How far off is Kaplan?

[medea66]

Hi everyone,

Yes, in many of the posts you have already mentioned that Kaplan's algorithm is skewed and downgrades your score. But what is the approximation of this "downgrade"?

I am currently in the process of completeing a Kaplan classroom course and have noticed that my scores have slipped. As a matter of fact, my score goes down each time I take one of their CATs. I am only two weeks away from completing the course, do all my homework, attend and pay attention in class, and look over my mistakes. The score should not progressively get worse each time I take it.

Score reporting as follows:

480 (diag)
550 CAT1
480 CAT2
440 CAT3

I am hoping to get a score in the high 600 range. When I took my first CAT, that goal seemed like a reality. However, that reality is slowly fading away. I take the GMAT at the end of May, so I don't have much time to keep slipping up like this. I feel beated and defeated, please help.

[simplyjat]

Don't look at the combined score in Kaplan. Pay close attention to the individual scores in Quant and Verbal. I recently scored 680 in Kaplan with Q 50 and V 38. The total was 680. But I know that Q50 V38 means 720~730 in actual GMAT.

Although I accept that the Kaplan questions are one of the toughest in the bread, whole Kaplan GMAT 800 book consists of questions from Kaplan CATs, they teach you a lot if you are ready to learn. The only reason that your scores are declining is that you are not learning from your past mistakes. I suggest you spent some time and review your past mistakes in Kaplan CATs.

[mayonnai5e]

I can't speak to the Kaplan algorithm because I never took any of those cats; however, I have read from other posts that you can generally add about 100 points to your score to get a more realistic idea.

As for your falling scores and how to work your way back, can you tell us how you've been studying aside from attending classes and doing the necessary homework?

You may want to read my blog and/or do a search for resilient's posts as he has been fairly methodical with his approach to his prep after getting a lot of advice from the more experienced members of this forum. His longest thread can be found here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/adventures-o ... t9416.html

[medea66]

Recently I have taken the GMAT PREP 1 and only managed to score a 520. I am now reviewing all the questions that I got wrong and performing them again. I will attempt to retake this test to see by how much I improved, if anything.

Also, I am doing the online HW problems over again so that I have these things ingrained into my head. I am also going to be looking at OG problems(after ques. 100). Hopefully this will help me.

I have less than 2 weeks to study for the GMAT now and am looking for a score in the high-600 range. Until then, I will also try to take a practice test per day, without the AWA section of course. Hopefully doing so will allow me to learn more question types and get more into the habbit of pacing.

Any thoughts?

[mayonnai5e]

As I've said to other's on this forum, you need to give yourself time to determine your mistakes, learn from them, discover ways to avoid making the same mistakes then apply them with practice. Doing a practice test each day sounds like a good idea, but is actually counterproductive. You will be taking so many tests, running so many statistics, looking at so many errors that you will likely not have the time nor the focus to learn from your mistakes and apply them in practice.

Exposing yourself to more and more tests may help with pacing, but you can do that also by just doing practice problems timed. I suggest taking only as many tests as you can afford while giving yourself ample time to create lessons learned from the questions you have missed and really apply these lessons. Just because you have discovered your mistakes and created a lesson learn does not mean you will be able to apply them immediately under stressful test conditions.