests UNTIMED, checking your answers and reading explanations as you go. Instead of trying to force your time into a 2min avg window, work on improving your time in general. For example, my first gmatclub quant test untimed I got a Q41 at about 6.5 minutes a question. By the night before my test, I scored a Q51 at about 3.25 mins per question, with a steady trend downwards in time over several tests.

I have two regrets guys:

1. Not getting my hands on the GMAT CLUB tests sooner (I only had a week with them)
2. Not being able to sleep the night before the test

Short and skinny:

ECON GMAT COURSE
Verbal - kickass and awesome
Quant - builds great foundation but did not improve my score like the verbal did
Overall: Coursework Builds VERY useful foundations and will give methods to make short order of problems and improve test time.

GMATCLUB Tests
quant - kickass and awesome. and fun. come rack your brain on these problems.
verbal - super tough and good practice.
IMO you need decent fundamentals and structured approaches to different problem types in order to fully utilize these tests.


I will post an ACTUAL debrief and an ACTUAL review of the resources used. THis one is for Kvazar, since he asked.

Thank you! Appreciate this very much, as I wrote before, the Economist GMAT reviews are very polar and it's diffucult to understand if it really help, or it's better to use some other resources. Hope more people will leave feedbacks for products other than top-3 on the market.
Will wait for your debrief!

Hi,
A good thing is to re register and take the test, i got 99% different qs!!!:)


Btw if i had twelve questions wrong in Verbal, can i assume 36? I know it is adaptive but sort of approximation?

Hey i got 510 score in Economist

verbal ( 29) with 13 wrong
Quant - 33 with 12 wrong
i dont noe how to take it .

Interesting, because I tried Economist mock this morning and I got a 650. The break-down was 48 in quant and 32 in verbal. The funny thing is that I missed only 8 questions in verbal (no stripes of incorrect answers at all!) ---> I was doing really well in the exam with a number of bold-face, complete the argument, long science passage, full underlined SC's and all the funky things you see when reaching the +700 level. Also, I tried the free Kaplan CAT1 last Friday and I got a 740... I think this test was just a shout to devastate my morale...

Hi everyone

Since we're on the topic of practice tests, I just wanted to share some insight about Economist GMAT Tutor's simulation exams and scoring.

A score can dip from one exam to another even with the same amount of knowledge ot the same percentage of correct/incorrect. The GMAT scoring algorithm takes many factors into account including where you make errors (eg making mistakes on 'graded' versus experimental questions, or the 'weight' of the question itself etc), how many mistakes you commit in a row, whether you finish both sections or leave questions out, whether the last few questions of either section seemed like they were guessed at (ie did you spend only a few seconds on the last few questions as opposed to the full time you should have), how you felt on test day - these can all affect score.

From one test to the next you can easily jump +/- 30 points (and even up to 80 or so) depending on where the mistakes are. So you can get the same percentage of right and wrong on two exams with the same amount of knowledge and yet have a score that differs by quite a bit. This is the same as the real GMAT. To illustrate, I can make a mistake every other question in the Quant over 5 exams (ie in every exam my percentage is 50% but have a score range from, say, a 15 to a 35, for example, which is quite insane, but it shows too that where you make mistakes can often be more important than how many. Overall, when a student wants to know where he/she stands, the best way to do so is to take the average after a few exams. This should get you to a fairly close estimation of where you are at.

It is possible that one exam may be off just because of where you made your mistakes rather than how many. But in general, our students tend to score within about +/- 30 points or so from what they get on our tests and the GMAT test preps.

Hope this helps!