Question and Answer Choice Mismatch in Sentence Correction???

Question

Hi all! I took the GMAT this past weekend and scored a 710 (48Q and 40V). I plan on retaking in the next couple months, why not.

So I had a question in SC where answer "a" did NOT match the underlined portion of the question. This ended up being a huge problem for me because the underlined portion of the original sentence was CLEARLY wrong, but I found the variant version in answer choice "a" was correct. Has anyone ever had a question pop up like this? It really threw me off on the rest of the exam. Should I reach out to the GMAT test org and get their advice?
?

bb · Answer

Thanks for posting this question. Sounds like you took the EXAMITY GMAT ENHANCED, is that right?

I have never heard of this happening. This is super weird but there are mistakes that do happen on the GMAT. We have had a test regraded for a  790 scorer who go V50 instead of V51  (they did not miss any Verbal questions). We also had an instructor 7-8 years ago who took the test only to face the first question that had a mistake in it (not sure if this is a public discussion but I can't find a link to it right now). Both of these people have reached out and questioned their test results. GMAC has in both cases confirmed and restated their scores and apologized. This was years ago before the GMAT online madness. Not sure if they apologize these days but the point is that there are mistakes that sometimes happen unfortunately. This is a very obvious one (more obvious than an error in a math question) so I hope they won't have a hard time locating it and fixing it.

I think you should reach out and inform them that they have a typo/issue in the question (hopefully it also bumps your score or possibly gives you a retake shot) but you should reach out even if you are happy with the score since someone else will face this question on their test and GMAC needs to fix this ASAP. However, I feel it would be fair for them to bump your score too if they counted it as wrong for your test.

P.S. I assume this was an online test or did you take it at a test center?

ryjames · Answer

Hi there! Thank you so much for replying. Sorry for being unclear. I took my exam in person at a test center. I just reached out to GMAC, I will be sure to update if I hear back from them (I sure hope I do!).

To describe the issue a little clearer. The question was around halfway through my Verbal section. The underlined portion was clearly wrong, there was a totally out of place "the" making it wrong. Now in answer choice "A" that "the" was absent. I initially ignored it and hoped that answer choices b-e would be a better fit, but I came to the conclusion that "a" was the best, but it didn't match the original sentence. I reread and compared the original sentence and choice "A" multiple times and confirmed that they didn't match, double and triple checking what exactly was underlined in the original sentence. I actually wanted to scribble the question number on my hand during the test so I could direct GMAC to it after, but I felt like this might get me in trouble for some reason.

Just has been really nagging my mind ever since taking the test. I scored a 45V in my most recent mock, so I felt like I underperformed verbal on test day. The idea that some fluky test error may have screwed with my Verbal score is eating away at me. Will update all on what GMAC says! I tried through their "contact us" link on their website.

bb · Answer

Thank you for clarifying and no worries.
I have tagged your post as a test-center debrief. V45 is an awesome score and is a number of notches above V40. That's a huge difference. A single SC is unlikely to have that much impact by itself (making it up a bit here) but a combination of multiple factors such as a careless error and this one, as well as potentially taking more time on this question could have forced you into a lower score.

I am hoping you get a free retake shot though I would not hold your breath.... the non-profit graduate testing org that is not to be named has not been very engaged during the pandemic so I hope we all are pleasantly surprised in a day or two.... and if that agency not to be named claims that "the" was not significant enough to make a difference, share with them this fascinating read: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/us/p ... cle-a.html

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Question and Answer Choice Mismatch in Sentence Correction???

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