Rudrasingh844111 wrote:
Can anyone tell how GMAT algorithm works?
The classic GMAT works in the following way.
It starts by presenting a medium-level question. If you get that question correct, the difficulty of the next question will be higher. If you miss the first question, the difficulty of the next question will be lower.
Then, as you progress through the test, in general, depending on whether you get questions correct or incorrect, the difficulty will increase or decreases.
However, the difficulty will not increase or decrease throughout the test. Rather, if you get most questions correct, the difficulty level will hit a ceiling at some point in the second quarter of the test and then vary somewhat from question to question. So, especially hard questions will be mixed with somewhat easier ones. Similarly, if miss most questions, the difficulty level will stop decreasing at some point.
Your score will be based on the number of questions you get correct and the difficulty level of the questions you saw and got correct or incorrect.
The algorithm of the Focus Edition works similarly to that of the classic edition but not in exactly the same way.
One difference is that the Focus Edition seems to vary the difficultly level of the questions more than the classic GMAT does, with relatively easy questions and relatively hard questions mixed.
Another is that, on the Focus Edition, the difficulty of the early questions in the second and third section is affected by your performance on the previous section. On the classic GMAT, the second section starts off at medium difficulty no matter how you did on the first section.
Finally, the penalty for leaving a question unanswered is much heavier on the Focus Edition than on the classic edition.