FRUSTATED DUE TO NEW GMAT PRACTICE PLATFORM

Probably not the best thing to directly compare mocks from 3rd parties with Official Mocks. There are multiple factors that go into coming up with your score. Even comparing two Official Mocks the way you did, may show different results.

Hi nithinvinayak,

I agree with GmatTutorKnight. It's generally not a good idea to compare scores across providers. Unfortunately, the official practice tests are still the best, so you may have look into running them offline using bb's links if the online platform doesn't work for you.

I am not sure but I think that there is some sort of improvement in scoring algorithm in the new platform.

My score is ranging from 520 to 570 (Best Q45) across multiple platforms- real GMAT Online exam, new official practice exam platform (Practice exam 1), GC Test, 800score.com, Manhattan Prep and e-GMAT SIGma-X mock. However, my score range was from 620 to 660 (Best Q51) in the 5 official practice exams taken on old platform (All 5 were a combination of Practice exams 1 and 2).

It is a different story that I am very upset with no score improvement even after putting many months for GMAT.

Feedback solicited from those who have used both old and new official practice exam platforms- are there any huge score variations?

Hi Kushchokhani,

GMAC doesn't really change the GMAT algorithm (maybe a few small tweaks here and there to address issues like test security and content balancing). The official practice tests use the same algorithm as the GMAT.

I think what you're thinking about is better described as "implementation of the algorithm". Issues with the interface are well-documented, but unfortunately, we're unlikely to ever know whether the vendor made a mistake in the implementation of the algorithm.

That said, the real issue here is, of course, that we never like to see score drops. I see that you've taken practice tests 1 & 2 multiple times. Have you considered taking one of the paid official practice tests?

AjiteshArun

I have never taken any paid official practice test.

Of the 5 official practice exams taken on old platform, I had taken 4 in the year 2020 and the last one 6 months ago. All were taken without resetting the tests.

I took Practice Exam 1 on the new platform yesterday. Normally people say that we tend to score higher if we take repeat tests from the same set. However, I found that contrary as my score on the new platform is similar to Prep companies mock exams (all taken within last 3 months) and real GMAT Online exam taken in 2020 but very low as compared to the old platform scores, and so thought to attribute this anomaly to algorithm change. But open for feedback.

Hi Kushchokhani,

It may be a good idea to ignore the scores from 2020, at least as far as your current prep plans are concerned. Try to focus on what you can control right now. That means making sure that you're working with high-quality material, of which the paid official practice tests can be an important part. You don't have to take them immediately, but I do recommend that you take one of those (4) tests once you think you need a reasonably reliable estimate of your current ability. You may also want to not take all 4 so that you have at least 1-2 official practice tests in case you need to take the exam again.

As for the algorithm, again, what you say is possible, but there are many other (much more likely) reasons for what you're seeing.

In addition to the above-mentioned observation about algorithm improvement in official practice exam, I have observed that-
1. In the new platform, unlike in the old platform, we can review the question that was presented to us but left unanswered in the end due to runout of time.

2. In the old platform, we could have taken Practice exams 1 and 2 each up to three times before clicking on the reset button (reset was allowed only once for the entire set); so total/max. 12 attempts (2 exams*3 attempts*2 reset) were allowed. In the new platform, however, after taking Practice exams 1 and 2 just once, we need to click on the reset button in order to reattempt (multiple times reset allowed for the first 2 practice exams- don't know the exact number- maybe 6 times so as to match with the total no. of attempts that were allowed on old platform).

3. We CAN view past responses for the previous practice exams that we have completed and are now resetting on new platform (the link below mentions otherwise but is true only for old platform).

For more info about resetting official mocks, visit https://gmac.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/artic ... eset-Exams