Has anyone taken the Veritas Prep's GMAT Simulator CAT exams

Hi!

This is my first post to the GMAT club forum--

I have been studying since Fall 2009 for the GMAT and I went into this really nervous as I am not a good standardized test taker...I got a 1250 on my SATs back in the day but pulled a 4.0 in the first 2 years at Carnegie Mellon (my Dean actually told me that according to CMU's chart, they anticipated my first year GPA to actually be more like a 3.0 or slightly less, never knew they had such a thing to analyze students when they first enter college!)

I've always thought my Quant was the super weak side but it appears that its slightly stronger than my Verbal though sometimes they're also just even!

Anyhow, here are my stats so far:

Asian
Female
28 (just turned 28
Carnegie Mellon University Undergrad: Double Major History Policy & International Relations with a Chinese Minor
3.83 GPA
Target Schools: USC, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and Wharton (though that's a crazy thought at the moment with my GMAT)


December 14th, 2009: GMAT 560 29V/38Q

(felt super disappointed as I had hoped for a 600 at least and I had been going thru the Manhattan GMAT books on my own and OG problems and practice tests and I THINK I had been scoring roughly 620s in the MGMAT practice tests and the GMAT Prep Tests)

regrouped, got a private tutor, studied with her twice a week for 3 hours at a time trying to ensure I knew my math/number properties in and out but I think her math wasn't as strong as I had hoped and there were times I figured stuff out before she did =(
and often times, for Verbal, she just said she didn't know how to explain why the correct SC answer was better than the 2nd best one

Along the way though, I took more practice tests (but I dont know if the practice paper tests from GMAT were not good practice tests as they have different structure, different timing and also it goes from easy to hard which I think makes it easier for me anyhow since I feel "eased" into the problems

I also have a tendency to hold onto a problem even if itstoo hard or too much time has passed, especially the initial 5-10 math ones I encounter, I feel like I freeze, but with the official GMAT paper tests, I felt much more at ease since the first 5 are usually pretty easy for each math section

Has anyone else found it helpful to use the GMAT official paper tests from before or just skip those completely?

2/11/10 Paper Test 14 660 37V/45Q

2/17/10 Paper Test 31 650 36V/44Q

2/22/10 Manhattan GMAT CAT#6 690 39V/45Q

2/24/10 Paper Test 28 670 38V/44Q

3/2/10 Paper Test 42 680 42V/42Q

3/6/10 GMAT Prep #1 690 40V/44Q

3/13/10 GMAT Prep #2 670 38V/44Q


AND THEN

March 15th, 2010: GMAT 560 36V/32Q
I was stunned by this setback, especially such a huge drop in math

I couldn't even tell it was going so badly as I seem to be a very bad gauge of how these tests are going...sometimes I have felt like quitting while taking my practice tests just cos I felt so frustrated with not knowing how to do some of the (so many in my head) math problems and I feel like I can't focus on the Verbal section...but I always pushed through and all those times I atleast scored above 650!

THis time during the actual GMAT (actually both times in December and in March most recently) I felt calm I thought, I didn't feel like I did amazing--since I dont think I could be THAT confident or I may jinx myself LOL...but each time the score floored me.

Anyhow, I enrolled in the Veritas Prep course on Tue/Thursdays in the Tysons, VA area and am wondering if anyone has any tips...I was on a pretty rigorous practice test-taking schedule before and doing many problems...and now I'm trying to focus my energy on areas I need more work in (knowing number properties IN AND OUT AND mixed with other types of problems, rate problems and sentence correction)

I've read many stories of people improving by leaps and bounds and that really has helped me keep my head up...



Also curious if anyone else has had experiences with Veritas Prep that they would like to share...and how accurate the Veritas Prep's GMAT Simulator CAT exams are???

I am taking my first GMAT practice test since my March 15th disaster...doing it on the Veritas Prep GMAT Simulator CAT exam #1 but would like to know how other people thought about the test itself and how it compared with their experiences in MGMAT and GMAT Prep etc