<p>For those of you who've taken the GRE, what practice tests (Kaplan, PowerPrep, PR, etc.) were the best and worst predictors of your actual score? By how much? My Kaplan practice test scores are significantly different (lower) than my PowerPrep scores by about 300 points!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>PowerPrep was bang on for me.</p>
<p>PowerPrep was right on for me too.</p>
<p>PowerPrep was 10 points high on the Math and 50 points low on the Verbal for me, but in between my PowerPrep test and my real test I learned about 400 words, which probably accounted for the increase. In general I agree with other posters that PowerPrep is very very close.</p>
<p>Powerprep was 720 for my quant / actual was 750
Powerprep was 740 for my verbal / actual 640</p>
<p>My actual verbal may be artificially low, though. ETS sent me a letter saying that there may have been a problem with the questions the test was giving me, so I can get a free retake.</p>
<p>As for Kaplan. Quant was ridiculous. The graphs Kaplan used were so ugly and hard to read that I wasted way too much time on them and got lower scores. The actual (and Powerprep) graphs are much clearer and easy to read. However, 300 points does seem a bit dramatic. My difference was more or less around 100 to 150.</p>
<p>I'm glad someone else thinks that the Kaplan graphs are horribly made. I can only hope that nothing like that shows up on the actual test.</p>
<p>lol....I actually thought Kaplan's tests were good. Both kaplan and powerprep were more or less spot on.</p>
<p>Oh never mind I meant Barrons. They're the ones with unreadable graphs where you can't tell if it means 38 or 40 etc and it affects the outcome of the problem. AND there's no consistency to it like always overestimating or underestimating with their graphs.</p>
<p>Practice tests were all a bit optimistic.
There is really no preparation for those coral reef articles and the ensuing doom.</p>
<p>Don't forget, the point of the test is to figure out the tricks and gimmicks of the testmakers (much more than the learning the information itself). So don't get so caught up trying to predict your score; instead, focus on learning their manners by taking plenty of pretests and focusing on "when they ask for this, what they want is this..."</p>
<p>
[quote]
I really wouldn't worry about your performance on PowerPrep, or Kaplan, because the makers of the test (ETS) are the only ones who really know the algorithm that helps determine your score on the test.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Isn't PowerPrep made by ETS?</p>
<p>I used three for the GRE: PowerPrep, Kaplan, and Princeton Review. I can tell you that if you study with just PowerPrep and Kaplan in conjunction, that is sufficient. </p>
<p>Kaplan tends to be more difficult than the others. Princeton Review is not as good IMO because there are too many paper tests and not enough emphasis on taking tests on the computer. Kaplan has many tests you can use and allows for greater online resources. </p>
<p>stats: (780Q/760V/5)</p>
<p>What Joel418 said above is one of the key points, IMHO. That said, PowerPrep was bang on for me as well.</p>
<p>kaplan verbal 620. actual 780.</p>
<p>didn't practice the quant.</p>
<p>Powerprep for me...</p>
<p>Predicted (Q/V): 780/710</p>
<p>Actual (Q/V): 800/640</p>
<p>I wish I would've done better on the verbal; a 640 was 91st %tile, but a 710 would've been quite impressive, as it's substantially harder than the quantitative.</p>
<p>Also, something should be said for the state one gets in when taking the actual test. I scored poorly on Kaplan; they are harder than the GRE but not by much...I think the actual difference can be accounted for more in the state of mind one is in when they are taking the GREs. For instance, before the GRE's I pulled an all-nighter (unable to sleep) and watched the I.T. Crowd. Before the test, my stomach was churning and I felt like I was shaking, and probably was doing so visibly. Pale, heart-pounding, clammy hands, dry mouth, the whole shebang. My brain was nervous and thanks to evolution it was preparing me to run from something with sharp teeth and claws. </p>
<p>Once I began the test, that all fell away almost immediately. I completed the writing sections with ten minutes to spare, it's surprisingly easy. The brain hyperfocuses. When everything is quiet and you're not pacing about, you're still nervous but there is a different physiological response. This is apparently due to the need for absolute focus when we were hunter gatherers engaged in hunting. This isn't something I knew before going into the test--the first reading section was about the physiology of stress. Humorous. Anyway, know that you're not going to be able to calm yourself down but take comfort in the notion that once you're taking the test, everything else will probably fall away.</p>
<p>^ It is like that with all exams for me. I am a mess beforehand, usually, unless I'm fairly confident, but even then, you start feeling like everything is fleeting your mind, esp if it is a lot of memory work. But as soon as it starts, I'm SO focused and everything comes to me, well, everything I knew at least. I love that state, that 'hyperfocused' state.</p>
<p>I only practiced with Kaplan. Took a practice test two nights before the exam and it predicted my score perfectly (800Q/590V).</p>
<p>I took the free online Kaplan test a couple of days before my real GRE and scored a 660 V/690 Q(roughly 90th percentile and 60th percentile respectively), but when I took the real thing I received a 510 V/780 Q. Essentially, my percentiles flipped. </p>
<p>I’ve thought of a few explanations. </p>
<p>1) I know I have test anxiety when it comes to reading comp. When I studied for the LSAT, I would literally go from missing 3-4 questions on the critical reading section to 17-19 depending on my nerves. I was really relaxed when I took the Kaplan GRE because I finished each section 10 minutes early and I was being very carefree with my response, whereas on the real thing I was doubting and double-checking my responses, which led to me guessing a lot at the end of both sections to catch up.</p>
<p>2) I studied Kaplan’s 500 flashcards (and by studied, I mean knew them by heart) , and I wonder if Kaplan overrepresented those terms in the analogies/antonyms/sentence completions. When I took the real exam, I kept running into words that I didn’t know. I also ran into a lot of words that I knew, but I couldn’t really figure out a relationship between, which had never really happened to me before on the Kaplan exam and the Barron practice CD I was using (On Barron, the best score I received was a 750 V and 790 Q, but I don’t think it’s legit because I used it about 4 times and the some of the questions were recycled between exams. Kaplan’s words showed up quite a bit on Barron’s exams as well.).</p>
<p>3) Maybe my test anxiety lends itself better to quant and screws me on verbal and when I’m more relaxed I get screwed the other direction. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’m wondering if I should retake the exam, but if Kaplan’s free online test isn’t a good representation of my verbal score then it might be futile. I guess I could try to get another reading from Powerprep. </p>
<p>Has anyone else experience large fluctuations like that between practice tests and the real test?</p>
<p>amidoomed the same thing happened to me</p>
<p>Kaplan Predicted (Q/V): 590/550</p>
<p>Actual (Q/V): 680/390!</p>
<p>Yes, I’m retaking it. I was fatigued by the time I reached the verbal section and I believe that it showed through my score. The kicker is I believed, and still do, that the verbal section should be my strong point.</p>