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08 Feb 2020, 08:22
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Is it true that most or all of the combinatorics & work-rate problems will appear as experimental questions on the official exam? My instructor claims that to be the case and since he has achieved a 99th percentile score I strongly believe him. He said that many of the prep companies have done multiple experiments by guessing those types of questions on purpose and, by doing that, have arrived at this conclusion. Also, I do remember that, on two of the official exams that I have taken in the past, I have had some combinatorics & work-rate problems appear in the middle of the test (sort of out of nowhere). I was curious to see if there are any thoughts about this & if my confirmation bias is making me draw these conclusions:) Thanks guys
08 Feb 2020, 09:20
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tomiant
I think it is better not to rely on this conclusion since combinatorics problems are among the hardest problems and one must learn how to solve them. Moreover, there is no official communication from GMAC regarding the case. I have concluded from the discussions on experimental questions that it is better not to overthink or guess which questions are experimental. It may also be possible that only 99th percentile scorers get tougher combinatorics problems and since these problems don't necessarily appear in quick succession, it may be possible to get 99th percentile score even after avoiding these problems.
08 Feb 2020, 09:24
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Hello, tomiant. I suspect there is something of a confirmation bias at work here. I imagine that students will not see a ton of combinatorics questions because one or two questions would suffice to test that area of mathematical knowledge, and since many test-takers find combinatorics in particular to be rather difficult, they might or might not see any of those questions on their test, particularly if they are not scoring at a higher level. That is, perhaps GMAC™ has more Hard questions on combinatorics in its database, since its question difficulties are based on normed test-taker data (mostly from previous exams on non-scored questions). Although I know test prep companies and private tutors are always on the lookout for inside information, I am skeptical that someone with the potential to earn, say, an 800 (and use such a score for advertising purposes) would deliberately miss certain types of questions just to test a theory about which areas of mathematics would not be scored. Regarding work-rate problems, I have seen those run the gamut of difficulty levels, from Easy to Hard, so I see no reason why that particular type of problem could not be integrated into a scored exam, regardless of how the test-taker might be performing.
I think it would be wise to take this supposed knowledge of the test and maybe take a little pressure off yourself on those question types. If there is an iota of truth in the claim, then you might feel better about not wasting time on a problem that you feel is over your head, and that sort of mental edge can make a difference in your score.
Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
I think it would be wise to take this supposed knowledge of the test and maybe take a little pressure off yourself on those question types. If there is an iota of truth in the claim, then you might feel better about not wasting time on a problem that you feel is over your head, and that sort of mental edge can make a difference in your score.
Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew
