  We extend the earlier model of condensate growth of Davis et al [Davis MJ,
Gardiner CW and Ballagh RJ 2000, Phys. Rev. A 62, 063608] to include the effect
of gravity in a magnetic trap. We carry out calculations to model the
experiment reported by K\"{o}hl et al [K\"{o}hl M, Davis MJ, Gardiner CW,
H\"{a}nsch T and Esslinger T, Preprint, cond-mat/0106642] who study the
formation of a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate for a range of evaporative
cooling parameters. We find that in the regime where our model is valid, the
theoretical curves agree with all the experimental data with no fitting
parameters. However, for the slowest cooling of the gas the theoretical curve
deviates significantly from the experimental curves. It is possible that this
discrepancy may be related to the formation of a quasicondensate.
