GMAT Scores

Have these scores changed recently?

The percentiles always shift a little, but not very fast. There is a score inflation as more and more people score higher. The most famous is that 750 is currenly a 98th percentile whereas it was 99th 3-4 years ago. Other areas have inflated as well, mostly scores above 650.

These are from OG 12, so they are from this spring (OG 12 came out in April) but the data is probably form 2008 when the book was getting prepped.

Thanks. Man, it looks like I better take the Gmat soon.

I am so glad to know that I can take the test 4 times. I was so afraid to run out of official study materials.

I don't get it!
How is the raw score converted into the scaled score.
I know for a fact that the 2 scaled scores of quant and verbal get combined to give you the combined overall score of the gmat from 200-800 range, but how does one first convert the raw to the scaled. Is this scaling on 50 or 60. I read somewhere that this scaling was on 50 in some CAT software, hence the confusion!

please enlighten me
thanks

Thanks a lot, my man!!!
As great as always

Is there a relationship between accuracy in the exam and the raw score. Means how many questions one can get wrong (out of 41/37) and still maintain a raw score of say XX or YY. I understand thats it adaptive by nature and where you got the question wrong matters too but does a simplified relationship exist?

For non CAT papers we mostly know our accuracy or how many we got wrong/right from the total.

Unfortunately no - on the CAT you get more points for answering tough questions correctly and it takes time to get to them (which on the flip side means you get at the end fewer points by answering simple questions wrong). The other wrinkle comes from the experimental questions. Sometimes 5 wrong ones will mean you got 45 and sometimes 5 wrong ones (2 of which are experimental) will mean you got 49 and sometimes 5 wrong ones (5 of them in a row) will mean you got 40...

Hi all!
Thanks a lot for the great work with GMAT club.

I've got a question, related to the 'GMATPrepTest 1' available for download somewhere on the site.
In fact, I took it today to assess my progress, in particular regarding RC.
First of all, I found the Quant VERY long - I could answer to only 31 questions, whereas I had no special problem finishing the Kaplan's (not-CAT) linear tests.
Anyway, on the whole I got Q=40 (31 answers, 8 errors), V=44 (41 answers, 9 errors) for a total scaled score of... 690!!!
How is that possible? Is my soft/PC broken? With some many errors and so few questions answered, I'd have expected something like 600...

Anyone has an idea?
Need I take (waste?) the 2nd test available in the 'GMATPrepTest 1' software to confirm everything is OK on the tech side?

Don't worry, I think everything is OK.
The number of mistakes does not corelate with the score, your Verbal level in % is much higher than your math level, just due to the fact that you answered Quanta questions from 40 level, and not higher.
YOu may use the test for the several times, you will find just one or may be 2 questions that are repeating. However If you pass the test more than 3 times you will meet more often repeating questions.

Hey guys,

I have a quick question on Report Fallacy nbr 2 in bb's post (2.Applicants who are somewhat happy with scores (600-700) but want to retake (usually for 700+), will actually order a report to send to a school before retaking, just in case they score lower on the retake (which is somewhat common unfortunately). Again, most of the time it just wastes money. Schools don't care if you score less on the second attempt. Pathfinder is a good example - he got into Wharton with 720 (first GMAT score) and 690 (retake) on his score report.)

I am in a similar situation (740 first time, scored 710 the second time - reason I retook is because I wanted to increase my quant score, which I did, but the verbal went down :-0). Scored 770-760 on all my practice exams, very frustrating...

Anyway, I sent my report to the school after my first attempt. I will probably send my full application in the next week or so, the application deadline is early June. Will the school see my 710 regardless of whether I ask for a second report to be sent to the school? In other word, will the school be able to see my 2nd test score even if I do not ask for a 2nd official report to be sent?

Thanks a ton

Thanks for the super fast reply and thanks for the welcome! This forum, as for many others I suppose, has been a gold mine for me to prepare the exam, even though I have been on passive mode, not contributing much...

I am actually wondering if the school copy that the MBA program receives is in electric form or a simple paper copy. If it is an electric copy, then, surely, given that the school won't start looking at the report before the application deadline (early June), they will see both scores by that time, right? The school's application form (INSEAD) has a table where we can list all the GMAT scores. The official GMAT language of the school is that the highest score is considered, blah blah....

That's kind of silly problem (a/ either I stick with the 740 and, as you said, only the clerk will check this or b/ I show both and ridicule myself...), but I am not sure what makes more sense to do as I am not too proud of my last score even though the Q score is higher...

The school copy is electronic but they only get/see the score you sent them (all scores you received prior to sending). They will not see the scores you got AFTER sending the report. Otherwise, GMAC would not be able to make money on additional score reports

P.S. they will be able to see the text of your AWA essays; some don't know this.

Ok, understood. I will play it safe then and stick to the 740. My practice exams tempted me into re-taking and, for some reason, I screwed up the verbal part while I got 99% in verbal the first time...oh well...only myself to blame...

As for the AWA, I hope they don't pay too much attention to the content as they are vague and boring as hell!

Cheers!

Good Luck!
(They usually do not read the AWA's unless the essays are extra good/bad/unusual)

This post has been updated - thank you.

I am confused about an aspect of score calculation. The information on the mba website suggests that the percentile score is calculated based on the point score. On this forum however, I've seen that the penalty for leaving a question unanswered is expressed in percentile points. So, is the effect calculated in percentiles and then translated into points?

More specifically, I stupidly exceeded the time on my last quantitative question, instead of randomly picking an answer. My final quantitative score was 50 and the Q percentile 93. By what I've read here, without this mistake I would have been in the 96th percentile. However, would this have changed my final score? According to the tables on mba, a score of 51 on the Q section is associated with the 98th percentile.

So would the avoidance of this mistake (assuming the random answer would have been wrong) have been enough to modify the final score? I am content with my current score of 780 but my curiosity is driving me to explore the 'what if'.