Best Practice Tests?

This topic has expert replies

Which company makes the best GMAT practice tests (excluding GMATPrep)?

Princeton Review
227
11%
Kaplan
479
24%
Manhattan GMAT
1207
60%
Veritas Prep
45
2%
Other? (Please let us know)
42
2%
 
Total votes: 2000

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:54 am

by sarah_n78 » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:02 am
Hello,

I'll be taking the GMAT in next 20 days.

I have scored 580 in MGMAT test
610 and 580 in Kaplan tests.
560 in 800score test.

I score 40+ in Quant but not able to score 30+ in Verbal :-(

Could someone help tell me what should be done to take the score to atleast 650 on the day of the GMAT ?

Thanl you.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:00 pm
Thanked: 4 times

by skr172 » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:43 am
Hi there!
I`m on the final stage of my preparation, so doing some CATs and polishing my weak corners (mostly SC hehe). I`ve already done 1st GMAT Prep (690) and 2 MGMAT CATs (650 on both). I just finished a Princeton Review CAT and got a 590! Needless to say, I`m more than a bit concerned about that... To begin with, the test was really easy and basic, I ended with almost 15 minutes to spare on both sections, and got 85% questions right in Q and 75% right in V, does anyone knows if there is any weird stuff going on with PR scoring system??

BTW I strongly recommend to everyone MGMAT CATs, not only the SC Guide + 6 CATs is ridiculously good value combo, but I just love the explanation on the problems and that fact that is so easy to export results from the test to an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. Only thing I found quite stange is RC... could it be a little thougher than the real thing? I`ve had some problems with MGMAT RC and I quite excelled it when I went through the official material (95% accuracy between OG and Verbal Review)

Cheers!
I feel the PR scoring is heavily based on how many right answers you get in the first half of the exam. For e.g. I got only 7 wrong in my verbal (83% correct) and yet scored only 37 coz all the wrongs were in the first half (first 17 questions) of the test. So i feel that PR score is based on getting the first 15-20 questions correct.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:54 am

by sarah_n78 » Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:03 am
Hello,

I'll be taking the GMAT in next 20 days.

I have scored 580 in MGMAT test
610 and 580 in Kaplan tests.
560 in 800score test.

I score 40+ in Quant but not able to score 30+ in Verbal

Could someone help tell me what should be done to take the score to atleast 650 on the day of the GMAT ?

Thanl you.

Stacey could you help, please ?

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 139
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:52 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Thanked: 14 times
GMAT Score:770

by shadowsjc » Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:37 am
quick question - is the manhattan gmat test being discussed here the same as the 'free gmat sample test' offered on their website? or is there another paid version of it i should be looking to take?

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 139
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:52 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Thanked: 14 times
GMAT Score:770

by shadowsjc » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:22 am
I've only taken MGMAT and GMATPrep tests, so my answer will be biased. However, I think the MGMAT tests were very helpful - their explanations were easy to follow. I also liked the fact that they could write down what types of questions you were getting wrong so you could focus your studying on them.

Best part is that you get 6 free CAT tests for free when you buy one of their subject books for about $20 - a great investment IMO

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 11:27 am
Thanked: 1 times

by UCLA97grad » Mon Sep 07, 2009 1:47 pm
shadowsjc wrote:I've only taken MGMAT and GMATPrep tests, so my answer will be biased. However, I think the MGMAT tests were very helpful - their explanations were easy to follow. I also liked the fact that they could write down what types of questions you were getting wrong so you could focus your studying on them.

Best part is that you get 6 free CAT tests for free when you buy one of their subject books for about $20 - a great investment IMO

I entirely agree. The other thing I really liked about MGMAT was that the questions were extremely hard and it can be tough to find those types of questions.

The GMAT prep tests, obviously, are very realistic and tough, but the lack of explanations is really maddening.

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:14 am

strategy for scoring high

by testme475 » Mon Sep 07, 2009 3:27 pm
as an aside, which tutoring service do you guys think is the best for someone who is starting to study for the exam? i have heard that some people start with princeton review then take manhattan gmat for the tougher questions. do you guys have any thoughts on this strategy? i know it costs a lot of money to do this but i guess that is the sacrifice for a good score.

Legendary Member
Posts: 2467
Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:14 pm
Thanked: 331 times
Followed by:11 members

by cramya » Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:29 pm
as an aside, which tutoring service do you guys think is the best for someone who is starting to study for the exam?
Just my 2 cents:

1) Get the Manhattan gmat quant strategy guides(5 in total),Manhattan gmat SC Verbal guide/RC guide, Powerscore gmat CR bible
2) OG 11 or 12
3) GMAT PREP EXAMS taking it over and over again and getting yourself familiar with the question types.You can find the solution to almost all gmat prep questions on this site(may take some time to search) In addition visit this site and Manhattan gmat site for more gmat prep questions. GMAT prep is the closest to the real deal and have no doubts about it.
4) For additional practice Manhattan gmat exams (5 in total) which u get for free if u buy even one of their startegy guides

To answer your question I would defnitely suggest you to start off with just Manhattan gmat quant strategy guides(www.manhattangmat.com) as they cover the basics also.

Regards,
CR

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:55 am

by kanhaiya » Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:41 am
As far as the difficulty level goes Kaplan are the toughest especially the Verbal section.
Also the sectional tests that they provide are very good practice.

GMAT prep is the ultimate one though, keep on practicing on that same software until you reach 750, believe me there wont be much difference between your actual score and the mock score.

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 7:43 pm
GMAT Score:760

by UBSboy81 » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:03 pm
kanhaiya wrote:As far as the difficulty level goes Kaplan are the toughest especially the Verbal section.
Also the sectional tests that they provide are very good practice.

GMAT prep is the ultimate one though, keep on practicing on that same software until you reach 750, believe me there wont be much difference between your actual score and the mock score.

I want to respectively disagree. I think that the Kaplan verbal section was not realistic. In addition to there being typos in Gmat Premier's Sentence Correction questions, the scores in my study group for verbal with Kaplan have been WAY lower than those of GMAT prep.

In general, I have found that Kaplan's GMAT score is way too low but the content difficulty is too easy.

I would recommend PowerScore and Platinum's GMAT practice test.

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:26 pm

by ao1058 » Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:33 pm
I have used both PR and MGMAT.

I honestly feel that the MGMAT CAT tests are entirely different from PR. I can score 600+ on PR but I can't come close to that with MGMAT. The quant questions on MGMAT seem to be longer and more drawn out, and on a completely different level of difficulty.

I am honestly nervous considering that most users who have vote are reporting MGMAT as a better source of practice...which I am taking as a closer measure of score.

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:50 am
Thanked: 2 times
GMAT Score:540

by Perminology » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:30 am
I just completed the Power Prep 30 practice test. I don't know the year of release of this but this practice test is NOT a good indicator of your overall performance at all. I am by no means a 700+ GMAT student, but this test made blaring calculation errors. For instance, 80% of 30,000 is 25,000!

I knew that this test must have been old, because I saw a lot of questions from OG 11 on it. I remember some of the CR questions from it and again, more errors! I was so sure that the test was wrong that I checked OG 11 and sure enough, the test had the exact question from the book wrong. No wonder ETS no longer has the rights to the GMAT. DO NOT waste your time on the Power Prep 30 practice test.

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:35 am

RE: GMAT Prep

by MBABound_2010 » Fri Nov 13, 2009 4:17 pm
Hi

I guess I need some enlightment here. The GMAT Prep, is that the one you can download for free from mba.com (the 2 free practice tests)? Can you go back to download 2 more tests to find that they are different questions or do the 2 tests have the standard same questions? I'm hoping every time you download, the questions are different but we know life isn't that convenient!

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:06 am

by Lucky Y » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:56 am
It seems that Kaplan CAT tests are harder.

User avatar
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:18 pm

by msf995 » Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:21 pm
Dec. 5 - Free Kaplan Live GMAT Practice Test

Question: Do you get a full breakdown of your score if you do this free practice test? Is it recommended. I was thinking of doing it on Saturday. Do your essays get marked as well?