GMAT Strategy

Hi, I have recently taken two CATs as part of the premium online program, which in general, has been very helpful. The first time I took the test ("diagnostic") I received a 640 (62% Quant, 85% Verbal percentile) (26/37 Quant, 35/41 Verbal). The second time I took the CAT ("CAT 2"), which was today, I received a 750 (99% Quant, 99% Verbal) (30/37 Quant, 30/41 Verbal). Now obviously I am pleased with this score, but I do not understand how there can be such a discrepancy in the scores given I got 5 additional verbal questions wrong versus last time, and still managed to score in the 99th percentile? The only logical reasoning behind this is that the questions on the CAT 2 were much more difficult versus the Diagostnic. My impression is that they were of a similar difficulty. If I break down the two tests by Low/Medium/High difficulty, it is clear that the second test had far more questions characterized as "difficult" and only had 2 "low" questions in total, both in verbal and math. On the other hand, the diagnostic had a whopping 29 total questions considered a "low" level of difficulty. Given I got the first 14 questions right on the verbal section of the first test, this appears to be illogical to me. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi willshu,

It's a bit hard to answer specifics without seeing your results. However, your Kaplan teacher can log into your website and look at your scores to make a more informed judgment of the situation. Alternately, I'd be happy to take a look myself if you PM me your name and the center you're taking your class in (don't worry, I don't need a private password or anything like that!)