21 Nov 07 GMAT Practice Tests - Comparison, Costs and Information

One of the major buzzes in GMAT Community is GMAT Practice tests (or mock tests). Since GMAT is a timed test, these practice tests are a major factor in GMAT Preparation. There is a lot of confusion on how each of these tests compares to actual GMAT. Also since there are a lot of test preparation softwares available in the market, this adds to the confusion rather help. Which ones to take and which ones to skip? Which are costly, which are freely available. This article covers in some detail various options available for GMAT Practice tests (free and paid)and their difficulty level with respect to actual GMAT. 

In out GMAT Strategy forums, we had a discussion on the comparison of the mock tests (you are welcome to contribute, you experience here). Amongst all the mock tests, GMATPrep obviously is the closest indicator of actual GMAT. This is ofcorse due to the fact that it is provided by GMAC, which administers the GMAT exam. The good news is it is free of cost and available to download from www.mba.com. The bad news is there are just 2 full length tests (as of today) available for practice and seems to have limited (albeit large) pool of questions. So after a couple of retakes (yes do take the same test a couple of times), you pretty much start seeing a lot of the previously attempted questions, which bloats the results a bit. So although very helpful, GMATPrep itself doesnt satisfy the GMAT aspirants' need for more practice. Below we would provide a brief summary on various other reputed mock tests available on the internet.

The details here include the facts from the source indicated, the general impression we have received from Scorechase GMAT Forum members (especially from the discussion on GMAT Practice tests) and our experience with GMAT community in general. The comparisons are mainly based on the the assumption that GMATPrep closely represents the difficulty level of actual GMAT and also on the impressions of the users who were re-taking the gmat. Hopefully this article will serve you as an information source on various gmat practice tests available and help you make an informed decision. You are welcome to add your comments/experiences on these or other practice tests that you might have encountered.

Here is the list starting with GMATPrep:

GMATPrep:

• Availability: Available for free download
• Cost: Free
• Reference: http://www.mba.com
• Computer Adaptive: Yes
• Provider: GMAC
• Comparison to actual GMAT: GMATPrep is provided by the administrators of GMAT itself, hence this is the only test which is considered to be closest representation of actual GMAT.

Princeton Review:

• Availability: Available with the book, and online/classroom courses
• Cost: Book costs ~ $25-40, comes with access to 4 full length tests. The online course range from $99 - $899
• Ref: http://www.princetonreview.com
• Provider: Princeton Review
• Computer Adaptive: N/A
• Comparison to Actual GMAT: Considerably easier to GMATPrep.
• Buy the book from Amazon: Cracking the GMAT 2008

Kaplan tests:

• Avaialbility: Available online/ on CD
• Cost: Varies. One Free online test available on their website. One Full length test also available with purchase of Kaplan GMAT 2008 Comprehensive book. Others are available with their various prep courses. Costs vary from free to as high as $1300
• Ref: http://www.kaptests.com
• Provider: Kaplan
• Computer Adaptive: N/A
• Comparison to Actual GMAT: Considered to be considerably harder. However the tests can prove to be very benificial for improving on and testing your stamina with the tough questions.
• Buy it from Amazon: Kaplan GMAT 2008 Comprensive Program

Crack-Gmat:

• Availability: Available for download
• Cost: Test series: $19.95. One free test available on the website for download.
• Ref: http://www.crack-gmat.com
• Computer Adaptive: Yes
• Provider: Crack-GMAT
• Comparison to actual GMAT: Opinion varies on these tests. It seems that verbal is tougher, while Math is of a pretty decent level as compared to GMATPrep.

Manhattan GMAT:

• Availability: Available with the Manhattan GMAT books. May also be available with other classroom/online programs, which range from $500-$1000 or more.
• Cost: Free 6 Full Length (FL) online practice tests with the purchase of one of the Manhattan's GMAT Preparation books (As per description in Amazon) [No matter which or how many books you buy, you will probably get the access to same set of 6 tests]. The books range from $15-$40. 
• Ref: Amazon's Book page
• Publisher: Manhattan Gmat (www.manhattangmat.com/)
• Comparison to actual GMAT: Manhattan's test seem to be mildly tougher than GMATPrep. Some of our GMAT test takers have highly recommended them.
• Buy it from Amazon:
• Manhattan Sentence Correction
• Manhattan Reading Comprehension 
• Manhattan Critical Reasoning

ARCO:

• Availability: Available with 2007 and 2008 (and older) editions of the book
• Cost: around $15
• Ref: Amazon Book Page
• Computer Adaptive: N/A
• Publisher: ARCO
• Comparison to actual GMAT: Depends on which edition you are using. The older editions seem to be much tougher as compared to latest editions. But overall impression seems to be "considerably tougher than GMATPrep". 
• Buy it from Amazon: Master the GMAT, 2007 w/CD-ROM (Master the Gmat)

800Score:

• Availability: Available on 800Score website
• Cost: $39.95 includes tutorials and 5 CATs, there could be other packages available
• Ref: http://www.800score.com
• Computer Adaptive: Yes
• Provider: 800Score
• Comparison to actual GMAT: As per the user experiences, the Math section seems to be easier as compared to gmatprep while verbal looks decently close.

PowerPrep:

• Availability: Although members do manage to get hands on some older copies, powerprep for GMAT no longer looks in circulation. The software is from the days when ETS used to administer the GMAT test.
• Cost: N/A
• Reference: Amazon Search
• Computer Adaptive: Yes
• Provider: ETS
• Comparison to actual GMAT: As per user experiences, the degree of of difficulty is very close to gmatprep.
• Availability on Amazon (Used): PowerPrep

GMAT Paper tests:

• Availability: Available for download
• Cost: $25.00 - 3 paper based tests
• Ref: http://www.mba.com/mba/Store/products/PreparefortheGMAT/GMATPaperTests.htm
• Provider: GMAC
• Computer Adaptive: No (paper based - PDF Format)
• Comparisons to Actual GMAT: Since the tests consists of retired gmat questions, these tests should closely demonstrate the difficultly level of actual GMAT. However, since they are not computer adaptive, its difficult to comment how they compare to computer adaptive GMATPrep or actual GMAT as such in terms of scoring.