GMAT Strategy

I've heard mixed results regarding the 800score practice tests. Does anybody have an opinion on them? At the very least they have to be good for practicing your pace / timing, right?

Please advise.

Yes.. 800score practice test are difficult. I can manage kaplan premiere Question in less then 2 mins.
While it takes more then 3 mins on an avg for score800.
This make me leave around 8-10 questions in the end.

But its good only if you know your stuff well. And want to improve your speed

I have ordered kaplan 800, and according to the title that it is advanced I will leave that walk through as a final preparation. I think so might be the case with the 800score CATs to, but I haven't tried them out so I don't know for sure.

We have done some research on these tests at Veritas and we have found that while the Quant can be difficult and certainly a time challenge, the verbal is actually not as well written as it could be.

I have actually had students start off better on the 800 score exams as opposed to GMAT Prep or Veritas exams and then as they learned more about how to address actual questions they did not improve nearly as much on the 800 Score as on the others. I think this is because the verbal is not as close to the real thing as the verbal on some other exams.

I know this might sound kind of funny for me to say, but you mention two products with the word "800" in it, those are just names and may not indicate that this is the most advanced or difficult. Although I might say that they seem to be effective names!

David@VeritasPrep wrote:We have done some research on these tests at Veritas and we have found that while the Quant can be difficult and certainly a time challenge, the verbal is actually not as well written as it could be.

I have actually had students start off better on the 800 score exams as opposed to GMAT Prep or Veritas exams and then as they learned more about how to address actual questions they did not improve nearly as much on the 800 Score as on the others. I think this is because the verbal is not as close to the real thing as the verbal on some other exams.

I know this might sound kind of funny for me to say, but you mention two products with the word "800" in it, those are just names and may not indicate that this is the most advanced or difficult. Although I might say that they seem to be effective names!

Any comments on the Kaplan 800 book? I have ordered it so I hope it will be useful practice. Thanks!

No comments on that as I have not used it but I think many on the forums have. Since you have ordered it give it a shot!

I have always had this idea that things that make sense to me are the ones to go with in life. So if the strategies make sense to you and seem to be useful then great. If not, then you can always find something else. Trust yourself!

David@VeritasPrep wrote:No comments on that as I have not used it but I think many on the forums have. Since you have ordered it give it a shot!

I have always had this idea that things that make sense to me are the ones to go with in life. So if the strategies make sense to you and seem to be useful then great. If not, then you can always find something else. Trust yourself!

Now I know that your opinion might be colored(be as honest as possible ), but the Veritas CATs both verbal and quant. Are they of high quality ie similar to the real test?

And is is possible to redo a one of the large amount of 15CATs?

I am planning to write 800score CATs before I start with Manhattan CATs... Just as a practice and for building stamina...

Manhattan CATs and GMAT Preps will be used as if Ill be writing actual GMAT

The 15 Veritas tests include tests that are only available at Veritas -- Veritas Prep Simulator Tests and GMAT Life Tests as well as other tests including the GMATPrep.

Most of these tests cannot be retaken. I always thought that 15 sounded like plenty...

You asked my opinion of whether the Veritas tests were similar to the GMAT. Like other company tests they are similar in many ways, but are not exactly what is on test day. For example, the math on the Veritas Prep Simulator is more difficult and varied than on the actual GMAT test and it scores harder as well.

By the way - in addition to the 15 CATS Veritas students also get diagnostic quizzes in various areas - for example critical reasoning, sentence correction, arithmetic, algebra and these quizzes are very helpful in diagnosing areas that might need improvement - as well as areas of strength.

As far as CATs go, Brian Galvin discussed in his article this week "my practice test, my rate problem" with practice tests you really need to focus on whether you are doing things right - especially with not official practice tests - rather than focusing only on the score.

David@VeritasPrep wrote: You asked my opinion of whether the Veritas tests were similar to the GMAT. Like other company tests they are similar in many ways, but are not exactly what is on test day. For example, the math on the Veritas Prep Simulator is more difficult and varied than on the actual GMAT test and it scores harder as well.

Tougher math problems is good I think, or it should make you more prepared.

How about verbal? I have found the verbal on the real test to be VERY tricky. For example sentences have always looked different from what I have practiced on, what I mean is not identical. But answer choices have been more tricky to pick from no obvious splits etc.
I saw e.g. sentences where ..., ____ , .... the underlined was the prepositional phrases (adjectives phrases) and all choices were difficult ie none was really obvious to me. I simply had trust my ear and pick what I thought was correct.

Is it possible to ask questions even in the on-demand course?

That is why I say that the fewer words they underline the worse it is! I would hate to have to select the correct prepositional phrase.

I actually found the Sentence Correction on the actual test relied very much on parallelism when I took it last. You are right that we have to be very careful when doing the problems on the test - but still quick enough to do it in 1:15!

By the way, what you have said about sentence correction matches our philosophy - memorization is not the path to success on sentence correction. I am very discouraged by the technical sort of conversation that goes on with the Sentence Correction board on Beat the GMAT. There is no way to memorize everything. Better to know HOW to do sentence correction. There are people on the discussion boards that know more technical terms than I do but I don't miss any sentence correction on the test...

The Veritas On -Demand lessons are pre-recorded. The Live Online full course is the one where you can be there and ask questions. Just got done with Critical Reasoning 2 a few minutes ago. The students had lots of questions tonight!