Range of Quant Scoring

Question

Lets say one was to get all 37 quantative questions correct.

Where is the range of 600 level questions and 700 level questions ??

i.e. 1-10 (600), 11-20 (650) 21-37 (700+)

I was just wondering if get all the early questions correct, how many 700+ questions i can expect.

whiplash2411 · Answer

It is extremely hard to predict this, and you're forgetting that there are experimental questions interspersed within these regular questions, so there's no real way of knowing this. Just know that for every right answer, your next question will be of the same level or harder. So, if you get the first 15 questions right, you can say that your next question will be harder than the previous and it keeps on going like that until you get something wrong.

Wayxi · Answer

thanks for the reply. there just seems to be lack of 700+ quant questions available. the biggest source is actually here on gmatclub.com so i'm concerned if i'll be prepared for 700+ quant questions.

HopefulOldie · Answer

I don't by any means claim to understand the GMAT CAT Algorithm, but if I had to decipher its working, I would say it gauges your level and keeps giving you problems at that level. Remember, only in MGMAT you see questions with levels LABELED like 600 - 700 and 700 - 800. I am pretty sure GMAT CAT is more fine grained. So maybe it has levels like 600 - 620, 740 - 760, 760 - 800 etc. Also, since I have written a few fuzzy logic programs and my general understanding of the same, I think the variance in the initial questions is much larger than in the later questions. And lets throw some experimental questions in the mix making it more confusing. So honestly, I would not think of GMAT as 1- 10 on 600 level and 11 - 20 on 700 EVEN if you get every single question correct.

Another thing that I have noted about GMAT and lots of practice questions, a lot of them are not representative of the questions encountered in GMAT. So you can surely try practicing from 800Score for Quant or IIM CAT's Math for REAL 700+ level questions, but not sure that is going to help you for GMAt. I would stick with Kaplan 800 or Jeff Sackmann's Extreme Challenge.

Another thing that I have noted about GMAT and lots of practice questions, a lot of them are not representative of the questions encountered in GMAT. So you can surely try practicing from 800Score for Quant or IIM CAT's Math for REAL 700+ level questions, but not sure that is going to help you for GMAt. I would stick with Kaplan 800 or Jeff Sackmann's Extreme Challenge.

VeritasPrepBrian · Answer

I agree with you, HopefulOldie - the GMAT scoring algorithm is a lot more nuanced than "600 vs. 700". They heavily research the actual difficulty level of each question so that they can firmly differentiate between a 660 and a 670 question.

Part of that research comes in the form of experimental questions, so you'll see at least a few questions that are NOT designed to test your ability level, but rather to test how someone of your difficulty level responds to that question. For that reason, please DO NOT assume that an easy question means that you're not doing well! Keep this in mind - if I want to prove that a question is a 400-level question, I need to be able to statistically demonstrate that:

1) Those scoring below 400 almost always get it wrong
2) Those scoring above 400 almost always get it right

That means that I have to show that question to several 700-level scorers to ensure that it is, indeed, a question that people scoring well above 400 will overwhelmingly answer correctly - otherwise it's not a valid question. So you will see some experimental questions (you won't know which they are, of course) and that will impact the difficulties that you see.

Now, in terms of practicing the top-shelf questions, you're right that there's a lack of those in circulation, which if you think about it is because:

1) There are more 400-600 level questions necessary for this test than there are 700-800 and 200-300 questions. On a normal, bell-shaped distribution, more examinees fall toward the middle of the range than the outskirts, so they have to write more questions to service that middle ground.

2) 700+ level questions are hard to write responsibly - you need questions that someone scoring a very-excellent 690 will usually miss, but that someone scoring 750 will frequently get right. And it can't be for arbitrary reasons...it needs to show, legitimately, that a 750 examinee is a better problem solver than a 690 examinee. That's really tough to do, and so it doesn't make a ton of sense for the GMAT to retire those questions and put them in general circulation as quickly - if you have that question available, you have to use it!

I'd argue that the best way to study for the 700+ questions is to take the hard questions that you do see and ask yourself: How can they make this harder? How can they change the question slightly to elicit the other answer?

To become an elite test-taker, you really have to be able to think like the test-makers, and learn to spot those devices that they use to make the questions tougher. Yes, there's a lack of really good hard questions out there, but you can create more of them by asking yourself follow-up questions to the harder questions that you do see (what if they flipped the inequality? What if "less than" became "less than or equal to"? What if they asked for x instead of y? What if it said nonnegative and not positive?) so that you're aware of all the subtleties that the truly hard questions on the GMAT will contain.

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