A mock test is a great way to estimate your exam performance; i.e. how well are you likely to do on the actual GMAT. However, it’s not a great tool to estimate your overall ability. Here is why:
- Not designed to provide ability: While most mock tests implicitly measure ability, they are not designed to provide ability; they simply give you your Quant and Verbal scores. In the absence of clear ability metrics, students are forced to rely on accuracy, which is not a very reliable measure on the GMAT.
- Requires that you be proficient in all three sections: Consider a scenario in which you have just completed preparing for Sentence Correction and you want to measure your ability. Taking a mock test would be a bad choice since a mock test evaluates your proficiency in all sections – sections that you have not studied. Taking a mock test at this time will lead to extremely low overall scores, it will negatively impact your confidence, and lastly it is likely to give you an inaccurate measure of your ability. Conversely, with Scholaranium, you will just take the SC ability quiz. This quiz will not only provide a realistic estimate of your ability in Sentence Correction but also do that in 30 minutes versus 4 hours.
- Impacted by Timing: When you struggle with timing, it negatively impacts your score. Because of shortage of time, a majority of students perform really poorly in the second half of a mock test (questions 21-41), especially when taking their first few mocks. Hence, in such situations, the mock test does not even provide a true measure your ability. An ability quiz by design is slightly more relaxed when it comes to timing and hence provides a much better estimate of your ability.
- Take too long: Lastly, a mock test takes at least 3 hours to complete. Firstly, it’s not fair to spend 3 hours just to evaluate your SC ability. Secondly, most of us cannot devote this kind of time during weekdays. Hence, we you are forced to take the mock test during the weekend.
Hence, because of these reasons, leverage ability quizzes rather than a mock test to get a reliable measure of your ability, isolate your weakness, and correspondingly decide what to study next.
Learn everything you need to know about Ability Quizzes by clicking on the pertinent links below:
- What is an Ability Quiz? Click here
- What are the contents of an Ability Quiz? Click here
- Why should you take an Ability Quiz if you already have Mocks? Click here
- How to take an Ability Quiz? Click here
- When should you take what kind of Ability Quiz? Click here
- How can you use Ability Quizzes to Refine your Preparation?
