What's the variation like between Veritas Prep tests and official GMAT

Question

Just took a veritas mock test today and ended up with a 700 (Q49 V37). I found the verbal section to be wildly different than that of the GMAT Prep tests, especially the SC questions. Quant was still fair enough, but I found it to be a tad harder than usual.

Here are some of my previous mock test scores:

1) GMAT Prep Exam 1- 1st Attempt 660 (Q47 V35) (1st April 2020), 2nd Attempt 770 (Q50 V45) (11 July 2020)
2) GMAT Prep Exam 2- 730 (Q47 V42) (16 May 2020)
3) GMAT Prep Exam 3- 710 (Q49 V40) (21 May 2020)
4) GMAT Prep Exam 3- 720 (Q50 V38) (30 May 2020)

Through June, I really made it a point to focus on verbal and have seen major improvements with the OG questions. I haven't seen any improvement in Veritas Verbal section, unfortunately.

Has anyone else had the same experience ?

Best,
A

bb · Answer

Hi. There is always a difference in scores between tests and even between GMAT Prep and the GMAT. Event GMAT Prep test 6 is quite a bit differently scored from tests 1&2.

As to Veritas, I have found thier scores to be consistent. During the development, they ran a number of regressions and comparisons between their students' scores and their final GMAT scores as well as later with a wider audience.

Having said that, it is hard to write good verbal questions, esp hard ones and so verbal scoring is always tricky. I know we have struggled with verbal questions in the GMAT Club Tests for a while..... and it is an on-going review effort. Anyway, they are close

mangamma · Answer

Hi, Always there would a difference in score between 2 test sources. As per my experience 20-40 score would be less in Veritas compared to Prep score.

monikakumar · Answer

Hi,

With respect to verbal, there will be some plus or minus to your real gmat. Basically, you just have to be strong in your verbal skills and the strategies you use for it.

Thanks.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi abajaj10,

The good news is that you are doing very well on official GMAT practice exams. When do you plan to take exams 5 and 6?

tejaswym95 · Answer

I've used veritas prep tests on the past. For me,they have been very accurate indicators. My scores were consistantly around 680 in the veritas prep tests. And 690 was my final score on the actual test. So in my experience I would say they're veritas tests are reliable indicators

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tejaswym95 · Answer

I've used veritas prep tests in the past. For me,they have been very accurate indicators. My scores were consistantly around 680 in the veritas prep tests. And 690 was my score on the actual test. So in my experience I would say they're veritas tests are reliable indicators

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

abajaj10 · Answer

Hey Scott,

I plan to take them on the 31st of July and the 2nd of August. I take the GMAT on the 4th of August.

Cheers,
A

abajaj10 · Answer

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Just an FYI- I took another Veritas test on the 18th of July and got a 720 (Q50 V39). After the 3 veritas prep tests I have taken, here are my two cents:
1) The CR section is quite similar to that of GMAT Prep.
2) The SC questions, especially the 700+ level questions, had a larger focus on grammatical error than on meaning. In my experience, I have seen that understanding the meaning of the given sentence is usually key to solving most 700+ SC questions. IMHO, I also think the GMAT is designed from the ground up to test verbal reasoning fundamentals, not grammatical fundamentals. 
3) The RC passages were, on average, 30%-50% longer than those on GMAT Prep. This is in itself is not a bad thing and is very good for practice. Though this superior length would result in more time taken to solve an RC passage, skewing the score negatively in some cases.

In general, I found GMAT Prep on average has more lucid questions and answer choices. This is not completely a surprise, given that GMAT spends north of $3000 on creating each question- I doubt any other test provider could match those standards and quality. As well-intentioned as a prep company maybe, that is a high threshold of quality to compete with. As  bb  rightly pointed out, it's tough to come up with hard verbal questions.

To conclude, I found these to be good tests, especially for RC and CR practice. I do, however, take each of these scores with a pinch of salt. I would not be surprised if I end up with a higher verbal score on the actual GMAT.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Cool. Let me know how those go.

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