GMAT Strategy

680 is a great score - that's in the high 80s for percentile! Most people don't score anywhere near that well (by definition, actually - I'm not just saying that). Don't come down on yourself so hard!

tandoor wrote:What do you guys think about the 9 mba.com paper tests. I was planning to do those in my last week. 2 weeks to go.

Might be worthwhile practice, but it's not the same--these paper tests do not simulate the CAT nature of the GMAT...

prads1899 wrote:

beatthegmat wrote:Wow, so far Kaplan seems to be winning--not what I had expected...

People say that the powerprep tests are the closest simulation to the real gmat test....but the pracitse tests there have Q's taken direclty from OG....anyone who reads the OG can ans them v easily......
so just wanted to know if the practise tests of the powerprep are
good enuf.....pls reply

PowerPrep has been replaced by GMATPrep in 2006. There shouldn't be any overlap between GMATPrep and OG11 now...

sujitmgmat wrote:I am preparing for the exam and I need to give several mock exams. I was going through the available resources for such exams. Does anyone have any information on the costs of these mock exams? How about Crack the GMAT? You get 5 exams for $20. For $40 you get 6 exams at Mahattan GMAT. GMATPrep comes with GMAT exam registration. Kaplan seems to be very expensive. 5 exams cost $600. Similarly at Princetonreview.com you need to spend $600 for 5 exams and $100 for 2.

Any suggestions as to which are the best in terms of representing real GMAT as well as are cost effective? For example, no one mentioned of Crack the GMAT. Is it because the exams are very easy and don't reflect the real GMAT?

Your inputs will be appreciated.

Thanks

I think you are best served by GMATPrep, Manhattan GMAT, Kaplan, and Princeton Review - in that order.

I actually liked the PR tests, but they did feel a bit too easy.

Questions in the OG (that's the Official Guide for GMAT Review) are representative of all of the questions in the database for the GMAT. People primarily see questions clustered around their own individual ability levels, however. So you won't see the full range of questions you see in the OG - mostly, your questions will be a little below to a little above your level.

This has the effect of making the test feel hard for EVERYone. Even the best testers won't have a bunch of easy (for them) questions (as they would on a static paper-and-pencil test).

It is absolutely the case that GMATPrep is the most like the actual test. Unfortunately, you only get two "clean" tests; after that, you can see questions you've already seen before. Overall, it's a good idea to take about 4-5 tests throughout your study period.

The official GMAT has a standard deviation of about 30 points. GMATPrep's standard deviation hasn't been published, but it is probably close to but not quite as good (the algorithm is the same, but the question pool is substantially smaller), so let's call that 40 points.

Our (ManhattanGMAT's) practice tests have a standard deviation of about 50 points - not as good as the real thing, obviously, but close. (This is calculated by gathering our students' results on the official test and matching those results to the students' results on their individual practice tests.) I'm not aware of any other companies that have posted standard deviations for their tests - you could check their web sites or call to see.