Powerprep accuracy?

[gomeperez]

I just finished the first Powerprep practice test and I scored really high on the quantitative sections getting only 3 answers wrong (166Q), so I was wondering if these practice tests actually reflect the potential scores that would get in the real deal?

Is the real exam harder than the Powerprep tests?

[alf10087]

I had 166Q on both Powerprep tests (with 3 wrong in each) and got 164Q in the real one.

[gomeperez]

Sounds good, did you think that the real test was about the same difficulty as the powerprep tests?

[iowaguy]

I scored 169Q on the 2nd Powerprep test and 168Q on the actual GRE test. The real exam, IMHO, is only harder because it is such a pressured environment. It's easier to score high at home sitting at your computer all relaxed drinking your cup of coffee, perhaps taking longer breaks, not doing the entire 4 hour test including writing at one sitting, not having to wake up early & drive to the test center in traffic, not having the person sitting next to you in the test center distracting you with their typing/perfume/movements, etc) than it is at an unfamiliar test center with all the unfamiliar variables involved...

The nice part about the Powerprep tests is that they look & feel like the real GRE test does. I noticed practically no difference between the Powerprep & the real thing in how they appeared on the screen, which is very nice & which is a big benefit to the Powerprep tests.

If you scored a 166Q on the practice, you'll do just fine on the real deal. Your test-taking abilities under pressure (and the luck of the draw as to which "hard" questions you get) will likely determine exactly where you end up scoring between 162 and 170...

Edited October 11, 2012 by iowaguy

[MCS_aspirant]

Powerprep is amazingly accurate, in the old format, I scored 1630 (800Q + 630V) on powerprep, and ended up getting 1650 (800Q + 650V) in the read thing.

To me, it appears, if you can keep your nerve under pressure, your real GRE will be somewhat higher than powerprep. If you have a tendency to break down, then you will score lower (real GRE puts on a lot of stress on you compared to a mock test on powerprep, and in my case, the officials at the test center made me feel like they are sending us to a prison).

Anyway, good luck!

[alf10087]

Sounds good, did you think that the real test was about the same difficulty as the powerprep tests?

Definitely harder.

In Quant there were questions about matters that hadn't been covered at all anywhere and of a difficulty level that I hadn't seen. Some pretty harsh sequences, to be specific. They could have been the experimental section though, and I'm talking about 2-3 questions in the whole test.

In Verbal I didn't see any familiar words, and I learned all of the Princeton's Review Hit Parades, the Barron's Essential GRE Words, and Kaplan's Vocabulary.

Not to discourage you, learn all the words you can. It seems to be a matter of luck regarding the pool of words you get.

Also about the pressure, I didn't feel any. I spent the whole 3 months I studied in expectation of how nervous I would be for the test, but after doing about 18 mock tests, I felt so natural doing the tests as I feel when driving or walking. The only difference was the location.

If you take every test seriously (trying to mimic as much as you can the real conditions of the tests, even breaks and food, the pencil and the scratch paper), there is no reason to feel intimidated. It's about the same.

[midnight]

Powerprep is amazingly accurate, in the old format, I scored 1630 (800Q + 630V) on powerprep, and ended up getting 1650 (800Q + 650V) in the read thing.

To me, it appears, if you can keep your nerve under pressure, your real GRE will be somewhat higher than powerprep. If you have a tendency to break down, then you will score lower (real GRE puts on a lot of stress on you compared to a mock test on powerprep, and in my case, the officials at the test center made me feel like they are sending us to a prison).

Anyway, good luck!

Quite honestly, that was the worst part of the tedious GRE test experience for me (well, aside from bombing quant, but that was my fault since I didn't properly review beforehand).

While the people at the center where I took my test were nice enough, I still didn't enjoy being treated like a criminal going through prison intake protocol just so I could have the privilege of sitting for a four-hour exam.

[valkener]

Also about the pressure, I didn't feel any. I spent the whole 3 months I studied in expectation of how nervous I would be for the test, but after doing about 18 mock tests, I felt so natural doing the tests as I feel when driving or walking. The only difference was the location.

Other than powerprep, which practice tests did you take?

[alf10087]

I also took Kaplan (which were also hard), Manhattan (which were the hardest), Princeton Review and McGraw Hill.