Last visit was: 19 Nov 2025, 02:39 It is currently 19 Nov 2025, 02:39
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
User avatar
Banmeet
User avatar
Joined: 11 May 2024
Last visit: 16 Dec 2024
Posts: 6
Own Kudos:
5
 [4]
Given Kudos: 123
Posts: 6
Kudos: 5
 [4]
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 11 May 2024, 23:13
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
 ­Hi Guys, 
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile, can anyone explain why? Also, I did not feel that I got any Hard or Very hard question despite being correct. Also, I had corrected 1 and 4 in review.  I want to actually understand how this works?­
Attachments

Screenshot 2024-05-12 at 11.38.41 AM.png
Screenshot 2024-05-12 at 11.38.41 AM.png [ 819.23 KiB | Viewed 7510 times ]

User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 11 May 2024, 23:21
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
­Hi Banmeet.

It appears that, by missing 1, 4, and 5, you drove down the difficulty of the Quant section. Accordingly, even though you edited 1 and 4 later, you didn't see many hard questions and thus didn't get a high score even though you got all questions correct but one.
User avatar
egmat
User avatar
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 02 Nov 2011
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,108
Own Kudos:
32,884
Given Kudos: 700
GMAT Date: 08-19-2020
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,108
Kudos: 32,884
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 00:04
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Banmeet - marty is correct about the mock behavior. I hope the GMAC fixes this with an update. What was the section order that you chose? What was your score?

-Rajat
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 00:15
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
egmat
Banmeet - marty is correct about the mock behavior. I hope the GMAC fixes this with an update. What was the section order that you chose? What was your score?

-Rajat
Show more
­Rajat, do you really think the behavior is problematic? I think it's logical that, once the test adapts, you get a lower score than you would have if you had gotten the early questions correct, even if you edit them.

The only issue I've seen is that, if you edit the early questions to correct, you get a perfect score, an outcome that doesn't make sense since the difficulty was adapted down as a result of your missing early questions.
User avatar
EducationAisle
User avatar
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,891
Own Kudos:
3,579
Given Kudos: 159
Location: India
Schools: ISB
GPA: 3.31
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: ISB
Posts: 3,891
Kudos: 3,579
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 04:30
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
So, by 81st percentile, do you mean to say that you got a Q83?

That does seem very strange that GMAT would penalize you so much for just one incorrect question.

Has GMAT recorded this somewhere that candidates would be penalized for marking questions incorrect initially and then changing them to correct responses?

Looking to hear from others.
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
 [1]
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
 [1]
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 06:21
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
EducationAisle
So, by 81st percentile, do you mean to say that you got a Q83?

That does seem very strange that GMAT would penalize you so much for just one incorrect question.

Has GMAT recorded this somewhere that candidates would be penalized for marking questions incorrect initially and then changing them to correct responses?

Looking to hear from others.
Show more
­Ashish, doesn't it make complete sense that you'd score lower with edited answers than with originally correct answers?

The test is adaptive. Missing questions makes it easier. So, if you miss early questions and later edit your answers, you've seen a relatively easy test. Accordingly, it would be unfair for a test with edited answers to be scored as high as a test with originally correct answers.

So, you're not "penalized for marking questions incorrect initially and then changing them to correct responses." You just don't score very high because you drove down the difficulty of the questions.
User avatar
EducationAisle
User avatar
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,891
Own Kudos:
3,579
Given Kudos: 159
Location: India
Schools: ISB
GPA: 3.31
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: ISB
Posts: 3,891
Kudos: 3,579
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 06:29
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
 
MartyMurray
­Ashish, doesn't it make complete sense that you'd score lower with edited answers than with originally correct answers?

The test is adaptive. Missing questions makes it easier. So, if you miss early questions and later edit your answers, you've seen a relatively easy test. Accordingly, it would be unfair for a test with edited answers to be scored as high as a test with originally correct answers.

So, you're not "penalized for marking questions incorrect initially and then changing them to correct responses." You just don't score very high because you drove down the difficulty of the questions.
Show more
­Unfortunately it does not make sense to me Marty :?.

So, basically if I get all 21 questions correct in Quant, but I get (say) 2 of them correct after initially marking them wrong, I would not be getting Q90.

Did I understand you correctly?
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 06:41
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
EducationAisle

MartyMurray
­Ashish, doesn't it make complete sense that you'd score lower with edited answers than with originally correct answers?

The test is adaptive. Missing questions makes it easier. So, if you miss early questions and later edit your answers, you've seen a relatively easy test. Accordingly, it would be unfair for a test with edited answers to be scored as high as a test with originally correct answers.

So, you're not "penalized for marking questions incorrect initially and then changing them to correct responses." You just don't score very high because you drove down the difficulty of the questions.
­Unfortunately it does not make sense to me Marty  :?.

So, basically if I get all 21 questions correct in Quant, but I get (say) 2 of them correct after initially marking them wrong, I would not be getting Q90.

Did I understand you correctly?
Show more
­Basically, yes.

And, it makes sense that you would not get Q90 in that case because you didn't see hard questions. You just got a set of relatively easy questions correct. So, you didn't achieve top performance.

What makes sense is that you'd get Q90 only if you got a set of relatively hard questions correct. For instance, if you got all questions correct the first time through, you'd get Q90. Or possibly, if you initially missed a question toward the end, say question 19, and still got hard questions all the way through the section, and then corrected your answer to that question, you'd get Q90.

On the other hand, if you miss questions 2, 4, and 5 and see easy questions for most of the test, then regardless of whether you fixed those answers, it would not make sense for you to get Q90 since your test would be much easier than that of someone who got every question correct the first time through.

Also, consider this. After you miss 2 and 4, question 5 is likely a relatively easy question. So, if you then correct 2 and 4 but not 5, you have a missed easy question in your set. So, of course, you would not score as high as someone else who had just one missed hard question.

All that said, from what I understand, all test-takers who have edited all answers to correct have scored Q90, but I find that pattern to indicate a bug in the test since those outcomes are not logical.
User avatar
EducationAisle
User avatar
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,891
Own Kudos:
3,579
Given Kudos: 159
Location: India
Schools: ISB
GPA: 3.31
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: ISB
Posts: 3,891
Kudos: 3,579
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 06:59
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
MartyMurray

Quote:
All that said, from what I understand, all test-takers who have edited all answers to correct have scored Q90, but I find that pattern to indicate a bug in the test since those outcomes are not logical.
Show more
­This is frankly exactly how I would expect the test to behave. If a candidate has gotten all 21 questions correct, she should get a Q90, irrespective of whether she got (say) 2 of them correct, after getting them wrong initially. If the test does not behave this way, it should be clearly documented by GMAC. On a lighter note, it would just be absurd to look at the ESR for a candidate showing green ticks for all 21 questions, but getting (say) a Q87  :lol:.

The ability to change responses to three responses for each section, is a tool that GMAT has supposedly given to the candidates, to give them more control over how they approach the test. However, if the GMAT algorithm "penalizes" (I would still call it that) candidates for getting the questions correct by way of editing, I would not exactly call it much control/empowerment.

On a side note, candidates don't always get a question incorrect because they did not know how to solve it; we have been suggesting our candidates to use this ability (to edit responses) in order to manage their time more effectively during the exam. So, consider the following two candidates,  both of whom ultimately got all 21 responses correct:

Candidate-1: She finds Question 5 difficult, but still decides to spend an extraordinary 6 minutes on that question. She ultimately does get this question correct and finally somehow manages to finish the section on time.

Candidate-2: She also finds Question 5 difficult and so, rather than spending 6 minutes on that question (and risking not able to attempt the latter questions in the section due to lack of time), chooses to randomly mark a response to this question and move forward. Later, once she finishes all the questions in the section, she revisits Question 5 and devotes whatever time that she has left for the section, ultimately getting that question correct as well.

To think of it that Candidate-2 would get lesser marks than Candidate-1, for better time management, just doesn't seem fair to me.
User avatar
egmat
User avatar
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 02 Nov 2011
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,108
Own Kudos:
32,884
 [1]
Given Kudos: 700
GMAT Date: 08-19-2020
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 5,108
Kudos: 32,884
 [1]
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 07:35
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Quote:
­Rajat, do you really think the behavior is problematic? I think it's logical that, once the test adapts, you get a lower score than you would have if you had gotten the early questions correct, even if you edit them.

The only issue I've seen is that, if you edit the early questions to correct, you get a perfect score, an outcome that doesn't make sense since the difficulty was adapted down as a result of your missing early questions.
_________________
Show more

MartyMurray - purely in ML estimate, you cannot give the entity, the flexibility to change the answer, and still penalize the entity (i.e. lower the difficulty level) for initially marking the incorrect answer. Kind of defeats the whole purpose (of giving the flexibility). Ideally, these questions should be treated like experimental questions - the difficulty level of subsequent questions served should not be changed based on the student's response to these questions. Then towards the end, when the user submits the final response, these questions should be evaluated, and the estimates updated. Otherwise, all you are telling the student is - we gave you the flexibility.. which you utilized and we penalized you for it.

Doing so (recalculating the estimates) requires either an iterative calculation or a large lookup table - both in today's world are not uber expensive (less than 10 cents) from a computation standpoint.

I have seen this happen so frequently (20/21 questions correct, and yet low scores) that I had to report this to the GMAC. I rarely saw such behavior in GCE but in GFE, this is prevalent (1/100 ESRs that I have seen).

-Rajat
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
 [1]
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
 [1]
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 07:46
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
egmat

Quote:
­Rajat, do you really think the behavior is problematic? I think it's logical that, once the test adapts, you get a lower score than you would have if you had gotten the early questions correct, even if you edit them.

The only issue I've seen is that, if you edit the early questions to correct, you get a perfect score, an outcome that doesn't make sense since the difficulty was adapted down as a result of your missing early questions.
_________________
MartyMurray - purely in ML estimate, you cannot give the entity, the flexibility to change the answer, and still penalize the entity (i.e. lower the difficulty level) for initially marking the incorrect answer. Kind of defeats the whole purpose (of giving the flexibility). Ideally, these questions should be treated like experimental questions - the difficulty level of subsequent questions served should not be changed based on the student's response to these questions. Then towards the end, when the user submits the final response, these questions should be evaluated, and the estimates updated. Otherwise, all you are telling the student is - we gave you the flexibility.. which you utilized and we penalized you for it.

Doing so (recalculating the estimates) requires either an iterative calculation or a large lookup table - both in today's world are not uber expensive (less than 10 cents) from a computation standpoint.

I have seen this happen so frequently (20/21 questions correct, and yet low scores) that I had to report this to the GMAC. I rarely saw such behavior in GCE but in GFE, this is prevalent (1/100 ESRs that I have seen).

-Rajat
Show more
­That doesn't make sense to me.

The only way to make the test adaptive is to reduce the difficulty of the questions after a question is missed, and as soon as you reduce the difficulty, you reduce the performance demonstrated by the test-taker.

In that case, the test-taker who has missed and then edited questions has not demonstrated the same performance as a test-taker who has gotten all the questions correct in the first place.

So, there's no way to "recalculate" at that point, and no need to. The test-taker saw a relatively easy test and got a score that fits that test.

The only thing GMAC has to do is make clear to test-takers that editing questions is not as good as getting them correct the first time.
User avatar
YB10
User avatar
Joined: 13 Feb 2023
Last visit: 03 Jan 2025
Posts: 59
Own Kudos:
30
Given Kudos: 30
Location: India
Schools: Darden '26 (II) Stern '27 (A)
GMAT Focus 1: 705 Q88 V86 DI85
GPA: 9.48
Schools: Darden '26 (II) Stern '27 (A)
GMAT Focus 1: 705 Q88 V86 DI85
Posts: 59
Kudos: 30
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 07:51
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
If edit is possible and doesn’t impact score
I would just randomly mark 5-6 questions as wrong initially, drive the difficulty down and then come back and correct it. Making me get all correct and Q90 right? Is this possible?

Posted from my mobile device
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 08:02
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
EducationAisle
To think of it that Candidate-2 would get lesser marks than Candidate-1, for better time management, just doesn't seem fair to me.
Show more
­The issue is that missing questions and later editing them is not just better time management. It's weaker performance.

In your example, Candidate 2 saw an easier test.

What's unfair is for both candidates to get the same score.

And I think the key thing is for people to understand that.

I think what's going on is that people got it into their heads, possibly because of things said by GMAC, that editing answers would be the same as getting questions correct the first time, which is illogical, and now are surprised that it's not true.

The test is adaptive. Missing questions changes the difficulty of the test. Easier tests should generate lower scores.

It's nice that you can edit answers, but on a question-adaptive test, it's patently illogical for a test with edited answers and a test with initially correct answers to be awarded the same score. It's both illogical and unfair.

So, GMAC should make this fact clear, and test-takers should proceed accordingly.­
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 08:05
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
YB10
If edit is possible and doesn’t impact score
I would just randomly mark 5-6 questions as wrong initially, drive the difficulty down and then come back and correct it. Making me get all correct and Q90 right? Is this possible?
 
Show more
­You can edit only three questions.

That said, if I understand correctly, if you edit all to correct, you can score Q90.

At the same time, if you don't edit all to correct, then you will score lower than you would have if you had gotten them correct initially.

So, basically, the scoring system is a little distorted.
User avatar
EducationAisle
User avatar
Joined: 27 Mar 2010
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,891
Own Kudos:
3,579
Given Kudos: 159
Location: India
Schools: ISB
GPA: 3.31
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: ISB
Posts: 3,891
Kudos: 3,579
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 09:34
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
MartyMurray

I think what's going on is that people got it into their heads, possibly because of things said by GMAC, that editing answers would be the same as getting questions correct the first time, which is illogical, and now are surprised that it's not true
 
Show more
How is this not true? As you mentioned in your last post:
Quote:
­All that said, from what I understand, all test-takers who have edited all answers to correct have scored Q90
Show more
So, perhaps what OP is seeing is actually an anomaly that GMAC needs to fix.
 
User avatar
MartyMurray
User avatar
Joined: 11 Aug 2023
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,630
Own Kudos:
6,120
Given Kudos: 173
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 1,630
Kudos: 6,120
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 09:38
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
EducationAisle

MartyMurray

I think what's going on is that people got it into their heads, possibly because of things said by GMAC, that editing answers would be the same as getting questions correct the first time, which is illogical, and now are surprised that it's not true

 
How is this not true? As you mentioned in your last post:
Quote:
­All that said, from what I understand, all test-takers who have edited all answers to correct have scored Q90
So, perhaps what OP is seeing is actually an anomaly that GMAC needs to fix.

 
Show more
­I think the fact that all test-takers who have edited all answers to correct have scored Q90 is the bug, or anomaly. The scoring is logical otherwise.
User avatar
pintukr
User avatar
Joined: 03 Jul 2022
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 1,590
Own Kudos:
1,088
Given Kudos: 22
GMAT 1: 680 Q49 V34
Products:
My Reviews
GMAT 1: 680 Q49 V34
Posts: 1,590
Kudos: 1,088
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 09:54
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
How is that possible? Did you edit the answers in the end?
User avatar
nikaro
User avatar
Joined: 10 Dec 2023
Last visit: 20 Nov 2024
Posts: 179
Own Kudos:
253
Given Kudos: 42
Location: India
Schools: LBS Yale Booth (Chicago)
GPA: 4
Products:
My Reviews
Schools: LBS Yale Booth (Chicago)
Posts: 179
Kudos: 253
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 21:19
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
That's strange. Pls raise it to GMAC
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 23:20
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Banmeet
 ­Hi Guys, 
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile, can anyone explain why? Also, I did not feel that I got any Hard or Very hard question despite being correct. Also, I had corrected 1 and 4 in review.  I want to actually understand how this works?­
Show more
­Hi Banmeet,

I'm not a quant expert, but I've been following reports like yours closely. As the others have mentioned, this was most likely because the difficulty level went down significantly at the beginning of your test.

If that is what happened (and we can't be sure that it is), I'd say it's unfair. Please do let GMAC know about this.­
User avatar
Banmeet
User avatar
Joined: 11 May 2024
Last visit: 16 Dec 2024
Posts: 6
Own Kudos:
5
Given Kudos: 123
Posts: 6
Kudos: 5
I got 20 correct in the quant section yet ended up with 81 percentile 12 May 2024, 23:48
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hi All,


I understand what marty is saying, but don't you think in renders the entire point of revisiting and correcting a mistake useless, as my first time answers are driving the test and the score and irrespective of whether I correct them or not will make little to no difference.

My another point on the same is that, I missed my questions till 4, beyond which I have taken less time and made none wrong, yet i did not get a hard or a very hard questions, if the test as it says is adaptive, it should have presented one of the hard questions after another 6-8 questions. but that sadly did not happen. Also, does time play a role in the increase of difficulty level?
 1   2   3   
Moderator:
bb
Founder
42384 posts