7 Wrong in GMAT Verbal, Got 18th PercentileAnyone Know Why?

Question

Hi all, 
 I took the GMAT yesterday, and I’m a bit confused by my Verbal score.  
 I got 7 questions wrong (2nd, 5th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 23rd),  
 but my Verbal percentile ended up at 18%. This seems way lower than I expected for that number of mistakes. 
 Does anyone know how the scoring algorithm works?  
 Or would it be better to contact a GMAT center directly about this?  
 Any insights or similar experiences would be really helpful. Thanks!

cjcalero24 · Answer

Hi, I'm far from a GMAT score expert but my best understanding would be the questions you got wrong were easier questions. The GMAT is an adaptive test, so as you get more questions right, it gives you harder questions which boost your score. Here are two links from TTP that explain it in better detail: https://blog.targettestprep.com/gmat-co ... est-Takers https://blog.targettestprep.com/gmat-fo ... ng-system/

bb · Answer

This is pretty bad. I agree.
I think you just qualified for my collection of terrible GMAT Scores 😞

https://gmatclub.com/forum/horrible-gma ... 34958.html

PS. I am working with GMATNinja to try to get some answers from an expert within GMAC But this will likely take months 😢

gmatmbagogo · Answer

I checked out your post, and I think I'm the worst at the verbal section.
😭 I hope you can share it there.
Here’s my test image.

bb · Answer

It is likely due to the question mix.

This is just my theory and that is, There are several elements at play, you have the individual question difficult difficulties and then the overall question bank average difficulty.

If the overall question bang difficulty average, is medium for example or below medium level then you won’t get many hard questions out of it even if you get a lot of them right and as the result if you get a few wrong, you are going to be penalized quite a bit more...

bb · Answer

Thank you 🙏
I wouldn’t call this the worst but rather one of them more brutal ones

gmatmbagogo · Answer

So why was my set of questions composed mostly of easier ones? 
Do you think I got many wrong at the beginning?

bb · Answer

Again, I wanted to mention that this is just a theory because we don’t know what the reality is of the algorithm and other elements, So due to the lack of information different theories and this is just one of them.

Every two weeks the question bank is changed and when we could maybe harder and another week could maybe more challenging in terms of its composition. It doesn’t depend on you or your performance. The question bank is the question bank.

There are also experimental questions in every section and there’s probably at least three or four of them. This is one of the reasons why scores can jump around and don’t correlate necessarily with the number of correct or incorrect answers.

Again, this is just a theory.

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

If you're interested in the algorith, the Understanding Your Score page on the MBA website could be helpful to check out. It mentions three factors Verbal scores are based on, for example. You may also find the myth vs. fact info (e.g. in the beginning of the Official-Guide 2024) interesting to go through.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi gmatmbagogo,

In addition to what has been mentioned here, I do think you could reach out to the folks at GMAC to provide some clarity. Chances are you will not get a full explanation; however, it's worth a shot, right?

egmat · Answer

What were your mock scores? Were you scoring significantly better? How about subsection score!

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7 Wrong in GMAT Verbal, Got 18th PercentileAnyone Know Why?

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