Manhattan GMAT vs Kaplan vs actual GMAT - How accurate?

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saintforlife: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 37; Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:41 pm

by saintforlife » Mon Oct 14, 2013 10:38 pm

How accurate are the MGMAT and Kaplan tests in predicting actual GMAT performance?

My practice test scores so far (I have been trying to take one per week):

09/11/2013 - Kaplan - 650 (Q 57% correct/V 45% correct)
09/23/2013 - Kaplan - 710 (Q 61% correct/V 53% correct)
09/29/2013 - MGMAT - 660 (Q45/V35)
10/06/2013 - Kaplan - 660 (Q 57% correct/V 58% correct)
10/13/2013 - MGMAT - 640 (Q45/V33)

I am beginning to think I have plateaued in terms of my performance. I am not making any improvements in my test scores, even though I have felt progressively more confident going into each test and have been reviewing my weak areas.

My official GMAT is on Oct 26th and I am nervous now. I want to break the 700 barrier. What can I do between now and then to make up this gap? Should I try to buy GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 for additional practice and to get a more realistic indication of my actual score? I have already exhausted the first two free GMATPrep Exams.

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Mon Oct 14, 2013 10:38 pm

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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 15, 2013 12:08 am

Hi saintforlife,

By definition, the "closest" CATs to the Official GMAT will be the ones that you can download at www.mba.com; you can get 2 for free and 2 additional ones for $40. The Kaplan and MGMAT CATs are close enough to the Official GMAT to provide realistic assessments of your ability. What will likely be different though are the "percentiles" that come with each exam. The Official GMAT measures your performance against other Official GMAT Takers, which the Kaplan and MGMAT CATs measure your performance against other people who have taken those respective CATS.

With your last 2 weeks, you should take a good look at the questions that you're getting wrong and try to figure out WHY you're getting them wrong. More often than not, many of your incorrect answers will be because of silly mistakes, so you should be able to fix those. You have enough time to take another CAT or two. For the sake of a realistic performance, you should take the ENTIRE CAT (don't skip the Essay or IR sections).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

rakeshd347: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 391; Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:13 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 50 times

by rakeshd347 » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:51 pm

saintforlife wrote:How accurate are the MGMAT and Kaplan tests in predicting actual GMAT performance?

My practice test scores so far (I have been trying to take one per week):

09/11/2013 - Kaplan - 650 (Q 57% correct/V 45% correct)
09/23/2013 - Kaplan - 710 (Q 61% correct/V 53% correct)
09/29/2013 - MGMAT - 660 (Q45/V35)
10/06/2013 - Kaplan - 660 (Q 57% correct/V 58% correct)
10/13/2013 - MGMAT - 640 (Q45/V33)

I am beginning to think I have plateaued in terms of my performance. I am not making any improvements in my test scores, even though I have felt progressively more confident going into each test and have been reviewing my weak areas.

My official GMAT is on Oct 26th and I am nervous now. I want to break the 700 barrier. What can I do between now and then to make up this gap? Should I try to buy GMATPrep Exam Pack 1 for additional practice and to get a more realistic indication of my actual score? I have already exhausted the first two free GMATPrep Exams.

Hi Mate,

You can consider the Kaplan test score as real too. Just take a standard deviation of 20 atleast. I gave Kaplan 4 tests and got in the same range as Kaplan just 20 point below. Now if you like you can buy the Exam pack 1. But the issue with them is that I don't think that 3rd exam in the exam pack 1 is really a representative of the real score. Moreover, you would think that you will see all the questions new in the 4th exam now that is not true too. You will see at least 5-6 questions repeated. I saw in my case and i searched on the forum a lot of other people have faced the same issue. So basically you will be paying $40 for 1 exam in all. Another thing you can do is buy Veritas prep exams. They are very close to the real thing. Their standard deviation is even less and their score is very accurate. However why don't you just give all the mgmat and kaplan tests itself. They are close to the real ones. MGMAT is tougher than real test and generally score below 30 points.

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