Do Diagnostics tell a story?

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Do Diagnostics tell a story?

by btgmat_2010 » Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:18 pm
Hi Everyone,

I have taken some tests, mostly diagnostics till now, and have the following report:

Kaplan Diagnostic online - 680

Knewton Diagnostic online - 690

Princeton Review Diagnostic online - 710

GMATPrep Test 1 - 720

Powerprep Test 1 - 720 Test 2 - 730

I am scheduled to write GMAT within a month, so do these scores tell anything?

My quant score is always between 48 and 51, but verbal messes me up. I am shooting for 750, so would appreciate advice to improve verbal score (i know i lose concentration in verbal but don't know how to focus better with the abstract content of the section).

Thanks in advance.
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by beatthegmat » Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:27 pm
These diagnostic tests--I take it they were full-length practice tests?

If so, your scores do look very promising. What is particularly impressive is your GMATPrep and PowerPrep scores, which tend to be most representative of your actual GMAT performance, since these tests feature real but retired GMAT questions.

You appear to be in strong position to reach your target GMAT score.

Just a quick word about the verbal performance--if loss of focus is your problem, I recommend lots of practice drills. Take a look at this forum post when you have a chance, which outlines an effective method for going about your practice: https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-practic ... s-t68.html

Good luck!
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by Dan@VinciaPrep » Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:00 am
beatthegmat wrote:These diagnostic tests--I take it they were full-length practice tests?


Good luck!
This is a good point- some of my students skip the writing section of the practice tests and just take the math and verbal parts. This inflates your score since one of the difficult things about the GMAT is having the endurance to do it all without making silly mistakes, which happen more often as your get mentally fatigued.
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by btgmat_2010 » Wed Jun 02, 2010 4:33 pm
Thanks Eric and Dan. Yeah the tests were complete tests, but I did skip the writing sections since I haven't even started looking at those portions yet. I have started to work with the Manhattan Verbal Strategy Guides alongwith the OG and am hoping to improve the verbal score.

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by btgmat_2010 » Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:35 pm
I wrote the free online Manhattan GMAT test today and scored 730 (Q51 and V38). I struggled in Quant (never happened with any other tests) and had to guess quite a few. Barely managed to finish the section. I actually thought I did quite good in Verbal, and finished with 15 minutes to spare. Therefore, the scaled scores on both Quant and Verbal surprised me. Is there any explanation for this (is this typical for Manhattan)?

I plan to continue studying Verbal over the next month, write the 6 Manhattan CATs, one every week, followed by GMATPrep CAT2.

I would appreciate frank suggestions/strategies to improve Verbal.

Thanks,