Are Veritas CATs reflective of the actual GMAT?
VerbalI have been consistently scoring 95+% (5-7 mistakes) on Wiley & MBA . com, only to wind up scoring low 80% on Veritas (15+ mistakes). I won't deny it but it's demoralizing & not helping my prep for GMAT at all because it's causing me to have to develop new (but unsuitable exam skills) just to answer Veritas questions. While my standards could really have dropped significantly over the last couple of weeks, I'm more inclined to believe that Veritas' questions are simply more difficult, or just plain different in style from the official questions.
I find the RC passages longer than the MBA . com ones. At the same time, they also tend to incorporate very obscure themes (like environment & dinosaur) and way more data. I generally struggle to complete Verbal on time simply because I find myself having to repeatedly go back to the passages to find what the question is asking for (simply because there's just so much information & data in that long passage that it's impossible to remember everything from reading the passage once).
QuantThe difficulty of the quant part escalates so quickly that I wind up having to skip questions just so I have time to complete the paper on time. On the MBA . com papers, I even have time to work through slowly & check my workings after almost every question, but no way can I do that on Veritas. I actually feel that Veritas is causing me to develop an unhealthy habit of rushing through my workings & not double checking, which is not an ideal strategy for the actual paper at all, because the actual paper tends to be tricky & require careful working.
And the most ridiculous thing? I got 16 (out of 36) wrong for Verbal and 14 (out of 31) wrong on Quant but still wound up scoring 720.
On the MBA . com test, I had to manage 7 (out of 36) and 5 (out of 31) for the same score.
I've taken three Veritas papers and always had the same experience.
I'm happy to be corrected but I really do not think Veritas is reflective of the actual test at all. It may, in fact, cause candidates to develop unhealthy test taking habits just to complete the Veritas test on time.