How accurate are the GMAT club tests?

I took the Gmatclub Free tests (Quant and Verbal) yesterday. I scored 99 percentile in Both (V47 and Q47 or something more than that ). Now, being into the preparation for around 1.5 months, scoring something like that took me by surprise! I really want to know, whether the free Test standards are similar to the GmatClub actual test series or the free ones are a lot easier!!

Dear Club members

I gave GMATClub Verbal test yesterday and scored V39(90%). I solved 32 ques correctly out of 41.
I would like to know how accurate GMATClub test scoring is?

The only hurdle between me and my success is verbal. 3 weeks prior to GMATClub test I scored V31 in MGMAT test. Later I revised my basics, solved good number of problems and gave GMATClub test.
Kindly suggest some good tests to judge my current level.

Every test company has a different scoring algorithm, GC tests are very hard, adaptive and accurate. I suggest taking gmat prep mock.

This is an old thread but FYI for the guys coming through here:

The FREE GMATClub test is not adaptive. The Adaptive GMAT tests are the real deal and they are incredibly difficult: same principles, just much, much trickier. I just bought a subscription and had I known they were this tricky I would have done so months ago. Good luck.

Nope, this is not a old thread and started after the launching of New adaptive gmat tests.

This is a pretty old conversation and we have upgraded the tests twice (GUI, Algorithm, and Questions too) since this has taken place.

Here is what I can share as of July 2016:
1. The quant algorithm is extremely accurate. No, we do not know the official GMAT Algorithm (nobody does) and no we do not have the official questions, and yes, our questions are harder, so you can have more mistakes - seems like this would be a recipe for disaster for evaluating user ability. Kind of - it definitely would if we did not have Bunuel and user feedback. Bunuel has been involved in the last few algorithm revisions and helped building and tweaking it. We use a correlation method to adjust our algorithm based on the GMAT scores that users get and report back to us. This is an automated process that runs every few months. Each test score goes through a 4-stage grading process to ensure the score is most accurate, and it almost always is.

2. We have also made our free tests into CAT's as of March 2016. Previously these were fixed-question non-adaptive tests. Currently they are adaptive and use the same scoring algorithm as the paid tests.

3. Verbal algorithm has gotten an overhaul in March 2016 to improve accuracy. It was having challenges with accuracy due to a smaller verbal question database. We have modified the algorithm to be meaningfully different from Quant and as the result it is more accurate now.... though still not as accurate as quant.

4. You can see/read some of the anecdotal feedback/reviews from users on accuracy of the tests based on the reviews:
https://gmatclub.com/reviews/comments/gm ... -345351466
https://gmatclub.com/reviews/comments/gm ... -345351397
You can see all of the reviews here: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/tests-gmat- ... -345345662


Let me know if you have any questions about the scoring results.
BB

I think instead of worrying about the algorithm our times are better spent in actually practicing the GMATCLUB tests in either Quiz Mode or Study mode in sets of 37 questions per session across all difficulties. An ideal way to practice would be to solve20 random Qs from OG, then a set of 20-30 Qs from GMATCLUB Quant tests. This would put anyone into the Quant section sway so that no one gets into hiccups!
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Whatever the algorithm is like EmpowerGMATRich and VeritasPrep Ravi Sreerama say, the test day is an independent event so let us not stress too much on the scores instead let us spend the valuable subscription we have for the money spent towards checking our proficiency and learning from mistakes!

They are not adaptive . Remember reading it somewhere

Yes.... they were not adaptive until 2012, so at some point that statement was correct. After June 2012 that statement is wrong. GMAT Club tests are adaptive in fact.
GMAT Club tests have been CAT (adaptive) for 4 years now and they have gone through 2 major algorithm revisions and numerous tweaks.

BB

Oops. Thanks for correcting me bb

i had scored 660 on the GMAT prep software in the 1st free mock before any prep , whereas here after preparing I have only scored 550 in the GMAT club CAT..very demoralising...has anyone faced something similar or am I doing something grossly wrong.. im too worried

Hi dandiv1989,

There are a variety of factors that can impact how you perform on a practice Exam, including the type of Exam, the time of day that you take it, the number of little mistakes (or lucky guesses) you make, etc. Since your message doesn't include much information about how you've been studying, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on your studies so far and your goals. As such, I suggest that you start a new post-thread and include information on the following:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
6) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
7) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich