Accuracy of gmatclub GMAT Score Estimate?

Question

Does anyone know how accurate the gmatclub GMAT Score Estimate is? I've just started my prep, a couple of days ago I attempted ~60 questions across all categories (PS, DS, CR, SC, RC) with varying difficulties. According to the error log I got about 20-30% 700 correct, 50% 600-700 correct and 60-70% sub-600 correct (My timing was around 1:10 for both correct and incorrect). After 24 hours my  score estimate was 540 .

I am waiting on a number of books that I ordered to arrive in the mail, so I am trying these questions with no prep just to get a feel of GMAT questions. I recognised that I struggled a lot with those initial 60 questions so the next day I attempted another 60 questions but only sub-600 difficulty. I separated those 60 questions into an equal split between the 5 categories. In addition, I also deleted all previous entries in the error log. My timer averaged around 55-70s for each question.

I managed about 85% correct answers for my questions (verbal was much better), and my  score estimate was given as 490 (Q32, V25) . The next day I attempted another 60 sub-600 level questions, I kept the previous questions in the error log and my correct % dropped to 83%. But after 24 hours my  score estimate dropped to sub-450 (Q27, V23) . Yesterday I did another 60 sub-600 questions and my correct % remained at ~83% but when I checked my score estimate today it had  dropped even further to sub-450 (Q21, V21) .

Today I will be planning to attempt 60 questions at 600-700 level and check how much this influences my score estimate tomorrow. As I said I am only beginning my prep (exam date is not for months!), I have not read any books except "MGMAT GMAT Roadmap" so I am not stressed about my score (yet!).

Are these sub-450 scores because I am only attempting sub-600 questions? Or is it because one needs to get 95-100% correct on this level before the score estimate would improve above 500/550?

AndrewN · Answer

Welcome to the community,  HWaus . I will be honest: as a full-time tutor since 2014, I do not place too much stock in the GMAT Club numbers. I have had two clients, for example, within the past year become distressed after earning a Q44 on a mock test when they had been testing higher--both of them had hit a Q50  on the actual exam  prior to taking their mocks through this site. I have also noticed that the level of questions, via the Question of the Day series, sometimes differs from what the OG may list it as. For instance, a Hard OG question might be listed as 600-level on this site. I feel I should add, however, that the quality of the Quant questions is top-notch, and that many very-high-scoring candidates praise the harder-than-the-real-thing Quant sets, saying that working through such sets allowed them to appreciate how to approach those 700+-level questions. Also, the analyses you can access through the site to official questions, Quant and otherwise, is unparalleled, in my opinion. There is a reason so many people flock to this site for GMAT™ prep guidance. My advice? Take this site for what it is, a valuable resource for analyses to official questions, as well as a forum in which to ask for help from the community at large. Place stock in numbers only when they are tied to official practice tests and materials. (For example, if you complete five sets of twenty questions of varying difficulty from the OG, especially through the Wiley website, you can then look back at the types of questions you are missing--Easy, Medium, Hard, geometry, probability, etc.--and get a more accurate picture of how you are performing across those topics and question difficulties.) As long as you center your practice on official questions, veering off a few questions at a time with outside material but always coming back, you will get a well-rounded prep experience. At the same time, relish the opportunity to practice with official questions. Do not just burn through sixty questions a day to get to the end. You will form an unhealthy relationship with the material at that point. If time is on your side, then work with small sets, maybe 5-10 questions at a time. Take the time to break down and understand the questions and what makes each response correct or incorrect. (Too many people focus on just getting the answer right, and they make the same mistakes over and over, exhausting valuable official questions in the process. And trust me, even if you have not seen a question in a month or two, if you have seen it before and have taken in the answer, then you are not approaching it with fresh eyes, and your perspective on your skills may be skewed.) You can add volume as you go, improving along the way.

Good luck with your studies, however you decide to approach them.

- Andrew

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi HWaus,

From your post, you seem really interested in trying to accurately define your current 'ability level.' While that's understandable, the way that you're trying to go about it is NOT going to provide you with a meaningful result. Test Day is a rather specific event; the GMAT follows a specific set of 'rules' and the questions that you face fit a particular series of patterns and ratios that you're not going to be able to mimic by working through random sets of practice questions.

Back in October, we discussed the importance of taking an initial practice CAT Test. Did you ever end up taking one? If not, then I highly recommend that you take one soon (perhaps this weekend). As a reminder, you can take 2 for free at www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). That score will give us a good sense of your current strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. A FULL CAT takes about 3.5 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here and we can come up with a study plan.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

mykrasovski · Answer

hi HWaus my recommendation is to take a free official GMAT test that you can get at https://www.mba.com. Only official tests can give you a reliable measure of your ability level.

Otherwise, you can do the diagnostic test in one of the Official Guides. You can do it untimed. You will then be able to assess your ability level. Good luck!

MBAaustralia · Answer

Thanks for the replies  MentorTutoring   EMPOWERgmatRichC  and  mykrasovski

The resources that I ordered include MGMAT's Foundations of GMAT Verbal & Quant, they are due to arrive in ~3 days. I want to have a read through these two books first, then I will attempt my first GMAC Official Practise Test.

I will stop attempting questions today.

I will stop attempting questions today.

AndrewN · Answer

Glad to pitch in when I can. You will notice I said that you should   lace stock in numbers only when they are tied to official practice tests and materials . I do not differ from my colleagues at all when it comes to this. (By the way, many students also feel as though the Manhattan Prep mocks run slightly harder than the real test as well.) Where I do differ sometimes is that I do not find it necessary to tie yourself down to a baseline score before you have had a look at some of the material. If you were sitting for the exam in a month or two, I would say have at those practice tests; if you have six months or more and you might not be getting into a regular study schedule yet, then why waste such a valuable resource as an official practice test? I like the suggestion by  mykrasovski . The diagnostic test in the OG gives you a feel for the layout of the exam without committing too much to taking a mock under timed conditions. Once you have gotten through something like that and have read through your Foundations guide, practicing questions along the way, then I think it might be a good idea to get your feet wet and sit for an official mock. In other words, it is all dictated by the time you have to prepare. One way or the other, you are going to have to spend a lot of time hitting the books and toiling away. Dedicated and organized (well thought-out) prep is what leads to significant gains.

Good luck. Feel free to inform the community of your study progress now and then. In case you cannot tell, this is one that loves to offer a kind and helpful word.

- Andrew

bb · Answer

Hi, I see there’s a lot going on in this discussion but to answer your topic sentence question, the score estimate that you receive as the result of doing questions in the forum, is far from perfect for a number of reasons. However it gives you some kind of an idea how well you’re doing with questions and if you’re getting a 540 that’s about 50th percentile, so very average.

For a number of obvious reasons, one of which being taking questions one at a time and timing yourself, the algorithm is built very differently for predicting a score than a practice test would be for example.

Think of it as a general guidance and the best way to estimate your final score is to take an official GMAT prep test.

Posted from my mobile device

MBAaustralia · Answer

Hi  bb ,

Thanks for the insight. As I said in the OP I am not concerned with that score, more so curious how the system works. I have a GMAC official practice exam scheduled on my study plan to be taken next week after I have a flick through MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math & Verbal.

But just to add to some of the numbers I gave above, yesterday I attempted 40 600-700 level questions, 8 from each category. I finished on 71% correct with timing of ~1:25. Quant was 81% and Verbal was 66%, in addition I did not delete any questions from the previous sub-600 level sets I completed in the days prior. However, before I attempted the 600-700 level questions my score estimate was given as sub-450 (Q20, V21) but after getting 71% of 600-700 level questions correct my score dropped further to sub-450 (Q13, V22).... doesn't make much sense at all?

mavelous · Answer

Hi guys,

Could a kind soul please explain to me, at which point the estimate for each subscore appears?

I have a quant score that has been there for much longer, but there is no Verbal estimate - just blank (even though i have been doing verbal for several weeks)

- Does it reset each day and count if you have done 10 questions of each type for last 7 days?
- Or does it reset each Monday?

thanks in advance. Just curious and increasingly obsessed ))

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  mavelous . I have no idea how the score estimate works. When I check my error log, I do not even see that bar at the top of the screen, so I guess I must not be doing enough questions on GMAT Club. I am tagging  bb  in an effort to catch the eye of someone who will either know the answer or will likely know someone who has the answer. By the way, this might sound silly, but how did you include that screenshot as an inline image? When I have uploaded images in the past in my posts, they have always just appeared as attachments. Is there some bb code, or am I just missing something?

Thank you.

- Andrew

mavelous · Answer

Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply. Well, it's not exceedingly important to get, but that sub 450 is bugging me still ))

As for inline image, no clue why it shows up differently in other cases. I posted from chrome desktop, in detailed post edit page there's an option to upload. I Will try to screen that as well tmw ))

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

FYI - The system is not able to estimate your score since you have no Quan score yet. So decide what’s easier for you, to get a con score on the table or to ignore the 450.

Please note that the system of estimating your score on the forum is very different from the official GMAT score algorithm. Obviously you’re not taking a timed test off a pretty find number of questions so we had to make a number of adjustments to take into consideration those factors. There is a very good chance that the score you receive here based on this limited experience could be inflated or deflatedBased on the number of questions you have taken and based on the level of honesty of each applicant. Sometimes people look at their answers sometimes they take questions I’ve already taken so the system is only as good as the input it receives. Therefore, with a greater number of inputs and the higher the quality, the better is the estimate. :/) based on the number of questions you have taken and based on the level of honesty of each applicant. Sometimes people look at their answers sometimes they take questions I’ve already taken so the system is only as good as the input it receives. Therefore, with a greater number of inputs and the higher the quality, the better is the estimate

Posted from my mobile device

mavelous · Answer

Thanks  bb , it's not so much the accuracy of the estimate, i just wonder at which point the verbal score appears? Is it based on rolling count, i.e. 10 questions over the last 6 days? Or is reset each calendar week?

Edit: I now realize that the thread title refers to *accuracy indeed. I dug up the old thread which dealt loosely with the particular forum feature, so as not to clog up the place )

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

When will my GMAT score estimate be available?
Once you take at least 6 questions in each of the forums, your GMAT Score will be estimated the following day. Your section scores (quant and verbal) will be available after you take 12 questions (6 in PS and 6 DS or 6 in CR and 6 in SC)

Source: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-timer-p ... 57022.html

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi mavelous,

I see that  bb  answered your question. Out of curiosity, when do you plan to take your first practice test?

mavelous · Answer

Hello Scott,

I'm planning a free CAT in two weeks time, on a Sunday, as I should be finishing up review of Quant material.
GMATClub CAT and the official mocks I'm saving up until I finish all review (quant + verbal)

After that, the plan is to start study of Verbal material, and keep doing math quizzes on GMATClub (high-level questions, 2-3 topics day and rotate)

MentorTutoring ,

As for uploading images, I used the below page (detailed post reply page), and upload the image.
Maybe it depends on the filetype, what can and can't be shown inline? or whether you use mobile app or browser?

AndrewN · Answer

Thank you,  mavelous , for following through and providing me with an answer to my query. I have seen the same interface each time I post, but I would guess that either the type of file I was attempting to upload (a JPEG, as I recall) or, less likely, the browser I was using prevented me from attaching an inline image. In any case, I will just have to try again at some point. (I have an idea for a new thread that I think community members would find intriguing and helpful.)

Kudos from me for the detailed response.

- Andrew

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Awesome. Let me know how it goes.

QQRamanQQ · Answer

Hi bb,

I have been using GMAT timer questions quite extensively these day but not able to get the score even once. Is there something I am missing or something i should take care to get the estimated score.

Thanks

erv20 · Answer

QQRamanQQ  I have the exact same problem...did you find the solution (did the estimator ever produce results)?

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