Reviews for GMAT paper tests and Focus diagnostic

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gmattester: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 172; Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 11:21 am; Thanked: 1 times

Reviews for GMAT paper tests and Focus diagnostic

by gmattester » Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:56 am

Can someone give feedback for GMAT paper tests and Focus Diagnostic.

Last edited by gmattester on Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:55 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Fri Jul 25, 2008 5:56 am

bilko: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 42; Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:10 am; Thanked: 1 times

by bilko » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:12 pm

GMAT paper tests should not be used for anything other than untimed practice questions. You need to practice on CATs (computer adaptive tests), because that's what you're going to see on test day. GMATPrep (the official ones) and Princeton Review sre adaptive; I don't think Kaplan is.

I've never heard of Focus and I've been prepping for a while...in general it is best to stick with well-known names.

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:45 pm

GMAT Focus is a GMAC product - it's new (launched in March or April), but it's from the official source.

I've mostly heard good things so far about GMAT Focus - it contains the most recently retired real test questions, and the test includes some basic explanations (better than GMATPrep!). It also gives you some analysis about your performance in different areas.

Some people have thought it was a bit expensive (I think it's $25 for 24 questions). Certainly you can get many more questions for the money from OG. Check out www.gmatfocus.com for additional info.

Agree with bilko on the paper tests. Fine for practicing individual questions or putting together your own sets of questions, but don't take it as a full test and expect your CAT experience to be similar. The structure and scoring of the two tests are very different.

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Giorgio: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 182; Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:55 am; Thanked: 11 times

by Giorgio » Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:15 pm

Stacey Koprince wrote:GMAT Focus is a GMAC product - it's new (launched in March or April), but it's from the official source.

I've mostly heard good things so far about GMAT Focus - it contains the most recently retired real test questions, and the test includes some basic explanations (better than GMATPrep!). It also gives you some analysis about your performance in different areas.

Some people have thought it was a bit expensive (I think it's $25 for 24 questions). Certainly you can get many more questions for the money from OG. Check out www.gmatfocus.com for additional info.

Agree with bilko on the paper tests. Fine for practicing individual questions or putting together your own sets of questions, but don't take it as a full test and expect your CAT experience to be similar. The structure and scoring of the two tests are very different.

Hi Stacey.

What would you say about the level of difficulty of these questions? are they comparable to the difficulty of OG questions?

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:55 pm

GMAT Focus is adaptive, so the difficulty level you experience will be whatever you can earn while you're taking it.

Multiple sources have told me they think GMAT Focus is on the harder / more sophisticated side than OG (again, if you earn them). That was my experience as well.

So, I'd say:
1) don't do GMAT Focus at the start; wait till you feel like you've made a lot of progress
2) make sure you're well-rested and ready to BTG! when you sit down to do a GMAT Focus section

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Giorgio: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 182; Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:55 am; Thanked: 11 times

by Giorgio » Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:50 pm

Stacey Koprince wrote:GMAT Focus is adaptive, so the difficulty level you experience will be whatever you can earn while you're taking it.

Multiple sources have told me they think GMAT Focus is on the harder / more sophisticated side than OG (again, if you earn them). That was my experience as well.

So, I'd say:
1) don't do GMAT Focus at the start; wait till you feel like you've made a lot of progress
2) make sure you're well-rested and ready to BTG! when you sit down to do a GMAT Focus section

Stacey , Thank you for your response about GMATFocus.

What can you say about Paper tests? I've just tried to do one of them and I've seen huge overlap with OG 10 11 12 ...

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:53 pm

I mentioned what I thought above, so I'll just cut and paste here

Agree with bilko on the paper tests. Fine for practicing individual questions or putting together your own sets of questions, but don't take it as a full test and expect your CAT experience to be similar. The structure and scoring of the two tests are very different.