Practice vs Reality

[Jennszoo]

How did your practice tests jive with the real scores? I am sort of expecting around a 50 pt drop on test day, because my stress level will be higher and because I havent been doing the AW with my practices, so I expect some fatigue after an hr of writing.

[tarski]

I lucked out on verbal and got 20 points higher than my best practice. My math was right in the middle of a range of practices. (powerprep)

[JerryLandis]

Every practice test (and the actual test too) I took resulted in a completely different score. I think it just depends on the person, really, how predictable scores are. I did a bit lower than I expected to on the official test, but that was probably because I couldn't sleep the night before, was stressed, didn't get lucky in my questions, etc. That said, I didn't bomb the test, and I found myself surprisingly energized by adrenaline I guess the whole way through (didn't want to take my breaks, would have preferred to plough on through after the essays). I'd say not to bother too much about predicting your score, and focus more about memorizing the material and strategies. I think the greatest benefit about practice tests is not calculating a score, but familiarizing oneself with the questions and time constraints. Good luck!

[keylimekai]

the highest I scored on verbal practice was 640, and I was averaging about 600. Got a 690 on the real test!

[dzk]

All of my friends scored higher on the real thing than their practice.

I, on the other hand, scored a whopping 250 points lower than my expected score (was aiming for 700V/800Q, got 610V/640Q). It was just a terrible day. Obviously, I'm retaking it... the drop in verbal would have been fine with me, since I do have some big variation there, but that quantitative drop is just totally unacceptable considering I was a freakin' math major before I switched to neuro.

[swisnieski]

I took a powerprep test two days and one day before the real thing. I scored 30 points higher on the Verbal than I did on either practice test (710 both times, actual score was 740).

I scored markedly higher on the quant. than I did on either of the practice tests. I scored 720; on the two practice tests I had gotten a 620 and 670 on the first and second tests, respectively. Curiously, the 720 was higher than I had ever gotten on any practice test for the GRE ever; the best I had ever done with the PRinceton Review tests was 700, and that was a test I had taken multiple times already! Something about being in the testin environment actually improved my performance; I was able to recall the formula for calculating the slope and intercept of a line even though I hadn't studied it for 2+ years.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

My actual score was slightly higher than my practice tests. I went in expecting 600s verbal and 700s math, and ended up getting 710V 770Q. My advice is practice the writing. I didn't at all and probably could've done better than a 4 if I had practiced harder beforehand.

But honestly, I liked getting the AW out of the way. Then all my adrenaline was utilized for the other two (probably more important) sections.

[joro]

My real quant score was 60 points higher than the practice, but my real verbal score was 40 points lower than the practice. As far as the writing is concerned. I memorized a template for both parts and just did it that way. My writing score was a 4.5.

[captiv8ed]

My Verbal was on the low end of my practice test range on the Powerprep tests.

My quantitative was 200 points lower than my practice test scores

[ilovedogs]

Practice tests I was scoring 570-620 Verbal and 750-780 Quant (Powerprep), actual scores 620 Verbal and 700 Quant. Maybe I was just unlucky with the Quant section but I found most of the actual test questions a lot more complicated and time consuming than the practice. I wasn't able to finish the section. My lesser performance probably also had a lot to do with how stressed I was and fatigue. Verbal difficulty was exactly in line with the Powerprep I thought.

[DrFaustus666]

I took the (real) test five years ago and got 800-V and 680-Q with NO PREPARATION AT ALL.

I took the (real) test again a month ago and 640-V and 560-Q. Needless to say I was/am shocked and distressed. I've bought the Kaplan, Barron's, ETS, and Princeton Review books, and used Powerprep. My verbals are all 700+ with test materials, but my quantitative has been anywhere from 480 to 710. I am totally confused and bewildered.

DOES ANYBODY KNOW ANY RELIABLE --- EMPHASIS ON RELIABLE -- WAY TO PREDICT ONE'S SCORE BEFORE TAKING THE TEST?

Any help appreciated.