Tuesday 17 November 2015

Studying for the GMAT Part 3: A Note on Free Diagnostic Tests

I have probably taken all the free GMAT diagnostic tests (a.k.a CAT) there are out there while I was preparing. I did almost one every week. The important thing to note about CATs is that they're designed to allow you to practice under "real" test conditions so don't get too caught up in your final score and focus more on the thought processes for solving questions and your test-taking strategy.

The best diagnostic test is of course the one from GMAT itself since nothing can beat the real thing after all. Problem is that you only have 2 free ones so you want to save at least 1 for closer to your actual test date. Manhattan Prep and Veritas both offer 1 free test which are probably the closest to the actual GMAT.

That being said, I found it useful to train on harder CATs too, though I took the scores with a grain of salt. The Kaplan free CAT and Economist Tutor CAT are good for verbal training. The options presented are quite close so you shouldn't be disheartened if you don't score well.

GMAT Pill also offers 5 free tests that are quite challenging. Again, don't be surprised if you don't score well. You however need a paid membership to access more than 10 free solutions. However if you are able to figure out why you went wrong and how you should get the right answer, the 10 free solutions should cover the ones where you're really stuck.

I also found the GMAT Club tests really useful and they had explanations too. They simulate the GMAT environment the best but the questions are tougher than the actual GMAT.
You can find a list of diagnostic tests here on the GMAT Club forum.

And that's all I'm going to say on GMAT as there's lots of material about the GMAT out there already.

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