When it comes to taking practice tests, many GMAT testtakers fall into one of two categories.  The first type is made up of students that think of practice tests as THE way to prep.  These students will take practice test after practice test, sometimes taking up to four or more a week.  The second group is made up of students that are afraid to take any practice tests.  These students will exclaim, “I have not studied everything and will do terribly if I take a practice test.”  With this mindset, these students will fail to take practice tests until perhaps the week or two before their actual exam.

So, which approach is correct?  Not surprisingly, both of these mindsets are problematic.  Testtakers in the former group miss opportunities to focus their practice on their problem areas.  This focused practice is essential to improving one’s GMAT score and simply taking additional tests will not help students improve their understanding of content.

On the other side, testtakers who fail to take any practice tests until the last minute will not be prepared for the pressure of test day.  Additionally, these students will not be used to the endurance needed to take a three and half hour exam.

This means, in order to successfully prepare for test day, students must find a happy medium between these two extremes.  In order to gain both test taking experience and content specific review, those prepping for the GMAT should aim to take about one practice test per week.  After taking each test, preppers should review all of the problems and then make sure to work in areas in which they missed questions over the course of the week.  By following this system, you will be maximizing the effectiveness of your studies and on your way to a top GMAT score.

You’ve been studying religiously for the GMAT, learning all of the content and formulas you need, practicing under timed conditions…and suddenly, your practice test scores went down!  How is that possible, you wonder?  Is all the work that you’re doing pointless?  Are you doomed to stay at this low score level no matter what?

Relax, and know that it is NORMAL for your practice test scores to fluctuate.  There are many reasons for this, including:

• Learning new approaches can slow you down initially

Any good test prep material will provide you with strategic, methodical approaches to each type of GMAT question.  Having a step-by-step approach that you take for every question type ensures that you are never just sitting there on test day, staring blankly at the screen.  Learning these methods, though, takes time and practice, and you may even SLOW DOWN for a period as you master the strategic approach.  Think about learning how to type properly—at first you may type slower than your own practiced method, but eventually, typing appropriately by touch will be faster than any method you had used.

As part of Kaplan’s GMAT team, I’ve seen first-hand how test prep companies and publishers invest in extensive research and development to ensure that the approach they teach for each question type is the most effective and efficient.  And the companies update their materials regularly with the latest research, which Kaplan is doing this month with our new GMAT course.  These approaches advocated by test prep companies are PROVEN to be effective, while your own “just-wing-it” approach is not.  Keep practicing the proven methods– just know that it will take some time until you see results.

• It’s not test day yet—you’re still learning and improving

Unless your test is tomorrow, you have not completed your course of study yet, and hence there are pieces of the GMAT puzzle that you invariably have not devoted as much time to at this point.  Maybe it is work formula questions, drilling on parallelism, learning how to attack permutations …but your practice tests will help you identify those pieces that you still need to work on, ensuring that by test day you’ve done all that you can in practicing each topic and question type of the test.

• You can have an “off” day

Did you take the practice test at home?  Was the TV on, the phone ringing, dinner cooking?  Were you tired, or hungry, or just not focused?  Some test-takers find that when they know a test is just practice, they can’t always take it as seriously, and might find their minds wandering during reading passages for example.  They will often see an increase between their last practice test score and their real exam, since they are focused and ready on test-day.  Other test-takers might find that some days they are less determined and focused due to personal or environmental factors, which might bring down a given day’s practice test score.  This also underscores the importance of being well-rested and eating a good breakfast on test day!

Staying positive after practice test score fluctuations

There are always going to be fluctuations in your performance on any given day.  Even the real GMAT has a margin of error.  And along the way, if you take 6-10 practice tests, which Kaplan and other test prep companies recommend, you are more than likely to see variability as well. The most important thing to do is to remember than no one practice test score is necessarily indicative of your exact score on test day—use the practice tests as a crucial learning tool instead of thinking of them solely as score indicators.  After each practice test, set up another study session where you review the exam in its entirety, including all of the explanations.  Learning to improve from mistakes that you made under timed, test-like conditions is one of the best things you can do for your real GMAT score.

Stay positive, and keep up the studying!

What do actors, airline pilots, tank commanders and Kaplan GMAT Prep students have in common? They all run a dead accurate simulation of their respective challenges before all the chips are on the table. When stress is high and the outcome is important, you want to be prepared in every way possible. In this respect, my students - actually all Kaplan GMAT Prep students - have a unique advantage - the Ultimate Practice Test.

The arc of test prep begins with a diagnostic exam and includes attending classes, reviewing content, practicing new strategies and methods in online assignments, developing timing skills with targeted Quiz Bank quizzes, working through actual GMAT questions in the OG and integrating it all in 8 adaptive practice tests. This all culminates, ideally, a week before Test Day, on the same day of the week, at the same hour of the day, when students go to the Pearson Vue testing center and take yet one more Kaplan practice CAT, the UPT.

The Ultimate Practice Test brings together all the elements of prep in the actual testing environment. Test takers experience all the shock and awe of Test Day, but the score doesn’t count.

Lot’s of seemingly minor concerns have the potential to throw a test taker off his or her game. How long will it take me to get to the testing center? What can I expect the temperature to be like? Palm scanning!? Where’s the rest room? Thanks to the UPT, test takers have "been there, done that" when it comes time for the real thing. It’s a level of familiarity that reduces stress and adds points.

Here are some observations from my students regarding the value of the UPT:

I went in for my UPT and could not believe how distracting it was with people typing while I was on other sections of my exam. I had someone next to me who I swear was pounding on the keys like he was going to get a better score if he made the most noise.

A nerve-wracking distraction if you’re not expecting it, but for this test taker, a combination of "ear-muff" noise blockers and foam ear-plugs neatly circumvented the issue the following week.

In contrast, Ali decided she didn’t need the UPT. Here are some of her post-test comments:

The only thing that caught me off-guard was how much was going on in the actual testing room. I assumed I would be sitting with other students, but didn’t realize that most of the students there were taking different exams at different times. I was extremely distracted by the constant sound of the door opening and closing, and the earplugs they offered were basically useless. I don’t know if every testing center is like this, but it was the one thing I was not expecting.

While Ali scored a 710, she probably left 10 – 20 points, and maybe more, on the table; points that could have been hers if only she had anticipated the distractions and used the supplemental sonic isolation.

Unlike Ali, Lee G. did take the UPT and credits it for averting disaster. At his test center, the "GMAT" computers were right next to the door to the reception area. During the practice test, the receptionist chatted - loudly - on her phone, her conversations clearly audible through the surprisingly insubstantial door. The following week, before starting the real thing, Lee asked the receptionist to speak more quietly. She was happy to comply and Lee hit his target score. How important was this preparation? Lee said that had he not attended a single class, done any of the online workshops, used Smart Reports to target his prep or any of the other Kaplan tools and materials, the Ultimate Practice Test alone would have been worth the price of the entire course. "Be prepared" is the Boy Scout motto. For the GMAT, be completely prepared.