Horrible GMAT Focus Score Report Directory

Question

This is a collection of really no good, horrible and unfortunate GMAT Focus Scores people reporting. These are some of the worst examples of low scores with just a handful of mistakes. As more and more of these surface, it has come time to build a directory so we can start spotting patterns and figure out why these many be happening 😣

Quantitative:

1 Incorrect:

Q80 (64th percentile) with 1 wrong / 20 correct  (July 23, 2024) 
  Q81 (70th percentile) with 1 wrong / 20 correct  (Aug 30, 2024)

2 Incorrect:  
 
  Q80 (64th percentile) with 2 wrong / 19 correct  (July 19, 2024) 
  Q83 (81st percentile) with 2 wrong / 19 correct  (July 24, 2024)  
  Q79 (57th percentile) with 2 wrong / 19 correct  (Nov 20, 2024)

3 Incorrect:  
 
  Q74 (26th percentile) with 3 wrong / 18 correct  (Feb 17, 2025) 
  Q79 (57th percentile) with 3 wrong / 18 correct  (Dec 28, 2023)  
  Q76 (37th percentile) with 3 wrong / 18 correct  (Oct 16, 2024)

4+ Incorrect:  
 
  Q76 (37th percentile) with 5 wrong / 16 correct  (Aug 28, 2024)  
  Q76 (37th percentile with 4 wrong / 17 correct  (Apr 27, 2025)

Verbal:   
 
  V78 (39th percentile) with 6 RC and 3 CR wrong  (Oct 16, 2024) 
  V76 (23rd percentile) with 8 wrong / 15 correct  (Oct 11, 2024)

Data Insights:

Possible Explanations of this Phenomenon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNHUxcWY4A

Vishnu0007 · Answer

Hi BB,

Remember it happened to me last month and I had posted about this. I now take the e-GMAT intensive prep and what their experts say after seeing my score report is that all the errors were for easy questions, and gmat penalises heavily for that. In addition, maybe the exam engine might have set the difficulty level to easy-medium.

SaritSarkar · Answer

Thank you! I found it! Q81 with 3 mistakes. Sorry, that's super annoying for a GMAT 760 test-taker 😭 https://gmatclub.com/forum/urgent-gmat- ... l#p3435537

mcelroytutoring · Answer

I agree that some of the recent scoring curves on the Focus have been insane. For example, today I saw a score of  Q82 (77%) with only 1 wrong on Quant !

However, are you sure that example #1 is correct,  bb ? You have it listed as "Q80 with 1 wrong"—but that's not what it says when you follow the link.

abdatta · Answer

Found a Q81 with 1 wrong on reddit. Might wanna add to the list. Q81-1wrong.jpg https://www.reddit.com/r/GMAT/s/IKOcIWIvTL Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Thank you. I have corrected the fist link. Seems there was some questionnable quality of work here 🤦‍♂️
P.S. I have also updated the percentiles on the list since the new ones came out...

bb · Answer

Thank you  abdatta ! Awesome job on that 715, staying ahead of the percentile axe 👀
I have added it and saved the image just in case it disappears as those things seem to happen on reddit sometimes.

mcelroytutoring · Answer

GMAT Focus scores as low as Q80 ( 64% ) with one wrong are just plain absurd.

One one hand, this does not surprise me: the GMAT's  adaptive scoring algorithm  has always been very sensitive to mistakes—especially on Quant, and especially on easy/medium questions.

However,  under no circumstances should answering just one question incorrectly cost you a whopping 10 points , especially considering that the entire 21-question Quant section (scored from 60-90) contains only 30 earnable points.

Would this student have scored a perfect 90/90 if they had review-and-edited #7 to the correct answer? Evidence from other ESRs suggests that the answer to this question—whether fair or not—is  yes .

bb · Answer

Hi. I am sorry. Hi have seen so many of these stories that I linked the wrong one again, here’s the correct one: it is actually Q80 with 1 wrong. https://gmatclub.com/forum/only-1-q-wro ... 32984.html PS. Thank you for keeping me honest 👍 Posted from my mobile device

abdatta · Answer

Thanks bb for your kind words!

I'm thinking of sharing my journey here sometime soon, but currently busy with the apps. Anyways, not the right thread here to talk about this. Glad I could help. PS. How do I mention a user like you did?

TanyaBhargava · Answer

this looks scary. is this only happening in quant or other sections too? hopefully, they notice this issue and do something about it.

TheVDR · Answer

All sections!

A friend had a 8/10 in CR,with two boldfaced questions wrong. His CR percentile (after the new concordance adjustment)....40th !

His verbal accuracy - 17/23. His percentile?....48th !

This is ridiculous!

Posted from my mobile device

TanyaBhargava · Answer

oh this sounds bad.
can you also mention sectional score for verbal with 17/23 accuracy??

in Gmat club mocks- getting 17/18 right gives 82 score and 80th percentile. What is even happening in the real exam?!

Moosecow · Answer

I'm not sure if I qualify as an odd data point but feels strange relative to V and D:

V: 88 (99%) - 3 wrong 
 D: 83 (96%) - 4 wrong 
 Q: 78 (50%) - 5 wrong

bb · Answer

I think anything helps to hopefully figure out what’s going on. DI seems to be much more generous in terms of mistakes you can make and scoring. I suspect this is because the questions are usually harder as a group. Everyone struggles with DI.

Posted from my mobile device

TheVDR · Answer

V79 (He had a 51st percentile which later for adjusted).

Also, his DI - 14/20...DI75 !

TanyaBhargava · Answer

okay, that sounds like they tanked his paper, 75 in DI for 6 mistakes is crazy.

TanyaBhargava · Answer

quant seems quite low for 5 mistakes only. this could easily be 82 atleast. congrats on the other 2 sections tho!

RushabhD · Answer

Got my official score report a couple of hours ago, not sure if I should report this to GMAC but posting here in case it helps.

645

Q78 - 5 incorrect (Changed one from correct to incorrect 😔)
V86 - 4 incorrect
DI81 - 5 incorrect

Verbal seems to be in line, but Quant and DI seem to be rather harsh. I had similar scores in official mocks but with a much high mistake count (around 7-8 in Quant and DI), including a couple of silly mistakes on easier questions.

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Ugh. Sorry!

PS. I sent you a PM about the score review.

Posted from my mobile device

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Horrible GMAT Focus Score Report Directory

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