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30 Jul 2019, 06:40
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I have been preparing to take the GMAT since February 19. I started with Kaplan, tutoring with a class. I saw a lot of success in that program as alot of the content was very unfamiliar at the time( refreshing on quant). I took a practice test in May and scored a 550 (330 diagnostic). I was not disappointed as I was 100 points of my goal. Immediately following that test, I transitioned to the Official GMAT guide question bank and answered questions that were exclusively from that format. I will say that it was an adjustment going from Kaplan to OG as the questions were just very different in complexity/nuance. For that matter last two months have been focused on getting really familiar. I just took a practice test from adaptive OG test and I scored a 360. I am concerned that its significantly lower than my past performance, but I am somewhat encouraged about at least being able to know i have experience dealing with OG questions in their respective formats. My question for the community is it common to drop when switching from Kalplan to the OG.
30 Jul 2019, 08:34
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SamVPong - It is not uncommon to see a drop in practice scores from one company's tests to those of another. As you mentioned, you went through a Kaplan course, felt comfortable with Kaplan-style questions, and then performed reasonably well, in your own estimation, on the Kaplan test. When you switched to the OG, sure, it might have proved a little rocky at first. I guess I find myself wondering how much practice you got from those OG questions before you decided to take your first official Practice Test. If two months had passed, for instance, then that is a lot of time during which you should have been ironing out some of those differences. If, on the other hand, it was more like a week or two, and you had not spent too much time practicing official questions, then you might have simply jumped in too quickly by taking the Practice Test.
I do not wish to alarm or discourage you. At the same time, a nearly 200-point difference is significant enough to warrant a closer look at how you have been preparing with official questions and which types of questions you tend to miss more frequently. This is to say that a little variation in scores from one practice test to another can be expected, particularly when different source material is used; a 100-point difference or greater suggests that there are probably other issues besides formatting. I am glad to hear you are encouraged. You need to maintain that drive the deeper you delve into the complexities and nuances, as you put it, of OG questions. You might want to start building practice sets of different types of questions to see whether you are more error-prone in certain sections (DS is a common one, as well as CR). I would advise starting small, maybe a mixed set of 10 questions (some Easy, some Medium, and maybe one or two Hard). Once you get used to that load, if you start to see an improvement on a consistent basis, then you are probably getting better at handling official questions; if you seem to keep making the same number of mistakes, and especially if you do not understand what makes the incorrect answers incorrect, then it might be time to seek outside help, whether with a study buddy or another test prep company or tutor.
Good luck with your studies. Keep at it!
- Andrew
I do not wish to alarm or discourage you. At the same time, a nearly 200-point difference is significant enough to warrant a closer look at how you have been preparing with official questions and which types of questions you tend to miss more frequently. This is to say that a little variation in scores from one practice test to another can be expected, particularly when different source material is used; a 100-point difference or greater suggests that there are probably other issues besides formatting. I am glad to hear you are encouraged. You need to maintain that drive the deeper you delve into the complexities and nuances, as you put it, of OG questions. You might want to start building practice sets of different types of questions to see whether you are more error-prone in certain sections (DS is a common one, as well as CR). I would advise starting small, maybe a mixed set of 10 questions (some Easy, some Medium, and maybe one or two Hard). Once you get used to that load, if you start to see an improvement on a consistent basis, then you are probably getting better at handling official questions; if you seem to keep making the same number of mistakes, and especially if you do not understand what makes the incorrect answers incorrect, then it might be time to seek outside help, whether with a study buddy or another test prep company or tutor.
Good luck with your studies. Keep at it!
- Andrew
30 Jul 2019, 08:56
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Thanks for that. I agree and is kinda of where I am at with this. I am most likely going to reschedule the test for Sept to give me time to comb through the OG. I have been answering questions from the OG test bank and done over 600+. Month of June was strictly verbal and this month has been strictly quant. I regret doing that many because I did not allow myself to really understand that mechanics of the question versus reviewing questions holistically. So, I am hoping that with an additional 30 days to really breakdown all areas I can improve. Do you have any suggestions.
