GMAT Scoring and Scaling Confusion

Question

I'm currently very confused as to how the GMAT scales the scores.

I took a practice GMAT prep test yesterday and got:

IR 8.0 - 5 mistakes
 Q49 - 12 mistakes
 V42 - 7 mistakes
 Score: 750

I took one today and got:

IR 5.0 - 5 mistakes
 Q47 - 9 mistakes
 V42 - 4 mistakes
 Score: 730

How am I doing worse with less mistakes?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi whatiswacc,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. It takes into account a number of different factors beyond the number of correct and incorrect answers (and there are 'experimental' questions that do not count). As such, you shouldn't be spending time trying to figure it all out. You'd be better served working on building up your skills.

A far more useful gauge would be to review each CAT and determine how many questions you SHOULD have gotten correct, but didn't (due to a silly/little mistake). Those mistakes are the things that you have to fix to score at a higher level.

As it stands, assuming that you took these CATs in a realistic fashion, then you're performing at a really high level right now.

1) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
2) What is your goal score?

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

whatiswacc · Answer

Thanks for the reply.
I'm writing the exam this week and I'm aiming for 740+. It just seems a bit odd that I scored 20 points higher with 6 more mistakes.

BrentGMATPrepNow · Answer

Hi whatiswacc,

First of all, congratulations on the great practice test scores!

Your scores are not based on how many questions you answer correctly; they're based on the  level of difficulty  of the questions you answer correctly.

To illustrate this, I'll share an experiment I performed.

When I was writing the article  Taking the GMATPrep Practice Tests Multiple Times  ( https://www.gmatprepnow.com/articles/taking-gmatprep-practice-tests-multiple-times ), I took GMATPrep Practice Test #1 four times, and each time I answered every second question correctly (I did this for the quant section only)

Given that I correctly answered exactly half of the questions each time, you'd expect my quant scores to be roughly the same for all 4 tests.

My 4 scaled scores were: 19, 23, 26 and 42

This represents a percentile range from approximately 8th percentile to the 63rd percentile.

So, don't worry about how many questions you answered correctly. It has nothing to do with your score.

Aside : If you're interested, we have a free video explaining the GMAT scoring algorithm:  https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/general-gmat-strategies?id=1251

Cheers, 
Brent

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi whatiswacc,

To start, GMAC has publicly stated the a Test Taker's score on the Official GMAT is within +/- 30 points of actual ability, so a 20 point difference is within that range on the Official GMAT (meaning that with these scores, your likely score 'range' runs from 700 - 780). This does NOT mean that you're guaranteed to score in that range on Test Day though - you're still responsible to do the necessary work and earn that score on Test Day.

You reference numbers of 'mistakes', but that does NOT necessarily mean that those were questions that counted (since the results of 'experimental' questions have no impact on your score). Even if they did count, we don't know the relative 'value' of any of those questions (or the ones that you answered correctly, for that matter).

While this is probably not the answer that you're looking for, the reality is that you have to focus on the precision in your work and limit the number of silly/little mistakes that you make on Test Day. The GMAT will give you the score that you EARN.

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

GMATPILLBILL · Answer

Hey whatiswacc, We can't comment for other tests but do note that no test prep company's algorithm will exactly match the real thing. The best we can do is get close. You can always take a free GMAT PILL practice test here complete with detailed performance and timing analytics: https://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... ctice-test In terms of our scoring, many of our students report scores that are +/- 30 points from their actual GMAT test and so are a relatively good indicator of their performance. That said, no practice test can perfectly replicate the actual score algorithm, but this is quite close. https://gmatpill.com/images/practice-test-sample.jpg

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Your score is an outcome of the difficulty of questions that you got correct/wrong in addition to the number of correct/wrong.

The algorithm is very complicated and it is better to leave it alone and focus on the preparation.
A few possible reasons could be:

1. More incorrect questions in the first 10 
2. Incorrect questions consecutively

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