800 on the GMAT

I read the thread GMATT73 it was fun to read

hrowaihy,
Are you sure someone can get 800 with 4 mistakes on each section? That doesn't seem right because making 4 mistakes on the verbal part (out of 37 questions) means that you need to get less than 90% of that section right, and with 90% one gets an 800?!?!?! thats weird

My Manhattan GMAT teacher got a perfect score: https://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-prep- ... inawer.cfm

I am happy with 700, but 800 is almost like a score of someone who does not get tired during the test. I know a friend who scored 780 and he is quite normal, drink a lot and do some other things with his brain....

Were these 800 scores achieved before or after the new CAT format was put into place (~1999 or 2000)?

According to GMAC, 51 is currently the highest possible score for both verbal and quantitative. 51Q/51V does currently result in an 800 score. 51Q/50V may possibly yield an 800 score as well. 50Q/51V yields a 780. This reflects the current weighting of the test - Q affects the overall score more at the higher ranges, while there seems to be little value to score above 45V.

hmmm, but how come in the OC it says that the max score for each section is 60?
In the table in the back a score equal or greater than 46V = 99%; and equal or grater 51Q = 99%.
Does anyone know how many max wrong answers for 46V and 51Q?

GMAC said that the test is designed so that in the future, it can be scaled as high as 60, but currently, the maximum possible score is 51 on each section. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some movement in the near future, at least on the quantitative side. It's getting awfully crowded at the top, where going from 51 to 50 results in a 4 percentile drop.

Since it is a CAT, there's no way to predict how many you can miss to still get into the 99th percentile; and keep in mind that some questions are experimental. I would guess that you must do the quantitative section perfectly to score 51; for verbal I wouldn't be surprised is you could miss 3-4 and still get a 46. Again, it depends on the questions you get during the CAT.

based on the gmatprep tests - it is possible to get 3 wrong questions and still get 51 in the q section... (it happened to me...) however myfirst mistake was at question 29...
i don't know how it is in the real GMAT.

also - i'm not sure it is impossible to get 52 in q and v, it is just highly unlikely.... it depends mainly on the level of questions in the database and those chose for you. there are probably very few questions aiming at discerning 51 from 52, and i guess that if you do even one mistake during the test the likelyhood of getting such question (and then getting it right) is very very low.
to the best of my knowledge there is no "decision" that 51 is the maximum, but it is a result of the amount/level of questions in the database.

pelihu is right saying that once 51 gets too crowded we'll see some 52s. it is so because once 51 gets crowded more people will get to answer hard questions, which will put some pressure in adding more questions discerning people at that level, which in turn will increase the likelihood of people getting 52. but i don't think it is a matter of changing the formula or changing the algorithm or an aware decision regarding maximum score.

perfectscore.com

Javed

Cheers!