Q48 V34 is 660 really???

Question

Hey guys! Took my GMAT today and got a little bit shocked by the way they converted my raw score of Q48 and V34 in 660. Magoosh says that it should be 680, and I saw posts of people from different years getting 680 or 670 for the same raw scores, can somebody explain why is it so different?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi milanfan21,

First off, a 660/Q48 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it could be enough to get you into your first-choice School. Scaled Score 'combinations' are not 'fixed', so overall scores can vary a bit (based on rounding and when the Exam was administered). GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability, so Business Schools know that a 660/Q48, 670/Q48 and 680/Q48 are essentially the same score. As an aside, you seem astounded that the Official Score doesn't match the predictions of 3rd-party GMAT companies. Have you considered the possibility that those companies don't necessarily have information that is 100% up-to-date and accurate?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Akashkalra · Answer

Just to add, I recently got a 660 on the Gmat with sectional scores of q44 and v35.

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EducationAisle · Answer

Just yesterday, one of our students got a 710 with a Q50 V34.

So, a 660 with Q48 V34 does look to be slightly on the lower side.

nlnvasnani · Answer

Just took my test yesterday. I ended up with a 660(Q48 V34 IR6). I'm also really frustrated because many people have 670s and 680s with these splits, and those scores tend to look much nearer to 700 than a 660.

Is there a chance I can get GMAT to review my case before the official report comes out? Want to milk the most out of my GMAT since I wasted a month reviewing for it.

P.S. I was aiming 700, but the verbal section was harder on the real thing compared to GMATprep, where I scored 620 and 700 on the two free tests. I faced a really hard RC passage which changed my momentum. Just hope I get into NUS(my aim school) with this score.

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mcelroytutoring · Answer

Unfortunately, the curve on the GMAT has become a bit tougher over time--the conversion tables don't fully apply anymore. For example, on my last test I got 44Q/47V and scored a 730 composite, but according the conversion tables it should have been a 740.

nlnvasnani · Answer

If that's the case, isn't it unfair? Because that would imply that a 660 now could be a 680 some time ago. Unless adcoms only looked at the splits and not the final score, which is less likely.

Also, any idea when the GMATprep was written? I want to know if the scoring on the software resembles the current actual scoring. Because if it doesn't, then my 700 on GMATprep software was overstated .

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mcelroytutoring · Answer

Well, yes, it is unfair, which is why it's hard to compare GMAT scores from different eras. That's the reason why GMAT scores are only valid for 5 years. You can't compare a 700 from 2002 to a 700 from today, for example...it's a much different, much more difficult test now. Even scores from just a few years ago are not quite the same as scores from 2017.

To answer your question, the original GMAT Prep Software (Default Exam Pack - Tests 1 and 2) was released in 2006. Exam Pack 1 (Tests 3 and 4) was released in 2013, and Exam Pack 2 (Tests 5 and 6) was released in 2016.

nlnvasnani · Answer

I've seen many posts less than 5 years ago with 680 score with the same splits.

I've decided to contact GMAT tomorrow about this, so that things get explained. I'll update here...

Another thing, the pen they gave was not working, and I first used the pen during the Quantitative section. When I raised my hand, the proctor didn't immediately come. This wasted some time. Can I request GMAT to investigate on this? I think it's their right to provide free testing experience.

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mcelroytutoring · Answer

You can try, but based on experience, I doubt that much will happen. In the future you might want to ask for 2 pens to avoid that problem.

Skywalker18 · Answer

I speculate that the sectional scores are decimals that are rounded to nearest integer .
So Q48 might be any score in the range [47.5,48.5) and V34 might be any score in the range [33.5,34.5) .
While calculating the total score, the actual decimal value is used and thus there might a difference in mapping the overall sectional score to total score.

nlnvasnani · Answer

Just got my official score report today. I got 660 (Q48 V34 IR 6 AWA 6). I'm happy that I got 6.0 in AWA, maybe it might just compensate for my low verbal score, which is also the reason I didn't hit 700.

They said there was nothing wrong with the computation, and the score is accurate. For the pen problem, they didn't care much that my first pen didn't work, which is pretty sad.

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Q48 V34 is 660 really???

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