And I thought I was a quant guy- took my 1st gmat powerprep

[tomslawsky]

OK, so I always "fancied" myself a quant guy. I took my 1st GMAT Poewrprep today in and scored a 700, but the breakdown shocked me:

overall 700

Verbal- 44 (97th) I only missed 4 quant total- #9, 2 of in a row about mid way through the test and I missed the last one. The scoring is BRUTAL here, how does anyone get to 50, it doesnt seem possible. I mean with scoring this harsh, it seems 2 wrong questions will put you i the mid 40's, leaving someone to either score mid 40's or 51 with no inbetween.

Quant 42 (72nd)- shocked here. I have spent ~75% of my prep for the past 6 months here (off and on). I missed 8, some were early. Of the 8, 3 were "silly" mistakes but 5 were fundemental mostly number properties and a combination.

My question is this:

So far, ive used OG 11, and 12 , Kaplan 800 and MGMAT number properties book.
The OG is good but there isnt enough "tough" questions. Kaplan 800 is good for verbal, but the quant is SERIOUSLY lacking. The MGMAT number properties is really deficient, too- so much so, that I was surprised. It is written at the level of a GRE test, not the GMAT. So, what can I use to shore up my number properties, overlapping sets and probability and combinetrics and remainder problems? I really want something thorough but not superfluous. Any suggestions?

By the way, I am using GMAT PowerPrep for now, as I get closer to the test, I will start using the GMATPREP.

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[StaceyKoprince]

FYI - PowerPrep is an old piece of software that does not reflect the actual scoring of the GMAT. GMATPrep does - it was built using the same algorithm.

You list your first category as "verbal" but then say you missed 4 "quant" questions in that section. I'll assume you meant to say verbal there; correct me if I'm wrong.

On verbal, the score pretty much tops out around 46-47 (99th percentile). I know the chart goes up to 51, but you really don't see that. That's just FYI, though - PowerPrep isn't going to accurately reflect the real test because it's not built on the same algorithm.

Re: additional quant questions at a higher level, you can try GMAT Focus (www.gmatfocus.com). These are official questions but they're available online only, in the form of a diagnostic series of questions. It's adaptive, but you can't select certain areas - you just take whatever the algorithm gives you. There should be a number of number properties problems though, just given the nature of the test.

Combinatorics and probability are really not very common; most people see just one or two of these (total, for the two categories combined) on the entire test, so I would rank these areas much lower in terms of priorities. Most people also see only one or two set problems - so *slightly* more common than comb & prob, but not much more so.

If you really want to try finding some very hard questions, you can also try looking through our Challenge Problem Archive, but I should warn you that a lot of those questions are MUCH harder and more computation intensive than what shows up on this test. But I remember some of your earlier posts and know you are going for a much higher goal than most, so perhaps these will be useful for you.

[tomslawsky]

Stacy,
First, thank you for replying and yes, I did mean to say verbal, not quant. As a matter o' fact, the entire post looks loke it was written by someone scoring in the low teans on the GMAT. I get careless when I'm tired. Second, I think since the GMAT hasn't really changed much from ETS to Parson Vue, the GMAT PowerPrep should be pretty accurate, perhaps I would guess somewhere between 30 and 50 DS of the real EXAM? I intend to abuse the 2 tests for all I can wring out of them before moving on to the real thing. Third, if I purchace one of your books, am I entitled to the extra 5 CAT tests, or does the purchase merely allow access to purchase the remainder of these exams? Finally, thanks again.

Oh, I will look throught the archives per your request.
Tom

[StaceyKoprince]

Oh, the questions themselves are still good practice questions, yes. But if you are assessing your PowerPrep results from the point of view of gauging what to expect on the real test (percentages correct and all that) - well, that's not going to help as much, because the algorithm is different. And I don't know what standard deviation to expect from PowerPrep. It's probably still pretty good, but it's definitely not going to be 30 - that's the SD of the official test and practice tests, especially those that aren't built on the identical algorithm (that is, everything but GMATPrep), aren't going to be as good as the official test.

If you purchase a book, you are also getting access to the 6 practice tests - you don't have to pay anything else. I do think there's a time limit - maybe a year. Also, you do get 6 tests, not 5, because the free test uses a different set of questions than the main 6 tests that you can buy.

[tomslawsky]

sweet, maybe the updated numbers properties book mab be worth a look. that seems to be my albatros. thanx

[StaceyKoprince]

you're welcome - good luck!