Practice Test Difficulty

[Makushr1]

Hi! I've been studying for the GMAT for about a month. After a week or two of studying, I took a sample test from mba.com. I actually achieved my GMAT score goal on that test, so I was really excited that I could potentially do really well. I went and purchased a Manhattan Sentence Correction book and took one of their 6 practice tests after studying a couple more weeks. I did 50 points worse than my first test! I just took another of their tests and did 40 points better, but still 10 points less than my mba.com test, even with an additional few weeks of studying.

The manhattan tests seem more difficult than the mba.com test. Is that true? If so, which is more similar to the actual GMAT?

Thanks!

[Gurpinder]

Hi! I've been studying for the GMAT for about a month. After a week or two of studying, I took a sample test from mba.com. I actually achieved my GMAT score goal on that test, so I was really excited that I could potentially do really well. I went and purchased a Manhattan Sentence Correction book and took one of their 6 practice tests after studying a couple more weeks. I did 50 points worse than my first test! I just took another of their tests and did 40 points better, but still 10 points less than my mba.com test, even with an additional few weeks of studying.

The manhattan tests seem more difficult than the mba.com test. Is that true? If so, which is more similar to the actual GMAT?

Thanks!

Hey,

MGMAT tests are a bit harder! But thats good because if you can do those then you definitely know your topics.

But you can also try Princeton Review. They are a bit more easier

[Dan@VinciaPrep]

Hi! I've been studying for the GMAT for about a month. After a week or two of studying, I took a sample test from mba.com. I actually achieved my GMAT score goal on that test, so I was really excited that I could potentially do really well. I went and purchased a Manhattan Sentence Correction book and took one of their 6 practice tests after studying a couple more weeks. I did 50 points worse than my first test! I just took another of their tests and did 40 points better, but still 10 points less than my mba.com test, even with an additional few weeks of studying.

The manhattan tests seem more difficult than the mba.com test. Is that true? If so, which is more similar to the actual GMAT?

Thanks!

I wouldn't say that they are harder. However, the quant questions are a little more calculation based rather than logic based. Also, it should be noted that it's usual for score to not increase in a linear way because there are so many different things that can be tested, and so many different things that can go wrong on any given day ( you spend too long on some questions, you don't feel as good etc.. ) What is important is that you do a lot of questions and tests and learn from your mistakes. Even if your score doesn't always improve YOU still are improving, and almost inevitably you'll start doing better (as long as you don't repeat old mistakes, or create new ones like getting so worried that you can focus as the test draws near)

[indiantiger]

quant for MGMAT is tougher more time consuming
verbal of gmat prep is difficult

[OliverTPR]

As part of working with The Princeton Review, I just took the GMATPrep software 6 times and the actual GMAT, in part to evaluate the accuracy of the GMATPrep software. In the experience of our instructors, the software correlates pretty well with the actual exam. I saw two questions exactly duplicated on the real GMAT from the prep software, for example. The difficulty and scoring algorithm also seemed to correlate well.

Taking a test that is harder than the actual GMAT is not necessarily a good thing. The most useful thing for test prep is an accurate simulation of the exam, both in style of questions and in score expectations.

I cannot comment on the Manhatten exams, but I have seen a fairly strong correlation between TPR tests and the actual exam with dozens and dozens of students, as well as myself. We offer a free test online at our website www.princetonreview.com , and I believe several of the tests are included as part of the self-prep books.