730 (Q50 V40) vs. 740 (Q50 V40)???!

Question

Hey guys,

I was fortunate enough to get a 730 (Q50 V40). Now I don't mean to be greedy or anything, but I was just wondering why some people with the same score breakout scored a 740 instead! And these were people that took the test just weeks prior to my test. Any info would be great. It just seems odd... I can see how the percentile (i.e. 96%) might go down depending on the curve, but I thought the pure # would be the same?

My math and verbal breakout percentiles were the same too.. 93% & 89% respectively.

Thanks!

mohater · Answer

There is a free floating range of +/- 10 points for similar raw scores.

i.e. I have a 48/38 and I got a 710.

Someone else with a 48/38 got a 700.

We don't know the exact algorithm, nor do we know what problems are experimental vs what problems are scored.

Don't lose any sleep over it. Just accept there is a small free floating range for similar raw scores.

bigmonkey31 · Answer

hm, gotcha. it just makes no sense! Q50 (93%) with V40 (89%) somehow produces 2 different GMAT values! maybe I was just on the crappier end of the Q50/V40 breakouts hah. But if that were the case.. they should make increments of 5pts!

to the algorithm creator

shadow · Answer

if you think that's bad, how do you think the guy who got a Q 51, V 51, but only got a 790 feels ? :twisted:

agreed with mohater, it's just one of the quirks of the GMAT scoring... don't worry about it too much

rovinggmattutor · Answer

Very few people (if any) have ever worked the scoring out. I got a 780 (Q50 V50) yet I have heard of people with Q51-V48-790, and possibly, if my memory is not playing tricks, 51-48-800. Also why the scale goes up to 60 and yet apparently the maximum score is 51....although one of my students did once get a 55 on verbal!!!

tarun · Answer

55 on Verbal!! This is the first time I have read anyone reorting score of more than 51 in Quant/Verbal.

Has the unchartered territory of score range from 52 to 60 got something to do with experiment questions?

Asianyc · Answer

a guy took two tests in a month : 50 , 34 = 710 ; 50,35=700 you never know

AjiteshArun · Answer

Old thread, but if anyone wants to know why scores can vary like this, the differences that you see are due to the way the GMAT calculates and reports scores.

1. The GMAT generates a score at the end of both the quantitative and verbal sections. These scores are on a continuous scale.
2. These scores are mapped onto an internal scale. Let's call these scores "internal scores".
3. These internal scores are combined to arrive at a total (internal) score.
4. All these scores are then converted to the scaled scores that are exposed to the test taker (6 to 51 for quant and verbal, and 200-800 for the total).

The internal scales are slightly more accurate than the ones exposed to you.  For example, let's say two people got a Q49 each. Now, a Q49 could indicate a performance level anywhere between 74% and 85% (Q50 is 85%), so it's entirely possible that one of them got a "low" Q49 and the other got a "high" Q49. This is the reason that you don't always see the same total for the same score combinations.

Asianyc · Answer

Agree that there could be a high 49 , low 49 concept

Otherwise it’s not fair when a guy got one question wrong ,and score 50 ... another guy with 6 mistakes , still scored 50

Posted from my mobile device

EnlistedToMBA · Answer

My understanding of how it works - 
A 50 could be anywhere from 49.5-50.4 in actuality, so with the combined sections you can have someone with a "50" and a "40" but the score difference could be nearly the equivalent of two points on both sections. So each score can vary by ~ 2 points either way, hence why it's around a 20 point range. You could have scored a Q 45.5 and a V 45.5, while someone else got a Q 46.3 and a V 46.4. Here we see that your score came out to 91 points, whereas the other individual scored a 92.7. The subsection score would be the same, but his score would likely be 10-20 points higher.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Here is some more information regarding GMAT scoring:

People often wonder how it could be that two people who achieve the same scores on the Quant and Verbal sections of the GMAT may get different total (200-800) GMAT scores. Others wonder how it could be that the percentile rankings of their total scores (200-800) are significantly higher or lower than the percentile rankings of both of their Quant and Verbal section scores. The answers to these questions lie in the way the GMAT is scored.

To get to an understanding of how the GMAT is scored, let’s first counter a common misconception, which is that the GMAT total score (200-800) is calculated using the two section scores (the Quant score and the Verbal score). For simplicity, let’s define performance as the number of questions a test-taker answers correctly and the difficulty of those questions. The total GMAT score (200-800), while based on your performance in answering questions in the Quant and Verbal sections, is not calculated by using the Quant and Verbal scores. Once a test-taker has completed the GMAT, the system separately calculates a total (200-800) score, a Quant score, and a Verbal score. 
 
The next thing to understand is that the three scores are not exact representations of a test-taker’s performance, but rather each score level represents a range of test performance. For example, a test-taker could get 28 Quant questions correct or get 30 Quant questions correct and score Q51 in either scenario. Likewise, that two people both score V38 or both score 670 means that their levels of performance were similar but not necessarily exactly the same. Thus, a test-taker who scored, for instance, Q38, could have performed at the low, middle, or top end of the range of performance that generates Q38. Likewise, V36 could be a higher V36 or a lower V36, and 720 represents a range of performance levels.

To understand how these aspects of the GMAT scoring method come together to generate a set of scores, consider the following example: A score of Q51 is based on the test-taker’s performance in the Quant section, and a score of V50 is based on the test-taker’s performance in the Verbal section. To get the total score (200-800), the computer wouldn't use the Q51 and V50, which, as discussed above, could mean a variety of things in terms of performance; the computer would use the test-taker’s actual performance on the 67 questions that appeared in Quant and Verbal sections. So, for example, you could score Q51/V50 with 28 questions correct in Quant and 34 correct in Verbal. The total score (200-800) would be based on 28 Quant questions correct and 34 Verbal questions correct and would likely come to 790. Alternatively, you could get the same section scores of Q51/V50 with 30 questions correct in Quant and 35 correct in Verbal. Now the total score (200-800) is based on 30 questions correct in Quant and 35 questions correct in Verbal and you score 800.

So, to get the Quant score, they use your performance on the Quant section, to get the Verbal score, they use your performance on the Verbal section, and to get the total score (200-800), they look at your entire performance on the 67 questions that appeared in the Quant and Verbal sections.
 
With this knowledge, it’s easy to understand how two people could get the same section scores but different total scores. If a person gets a certain set of section scores, say Q47 and V33, that person may have performed at the high ends of the performance ranges represented by those scores, and thus will receive a relatively high total score, such as 650. Another person might perform lower in the ranges that are represented by those same section scores, Q47 and V33, and receive a lower total score of 640. So, the two people got the same section scores via slightly different performance levels, and thus received different total scores.

Also, since a test-taker’s total score (200-800) percentile ranking is based on the person’s total score, two people with the same section scores will have different total score percentile rankings if their total scores are different.

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730 (Q50 V40) vs. 740 (Q50 V40)???!

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