Practice Test Fluctutation

[abbyyip]

My practice test scores are fluctuating like crazy! does anyone have any experience with this? Could it be my mood? (i.e. one hard question in the middle of the test screwing me over) or can my skill level really fluctuate this much? and for those who took the actual gmat already, which practice test (besides Gmat Prep) do you think most reflects the actual test?

1) Pre Studying: P.R. --> 490
2) P.R --> 510
3) Kaplan (Online) --> 620
4) MGMAT --> 490
5) GMAT Prep --> 620
6) P.R. --> 640
7) Kaplan (cd) --> 500
8) P.R. --> 630

[beatthegmat]

My practice test scores are fluctuating like crazy! does anyone have any experience with this? Could it be my mood? (i.e. one hard question in the middle of the test screwing me over) or can my skill level really fluctuate this much? and for those who took the actual gmat already, which practice test (besides Gmat Prep) do you think most reflects the actual test?

1) Pre Studying: P.R. --> 490
2) P.R --> 510
3) Kaplan (Online) --> 620
4) MGMAT --> 490
5) GMAT Prep --> 620
6) P.R. --> 640
7) Kaplan (cd) --> 500
8) P.R. --> 630

I'm not as familiar with MGMAT tests. From experience, I say that PR and GMATPrep are fairly accurate representations of performance. Don't take your Kaplan scores too seriously--they are severely skewed down on purpose.

[Stacey Koprince]

Our tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points, compared to a standard deviation of about 30 points for the official test. As far as I know, the other companies don't publish their standard deviations (which makes me think ours is better than theirs... but I don't know that for sure ).

Regardless, the closest approximation will be from GMATPrep, since that is built off of the same algorithm used for the official test.