Anyone taken the 800 score CATs?

Question

I ran out of test material and since i was using manhattan they have 20% discount to 800 score CATs (5 for 20$). I am just curious if anyone used it and if it was helpful? Also, any insight on the questions - rehashed from past questions or new stuff?

thanks!

thanks!

lex21 · Answer

yup. i took a few of them. my experience was that the math was super difficult and somewhat unrealistic -- the hard questions took too long to calculate. but MGMAT is conceptually more difficult and more of an IQ test (more like the real GMAT). the 800score verbal was rather nuanced and especially the reading comp tone questions were somewhat off. the sentence corrections q's were good, and critical reasoning wasn't terrible but again something funky about their logic. Once I got the nuances of the verbal down (learned how they were testing after 2 practice tests) my verbal went from 70% to 99%. shows you how effective their testing technique is ...

the overall scoring for 800score is not very consistent (or maybe I wasn't). my range was 670 to 740 and I didn't see much correlation between content mastery and score improvement.

if you want a more accurate test, I suggest power prep or gmat prep, the actual mba.com tests (old and new). MGMAT is a nice difficult test that should give you a fair idea within 30 points how you're doing. the math is purposefully more difficult than what you'll find on the real thing. verbal is pretty accurate, except very catered to the tricks they teach you, so you'll see some score inflation there. just make sure your SC is 100% solid -- no reason to miss any of those, even for non-english speakers. it's like basic math.

if you've used up all your MGMAT / Gmat Prep tests, try Princeton Review. You can get 5 tests for $40 and the verbal is exceptionally accurate. Math is a bit too easy but they score harder to compensate. I scored 690-740 on these tests.

i just recommend you stay away from kaplan. i took one of their practice tests, got a 620. i missed 5 questions total between the two sections. they were trying to scare me into taking their course (free diagnostic test at kaplan center). they have many many flawed questions and scoring algorithm is wack. took a MGMAT test the next week and got a 740. 
My MGMAT tests went from 550 - 750 over 6 months. My actual GMAT score was 710.

Do a blend of everything, test consistently, get your timing/guessing technique down and stick to it, and when you see an average score (between all tests) in the range you're shooting for or slightly above, take the real thing.

good luck!

shaselai · Answer

thanks for the info. I believe i have the princeton review book you are talking about. i think i will probably just go over the questions i got wrong on from before and brush up on them for the 2 weeks...

anstance5 · Answer

Thanks lex21 -- kudos for some great advice. Will have to bookmark...

gurpreetsingh · Answer

800 quant is very good for concept practice. Questions were good but some of them were lengthy and wont be asked on gmat.

If you have spare time you can use them. but be close to Mgmat tests and closer to gmatprep near your exam.

nonameee · Answer

I've read quite many reviews that Kaplan 800 is not a good book.

LifeChanger · Answer

from what i have read, kaplan 800 doesn't have the 700level questions one looks for when he/she buys this book

nonameee · Answer

Any opinions about the verbal part of the book? I know that quant is easy. But what about verbal?

sjthack · Answer

I used 800 score because of the MGMAT discount. I ended up with exactly the same overall score on the last 3 practice tests and on the actual GMAT...pretty accurate in my case I guess.

jerembo · Answer

Based on what I've read here, it sounds as though the 800score tests are worth $20. Is there a deal that rivals it? (I have Kaplan's, MGMATs, GMAT Preps available to me, too).

Richard0715 · Answer

I just took my first 800 score test. I scored a 650 53% quant and 89% on verbal. My last MGMAT was 56% quant and 34% verbal for a 550. I thought the quant was hard and had very long drawn out calculations. The verbal i thought i bombed, the CR questions were very wordy and tricky. Going through the verbal at the end, i felt like i got lucky with my score especially since i had to guess and move on on a lot of questions. Found it very different from the MGMAT tests. Dont like the way that they show you your math score before you go into the verbal. Its not a great simulation of the real thing.

Do MGMAT over 800 score for sure. I wil do the mba.com ones next to get a real idea where i am. I think my real score now is around 600.

Do MGMAT over 800 score for sure. I wil do the mba.com ones next to get a real idea where i am. I think my real score now is around 600.

honey86 · Answer

Hey,

I have been taking 800Score tests from past few days.
The exam pack was part of my eGMAT verbal online purchase.

I am bit worried about the algorithm that 800Score uses to tune the score. Recently I took few 800Score practice tests. and what I observed in the last test is - On completion of the test, I was prompted with a score Q44 V37, but as I returned to the homepage, the scores got changed Q42 V40.

Quant - Questions level is a mix. I did get some decent quant problems.
Verbal - I think the score is a bit tough to understand. 28 correct responses yielded V40. But, the same number of correct responses yielded V30 in first test of GMATPrep Exam Pack1.

I want to know which practice tests and hence score should I trust and feel confident about.

If anyone thinks can help here, please respond.

Thanks

hamidmax · Answer

Undoubtedly, You should trust GMATprep as it is the best indicator of your real score.However, It doesn`t matter how many correct answers you had in the both exams, it matters how they distributed throughout the exams. I got 28 correct answers in verbal part of 800score as well but my section score was 34.All practice exams can help us to determine our weak points and work on them in addition to learn how to manage answering the questions during the exam. So, in my point of view, don`t be sensitive about your scores at this time and just focus on your exam analyze and put your maximum effort into eliminating your weak points. According to my own experience, all CAT exams such as: Manhattan,800score,Kaplan, and ... have different score algorithms and type of questions.For example in Manhattan CATs I faced 4 RC passages which all had 3 questions, in 800score I encountered 2 RC passages with 4 questions and other 2 RC passages with 3 questions result in 14 questions in comparison with 12 questions in those of Manhattan. Good Luck, PS: If you`ve found my comment useful, giving Kudos is the best ways to say Thank you

bekerman · Answer

I just took the quant section of one of their tests and scored a 45 (29/37 correct), finishing with about 8 minutes to spare. Compared to MGMAT's CATs, I found 800score to be more computationally intensive - I don't think it's that representative of the real GMAT though it might be worth doing just as a quick review. There were a number of problems that made me stop and think, but most were pretty straightforward. So, I wouldn't prioritize taking this, but it's not a waste of time.

DLEmba · Answer

I just took a couple of the 800Score tests. On the first one I got a Q40 because I messed up on the first question... On the last one I got Q46 with 30/37 correct. I only missed 1 in the first 14 (#9), which on any other CAT will generally yield a pretty good Quant score. I have been getting Q50 or 51 on GMATPrep and Veritas tests and a Q49 on my actual GMAT so I would not worry about their scoring. So far, I think they are great practice because very few of the questions have been posted on GMATClub. Just use them for additional practice and take the score with a grain of salt.

mamboe · Answer

I think the tests are pretty decent. Although not an exact indicator of your ability.

RCs are tough to read but with straight forward answers.

CR is little weird and tricky, I don't think they are GMAT like.

SC is decent.

Quant I haven't tried, and I am not planning to try either.

IR is good for practice.

Hope this helps.

TGC · Answer

I think 800score offers a opportunity to work on quant skills.

And CR questions and RC passages are too difficult. However, SC is on a lighter side with sentences not too long or difficult to understand.

I am not sure about scoring algo since I got 27/37 correct in quant and I got Q42/60.

Same applies to VERBAL , I got 30/41 correct and got the score of V33/60.

However, knowing above, I have become a fan of these tests since they boil you down on tough RC's and CR's.

chetansood · Answer

I think there sample test is rubbish, i have given , gmat prep and kaplan test and i scored a Q 49 and Q 50, in fact i gave the real GMAT in 2012 and i scored a Q49 even then. Now I gave this sample test and i got a Q46 despite of the fact I had 30 out of 37 correct, the first incorrect answer was at question number 18.

I think they just want to scare us into buying there tests. Utter rubbish. I would much rather go with MGMAT or after that buy more GMAC tests and and then even kaplan but not these.

Chetan

chetansood · Answer

Dlemba, I got a q46 and my first wrong question was the 18th question !!! . total was 30/37 . Trying these tests close to your actual tests can be a moral breaker.

anujbansal · Answer

I have taken 2 800 score Quant tests and 3 Verbal tests. Here are my scores.

Q1: 49
Q2: 49
V1: 31
V2: 32
V3: 32

The quant level was good and followed MGMAT pattern but I didn't find the verbal section's testing strategy similar to that of MGMAT's. Verbal tests were somewhat off from the actual GMAT test that I gave recently. In all the 3 tests I saw more SC questions (16-17) than usual. The RC level was OK but the CR section was again somewhat off than the actual GMAT CR.

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Anyone taken the 800 score CATs?

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