GMAT Strategy

The book Cracking the GMAT 2011 has 2 online tests that come with it. What is the difficulty level of these CATs and what is the accuracy?
Does anyone know?

I am also looking for the same info but unable to find much about the tests on the net.
In my opinion the PR tests are somewhat easier than the gmat test .The quants in particular is much simple,I didnt get challenging questions even at higher levels. I hope the member or the PR staff active here will throw some light over the difficulty level of the tests.

regards
sason

sason wrote:In my opinion the PR tests are somewhat easier than the gmat test .The quants in particular is much simple,I didnt get challenging questions even at higher levels. I hope the member or the PR staff active here will throw some light over the difficulty level of the tests.

I agree - quant is very easy bit I think that the Verbal section is hard!

nehs wrote:

sason wrote:In my opinion the PR tests are somewhat easier than the gmat test .The quants in particular is much simple,I didnt get challenging questions even at higher levels. I hope the member or the PR staff active here will throw some light over the difficulty level of the tests.

I agree - quant is very easy bit I think that the Verbal section is hard!

by hard you mean harder than gmat /gmat prep's verbal ( I ahvent yet taken the gmat/gmat prep test so dont have idea) ,

regards
sason

sason wrote:

nehs wrote:

sason wrote:In my opinion the PR tests are somewhat easier than the gmat test .The quants in particular is much simple,I didnt get challenging questions even at higher levels. I hope the member or the PR staff active here will throw some light over the difficulty level of the tests.

I agree - quant is very easy bit I think that the Verbal section is hard!

by hard you mean harder than gmat /gmat prep's verbal ( I ahvent yet taken the gmat/gmat prep test so dont have idea) ,

regards
sason

I meant to say that, in general, the verbal in princeton online CAT was hard

nehs wrote:
I meant to say that, in general, the verbal in princeton online CAT was hard

btw I have Cracking the GMAT 2010 ,it came with 4 online tests .Did you try the AWA service PR that provides ???

sason wrote:

nehs wrote:
I meant to say that, in general, the verbal in princeton online CAT was hard

btw I have Cracking the GMAT 2010 ,it came with 4 online tests .Did you try the AWA service PR that provides ???

No, I did not even attempt AWA. Is there any difference in scores for the whole test because of the paid service ?

Hello!

I am a Princeton Review instructor/trainer for the GMAT, so I hope I can help you out a bit.

The accuracy of our tests, in my experience, has been very good. You can expect a 30 point swing, in either direction, but an overall accurate picture of your capabilities. If anything, I have more often seen a few points lower on the actual exam, which is likely attributed to nerves and the like more than anything.

Now, that is not to say that our tests are currently identical matchings for the GMAT. At TPR we invest a lot of money in R&D, of which I have been a part, and we have found that the GMAT has recently been developing its scores in a different manner than our tests.

The difference basically comes down to two things. The actual GMAT allows for a few more missed questions on the Quant than do our tests, but maintains a harder level for longer. The actual GMAT also does throw more "insanely difficult" questions out on the Quant. (Keep in mind that the scoring algorithm has still been fairly accurate, despite the difference.)

The other difference is that the actual GMAT has been putting less emphasis on the location of the questions in calculating score for the Verbal section. The TPR tests have fairly similar question types, both in format and in difficulty, but we put a little more emphasis on the first ten questions. (Again, the accuracy on the Verbal, in my experience, is still very high.)

In short, your best bet is to base your difficulty expectations off of the GMATPrep software, downloadable from www.mba.com . In my limited experience, the TPR tests are the most accurate predictors outside of the GMATPrep, with more students scoring LOWER on the actual GMAT than on the TPR exams by around 20-30 points. It is opposite for a lot other test prep companies.

Now, not all students have the same reactions to all tests, and I have had many students score 20 to 30 points higher as well. It is hard to predict, given nerves and additional prep time, etc, etc.

I hope this helps you! I know that I am biased, but I try my best to be objective.

Also, in case you are curious, TPR does offer a 15% discount on any course or tutoring if you purchase through the special offers on Beat the GMAT. Feel free to PM about anything.

Thanks!

Thanks Oliver for your post. Makes things clear about the PR scoring algorithm.

By the way, I still have a feeling that PR is deflating the scores(I may be wrong too).

I feel pretty confident that TPR does not deflate the scores. Like I have said, if anything it appears that our scores are inflated 20-30 points (largely, I suspect, because of the Verbal.) I have taken 20+ GMATs from various sources, and this has been my experience so far. It also coincides with most of my students results.

Hi Oliver,
I have the 2010 edition of the book . The book came with a paper diagnostic test. Is there any way I can get hold of these 2 tests included in the 2011 edition of the book ?
Regards, Deb

OliverTPR wrote:I feel pretty confident that TPR does not deflate the scores. Like I have said, if anything it appears that our scores are inflated 20-30 points (largely, I suspect, because of the Verbal.) I have taken 20+ GMATs from various sources, and this has been my experience so far. It also coincides with most of my students results.

Thanks!! That helped me.

OliverTPR wrote:I feel pretty confident that TPR does not deflate the scores. Like I have said, if anything it appears that our scores are inflated 20-30 points (largely, I suspect, because of the Verbal.) I have taken 20+ GMATs from various sources, and this has been my experience so far. It also coincides with most of my students results.

sorry for bugging you again
so does the above statement means that the verbal part in PR is easier than the GMAT where as the Quants part is at least at par (may be difficult)?
though I felt the other way (quant looked much easier) , maybe its just because I have given only one test havent given the gmat yet so no idea about the real exam's difficulty level.
Actually am just looking for tests that are closest to the gmat's difficulty level (other than gmat prep)

regards
sason

Sason,

No it is sort of the opposite. What I mean is that we grade the Verbal down in SOME cases because of a slightly higher emphasis on the first ten. What I have basically seen is that students scoring around 40 on our Verbal will sometimes score in the mid 40's on the actual GMAT. The other score ranges seem pretty on par with the GMAT, which makes sense based on my hypothesis (medium to low scores wouldn't be very affected by the emphasis on the first ten in comparison to the mid 40 scorers.)

The quant score correlates pretty well with the GMAT, but our tests throw out fewer "super-hard" questions, and maintain the very high difficulty questions for shorter periods of time. The GMAT seems to recently be allowing more misses ont he hard questions without adjustment. This gives the impression of a "harder" quant section, but in reality, the only difference is in how the curve is built. In short, you can expect a reasonable correlation on your score, but not necessarily on the number of difficulty questions seen.

Deb,

I am not sure how the Cracking 2010 works in regards to tests, but I was under the impression it came with 2 CATs as well. As far as getting the CATs from the 2011 edition, I can shoot an email to one of my contacts to uncover the story. For now, you can certainly take at least one of those tests online at our website for free.

Thanks Oliver...

What is the accuracy of the test on the webiste in predicting the final score +/- 10 or 20 or .... ?

Thanks in advance