11 days before exam - Retake GMATPrep or take Powerprep? - The Beat The GMAT Forum

11 days before exam - Retake GMATPrep or take Powerprep?

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Davy03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 31; Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:21 am; Location: France; GMAT Score:730

by Davy03 » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:40 am

My actual GMAT exam is scheduled on April 12.

I have already taken all Manhattan GMAT CATs (the six of them - I scored 620, 680, 700, 710, 740 and 750).

I am also done with the two GMAT Prep cat. I performed under strict conditions and great pressure. I scored 760 in both (same breakdown : Q49, V44), so I feel ready.

I also did all the review questions of GMAT Prep (those were too easy) and all the questions from Manhattan GMAT questions banks.

However, I still have ten days before the actual exam, so I need to improve or at least stay sharp during these ten days.

I am planning to take 2 more CAT exams before the actual GMAT.

According to your experience, should I take GMAT PowerPrep (the ETS old version of GMAT Prep) and get only new questions, or should I retake GMAT Prep and get some repeat questions?

I read that GMAT Powerprep is too easy and that the algorithm used is different.

But I also heard that even if you reinstall GMAT Prep, you will get repeat questions, especially in the verbal section. If I were to get reading comprehension repeat questions, the whole experience would be altered, because I still remember the RC passages I got during GMAT Prep CAT 1 and 2.

What do you suggest?

Last edited by Davy03 on Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:40 am

papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:47 am

Powerprep repeats many questions from OG. So far i've taken this test only once. I felt math questions were too easy, definitely not representative of current GMAT. I would recommend retaking GMATPrep instead of Powerprep.

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Davy03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 31; Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:21 am; Location: France; GMAT Score:730

by Davy03 » Thu Apr 01, 2010 1:01 am

papgust wrote:Powerprep repeats many questions from OG. So far i've taken this test only once. I felt math questions were too easy, definitely not representative of current GMAT. I would recommend retaking GMATPrep instead of Powerprep.

Thank you for your answer! I launched GMAT Powerprep this morning and I was shocked by the old design interface!

Does Powerprep repeat questions from OG 10 or 11?

Did you get reading comprehension repeat questions when you retook GMAT Prep? That's what I fear, because it would make me gain a lot of time and decrease the pressure. I still remember "Total Quality Management", the "sixteenth- and seventeenth- chartered trading companies", and the other RC passages!

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papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Thu Apr 01, 2010 2:19 am

I still haven't retaken GMATPrep tests. I'm planning to retake this weekend.

Yeah, Powerprep user interface is completely different. It was launched by ETS. GMATPrep is launched by Pearson-Vue and yes, user inteface is different and representative of current GMAT.

Re-taking GMATPrep might be little skewed in terms of score. Normally, i analyze every single question after each practice test and i've done the same for GMATPrep too. Now i fear whether my test scores will be skewed when i retake the tests since we get many repeat questions. But you need to get on with it. Even if you remember passages, you must give a full reading as if you are reading the passage for the first time and answer questions, when you take the test.

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Davy03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 31; Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:21 am; Location: France; GMAT Score:730

by Davy03 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 11:01 am

Ok, I followed your advice and retook GMAT Prep CAT 1 today. I got almost no repeat questions. Maybe 2 or 3 in quant, and none in verbal. (All the RC passages were new!) Anyway, I was forced to completely redo the repeat quant questions, because I did not remember them at all.

I got 760 again, with the same breakdown! (Q49, V44). I really do not understand how the verbal score is calculated, because I got 9 wrong answers the first time (GMAT Prep CAT 1), 7 the second time (GMAT Prep CAT 2) and only 4 wrong answers the last time (GMAT Prep CAT 1 retake), but my verbal score is still 44! I can see why 7 and 9 wrong answers gave me the same score, but I was expecting to get a higher verbal score with only 4 incorrect answers. And all my incorrect answers were either sentence correction or critical reasoning! I did not make any mistakes in reading comprehension during the whole three tests. (I am a non-native english speaker and it was my main weakness, now it is my favorite type of question).

I will retake GMAT Prep CAT 2 tomorrow.

Well, I hope I will get at least 760 when I take the actual GMAT... Or else... I would definitly retake it.

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