HELP! Saw the same essay prompt twice

Question

Afternoon GMAT community,

Just finished taking the in-person GMAT a few hours ago and received a Q+V score that I was elated about. However, when I got to the AWA section, I saw the prompt was the same as the one I did on the online GMAT two weeks ago (note: you can take the online and in-person GMATs within 16 days of each other, unlike two similar GMATs).

Will my score get canceled? Should I notify someone or let this go by? Obviously, this was pure happenstance and I had no nefarious intentions.

Couple of things...

I'm not aware of seeing any questions repeat in the Q, V, or IR sections
I'm applying to Round 2 MBA apps, so there isn't really much time to retake the exam (T-minus two weeks); moreover, there seems to be no in-person availability ~15 days given the holidays
Lastly, yeah, I grinded and my Q+V score drastically increased! I don't want to take another test and maintain my studies when I have other priorities for the application.

For what it's worth, I scored an 8 on my online AWA section--if anything, my score could only go down. Plus, as I think most of us know, the AWA section is of lesser importance.

Appreciate any guidance, particularly from those who work with GMAC! Low key freaking out

Edit: AWA score of 6, not 8

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  MrHopp . That is interesting that the AWA prompt would be recycled like that—the first such case I have read about—but such a happenstance occurrence, as you rightly called it, cannot be held against you. In fact, unless you have an eidetic (photographic) memory, your two essays, though similar, will not be identical. They will each be graded on their own merits. One correction: Although you may have earned an 8 in IR, it is impossible to score above a 6 in AWA. Do not sweat it, in any case. You are not bound to report official questions the exam puts in front of you. Just do not tell anybody else about those exact questions, the phrasing and so forth, or you could get into some trouble and jeopardize your hard-fought score.

Speaking of which, congratulations on having earned a score you are happy submitting. It is always good to hear that hard work has paid off. Good luck with your applications.

- Andrew

Kinshook · Answer

Congratulations on your good GMAT score!

You can't control questions put up by GMAC in GMAT exam even if they are repeated. Therefore, nothing to worry about. You definitely can not replicate your answers in AWA section in 2 exams. If you got lucky, be happy and don't unnecessary let others including GMAC know about your luck or you jeopardize your GMAT score.

Good luck for rest of your application!

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Wow! Interesting. I have never heard of this happening. I think it’s totally fine to get the same essay prompt. I’m sure it was weird but there’s a preset number of topics and I think it’s inevitable that somebody will get presented with the same topic… those surprise I never heard about it.

Funny fact. When GMAT online just started a year and a half ago, one user took GMAT followed by executive assessment and 50% of the questions on executive assessments were from their previous test 😱

Posted from my mobile device

MrHopp · Answer

Appreciate the responses, everyone! Man, I feel like this issue has been making my heart pound faster than it was during the actual exam haha

Purely out of curiosity, are seeing repeat questions on the other sections even possible? I originally figured not. That said, while I imagine the GMAT has a repository of questions, I'm guessing GMAC doesn't take them out of the question pool. Rather, it's just highly unlikely one would run into the same question?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi MrHopp,

Seeing the same Essay prompt twice is certainly a rarity - and I've never heard/read about this happening to anyone else before. If you took the AWA and IR sections after taking the Quant and Verbal sections, then there's no argument to be made that you had any type of unfair advantage on the Q and V sections of this attempt. Assuming that you didn't see any repeat questions in the Quant and Verbal sections, those Scaled Scores (and your Overall Score out of 800) should stand as is, regardless of this issue with the AWA. That all having been said, there is no benefit to alerting anyone of this issue, so let's calmly wait for your Official Scores results to be released. If you do face any administrative review issues though, I'm sure that we'd all like to hear about what happens. 
 
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi MrHopp , Yes, it is highly unlikely (impossible) that a test taker will see the same verbal/quantitative questions again. I'm reasonably sure that the GMAT and the online GMAT have different (quant/verbal) question pools, but they must have the same AWA pool. Those tests also most likely don't "talk" to each other, which is why you were able to see the same AWA prompt. Congratulations on getting great Q/V scores.

AndrewN · Answer

Agreed. I was going to reply to the query earlier, but I was looking to gather evidence in the form of a dialogue on the question pools that I stumbled across in the GMAT Online thread, a dialogue that I am hard-pressed to find now. I remember one tutor submitting that the reason for the interim period between successive attempts at a center was that a new question pool would need to be cycled in, and also that there was no such waiting period between test center and online attempts because the question pools must have been separate. It does make sense that GMAC™ would not want to risk a test-taker earning an artificially inflated score simply by getting lucky and seeing repeat questions (presumably, those to which the person was fairly sure of the answers). Perhaps the AWA is thought of, and therefore treated, in a different manner: You still have to write an essay, much different a task from selecting an answer and confirming it.

Wow. I guess the standards are a little relaxed between EA and GMAT™ question pools. Maybe GMAC™ is banking on students entering one type of MBA program or another? I wonder whether such a pattern has continued. (I could see some unscrupulous students running things in reverse in an effort to boost their GMAT™ scores.)

- Andrew

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I agree that it's certainly odd and very rare that you saw the same AWA prompt on two separate GMAT exams. Also, I do not think you'd see any repeated quant or verbal questions on two different GMATs.

AjiteshArun · Answer

That was my reaction as well ("wow"). I don't know how reliable that (one?) post bb refers to is, but if what that member reported is true, I hope GMAC is aware of and does something about the issue.

vv65 · Answer

A repeated AWA prompt is not really a big deal.

The ETS website has a pool of AWA prompts for the GRE, and I believe everyone who does the GRE gets a prompt from that pool.

The GMAC hasn't done the same thing. The list of prompts in the OG doesn't seem to be the complete pool. But it wouldn't much matter even if it were.

Posted from my mobile device

mpobisetty · Answer

Hi AndrewN, I am reading this thread with lot of interest. Can you kindly explain what you mean by this?

AndrewN · Answer

Pardon the delay in my response,  mpobisetty . I was hoping to convey that I recall one tutor having said that a plausible explanation for why a test-taker is prohibited from taking the GMAT™ at a test center twice within 16 days is that that period (15-16 days) is most likely the duration for each cycle of questions to appear on the test. To illustrate, take the following hypothetical scenario:

Question Batch #1 → 16 days
Question Batch #2 → 16 days (32 days total)
Question Batch #3 → 16 days (48 days total)
.
.
.

In this manner, no test-taker would see the same questions as before. Over the course of the year, there would be just under two dozen batches of questions that would have appeared on the test. Now, with the GMAT™ Online, the cycle could be quite different, and the dedicated question pool itself would almost certainly be independent of the one used for the test center exam. Thus, there would be no danger of taking back-to-back exams, one at the test center and the other online, and seeing overlapping questions.

GMAC™ holds the answers, of course, but I was reporting what I had read on the matter in another thread.

I cannot imagine such an oversight would persist, given the level of scrutiny GMAC™ engages in to protect the integrity of its questions. At the same time, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt until I see proof to the contrary, and my naïveté has been exposed before. Bottom line: I cannot say that I have read anything one way or the other on the matter, apart from the above, so I really should not speculate.

- Andrew

mpobisetty · Answer

Hello AndrewN, I was actually wondering if this minimum 16 day period is just because GMAC believes that any person re-attempting the exam would not really "remember" any questions that "repeat" across the two attempts (chances of repetition are anyway remote, considering that the GMAT database would hopefully have hundreds, if not thousands of questions)?

The theory that you've suggested (refreshing the entire question pool after every 16 days) is also possible, but was curious to know if GMAC has suggested anything like this during interactions? Also, who is to decide whether the "Question Batch" can be repeated after 1 year or 2 years or 6 months? Even if the question batch is repeated after 1 year, it would leave open the possibility that a test-taker re-attempting the exam after 1 year, may see repeat questions (I understand though that chances of "remembering" the questions after 1 year, are pretty dim).

Perhaps, an easier solution would be for the "system" to internally "tag" which questions were presented to a test-taker in the first attempt, and make sure that none of the same questions are presented to that test-taker in the second and subsequent attempts.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello again,  mpobisetty . I doubt GMAC™ would bank on a psychological component over a sure bet in switching the question pool, but I have no inside knowledge on the matter. (I think a team of tutors or teachers who could reliably score 780 or above would take the test in back-to-back attempts in hopes of seeing a few repeats and earning that perfect 800, but 800s are almost nonexistent since 2018.) I like the idea of test-taker-specific questions (similar to a genetic passport in competitive sports), traceable by user ID, although, again, I am not sure that GMAC™ would have invested the resources in such a system at this time. The most likely explanation, in my mind, is that whatever system was in place, perhaps even before the CAT was introduced, was grandfathered in and given a digital makeover. It might not be the best system, but it is functional, and the cost of utilizing it is manageable. (Perhaps I do not give GMAC™ enough credit, and the system in place is more cutting-edge.)

- Andrew

vv65 · Answer

I believe the GMAC has some combination of both systems.

One, the question pool is changed or refreshed regularly (that is why one has to wait 15 days before repeating the exam).

Second, the GMAC also seems to track which questions a test-taker has seen. No GMAT test-taker should see the same question a second time (unless he somehow registered with a different ID.) 
This is something I heard and noted at a GMAC presentation. The presenter said: "Students do not see previously administered items". ('Items' is a jargon term for 'questions'.)

PS: The mba.com or gmac.com websites should have this information. But a quick search did not turn up any page or document that says so.

Posted from my mobile device

mpobisetty · Answer

Thank you  AndrewN  and  vv65  for your analysis of my question.

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HELP! Saw the same essay prompt twice

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