Confused about GMAT Prep Test 4 (Exam Pack-1 Test 2) scoring

Question

Hey, 
I am giving my GMAT on the 21st (less than a week away) and I just took my 4th GMATPrep software Test today. This was the second test in Exam Pack-1 and I was shocked by its results.

I scored a 710 (Q50 V35). Here's my detailed break-up :

- Quant : 
I got 35/37 questions correct (questions 18 and 26 were the incorrect ones) - yet somehow it shows up as Q50 ! I have consistently got about 7-8 questions wrong in the earlier prep tests and still managed a Q50 ... do I have to get all correct to get a Q51 ?

- Verbal : 
I got 33/41 questions correct (questions 3,7,14,15,16,22,26,37 were incorrect) - I was thrown aback when i saw a V35 ! I have consistently got about 8-10 questions wrong in verbal with a similar pattern of incorrect questions but have managed to score a V40 every time. Is there something wrong or am I missing something here ?

I have scored a 740 (Q50 and V40) on each of the previous prep tests (2 tests from the default exam pack 1 test from the exam pack-1) and so I was completely thrown back when I saw this score despite a better overall performance on this test than on any other previous prep test.

Request some insight from the instructors on this issue. 
Anxiously awaiting a reply, 
Natarajan

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi natarajansrikrishnan,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. It takes into account a number of different factors, including the relative difficulty of the question, whether you were expected to get it correct or not, the placement of the question, what's going on "around it", the "strings" of correct and incorrect answers, whether the question even counts or not (some questions are "experimental" and are worth 0), if you leave questions unanswered and incur a penalty, etc. As such, you shouldn't be spending time trying to figure it all out.

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). At your scoring level, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to little mistakes, so while a silly mistake or two won't destroy your score, they could easily cost you some points.

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

natarajansrikrishnan · Answer

Alright thanks Rich.

I did make a silly mistake on one quant question. As for verbal, well i probably would have got a couple of them right but that's about it to be fair.
But like you said, I will spend time reviewing these tests and improving my weaknesses.

Thanks once again

Natarajan

KarishmaB · Answer

There is no point second guessing the algorithm - a variation of 30 points is normal. I would expect your actual score to be between 700 and 750 - perhaps toward the higher side. Since you are 5 days away from your test, do not take another full length practice test. Just review your log, gloss over weak areas etc and generally try to wind down. Relax, eat well, sleep well... Just focus on giving it your best shot.

natarajansrikrishnan · Answer

thanks Karishma, I have exhausted the tests available. I am generally reviewing the flagged stuff and gradually winding down like you said. Hopefully all goes well on test day

egmat · Answer

Dear Natrajan,

Accuracy is a Very Flawed measure on the GMAT. There are numerous instances of the same. For example, if you look at GMAT Prep myth-busters analysis, you will notice that you can score

MythBusters link: gmat-prep-software-analysis-and-what-if-scenarios-146146.html

1. V22 with 11 mistakes
2. V30 with 11 mistakes
3. V38 with 11 mistakes

Considering that V22 is 30 percentile while V38 is 85, you have a variation of 55 percentile between two tests with identical accuracy. When it comes to scoring higher on the GMAT or for that matter any CAT, you need to do two things:

1. Make the test throw difficult questions at you.
2. Answer those questions correctly.

Regarding #1 - think of every question slot as an opportunity where the GMAT can throw an easy question, a medium difficulty question, or a hard question (considering only three levels for simplicity). Depending on how you have responded to the previous questions, the algorithm determines the difficulty level of the next question that it will serve you. While in theory the algorithm is infinitely adaptable, in practice we have found that the algorithm does an initial assessment and then fine tunes the same (despite what GMAC says, the GMAT Prep data indicates that the algorithm is not infinitely adaptable and does not do large swings after Q20).

Lets analyze your attempts:

Quote:

3,7,14,15,16

You have 5 questions wrong in the first 16, including the third and 7th question wrong. In the tests in which you scored V40, did you make as many mistakes in the first 16 (or the first 10).

Again - the take away for you is to to ensure that you learn from your mistakes. Karishma and Rich said the same. Make sure that you don't repeat them. In addition, don't compare pure accuracies on GMAT Prep. If you do so, you will be scratching your head more often than not.

I hope the above helps.

-Rajat Sadana

powerade · Answer

I just finished the same test, Exam Pack 1 - Test 2, and feel the same way regarding the verbal section. I know everyone says the GMAT algorithm is extremely complex, but I think the verbal part of this is just wrong.

I got a 720 (Q49, V40). I missed 8 in quant and I think that score is accurate. But in verbal, I only missed 5 questions (7, 9, 17, 29, and 34). A few things I find odd about it:

- I missed 2 SC, 2 CR, and 1 RC. When I look at the breakdown of my V40, I have 42 SC, 41 CR, and 35 RC. In RC, it shows me at the 73% level. How is it possible to get all but one RC question correct and be in the 73%?? Either a quarter of the test takers get all their RC questions correct or I was getting pretty easy questions.
- I was given the same CR question twice on this same test.
- Isn't the idea of a computer adaptive exam to hone in on my skill level? When you answer 88% of the questions correctly, I think the algorithm is doing a pretty poor job of honing in on your skill level. Maybe all my questions were really easy and I deserved a 40V, but it seems to me that if you only miss 5 and they are pretty evenly distributed, I'm not sure what you have to do to get harder questions. The best thing I can come up with is that missing questions 7 and 9 pretty much capped me at ~V40. I don't really like comparing tests, but I find that pretty hard to believe considering other official tests I've taken. One I got a V44 while missing 7 questions including #s 8 and 11.

Anyways, I guess I'm done ranting. Just wanted to see if anyone else has had strange scoring results/duplicate questions on this test.

TheMechanic · Answer

Hi Experts, I have my GMAT scheduled on 21st November. I needed your help in assessing my progress on my GMAT Preparations. I have prepped for GMAT before and hence I have taken first 4 GMAT Prep test before. I bought the 2 new Tests and I have taken all the 6 Full GMAT Prep exams under controlled conditions simulating the actual GMAT conditions mostly taken at home, with some distractions/ noise testing my concentration levels.

GMAT Prep 1 (repeat): 750 (Q50, V41) GMAT Prep 2 (repeat): 740 (Q50, V40) GMAT Prep 3 (repeat): 730 (Q49, V41) GMAT Prep 4 (repeat): 750 (Q50, V41) GMAT Prep 5 (new): 730 (Q49, V40) GMAT Prep 6 (new/latest): 700 (Q49, V35) I have taken few MGMAT TESTs and scored: 700, 670, 730. This was a 2 weeks ago. I gave up on them as the Quant was way too difficult for my liking. I wanted to restrict my self to only GMAT Official questions. The recent two tests were GMAT Prep 1 (750) and GMAT Prep 6 (700). Given that exam is only 5 days away, I can't do much but to analyze the mistakes and any trends which I might have missed. The last test GMAT Prep 6, which I took today, was kinda a dampener, as I scored only 700. 700 is not a bad score, but I was looking to score a lot more and was looking to get a consistent 740+ score. However, I look for your guidance at this stage. I am confident to score a 700 or more, but there is a small element of doubt creeping in (which should not be the case). I felt the GMAT Prep 6 exam algorithm worked out weirdly. With just 5 wrong out of 37 questions, I got a 49. That sounds pretty strict scoring behind the scene. Additionally, 11 wrong (1q wrong in top 10) in verbal led to 35. Something is not right here. Some re-calibration of scoring algorithm must have taken place behind the scenes. GMAT Prep scoring algorithm is way too complicated but there are variations seen in my attempted scores. Its difficult to assess which score is going to be closer to the Actual Score. Something tells me to average all scores and that is what my score going to be. ha

Help please. Thanks, Vaibhav.

MaansiS · Answer

The quant questions in this particular test seem relatively easier. Possibly why a lower number of incorrect questions led to the same score irrespective of the placement of the incorrect questions.

Confused about GMAT Prep Test 4 (Exam Pack-1 Test 2) scoring

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