Veritas GMAT Practice Tests

[alejandrosanroman]

Hello Everyone,

I'm giving the GMAT another shot. I studied for about 3 months last year and scored 510 (41Q and 20v. After taking the test, I changed jobs and stopped stuydying. At the time I was scoring in ranges from 590 to 640 on GMATPrep and Manhattan GMAT practice tests.

About a month ago, I decided to give the GMAT another shot with Veritas Prep On-Demand Course. I started in May and since then I have taken two Veritas Practice tests.
-May 10, 2014, 680 (47Q & 37V)
-June 7, 2014, 680 (47Q & 35V)

I'm a Mexican guy and I do not read as fast in English as in Spanish. My weakest spot on all the sections from the test is Reading Comprehension. I remember from the Actual Test and GMATPrep that the GMAT has usually 4 passages. On both of these Veritas Tests I only got 3 passages, is it normal to get only 3 passages on the actual test? How close are scores on Veritas Tests to the Actual GMAT?

I would appreciate if anyone has any comments on this.

Thanks,
Alejandro

[David@VeritasPrep]

Alejandro -

It is now more common to get 4 passages on the actual exam. If you got 3 passages on the Veritas exam or on the GMATPrep or the actual GMAT they would be longer passages with more questions. This should not make a big difference even if English is not your first language.

Veritas practice test scores are based on millions of responses from test takers. This is how we know what difficulty level a certain question is. The scores are generally a good representation of what level you are at. Lots of research has gone into these exams.

The GMATPrep is still the most accurate since it uses officially retired questions. But the Veritas exams are very good.

I would say that you have likely improved from that 590 to 640 range that you had going before your class!

[alejandrosanroman]

Hi David,

Thank you for your quick response. I just scheduled the GMAT Test for July 21st. I feel confident that with what I'm learning from Veritas Prep I will be able to get a 650+ on the actual test.

Analyzing my results on the two Veritas Test that I have taken, I see that I'm not that consistent on the Verbal.
First Veritas Test, May 10th: 680 (47Q & 37V)
On the Verbal I scored overall: 66%, CR 86%, RC 64%, SC 46%

Second Veritas Test, June 7th: 680 (48Q & 35V)
On the Verbal I scored overall: 68%, CR 63%, RC 58%, SC 85%

Clearly, with the Veritas Program I have improved my Sentence Correction (I felt it while taking the test). I'm a little worried about my drop on Critical Reasoning. I hadn't realized I did that bad on CR until after finishing the test. Would you say its something normal to see this kind of drops?

Thanks,
Alejandro

[David@VeritasPrep]

Clearly, with the Veritas Program I have improved my Sentence Correction (I felt it while taking the test). I'm a little worried about my drop on Critical Reasoning. I hadn't realized I did that bad on CR until after finishing the test. Would you say its something normal to see this kind of drops?

Your CR % dropped from 86% to 63%. It is a small sample size. That means you missed 3 more problems. On the first test you probably got 12 of 14 CR questions right - to get 86%.

On the second test you got 9 out of 14 right, or so. The difference may be that the questions were not as difficult on the first exam because you missed more than half of you sentence correction. The section adapts as a whole so missing sentence correction means less difficult critical reasoning.

That said it is a small sample. Look over CR, take another exam and see where you are!

[alejandrosanroman]

Thanks for your response David.

I will take another practice test on June 21st. I want to the Veritas On-Demand course first. I will let you know how I do.

Kind Regards,
Alejandro

[VivianKerr]

Hi Alejandro,

I just wanted to toss out a suggestion. Make sure you're doing a thorough Error Log for your practice tests and NOT just relying on Veritas Prep's percentage breakdowns.

As a tutor, the questions I'm always asking students are:
-what concepts do you miss the most often?
-WHY?
-what do you need to change to get these CORRECT?

It's all very well and good to know your breakdown is CR 63%, RC 58%, SC 85%, but what I think you should track more specifically is what concepts WITHIN each question-type you're missing. For example, for CR is it Assumption questions, Strengthen, Bolded Statement, Paradox? Could you rank your CR ability from strongest to weakest concept? In RC, can you classify every question you see by question-type and adjust your strategy based on that?

I don't mean to overload you, BUT a lot of my students come to me after doing a course and finding themselves still stuck in "600-land." If you really want to push to the high-600's, I'd do your own spreadsheet Error Log. You might already be doing this, but if not, I'd definitely consider adding it to your Study Plan. E-mail me at [email protected] with "Error Log" in the subject heading and I can send you a free template.

Good luck!

[alejandrosanroman]

Hi David,

I just took my Third Veritas Prep test. I'm almost done with the Veritas On-Demand course. Here's a summary of my practice tests:

All three of them are Veritas Prep:
May 10th - 680 (47Q & 37V)
June 7th - 680 (48Q &35V)
June 21st - 710 (49Q &38V)

This time I ended up guessing the last Question on the Verbal Section. I'm worried about the timing on Reading Comprehension; I got only 3 passages and 13 questions on RC.

Vivian, Thanks for the spreadsheet. I will compare my tests to see what are the common mistakes and focus on those to maximize mi score. I'm taking the official test on July 21st; I think I still have time to improve those mistakes.

Best Regards,
Alejandro

[David@VeritasPrep]

That last exam was an improvement on both Quant and Verbal. Your scores have been consistent and have improved.

You should take a GMATPrep test at this point. This is just to give you another data point.

You appear to definitely be clear of the 590 to 640 range. I would not worry about the timing until you are shown that you need to be worried. Take a GMATPrep test, do your thing, don't be overly worried about 3 versus 4 passages on reading comp, just do your best and see where the timing comes out.

From there we can look at what you need to do.

Congrats on the improvement!

[VivianKerr]

Hey Alejandro,

You may find value in re-evaluating your RC strategy. Most people get bogged with them when they don't know HOW to read them or get lost in understanding all of the details (when there's really only 1-2 "Detail" questions per passage max!). I suggest you read and make a "Passage Map," identifying the Topic, Scope, Function of each Paragraph, Author's Point of View, and Purpose for every passage. You can always go back for confusing details, but the structure has to be understood the first go-round.

Here's how I broke down a sample RC passage: https://gmatrockstar.com/2013/10/31/gmat ... f-the-day/

Notice I did NOT just "summarize" the passage, but rather took focused notes:

Topic: Javan rhino

Scope: ability of rhino to survive

1st chunk: to introduce the endangered Rhino

2nd chunk: to explain why the rhino is endangered & that Viet herd can't survive

3rd chunk: to describe how 1 solution won't work (can't mix the Indo herd - diff. sub-species)

4th chunk: to emphasize that the Indo herd, though protected, might not survive either (lack of food source)

Overall Purpose: to describe the causes of endangerment & challenges facing 2 rhino specie

These notes help me answer ALL OF THE RC QUESTIONS without re-reading!! The only questions I need to re-read for are Detail questions. Pretty neat trick, huh?

Here's another example of RC strategy in action: https://gmatrockstar.com/2014/01/17/gmat ... y-purpose/

Let us know how the CAT goes!

[alejandrosanroman]

Hi David / Vivian

Thanks for all the help you have given me so far. I took a GMATPrep Test this morning as you suggested on your previous posts. My math was consistent. On the Verbal, I got 4 passages (2 short & 2 long) this time around and ended up guessing the last 3 questions which I got 1 right and 2 wrong. I do have to say that I'm on vacation and I was not able to find a quiet place to take the test, so I was a little distracted.

GMATPrep Test results
June 24th 680 (48Q & 35V)

I was surprised to see that my best result was on RC (75% correct) compared to SC (63%) and CR (45%). I am taking the actual test on July 21st and I'm targeting to get at least a 680. What would you recommend I do? Could you please offer me a tip on how to read bit faster? I do realize I have to probably take the Veritas Prep Verbal Lessons once again. Specially the CR Method of Reasoning questions, I forgot how to face these questions.

Should I take another Veritas Practice Test within a couple of weeks? Or should just focus on trying to improve what I already know? What strategy would you suggest I should follow on these 3 weeks before the actual test?

Kind Regards,
Alejandro

[VivianKerr]

Hey Alejandro,

Congrats on the 680 on the GMATPrep -- that's incredibly encouraging! If you know you need a 680 on the actual exam, I'd aim to score a 700+ the remaining GMATPreps.

When you did this CAT, did you do the Error Log? What types of SC, CR, and RC are you consistently getting incorrect?

I think you should step up your RC strategy. It's not *really* about reading "faster"; it's about reading to find the answer to the questions AS YOU READ. If you do this, you spend slightly more time on the passages up front, but you thoroughly understand them, and move through the questions quickly (and efficiently). Even though pacing is an issue, my question is: are you getting ABOVE 90% accuracy when you work with unlimited time? If the answer is no, I don't think you're breaking down the passages, rephrasing the questions based on the Q-type (Detail, Main Idea, Logical Structure, etc.), and writing down predictions.

Feel free to email me again if you'd like an additional resource on Method of Reasoning.

[alejandrosanroman]

Hi Vivian,

Thanks for your helpful insights. I just made a Game Plan for these 3 weeks I have left before I take the test. I thought it would be good to do one last Prep Test a week before the actual GMAT (July 21st).

On the RC, you are correct, I'm not getting 90% accuracy with unlimited time. What do you mean by answering the questions as you read, how do I do this? What do you mean by writing down predications?

Thank you very much for all your help.

Regards,
Alejandro

[[email protected]]

Hi David,


I scored 650 in veritas prep gmat simulator, my query is about if it is fair representation or is it on the easier side as compared to the real GMAT?

From what I understand the official Veritas Prep Practice tests are from a different set than the Veritas prep GMAT simulators!

Thanks in advance

Alejandro -

It is now more common to get 4 passages on the actual exam. If you got 3 passages on the Veritas exam or on the GMATPrep or the actual GMAT they would be longer passages with more questions. This should not make a big difference even if English is not your first language.

Veritas practice test scores are based on millions of responses from test takers. This is how we know what difficulty level a certain question is. The scores are generally a good representation of what level you are at. Lots of research has gone into these exams.

The GMATPrep is still the most accurate since it uses officially retired questions. But the Veritas exams are very good.

I would say that you have likely improved from that 590 to 640 range that you had going before your class!