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How the GMAT Algorithm Works
Written and originally posted by David Kuntz, Vice President of Research at Knewton, where he builds the CATs for its online GMAT course.1. What’s an algorithm?
An algorithm, generally, is a usually efficient set of well-defined steps that are followed to solve some pre-defined problem. In the case of a CAT algorithm, the problem is to reliably and efficiently estimate a student’s ability in a reasonable amount of time. Some CAT algorithms seek to solve this problem by selecting one question at a time, each subsequent question selected based on all of the student’s prior responses. Other algorithms look only at the most recently-answered question. Still others evaluate responses to specific groups of questions.2. Why does the GMAT use an algorithm when the linear LSAT seems to be a pretty decent gauge of proficiency?
One of the common goals in using a CAT algorithm is to reduce the number of questions a student needs to answer in order to establish, to a specified level of reliability, an estimate of the student’s ability. CATs are often more efficient than linear tests, and so fewer questions are needed to reach a desired level of reliability. The LSAT needs over 100 items to reach that level, while the GMAT needs fewer than 80 to reach a comparable level.3. Is the entire GMAT adaptive?
Almost all large-scale standardized tests contain some number of ”experimental” or “pretest” questions that are administered to the student but do not count toward the student’s final score. This is simply a way for the test makers to gather data on the questions, in order to determine how difficult they are and how well they distinguish between students at different ability levels. They also use the data collected to identify bad questions, so that they can eliminate or fix them before they count.4. How does the GMAT select which questions I get?
CATs like the GMAT have a blueprint — a set of specifications (difficulty, question type, content area, etc.) that define which questions you see. At the same time, each question has certain statistical characteristics that the algorithm uses, based on your response, to estimate your quantitative or verbal ability. The algorithm looks at your performance on the questions you have already answered and the characteristics of each question remaining in the pool and then selects for you the question that simultaneously best satisfies the blueprint and provides the most statistical information it can, to generate the best estimate of your ability.5. My score doesn’t seem to match my performance: I only got a few questions wrong, but my score isn’t as high as I thought it would be / I got a bunch of questions wrong, yet my score seems higher than it should be.
Most exams are linear assessments, like the SAT or your 10th grade history final. These are scored by counting the number of questions you answer correctly, and sometimes by penalizing for each question you answer incorrectly. The result, a raw score, is then converted to a scaled score, like the 600-2400 range for the SAT.6. Do the first X number of questions matter more?
Many variables that come into play when the CAT selects your next question. One of them is the CAT’s current estimate of your ability. It uses this estimate to select questions that will be most useful in refining that estimate (if you’re a high performing student, giving you low difficulty questions isn’t usually as useful in discerning your true ability as giving you harder questions, and vice versa). What is important to remember is that you should not try to guess how you are doing by whether the question in front of you seems easy or difficult; every question deserves your full attention. With that understood, unless you have completely bombed the test, it is usually the case that missing a couple of very hard questions late in the test will have a smaller effect on your final score than missing a couple of very easy questions earlier, not because of their position within the test but because of their levels of difficulty.7. How severe is the penalty for not finishing a section?
The penalty is significant. You can expect your scaled score to decrease by roughly 1 point for every question that you don’t answer. For example, if you correctly answer every question you encounter but fail to answer the last five, you generally won’t score higher than a 46.8. I took the GMAT and got a 710, 44q/44v/6 AWA. A friend of mine happened to take the test 6 days later and get the exact same quant/verbal scaled scores but he got a 720. How this could happen?
Both the individual section scores and the overall score are calculated using an estimate of your Math and Verbal abilities derived from your performance on the CAT. Your overall score is not calculated from your section scores. Because your underlying ability estimate might be slightly different from your friend’s, your overall scores might be different.8. I took the GMAT and got a 710, 44q/44v/6 AWA. A friend of mine happened to take the test 6 days later and get the exact same quant/verbal scaled scores but he got a 720. How this could happen?
Both the individual section scores and the overall score are calculated using an estimate of your Math and Verbal abilities derived from your performance on the CAT. Your overall score is not calculated from your section scores. Because your underlying ability estimate might be slightly different from your friend’s, your overall scores might be different.
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Watch earlier episodes of DI series below EP1: 6 Hardest Two-Part Analysis Questions EP2: 5 Hardest Graphical Interpretation Questions
Tuck at Dartmouth
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