Practice CAT scores so far - feedback please - experts ?

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I've been working for almost a month now. Realizing that after the holidays I'll have fewer hours available to dedicate to my studies, I seek feedback to get the most out of limited studying.

GMAT-crack free test 615 (Q49,V20) - Nov 30
Kaplan CD CAT1 570 (Q40,V28) - Dec 5
Kaplan CD CAT2 570 (Q39,V30) - Dec 5
GMATPrep Test1 700 (Q49,V35) - Dec 17


In the V section of the GMATPrep my error count was: 5 SC, 3 CR and 1 RC

After the kaplan tests I was really worried about my verbal speed, but I paced well on the GMATPrep. And yes, the RC is definitely more comprehensible than the ones in Kaplan CATs!

I did take 3 more CATs in the last 3 days with following scores -

PR CAT 1 660 (Q48, V34) - 11 errors in V - Dec 29
PR CAT 2 650 (Q50, V31) - 13 errors in V - Dec 30
PR CAT 3 680 (Q51, V33) - 12 errors in V - Dec 30

I've consistently commited 3 errors in RC, 2-4 in SC and 4-6 in CR. I'm entirely focused on verbal section. I'm not sure how reflective these scores are, but I want to raise my V scores to the 40s. I definitely feel that I have improved in the last two weeks since I took the first GMATprep, however, my V scores in PR CATs do not suggest so.

Thus far, I've covered Princeton cracking the GMAT, Manhattan SC, LSAT Logical reasoning bible, Aristotle SC grail.

I think, I'll start working on OG now. Any feedback is appreciated. Also, if you have taken PR CATs please share your experience. I do have MGMAT CATs.

I want to be well into the 700s, although an even 700 would be acceptable to me.
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by Random Wok » Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:50 pm
Wow, you've definitely made a lot of progress for a month's work.

Looking at your verbal summary, and particularly the GMAT Prep 1 Score, which I consider to be the best indicator, it seems like you got a lot wrong in sentence correction. SC is the subject with the most content to learn but also the easiest to improve. Whereas RC and CR are more about your reading ability, and can be difficult to improve in a short amount of time, SC can be bumped up by studying the various subtopics, such as modifiers, idioms, etc. I think working on that will give you the most bang for your buck.

I would concur that my experience with the Kaplan CATs were not that great. Stick with GMAT Prep and MGMAT if you really want to tell how well you are doing.

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by stormier » Fri Dec 31, 2010 7:17 am
Random Wok wrote:Wow, you've definitely made a lot of progress for a month's work.

Looking at your verbal summary, and particularly the GMAT Prep 1 Score, which I consider to be the best indicator, it seems like you got a lot wrong in sentence correction. SC is the subject with the most content to learn but also the easiest to improve. Whereas RC and CR are more about your reading ability, and can be difficult to improve in a short amount of time, SC can be bumped up by studying the various subtopics, such as modifiers, idioms, etc. I think working on that will give you the most bang for your buck.

I would concur that my experience with the Kaplan CATs were not that great. Stick with GMAT Prep and MGMAT if you really want to tell how well you are doing.

randomwok, thanks for your feedback. I did exactly that. Between the time I took my first GMAT prep and first PR CAT (roughly 2 weeks), I did focus quite a bit on SC, and I think I have improved since then (may need another round of revisions though). A review of my CATs show that I spent about a minute on an average for SC questions. I've been answering RCs at good pace as well. < 6 minutes per passage. However, I spend a lot of time on RC questions - 3 minutes or so. After reviewing my PR tests, at least for 5-6 questions that I got wrong, I get the feeling -- darn! how did I mark that wrong !. So plenty of silly mistakes. I hope they improve after a review of the OG. I need to start including essays as well.