GMAT Strategy

Just happened to finish Kaplan CAT-1 and scored a 590 (50/29), quant was as usual Child's play, but my verbal score was again wandering in deep valleys though i know i have improved a lot since past 1 month. What amazed me was the pattern of verbal section especially RC. There were 4 of them, all 70-75 longs involving 3-4 questions each. In those, 2 were of such complexity that i ended up messing up the relevant questions. SC was good and CR also was not that tough. One more thing which struck me is the order of questions in verbal. Out of first 15 in verbal 10 were CR, 3 RC and only 2 SC's I wonder whether i should really fret about this score or should i blame the test all alone?

Its a fact that Kaplan is a bit stingy with your scores and their verbal is really torturous. I took an onsite test drive with kaplan in their facility (basically the same thing at their place) and had the same experience. I got 4 quests wron in quant but the verbal was brutal. RC with 80 to 90 lines and CRs that were so complicated that there was a time when i felt fed up.

But instead of blaming the test, take it as a worthwhile experience. You now know how to handle a tough test. Keep practicing and forget about the score when it comes to CATs by test prep companies.

Good luck.

Wow 50 q!

Forget the q practice the V!


kaplan is scored harder some say upto 100 points less than real gmat but maybe around 70ish points less.


But u need verbal practice.

I agree with the above - if you REALLY "get" the GMAT, it won't matter what test you take. For example, I'm sure you'd score upper 40s/50s on quant no matter which company's test you took. If you can run a marathon, you'll be fine whether you're asked to run 5, 10, 15, or 20 miles...

I wouldn't totally freak out about the low verbal score at this point, but you clearly know where your weakness is. Now that you've been abused a little, use this as motivation to get that score up.

Happy studying!

just a word of warning on the kaplan tests. I scored a Q52 on one of their practice tests. I normally score 60%+-5%. Take the results of any individual test with a grain of salt.