GMAT Strategy

Hello,

I recently took the Princeton Review CAT and the GMAT Prep and below are the results:

Princeton Review CAT

Quant: 30/37 score:39
Verbal: 27/41 score: 33
Overall Score: 590

GMATPrep

Quant: 22/37
Verbal: 22/41
Overall Score: 640

I understand that the GMATPrep score is more of an indicator, and that harder questions give you a higher score, but I understand that the CATs are supposed to give you a harder question when you get one right and an easier one when you get a question wrong. If that is the case, why can I get so many more right on the Princeton Review CAT and all my questions are easy. Does that mean I could potentially get 37/37 on the Princeton Review portion and still not get the full score of 51? Also, how can I get so many wrong on the GMATPrep but they give me hard enough questions for a score of 640?

Just the other day I took a GMAT paper test from McGraw-Hills GMAT 2008, and out of 78 questions, I got only 4 wrong. is the GMATPrep software much harder than other practice CATs?

I can't speak to PR's CATs or how they are scored, but I'm guessing that they have ranked the difficulty level of their questions in a way so that it negatively impacts your overall score more if you get an "easy" question wrong.

Regardless, I don't think it's worth thinking about private company's CAT scores. They are not reflective of the way the actual GMAT is scored as they can only approximate. They are best used to practice pacing and stamina and as a source of more review questions.

The GMATPrep is definitely going to be more accurate. In general, I find the GMATPrep questions more challenging overall than private company's CATs. But again, you're using these CATs as diagnostic tools, so I'm not sure how comparing the way they are scored really benefits you. Keep practicing strategy and diagnosing your weak content areas. And don't forget about Error Logs....

Good luck!

But what about the GMATPrep and the reason I missed so many and still got a 640? I mean if I am missing questions, shouldn't the test be giving me easier questions? I missed nearly half and got a 640. Is the GMATPrep test the same every time you take it or does it give you different questions based on what you get right and wrong?