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Kaplan Practice test on Oct 22, 2013 10 PM ET

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Kaplan Practice test on Oct 22, 2013 10 PM ET

by KConfused » Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:58 pm
Guys
Have any of you taken the practice test conducted by Kaplan today, the 22nd Oct?

I have and I wanted to know what you make of the difficulty level of the test and the final scoring accuracy.

Share your thoughts.

Oh I, personally, thought the verbal was on the tougher side and the quant section was fairly straight forward.

My scores: 680 85th Percentile ( Quant 49, 85th Percentile ; Verbal 36, 79th Percentile )
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by KConfused » Tue Oct 22, 2013 10:15 pm
I have also recently (last night) taken a free test on The Economist GMAT Tutor. Must say, it just bombed.
They gave me a 600 and a 34 percentile on Quant, which was rather funny because I thought I did fairly well on that section.
Not really sure how their scoring works. At least the scorer was lenient with my Verbal scores ( 41, 94 Percentile)

Thoughts welcome.

Thanks
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by AG7 » Tue Oct 29, 2013 2:43 am
Hi KC,

I took both the tests and had similar scores. Was Kaplan the first ever GMAT you have taken? If it was not, 680 is unlikely to reflect the real score as you would have encountered similar stuff. I don't remember my split, but it was Kap - 730 Economist - 740
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by KConfused » Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:58 am
I've taken GMAT about an year and a half ago. I scored a 680 with a 37V and 47Q split (I'm trusting my memory on this). I plan to attempt GMAT again in the next 30 to 45 days and I thought KapTest was a good place to check where I currently stand.
Critical Reasoning seems to be my pain area. Sigh!!!
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by David@VeritasPrep » Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:51 am
KConfused -

Did you try the new Veritas Prep CAT? The research behind it is based on tens of thousands of responses and has shown to give some pretty accurate results. This will likely give you a better idea of where you stand. You can take one exam for free and if you need more CAT tests later you can purchase 5 more.

The link is here: https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/free-gm ... tice-test/
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by KConfused » Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:13 am
Thanks, Dave!!
I'll soon attempt the VeritasPrep free test. I'm looking for a score in excess of 750 on my Official GMAT. Hope these practice tests from VeritasPrep will help me along. :)
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by [email protected] » Tue Oct 29, 2013 11:36 am
Hi KConfused,

Based on a few things that you mentioned, I thought that I could offer some insight.

Percentiles can vary depending on who's taking the Test and under what conditions. As an example, the percentile from a Kaplan CAT likely won't match the percentiles from the Official GMAT because the "pools" of Test Takers are different. A percentile tells you how your performance measures relative to other Test Takers, NOT how your performance measures relative to the Test. As such, a percentile score can vary significantly. The more relevant scores are the Scaled Scores for the Quant and Verbal section, since those scores tell you how you performed on each section.

Also, it's important to note that practice CATs are "measuring devices"; they don't inherently make you a better Test Taker. The CATs will give you a realistic score and point out your mistakes and problem areas (such as a pacing problem), but taking a CAT won't fix any problems that you have. Taking lots of CATs in a short period of time won't help you either. Proper practice, strategy/tactics and organization are needed to improve, so make sure that you're investing in those areas - THEY can help you to improve.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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by David@VeritasPrep » Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:32 pm
Rich is right -

Practice tests are like track meets and the GMAT is like the Olympics (okay not really, in fact I have written about how the GMAT is not the Olympics since you can take the GMAT every 31 days and the Olympics is only every 4 years). So let's say the GMAT is like a really important track meet!

So, the point is that you do not improve at track meets you test yourself to see how much you have improved. You improve through training.

A score "in excess of 750" would mean 760 or higher, or the 99th percentile. You have set a high goal for yourself!
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by KConfused » Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:54 am
Rich, Dave, Thanks!!
Those were some useful insights into how Gmat works. :)
The last time I studied for GMAT (18 months ago) I scored a 730 on both official GMAT Prep mocks and consistently around the 750 mark on most other samples. Guess, it was one of those cases of having a bad test day (680). This time though, I intend to correct it and achieve my dream score and build myself the best profile I possibly can (since GMAT alone is still in my hands). But it appears that I may have lost touch with the concepts and to an extent the confidence necessary to ace GMAT (the fact that I finish my tests slower than I used to shows this).

But again, Thanks a lot guys!! I feel motivated and this probably would serve as that much needed push to restart my preparation for GMAT.

KC
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Oct 31, 2013 5:58 am
When you were studying the first time around did you take the full test for your practice exams? The full 4 hours?

Did you have some test anxiety for that real test?

Basically either your practice tests overestimated where you were or the actual exam underscored your ability for some reason. It would be good to make sure that your practice tests are as authentic as possible in terms of difficulty and length and that you deal with any lingering test anxiety issues.
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by KConfused » Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:07 am
David,
Interesting you mentioned the full 4 hours. On all of the mocks I've attempted, I chopped off the first hour (AWA 5.0 on 6.0).
But, more than any nerves, it was rather clear to me after the main test, that I may have relied overly on my instincts to guide me through rather than a solid conceptual foundation and practice. I'm trying to address that aspect now and I'm spending considerable time polishing strategies, practicing specific question types (eg. BoldFace questions on CR and Data sufficiency) and reviewing my performance on individual quizzes and mocks.
It seems to be helping already and I'm much more confident and sure through the mocks. All said, there is an immense load of work pending before I hit the 750+ mark consistently.

Thanks
KC
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by David@VeritasPrep » Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:11 am
Try not to chop off that first hour on your CAT practice tests this time around. It makes a difference! And, of course now there is the Integrated Reasoning that was just coming in 18 months ago, so you probably did not attempt it last time. You will want to practice those things on each mock test.

Glad to hear that the studying is already paying off!
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by KConfused » Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:19 am
I'll make sure that from the next mock onward, I'm in the test chair for no less than four hours (weekly once, for the next 6 weeks or so) :)
I follow VeritasPrep GMAT tips on Business Week and I must admit, they are brilliant, all the time.

https://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -questions

Thanks David
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