gmatcats of various brand:anytutor plz suggest?

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any gmat tutor[ianstrike!!??] or student who has come across practice gmatcat tests of more than one company plz suggest me

1.is kaplan hard coz its question are hard or coz its marking is hard.coz most people say that on gmat u wld score around 60-70 more than kaplan

2.r powerprep most close to gmatprep?i also ve done 1000 cr rc and sc and og;so is there any overlap between these two i mean does powerprep have alot of questions from thesesources?

3.other than power prep which test u suggest r closest to gmatprep/real gmat?[and whose tests donn have questions from 1000sc rc cr and og10]

4.how about manhattan sapmle gmatcats?

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cooldude wrote:any gmat tutor[ianstrike!!??] or student who has come across practice gmatcat tests of more than one company plz suggest me

1.is kaplan hard coz its question are hard or coz its marking is hard.coz most people say that on gmat u wld score around 60-70 more than kaplan
Kaplan is difficult because (1) the questions are not written very well and tend to be much harder than the actual GMAT, and (2) the scoring algorithm seems to be biased heavily below what you should actually expect on the real GMAT.
2.r powerprep most close to gmatprep?i also ve done 1000 cr rc and sc and og;so is there any overlap between these two i mean does powerprep have alot of questions from thesesources?
PowerPrep is similar to GMATPrep, but the user interface will look very different. The PowerPrep interface represents what the GMAT used to look like, before 2006. This software does have significant overlap with OG 10, but I don't think there is much overlap with GMATPrep. PowerPrep is certainly the next best thing to GMATPrep.
3.other than power prep which test u suggest r closest to gmatprep/real gmat?[and whose tests donn have questions from 1000sc rc cr and og10]
I really liked the Princeton Review tests. I thought that the questions were pretty good, and I believed that my PR scores were fairly close to what I could actually expect on the real exam.
4.how about manhattan sapmle gmatcats?
Haven't seen the Manhattan GMAT sample tests. I don't hear much mention of them.

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i agree

by aim-wsc » Sat Nov 18, 2006 8:10 am
one more plus point in Marks suggestion is you would start getting used to the real type of GMAT problems (i mean one which GMAC sets) kaplan 's way off style and are tough. hope that helps. :)

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by ianstrike » Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:24 pm
While I think that it's a great idea to re-take GMATprep and PowerPrep multiple times, I think that it's a HUGE MISTAKE to use those tests exclusively.

If you do so, you ROB yourself of the essential experience of encountering a test with ALL NEW questions. Repetition of real GMAC questions is very useful; experiencing NEW questions is extremely important. Don't limit yourself to only taking the same 4 tests OVER AND OVER again.
cooldude wrote:1.is kaplan hard coz its question are hard or coz its marking is hard.coz most people say that on gmat u wld score around 60-70 more than kaplan
Both. Kaplan's questions are tough and their conversion to scaled score is also unforgiving.
beatthegmat wrote: Kaplan is difficult because (1) the questions are not written very well and tend to be much harder than the actual GMAT, and (2) the scoring algorithm seems to be biased heavily below what you should actually expect on the real GMAT.
I have tremendous respect for Eric and think that 99% of what he says is golden. However, I can't agree that the Qs on Kaplan's simulated GMAT CATs are "not written very well."

I've tutored dozens and dozens of GMAT tutoring students. Many of these tutoring sessions have consisted of my going over questions from various CAT tests (GMAC, Kaplan, TPR, 800score.com, etc). There's no question that both Kaplan and TPR's question-writing style can be idiosyncratic. Kaplan's tough, no doubt. But the questions aren't badly worded.

If anyone can find three or more badly worded Kaplan-written questions on a Kaplan CAT and sends them to me, I'll give that student 2 hours of FREE tutoring.

HONESTY DISCLOSURE: I did work for Kaplan for NINE years. (I've been "Kaplan-FREE" since 1998.) I happily worked there but am very glad to have been working on my own these last 8 years. I should also point out that Kaplan screws up big-time periodically. (Yesterday, I found an egregious error in the 5th Edition of Kaplan's GMAT Math Worbook that didn't exist in the 3rd or 4th Editions.) There's LOTS of lousy things that I could say about Kaplan. Badly worded questions wouldn't be among them.
beatthegmat wrote:Haven't seen the Manhattan GMAT sample tests. I don't hear much mention of them.
That's because, as far as I know, Manhattan GMAT doesn't have ANY of their own simulated ADAPTIVE tests. Amazingly, they provide Cambridge CAT exams. While the Cambridge tests are quite useful, they don't taste, smell or feel enough like the real thing.

(The ONLY 3rd party tests that I've seen that come close to appproximating the real thing are from Kaplan and Princeton.)

I'd expect Manhattan GMAT to develop decent simulated GMAT CATs soon though. The smart folks that wrote their excellent books can't possibly believe that the Cambridge simulations are good enough.






Last edited by ianstrike on Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by aim-wsc » Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:36 pm
i love to read your posts Ian :)
why dont guys (all) bump over a thread named GMATprep software... (in strategy section) where i had invited you for some discussion.

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by cooldude » Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:12 am
thnx to everyone for his precious reply

1.so it means that if one wants to buy only two then it shld be kaplan+princeton

2.kaplan question r tough but not different from gmat pattern

3.and if u need additionnal verbal wrkout then gmact verbal wrk out is best?does it overlaps with og10-11?how many questions does it have?

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by beatthegmat » Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:23 am
cooldude wrote:thnx to everyone for his precious reply

1.so it means that if one wants to buy only two then it shld be kaplan+princeton
Kaplan and Princeton are the two best books (besides OG) to start your prep.
2.kaplan question r tough but not different from gmat pattern
Unfortunately, you aren't going to find any test prep material besides OG that matches the question pattern of the actual GMAT. Kaplan questions are tough, and do an okay job (at best) of simulating the actual GMAT. Focus on OG!
3.and if u need additionnal verbal wrkout then gmact verbal wrk out is best?does it overlaps with og10-11?how many questions does it have?
Yes, the OG Verbal book is the best book to purchase for additional verbal practice. It does not overlap with OG11 (or OG10 to the best of my knowledge). Not sure of how many questions it has, but I'm sure there are hundreds.

Best of luck!
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by delfosse » Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:43 am
I would agree that OG is the best for practice, and that PR and GMATPrep have the best practice tests. I am not a fan of Kaplan's tests either. PR was much closer to the real thing for me.