GMAT Strategy

Guys,

How reliable/close is the Kaplan diagnostic ?
Any past experiences...

TIA

The Kaplan diagnostic test isn't really that accurate, I believe. I can guarantee that your score is actually something like 50 points below what you should expect, but I've noticed this for the diagnostic only. The other tests have a certain degree of reliability (or at least they did in my case - not everyone will agree though).

My experience with the Kaplan diagnostic was... meh... I remember getting an outrageous score in quant (something like 41 or 44), even though I'd only made 3 mistakes, all very apart. I took another Kaplan test and score 53 with the same number of mistakes, so it's obvious to me that at least the quant score it scaled down.

Most people argue that this is because Kaplan is trying to get people in their programs and I tend to agree with that. At the end of the day, you'll surely be upset to see such a low score...

I just wrapped up the online Kaplan practice CAT; I scored a 680 (44V, 42Q).

I've studied for around 75 hours in the past month, and that score is actually 10 points less than the GMATPrep1 test I took cold.

Can anyone else who has scored around 680 on the Kaplan test offer what they scored on the GMATPrep tests - or on the real thing?

Heh... I scored 690 in Kaplan diagnostic, but also scored 760 twice on the GMATprep software... I ended up with a 770 on the real thing.

DanaJ wrote:Heh... I scored 690 in Kaplan diagnostic, but also scored 760 twice on the GMATprep software... I ended up with a 770 on the real thing.

What was your break down on Kaplan and breakdown on the real thing.

I took 5 Kaplan tests:

Kaplan free online: 690 (46q, 41v)
Kaplan 1: 730 (53q, 41v)
Kaplan 2: 730 (55q, 36v)
Kaplan 3: 800 (55q, 55v)
Kaplan 4: 740 (55q, 42v)

On the real thing I got 770, with 50q and 47v. As you can see, the diagnostic test is my lowest score of the lot.