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Reliability of practice tests


2013grad

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Just to know, when you guys talk about the PR tests, are you talking about the ones on the printed book (Cracking the GRE, 2013)? Or the ones they have on the website?.

I just finished covering the PR book, and did awful on both quantitative sections of the printed tests (29/40 on the first, 28/40 on the second). I felt they were pretty intense, and the race against time was complicated.

I would try the online tests, but I'd rather keep on studying on print with Kaplan and McGraw Hill, and when I'm done, give a shot at them, as I believe they best resemble the test's actual conditions.

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Just to know, when you guys talk about the PR tests, are you talking about the ones on the printed book (Cracking the GRE, 2013)? Or the ones they have on the website?.

I just finished covering the PR book, and did awful on both quantitative sections of the printed tests (29/40 on the first, 28/40 on the second). I felt they were pretty intense, and the race against time was complicated.

I would try the online tests, but I'd rather keep on studying on print with Kaplan and McGraw Hill, and when I'm done, give a shot at them, as I believe they best resemble the test's actual conditions.

I took both of the Cracking Online tests and they're strange. They only have 20 questions per section instead of 25 like it would be on the actual test. I'm assuming because they're gonna be rated differently in difficulty so they can extrapolate results from that but it doesn't seem like a true prep for the real test if you're missing 5 questions.

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Just to know, when you guys talk about the PR tests, are you talking about the ones on the printed book (Cracking the GRE, 2013)? Or the ones they have on the website?.

I used the ones that came with their online course content, which were much better than the ones in any book (they looked just like the actual test, and were in the same format as far as number, etc.). Of course, I had to take one of their courses in order to get these--I took the course last fall, but after I tanked my first exam (due to low blood sugar--long story, but got approval for snacks the second time), I paid a bit more to re-access all the course materials. I found the online course stuff waaaay better than trying to study from books, since the actual exam is all computer.

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Anyone take Manhattan tests online? Do you know how they compare to the actual? I don't know how they scored me to be 157 verbal when I only got half the questions right. The second section was not harder but they did omit easy questions.

I like Kaplan's but I don't know if it's worth the extra $20 I have to spend on practice exams when I already have 6 from Manhattan from buying one of their books.

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They only have 20 questions per section instead of 25 like it would be on the actual test.

As far as I know there are actually 20 questions (that's what every book I've read said). Where did you get the 25 number?.

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They say "approximately" 20 questions in the Princeton book and give 20 on the online test. They also give 20 on the free online test for Manhattan Prep. However, they give 25 in the Gruber practice tests and 25 in the official ETS practice tests.

Anyone?

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For the actual GRE, it looks like the paper-based test has 25 questions, but the computer-based test, which applies to most if not all of us, is 20 questions. This would explain why the number of questions are different in practice books. They're staying consistent with the number of questions you would find on paper.

http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about/content/cbt/

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I did not do well on ETS's test in their first edition book. I didn't actually take it on paper though (so I wasn't able to mark on the test to help things). I used my computer.

How did you guys do?

When you say the "first edition book," do you mean the free online workbook? My score was actually better in the free workbook. Have you taken other practice tests?

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For the actual GRE, it looks like the paper-based test has 25 questions, but the computer-based test, which applies to most if not all of us, is 20 questions. This would explain why the number of questions are different in practice books. They're staying consistent with the number of questions you would find on paper.

http://www.ets.org/g...ut/content/cbt/

Thank you for clearing that up! Wonder why the paper ones are longer...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you for clearing that up! Wonder why the paper ones are longer...

I think they are longer because they aren't "adaptive." I would assume that they maybe need a larger question pool to give a good variety of different question difficulty since the test can't adapt to how you did on the first section. I could be wrong, but that's my thought.

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I just finished taking the second Kaplan test on their website (the first one I do). My score was 160Q, 154V. A few days ago I made the first Manhattan Online test and scored 159Q, 159V.

I'm a little sad as I was scoring closer to 160 in Verbal and closer to 165 in QR in some other tests (namely, PR's and the one printed on the ETS official guide).

I still have many exams left to go, including the Powerprep ones, but I'm just amazed at how difficult some of the questions on that Kaplan test were.

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I had one Kaplan that I completely BOMBED, and it was so far below my other scores, I just ignored it. It was like... 10 points lower on quant than normal. It's amazing, the difference between some of the exams...

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I had one Kaplan that I completely BOMBED, and it was so far below my other scores, I just ignored it. It was like... 10 points lower on quant than normal. It's amazing, the difference between some of the exams...

That definitely cheered me up.

+10 internetz for you :)

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  • 1 year later...

Hello everyone,

You can check the correct answer and find more Quant and Verbal questions on the GMAT Practice Test at GMAT Sample Questions


Soon you will also be able to practice for the Integrated Reasoning section as well with the same practice test. Score and explanations for the right answers are available immediately after you complete the test.
 

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