How accurate are GRE practice tests scores?

[daydreamer254]

I've taken four GRE practice tests and the scores have been in the 140 range, but I was wondering if these scores are an accurate prediction to what I'll actually receive on the real test.

In case you were wondering, I took a ETS, Kaplan, and two Princeton ones.

[Darth.Vegan]

I imagine the ETS ones are pretty accurate. I know the free Kaplan practice is intentionally more difficult but I don't know anything about the Princeton ones. I think you can expect that they will be a pretty close predictor for the most part. It's not unheard for people to do better though. I've seen people say on here that they thought the verbal questions on the real test were more straight forward than most of the practice ones they had seen. Keep in mind, some people also do worse.

[Willows]

ETS was the closest to my actual scores as compared to the other online exams I took. However, I scored several points higher on the real test on the verbal and a few higher on the quant. Princeton Review was the least accurate in predicting my scores -- underestimating my score by 8-10 points on the new scale (which is a fair amount).

Edited October 6, 2012 by Willows

[chaetzli]

I did worse (3-6 points lower than predicted by the practice tests)

[pemdas]

swisschocolate

your consistent posts on gre topics make me to think that you made up your mind about repeat test. Is that true? do you plan to take gre again?

[chaetzli]

... I did it 4 times (well one try does not count as my computer crashed during the test). So the answer is: no, I definitely won't retake it.

[alf10087]

In the real test on Quant I had a better score than all of the Kaplan tests, by 2-4 points. In verbal the difference ranged from 2 to 8 lower in practice tests.

Princeton was volatile: with the same score on one and 8 points lower on the other one in Quant. Verbal was 10 points lower than the real deal.

Manhattan was very close. I did 6 of their exams and on 4 the Quant score was exactly the same, and verbal was always lower but only by 1 or 2 points.

ETS was the only test that gave me higher results on Quant than what I actually got. Both Powerprep tests gave me a score 2 points higher. On Verbal one score was 2 points lower, the other one was the same I got.

Of course, it all depends on which moment of your study calendar you take the tests, as they reflect your progress.

[iowaguy]

ETS Powerprep II 2nd computer practice test was very accurate for me. Took it 1 week before the real deal, practice test score 168V/169Q, actual test score 168V/168Q. I think verbal can vary quite a bit depending on the vocab of the particular test that you happen to take, on my actual test I was lucky to know all the "hard" words except for a couple...

[ChristianaCA]

I took four of the Princeton ones...and did about 10% worse on the actual exam. I attribute that to anxiety. The Powerprep software simulated the exam style, look and functionalty quite well so when I took the test all of that was familiar.

All the best