GMAT Strategy

I just took my first practice test (Kaplan Online Test) and scored a 550. I answered 56% of the overall test questions correct (73% right on Verbal; 38% right on Quant). I've read on other posts that Kaplan's scoring is skewed and one should assume their score on the actual GMAT would be 70-100 points higher. How much truth is there to that? Based on these % and the Kaplan score, what can I assume my score range is right now? I'm guessing 620-650 which is awesome because that is my target range. This is my first test, I plan to take 3 more before the real thing.

Here's how I felt about the test. Any feedback is appreciated.

1. I completed both sections way too fast (had over 20 minutes left on each)

2. I struggled in the Quant. section. I think DS is my biggest problem area, but I also felt like the word problems and problem solving questions were more difficult than in my book.

3. Verbal is good. I felt good about the overall section. The test ended with an extremely difficult Reading Comp. passage, which I think I did poorly on. CR and SC are both good.

What should I do to improve my results? Thank you in advance for any advice/comments.

dubc1982 wrote:I just took my first practice test (Kaplan Online Test) and scored a 550. I answered 56% of the overall test questions correct (73% right on Verbal; 38% right on Quant). I've read on other posts that Kaplan's scoring is skewed and one should assume their score on the actual GMAT would be 70-100 points higher. How much truth is there to that? Based on these % and the Kaplan score, what can I assume my score range is right now? I'm guessing 620-650 which is awesome because that is my target range. This is my first test, I plan to take 3 more before the real thing.

Here's how I felt about the test. Any feedback is appreciated.

1. I completed both sections way too fast (had over 20 minutes left on each)

2. I struggled in the Quant. section. I think DS is my biggest problem area, but I also felt like the word problems and problem solving questions were more difficult than in my book.

3. Verbal is good. I felt good about the overall section. The test ended with an extremely difficult Reading Comp. passage, which I think I did poorly on. CR and SC are both good.

What should I do to improve my results? Thank you in advance for any advice/comments.

I am not sure about the Kaplan online tests (actually I have never heard about them before ) but the tests that you get along with the Kaplan books is indeed very hard. If the Kaplan online tests is similar to those you get along with the books (I would suggest you to talk to Stuart regarding this) then yes you should generally add around 70-80 point to your score.

Now the feedback.

1.) Unless you are really good with quant, having 20 minutes to spare for the quant section is not good. You have definitely rushed through the questions, a fact reflected by your accuracy level in quant. The thumb rule is that you should spend around 2 minutes for each questions (you obviously can play around with that figure, depending on the level of the question).

While reviewing the quant section go through the questions you got wrong and judge if you got it wrong because of a lack of understanding of the question and the concept tested or because you did not read the question properly/ missed reading important parts of the question/ rushed while solving the question. If it is the first reason the you have to obviously go back to basics and clear your concepts and if it is the second set of reasons then while giving your next test make sure you avoid these very silly but dangerous mistakes (you do this by spending more time on each question).

2.) First of all Kaplan test questions are usually harder than the real ones so dont beat yourself to much about it. Second of all, if DS is your weakness you need to make a strategy to tackle the different DS questions (First make sure you know about the different types of DS questions tested, you would find this described in Kaplan, Princeton Review and other prep books). I particularly liked the strategy described in Princeton Review, go through the different prep books and see if you like any of the strategies described. Also DS is used to test your basics so be absolutely clear in the basics of the different topics tested in the quant section.

3.) It is good that you feel confident in Verbal. Dont worry too much about the RC's in Kaplan, when I was studying for my GMAT I remember how frustrated I used to feel after solving a Kaplan RC, but the ones in the real exam are not that hard. Most people tend to focus less on the sections they are most strong in, I wouldnt suggest that, make sure you get better in the section you are weak in and also stronger in the section you are already strong in (in your case that is obviously Verbal).

Kaplan online test is not as hard as the practice tests in the CD. I consistently score around 550 in kaplan CD tests but in online test i managed well above 600. i found lot of online questions (first 1-20) are very easy. So, dont gauge your performance based on kaplan online test.

Great feedback, thank you everyone!

I would ignore those scores altogether. In just one afternoon here I read a lot of posts with people complaining of low scores from Kaplan, and everyone pretty much told them to either ignore the scores or not take the tests at all. I haven't taken them myself, but probably won't.

The tests that seem to be most recommended are GMATPrep (of course!!) and Princeton Review.