Following Kaplan course, but no improvement in CATs

This topic has expert replies
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:16 pm
Followed by:1 members
Hello fellow GMATers,

I have been following the forums for a while now and reading your reviews and GMAT experiences although didn't have the chance of participating too much.
I started working toward my GMAT in mid April 2012. Seeing I wanted to apply for September 2012, I thought the best would be to sign up to a GMAT prep class and I chose Kaplan. I have finished their 9 class course a couple of weeks ago, which was useful and I thought I learnt as I progressed.

There are 9 CATs in Kaplan. I work full time so I kept more or less up to date with homework, yet I couldn't keep up with a good test pace and thought I'd attack them after my courses were done and after I covered all their classes and other homework relating to the topics we covered in class. At this stage I have done 3 tests, and got the same score for all of them.

After 1 month of prep (and all my Kaplan classes done) my score has not improved at the slightest.
I've read that Kaplan tests are harder and/or score less than the actual GMAT around in the forums (for example, in Eric's post here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/720-96th-per ... t-t13.html ): does this still hold true? I see that Eric, for example, had a score of 720 in GMAT Prep and 600's for Kaplan.

Otherwise, it's kind of hard for me to accept that after all these hours of work I haven't improved at all. It's also kind of illogical since people who prep on their own improved slightly between tests: how come, even with Kaplan's help, I'm not getting past my diagnostic score?



I hope you are still with me after such a long post. Any recommendation would be extremely appreciated.
Thanks

PS: I may give a MGMAT CAT a go next week and see how that works out. Are those reliable?
Last edited by charcbb on Tue May 22, 2012 11:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 578
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:00 pm
Thanked: 136 times
Followed by:62 members

by KapTeacherEli » Mon May 21, 2012 3:23 pm
Hi Charlotte,

I'm sorry to hear that you are frustrated with your scores. It can definitely be a challenge to stay motivated after scores staying flat. Still, keep with it! Here are a few action points:

1) Review your tests thoroughly. The scores are useful as benchmarks for your performance, but the real purpose of your tests is to zero in on your trouble areas. Are you running out of time? Are you doing equally well on both types of math questions, or are you struggling only with Data Sufficiency? Etc. etc. These are the kind of deductions that can transform your prep.

2) Keep taking tests! The Kaplan course actually recommends at least 6 tests. It sounds like a lot, but some times it does take that much effort.

3) Contact your Kaplan teacher. At Kaplan, our teachers are at your disposal even after your course has wrapped up. As he or she has worked with you for 9 sessions, you'll get much more personalized advice than I can offer through a message board.

Finally, to answer your concern, our scores for our practice tests are accurate. However, if you want to dispel any doubts about the precision of your test results, you can always download official practice tests from www.mba.com to get the closest simulation possible.

I hope all this helps--let me know if I didn't answer all of your questions!

Regards,

Eli
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

ImageImageImage