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GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects

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AliZi
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GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects [#permalink] New post   26 Sep 2016, 15:18
Hi,
I purchased two new GMATPrep Tests.
In one of them I had 13 incorrect in Quantitative Section and in the other one I had only 7 incorrect in Quantitative, yet my score was the same for both: 49 (83%). I have read the posts about the consecutive errors, easy/medium/hard questions, and errors at the beginning of the exam, but still this doesn't make sense. There is a different of 6 wrong answers between these tests results.

In the 1st test (the one with 13 incorrect), I had answered 3 out of the 1st 10 questions wrong (two consecutive and one separate), and the rest of the incorrect were scattered all throughout (however, surprisingly in the last 10 questions I had only 3 wrongs).
In the 2nd test (the one with 7 incorrect) I only had 1 wrong in the 1st 10 questions, 1 wrong in the 2nd set of 10 questions, 1 wrong in the 3rd set of 10, and 4 wrongs in the last set (3 of which being consecutive). But I still don't understand how the result could be the same for both tests. Even if all my wrongs were easy questions in the 2nd test which I really doubt it, it doesn't make sense for me. Can someone help me with this please?
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BrentGMATPrepNow
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Re: GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects [#permalink] New post   26 Sep 2016, 15:27
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AliZi wrote:
Hi,
I purchased two new GMATPrep Tests.
In one of them I had 13 incorrect in Quantitative Section and in the other one I had only 7 incorrect in Quantitative, yet my score was the same for both: 49 (83%). I have read the posts about the consecutive errors, easy/medium/hard questions, and errors at the beginning of the exam, but still this doesn't make sense. There is a different of 6 wrong answers between these tests results.

In the 1st test (the one with 13 incorrect), I had answered 3 out of the 1st 10 questions wrong (two consecutive and one separate), and the rest of the incorrect were scattered all throughout (however, surprisingly in the last 10 questions I had only 3 wrongs).
In the 2nd test (the one with 7 incorrect) I only had 1 wrong in the 1st 10 questions, 1 wrong in the 2nd set of 10 questions, 1 wrong in the 3rd set of 10, and 4 wrongs in the last set (3 of which being consecutive). But I still don't understand how the result could be the same for both tests. Even if all my wrongs were easy questions in the 2nd test which I really doubt it, it doesn't make sense for me. Can someone help me with this please?


Your scores are not based on how many questions you answer correctly; they're based on the level of difficulty of the questions you answer correctly.

To illustrate this, I'll share an experiment I performed.

When I was writing the article Taking the GMATPrep Practice Tests Multiple Times (https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/taking-gmatprep-practice-tests-multiple-times), I took GMATPrep Practice Test #1 four times, and each time I answered every second question correctly (I did this for the quant section only)

Given that I correctly answered exactly half of the questions each time, you'd expect my quant scores to be roughly the same for all 4 tests.

My 4 scaled scores were: 19, 23, 26 and 42

This represents a percentile range from approximately 8th percentile to the 63rd percentile.

So, don't worry about how many questions you answered correctly. It has little to do with your score.

Aside: If you're interested, we have a video explaining the GMAT scoring algorithm: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/general-gmat-strategies?id=1251

Cheers,
Brent
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GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects [#permalink] New post   26 Sep 2016, 15:54
@Brent (@GMATPrepNow)
Thanks very much for you help, but as I said I do understand that the number of correct/incorrect doesn't matter. But look at the pattern. I had seen your video before, but even based on the video it doesn't make sense. My incorrect answers were number 9, 13, and 23 in the first 30 questions of the 2nd test. So I am assuming, according to your video, approximately I should have got more difficult questions through the exam because in the 1st 20 questions I only had 2 middle ones wrong. So the score should be even better given this pattern of incorrects in the second test. Add to this that I really doubt that I answer easy questions wrong, but I will check.
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BrentGMATPrepNow
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Re: GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects [#permalink] New post   26 Sep 2016, 19:48
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I think it really comes down to the possible variation among question difficulties that can occur.
It certainly seems like the scoring algorithm can serve you a wide variety of difficulty levels at each step. That is, the algorithm does not seem to follow some perfect pattern (e.g., 1st question is 550-level, and if you get that correct, the next question is 610-level, etc.)
If it were that precise, then the 4 test scores (where the correct/incorrect responses were EXACTLY the same each time) should have been either the same or at least close together.

All of that aside, I see a lot of students spending time trying to crack the GMAT scoring algorithm when that time is probably better spent mastering the content. At the end of the day, I doubt that knowing WHY you received a 49 quant score both times probably wouldn't have any effect on the way you take the test in the future.

Cheers,
Brent
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Re: GMATPrep-Same Quant Score for 13 incorrects vs 7 incorrects [#permalink]
26 Sep 2016, 19:48

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