GMAT Prep VS Actual GMAT

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gmatmarch2010: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 28; Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:28 am; Location: Bangalore, India

by gmatmarch2010 » Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:29 pm

Hi All,

I took GMAT Prep 1 without any preparation to analyse my strong and weak areas before hitting the spot. My score is 510, QA - 47, Verbal - 16. I am an average student but really determined to work hard to get a score of 750+.

I have a query regarding the questions asked in actual gmat test. I want to know the standard of difficulty of the actual test compared to GMAT Prep tests.

Thanks in Advance
Gaurav

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:29 pm

papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:54 pm

I have an experience of facing the actual GMAT once. I found that the actual GMAT was much trickier and tougher than the GMATPrep tests in both quants and verbal sections. Some people deny this fact but i strongly felt that actual GMAT is much trickier.
But the good news is GMAT hugely relies only on basics (Be it quants or verbal). The key to do well is to spend some ample time with the basics instead of heading straight to problems.

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gmatmarch2010: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 28; Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:28 am; Location: Bangalore, India

by gmatmarch2010 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:50 pm

thanks a lot buddy.. i took the test only to determine my strong and weak areas. Quant was okay for me as without knowing a single formulae i was able to attempt many questions as most of them were logic based.

Thanks again for clarifying ma doubt.

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jewbagel: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:15 pm; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:730

by jewbagel » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:40 am

I have taken the real gmat twice and i would definitely say the real gmat is a bit harder then gmatprep. The verbal is especially harder on the real gmat. For me, my real gmat vs gmatprep scores were about 20 points lower.

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carllecat: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 131; Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:13 pm; Location: Canada; Thanked: 3 times; GMAT Score:590

by carllecat » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:00 pm

jewbagel wrote:I have taken the real gmat twice and i would definitely say the real gmat is a bit harder then gmatprep. The verbal is especially harder on the real gmat. For me, my real gmat vs gmatprep scores were about 20 points lower.

What about you are more anxious when you take the real test vs a mock one?
I do not believe that the test is much more harder, the situation is just different and the pressure is on during the actual test.

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GMATBootcamp: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 114; Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:57 pm; Thanked: 18 times; GMAT Score:760

by GMATBootcamp » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:18 pm

It's hard to say if the actual test is more difficult than GMAT prep tests from a technical standpoint, but i've heard from numerous students that they felt the actual test was harder.

Nerves and added pressure definitely play a role in your experience on test day, but its also important to remember that the GMAT is computer adaptive. So no matter how well you know the material, you will never feel completely at ease during the exam. The program will continue to give you more and more difficult problems just to assess your ability.

But bottom line, I wouldn't worry about which test is harder. GMAT Prep questions are by far the most representative of what you will see on the actual exam. If you have a solid grasp of the fundamentals, then you should do well on the actual exam.

Paul

Focused GMAT Preparation
www.thegmatbootcamp.com

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