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bostonwhether
Joined: 07 Mar 2022
Last visit: 14 Dec 2022
Posts: 7
Given Kudos: 11
Location: United States
Schools: Stanford '25 (A)
GMAT 1: 790 Q50 V51
18 Apr 2022, 12:23
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Hey GMATClub - long time listener, first time poster, etc. etc.
After scoring 740 (Q45/V47), 760 (Q47/V49), and 770 (Q47/V50) on mocks, I took my first live exam this past weekend and scored a rather disappointing 730 (Q47, V42). I purchased the ESR and some quick backwards math indicates that I got a total of 3 questions wrong throughout the entire Verbal section.
My question to the forum: was the difficulty distribution I encountered below (and my resulting score) plain bad luck, or something else?
Does anyone have similar experiences they can share? If so, how did you bounce back?
My Quant ESR distribution graph has a smooth difficulty increase curve despite some errors, so to see the Verbal curve barely budging despite a perfect start to the section and a high hit rate after that has me at a loss.
After scoring 740 (Q45/V47), 760 (Q47/V49), and 770 (Q47/V50) on mocks, I took my first live exam this past weekend and scored a rather disappointing 730 (Q47, V42). I purchased the ESR and some quick backwards math indicates that I got a total of 3 questions wrong throughout the entire Verbal section.
My question to the forum: was the difficulty distribution I encountered below (and my resulting score) plain bad luck, or something else?
Does anyone have similar experiences they can share? If so, how did you bounce back?
My Quant ESR distribution graph has a smooth difficulty increase curve despite some errors, so to see the Verbal curve barely budging despite a perfect start to the section and a high hit rate after that has me at a loss.
18 Apr 2022, 22:35
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bostonwhether
Hi bostonwhether,
1. Quant vs. verbal average difficulty: ESRs use (vague) terms like "high", "medium", and "low". I can understand why GMAC would opt for a more "friendly" (as opposed to a more precise) approach, but this effectively means that we don't really know what these terms mean.
Coming back to your point about seeing a smooth increase in quant average difficulty level, my guess is that we see much higher difficulty levels in quant because ESRs don't use the same scale for the quant and verbal sections. To see this, think about the 6-51 score scale. The 6-51 quant scale (Q51: 97%, Q50: 87%, Q49: 74%, Q48: 67%) looks like the 6-51 verbal scale (V43: 98%, V39: 88%, V35: 75%, V33: 68%), but it's actually very different.
In case you're interested, there's a reason for this: more international test takers. These test takers have driven GMAT quant percentiles down significantly. Effectively, what the GMAT considers difficult is not as uncommon as it used to be.
2. I'm not sure about the kind of difficulty distribution you encountered, but here's what a perfect V51 can look like: BrightOutlookJenn's ESR.
As for your score, I think the GMAT did give you a very high score (V42 is 96%), but yes, we'd normally expect to see a higher score with only 3 mistakes. For what it's worth, here are some posts similar to yours: V42 with only two questions incorrect and ESR Doesn't seem to add up.
3. I think you're capable of getting a perfect verbal score, and I'd take the test again if I were you. I would, however, try to get to a Q49 (or more) as well. That's the more reliable way to push past 730.
All the best.
bostonwhether
Joined: 07 Mar 2022
Last visit: 14 Dec 2022
Posts: 7
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 11
Location: United States
Schools: Stanford '25 (A)
GMAT 1: 790 Q50 V51
19 Apr 2022, 08:14
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Thanks AjiteshArun - very helpful reply with lots of corroborating evidence.
I'm going to spend some time drilling the topics I missed last test and then give it another go.
I'm going to spend some time drilling the topics I missed last test and then give it another go.
