How Accurate is the GRE Powerprep Software?

[mustekke6184]

Oh really impressive info for me, Kaplan took my couple of months and often made me indulge stress related to giving up with GRE because I believe that it sounds beyond my capacity. I have already bought one Barron upon your suggestion given to any friend and hopefully will help me more. I will also try to work with Manhattan GRE. Let me give one and half months and see what will happen.... Stay in Peace

[mapache]

if you go thru old posts under GRE/GMAT, you'll find that dozens of people have all come to the same conclusions:

1---powerprep is the best predictor of your real score; and

2---the various commercial practice tests, i.e., kaplan, princeton, barron, peterson, et al ALL give you a LOWER score than your real score. It IS demoralizing and even cynical in my opinion---their motive is to recruit you into their prep classes

john

My scores were as follows:

Power Prep AVG: 768V/763Q

Actual GRE: 670V/800Q

In my opinion, pretty good indicator but just like everything else, its not perfect. I will say I had a very bad episode on my second Powerprep test, I scored a 660V/630Q and I wigged out a bit, but I rushed through that particular test because I had just wrapped up the NOVA math prep and I was chomping at the bits. My advice is go slow and pay attention especially on the quant., I scored really high by taking my time and guessing on the last 6 or 7; much higher in fact than rushing and not checking my work with the intent of finishing the test with time remaining.

The Quant seemed about the same level of difficulty as the Powerprep. The verbal was much harder but I think its all about the luck of the draw.

John is correct, Kaplan, 800score, etc. all score you lower especially on the quantitative. 800score is a really difficult test to finish in 45 min., but not really a difficult test in and of itself. My advice is to use it but don't try to finish it in 45 min. unless you are Max Planck's great grandson. Also try the Manhattan GRE online test for practice but again don't put too much stock into the time limit.

Good Luck!

[ps33]

PowerPREP scores:

Test 1: 720V 580Q

Test 2 (taken 2 weeks later) 680V 740Q

Actual (i just took it today)

710V 700Q

PowerPREP was by far the best indicator of final score. Don't waste your time and money on the test prep companies or their strategies.

[leesta]

Like the others, I'd say Powerprep as well. The Kaplan CAT's not bad either.

Powerprep #1: 530V, 630Q

Powerprep #2: 670V, 780Q (did a LOT of studying in between these two tests)

Kaplan: 670V, 730Q

Actual: 720V, 710Q

[gellert]

I think the practice math was a little more difficult than the actual test, and the verbal generally a little easier than the real thing.

Edited November 21, 2011 by gellert

[e i j i]

Powerprep was a fairly accurate for me as well. I scored V 610/Q 730 and V 610/Q720 on the Powerprep exams. For my actual scores I got V 660/Q 790. Personally, I think the quantitative seemed considerably easier for the actual exam; verbal was about the same difficulty.

[Timshel]

okay, I am going to sound like an idiot, but how do you get the powerprep tests? I have taken the GRE twice and didn't know anything about any free powerprep tests that give accurate ideas of scores. No wonder I haven't been doing well on the tests......lol

[CooCooCachoo]

okay, I am going to sound like an idiot, but how do you get the powerprep tests? I have taken the GRE twice and didn't know anything about any free powerprep tests that give accurate ideas of scores. No wonder I haven't been doing well on the tests......lol

http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2

It's the first thing that comes up when Googling Powerprep Additionally, my version of Barron's comes with a CD-rom that includes the software.

[svf25]

I took the GRE revised general test on monday August the 1st. Two days before I did the POWERPREP II practice test and my score ranges were:

QR: 750-800

VR: 450-550

Those scores were exactly the same that I got at the end of the actual test session.

English is not my first language and VR scores are not that important for the program that I am applying to, so hopefully with a score of 4.0 or so on the AW part I will be on my way to grad school.

[grimmiae]

This is so relieving to hear, I wasn't doing too great on the Kaplan practice tests- around 650 give or take a little. Powerprep here I come.

[orst11]

I would say Powerprep was fairly accurate. I did slightly better on the verbal then the software estimated and slightly worse on the quantitative then Powerprep estimated. The overall estimated score on test day though was almost exactly what Powerprep estimated.

I have multiple computers and installed it on two of them and therefore I took 2 different practice tests. That's the only thing I used for test prep simply because I couldn't afford anything else.

I did have one of the AW sections graded and paid for that, so I am hoping that is fairly accurate as well. Overall, I guess I will know in November.

[tweeter]

The Powerprep software is great. It's just like taking the real test and the score is very close.

I took a Princeton Review class and they had their own test prep software online. The questions were similar, but the presentation was completely different. The Powerprep software is far better for preparing because it gets you used to the horrible, 1990's interface.

[HmhGavin]

Many had claimed that the powerprep is fairly accurate, and so I really don't understand why my actual verbal score is way off:

PP1: 580-680 V, 750-800 Q

PP2 (taken about a month later): 680-780 V, 720-800 Q

The real test: 460-560 V, 700-800 Q.

I'm really baffled by the 120-220 verbal gap--that's a really huge one, especially after making a marked improvement in a month time. I didn't do anything differently, and I knew all of the strange words. In fact, I finished about 5 minutes early, and so had the chance to double check my work. Has this strange thing ever happened to anybody? I've been replaying the whole test in my head a few times now, and could only find about 3-5 mistakes in each section....

I'm going to retake the revised GRE in two months, but fear that the scores won't change, i.e. it wasn't a fluke. I now have two months to prepare instead of one.... Would you share how you prepared for the test and what book you used to do better in the verbal section?

[speculum]

I just took the Powerprep and thought I was doing terribly but my score was:

620-720 Q

680-780 V

My question is: how could I get 16 wrong on the Quant and 8 on the Verbal and still have a decent score? It seems too good to be true...

[resource]

Powerprep II:

750-800 Verbal

750-800 Quant

Revised GRE:

730-800 Verbal

750-800 Quant

Overall, my real verbal section was (significantly) harder than Powerprep II, and I felt that the real Quant was on par (and perhaps even easier) than Powerprep II.

[Kitkat]

With me it was

PowerPrep II:

630-730 V, 730-800 Q

Actual:

740-800V, 740-800Q

So with the quant score fairly accurate, with the verbal less so but in a good way. I think that it is in the luck of the draw on what you get with the verbal, the words I got on the actual I happened to be more familiar with then the ones on the practice. But I think on the actual, I got a harder second section, and verbal was also my 'extra' section. So not so sure about that.

[July_Hunter]

I took the powerprep test while I was a little tired.

Scored around 150 pts higher than the pretest on the actual thing.

[Khayzuran]

I thought Powerprep had some sentence completions/equivalence questions that felt like they were still beta versions, and sometimes none of the given choice really fit comfortably. But on the actual test the questions were better written and the right answers stood out, so that made things easier.

[blaspheming]

Powerprep II:

620-720V

740-800Q

Actual:

670-770V

680-780Q

[Jonhecht89]

I took the GRE last year. Powerprep 800V, 750Q. Actual 740V, 770Q. In defense of powerprep on the V, I knew the words but got really nervous because it seemed too easy and started second guessing myself.