GMAT Prep Software Analysis and What If Scenarios

Hi Bunuel and other testers.

I've noticed a variation in each of my experiences when I take the official CAT but choose a different section order.

Here is my hypothesis: the section you start with (quant/verbal) might contain a higher proportion or experimental questions in the beginning or harder questions in the beginning.

I'm not sure whether its just me getting use to the test as and when i am taking it, or whether there is some credibility to my theory.

Hi Bunuel carcass mcelroytutoring
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Is there a way to see how much time or an average time I took on questions per section in Gmat prep test (web based one)?

The analysis part only provides score and percentiles in each sub section and the option to review your 'attempted' questions.

Is there any other analysis that is possible to do in Gmat prep test?

I am concerned about my timing.

One more thing, are the 90 questions available for preparing your own exercises different from the questions for the exam packs or the pool is same?

I have been not touching those 90 questions thinking that I might see them again during my Gmat prep test.


Thanks
Saurabh

Hi Bunuel and other testers.

I've noticed a variation in each of my experiences when I take the official CAT but choose a different section order.

Here is my hypothesis: the section you start with (quant/verbal) might contain a higher proportion or experimental questions in the beginning or harder questions in the beginning.

I'm not sure whether its just me getting use to the test as and when i am taking it, or whether there is some credibility to my theory.

GMAT Prep Software Analysis and What If Scenarios -- VERBAL

1) What if you get all the LAST 11 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the last 11 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V38 ( 83 percentile, not bad after getting 11 questions incorrect in a row)

Analysis:

The 11 incorrect questions at the end of the Verbal section did not bring the score down greatly. It is unlikely that someone after attempting first 30 correctly would go so wrong in the last 11. The results show that the momentum gained by the first 30 questions is not significantly beaten by the last 11.

Conclusion:

Can we conclude that one should not worry about the last 11 questions, probably not. But, a few glitches at the end of the test would not destroy your hopes of getting a good score. This will be more clear from the results below.

2) What if you get some of the MID 11 questions (I took 11 to 20) incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

The MIDWAY 11 questions (11 to 20) incorrect and others correct.

Result:

Again V38 ( 83 percentile, once again, not bad after getting 11 questions incorrect in a row)

Analysis:

The 11 incorrect questions at the mid gave the same results as the previous experiment. The results show that the momentum lost by the mid 11 questions could be gained by answering remaining questions correctly.

Conclusion:

Again can we conclude that one should not worry about the mid 11 questions, probably not. But, the results show that you should not loose hope if you got a few questions incorrect somewhere in the midway.

3) What if you get all the FIRST 11 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the first 11 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V22 ( 27 percentile, not a good score in verbal. I was surprised by this result)

Analysis:

The first 11 questions literally spoiled the score. Furthermore, even the successful attempts of remaining questions could not recover from the damage done by the first 11 questions.

Conclusion:

Once again can we conclude that one should worry about the first 11 questions, definitely yes. The results show that first 11 are very important to your score. We considered an extreme scenario here; it is highly unlikely that someone would perform this way during the test. Therefore I considered somewhat realistic scenarios in the next experiments.

4) What if you get all the LAST 6 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the last 6 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V44 ( 97 percentile, an awesome score)

Analysis:

The last 6 incorrect questions were insignificant in bringing down the score.

Conclusion:

We can confidently say that if you are able to solve first 35 questions correctly, you have reached the 94+ percentile mark. Even if something bad happens in the last 6 questions, you will still be happy to see your score.

5) What if you get all the MID 6 questions(21 to 26) incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the MID 6 questions(21 to 26) incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V44 ( 97 percentile, wow again the same awesome score)

Analysis:

With the same results, the middle 6 incorrect questions were insignificant in bringing down the score. Moreover, the placement of these 6 incorrect questions seems to have no effect on the overall score.

Conclusion:

We can say that if you are able to solve first 35 questions correctly and the other middle 6 questions incorrectly, you have reached the 94+ percentile mark. Can we be sure about the fact that getting 35 questions correct in Verbal would give you a score of around V44 no matter what; the answer is no. The following experiments will prove why.

6) What if you get all the FIRST 6 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

All the FIRST 6 questions incorrect and others correct.

Result:

V33 ( 66 percentile, a good score, but definitely not an awesome score)

Analysis:

Getting first 6 questions incorrect is more realistic than getting the first 11 incorrect. As compared to the last two results the first 6 question greatly damaged the overall verbal score.

Conclusion:

The first incorrect 6 questions can destroy someones' hope of reaching even the 70+ percentile mark in verbal, no matter how well he/ she performs on the remaining questions. The apparent conclusion is that one should not take the initial questions lightly.

7) What if you get EQUALLY SPACED 7 questions incorrect ?

Testing Scenario:

7 EQUALLY SPACED questions incorrect with a gap of 5 correct questions in-between. Therefore, the incorrect questions are 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 41, the rest are correct.

Result:

V42 ( 96 percentile, My actual GMAT score)

Analysis:

A good score indeed, even after breaking the consistency after every 5 correct questions. One incorrect question between 10 correctly answered questions has not significantly lowered the overall score.

Conclusion:

The results are inline with our assumption that the more questions you solve consistently the higher your score. In testing scenarios 4 and 5 we got V44 where we solved 35 and 20 questions correct in a row respectively. In this test there was a small breaks in consistency, so we got a slightly lower score.

8) What if you get ALTERNATE questions incorrect/correct ?

Testing Scenario:

Alternate questions incorrect starting with first question incorrect. So, every odd question is incorrect and every even question is correct.

Result:

V16 ( 10 percentile)

Analysis:

This is a somewhat expected result. With around half questions incorrect and none correct in a row will in fact, result in a bad score. Some say that the first question that you receive is of medium difficulty level, a 50 percentile or a 500 level question. Moreover, if you get one question correct then incorrect probably you will maintain the level. The result was not a 50%ile score but a 10 %ile score.

Conclusion:

From the analysis we can conclude that alternate correct and incorrect question would gradually lower your percentile.

9 i) What if you get All SC questions incorrect: Test1 ?

I have conducted two tests to prove the point that SC is not individually adaptive and the location of SC question matters more than the number of SC questions that you got incorrect.

Testing Scenario:

All theSentence Correction questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got SC questions at following question numbers: 1, 4,6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, 27, 29, 30, 31, 36, 41. 17 SC questions in total.

Result:

V25 ( 35 percentile)

9 ii) What if you get ALL SC questions incorrect: Test2 ?

Testing Scenario:

All theSentence Correction questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got SC questions at following question numbers: 6, 7, 8, 13, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ,40 ,41. 17 SC questions in total.

Result:

V35 ( 74 percentile)

Analysis:

In both the tests I got all the 17 SC questions incorrect, but the different in the two scores was huge. In the first started with an SC question, moreover 3 out of first six were SC.

Conclusion:

SC is not individually adaptive and where you got an SC question matters more than the number of SC questions that you got incorrect. So, initial SC questions (of any other initial questions) are really more important for your overall score.

10 i) What if you get All RC questions incorrect: Test1 ?

I have conducted two tests to prove the point that RC is not individually adaptive and the location of RC question matters more than the number of RC questions that you got incorrect.

Testing Scenario:

All theReading Comprehension questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got RC questions at following question numbers: 10-13, 16-18, 23-25, 33-35. 13 RC questions in total.

Result:

V36 ( 79 percentile)

10 ii) What if you get ALL RC questions incorrect: Test2 ?

Testing Scenario:

All theReading Comprehension questions incorrect anywhere in the test. In this iteration I got RC questions at following question numbers: 4-6, 13-15, 18-20, 33-36. 13 SC questions in total.

Result:

V33 ( 66 percentile)

Analysis:

In both the tests I got all the 13 RC questions incorrect, but the different in the two scores was not very significant good enough. In the first test I encountered the first RC passage at the 10th question, but in the second it came early at 4th. This could be one of the reasons for the score difference.

Conclusion:

like SC, RC is also not individually adaptive and again where you got an RC question matters more than the number of RC questions that you got incorrect. So, initial RC questions (of any other initial questions) are really more important for your overall score. By observing the results we can see that scenario 10 resulted in a better score overall than scenario 9. The possible reason for this observation could be that the number of SC questions (17) is greater than that of RC questions (13).

11) What if you marked the last answer choice, but did not click submit and confirm, and the allotted time for the section gets over?

Testing Scenario:

Answered 40 verbal questions and marked the last question and waited for the time to finish.

Result:

The result was a positive one, favoring of the test taker. The test will register your answer choice and will not reward you any penalty.

Analysis/ Conclusion:

As soon as you reach the last question it's better to mark one answer choice and then attempt the that question, so even if you are not able to determine the correct answer in time, the question would still be considered for your overall score and you will receive any penalty on your score.

Quant Guessing Strategy

Testing Scenarios:

Marked the same option in all the questions.

Quant Guessing Strategy
Test #	Marked Choice	Correct	Score
1	Marked All Bs	2	6
2	Marked All Bs	4	6
3	Marked All As	7	6
4	Marked All Es	7	6
5	Marked All Ds	7	6
6	Marked All Cs	9	6
7	Marked All Cs	9	6
8	Marked All Cs	10	6
9	Marked All Ds	10	6
10	Marked All Cs	11	6
11	Marked All Cs	13	9
12	Marked All Bs	5	6
13	Marked All Ds	9	6
14	Marked All Ds	7	6
15	Marked All Cs	10	7

Analysis/ Conclusion :

Results from 15 tests show that on average an Option 'C' carries a higher probability of being correct and option B carries the lowest. I tested 'C' option the 5 times after I saw 13 correct "flukes" in the quant section. I think the reason is the DS questions in which many answers may in fact be 'C'. Another conclusion that we can derive from our results is that if you guess all the answers you are likely to get a '0' percentile no matter what answer you mark. But if you have to guess one or two and you have no idea/ time for the question mark 'C'. After the next tests it seems that D is the next after 'C' while guessing in quant. In test 15 again C resulted in 10 correct questions and a score of 7. Once again marking all Cs resulted in more number of correct answers as compared to others.

I will be posting results from new test scenarios. If you have any other interesting suggestions please let me know, I'll be happy to run the test.

Thanks,

Vercules

Hey Vercules excellent analysis , I gave a mock yesterday and before that i gave a mock almost 3 weeks back(both were official mocks) . I got 670 in my last to last one . And yesterday i got 650 . In both i got Q49 but In one it was V33 and other V31 . Yesterday I got first 3 wrong in starting and some in a row in middle and 1sc and last passage i guessed (all wrong, Last 4 questions) . I wanted to ask is it because of this my score has decreased alot? or in general my concepts are still as weak as last time ? Can you tell a strategy i should use?

Hi Kavya2024,

Those scores are so close that there is effectively no difference between them. Keep working on your concepts, and try not to worry too much about exactly where in your test you ended up getting questions wrong.

You could also go through this post and this post.

Thanks for your advice AjiteshArun . When I analyzed the paper I realised that 7-8 questions that i marked incorrect , I could have easily done them correctly but Idk why i didn't , can you tell how to improve this ?

Q 15 (SC), will the level of difficulty be based upon solving Q14 ( the very previous question) or Q13 (which is also SC)?
I mean it just depends on the correctness of the previous question, in order, or on topic basis?

When the test chooses your next question, it looks at your performance on all questions up to that point, estimates your level, and tries to give you a question around that level. So it does not only depend on the previous question. It also does not depend on question type -- if it will give you an SC question at Q15, it is considering your performance on all of your SC, CR and RC questions from Q1-Q14.

But doesn’t that go against the above analysis?