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sk142857
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Wrong Question on GMAT 18 Nov 2014, 03:45
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Hi,
I want to share here a very weird experience with GMAT. This was my third attempt
GMAT1=620 q50 v23 IR6
GMAT2=680 q49 v32 IR7
GMAT3=640 q50 v27 IR6
Now wait, my reduced score is not my only concern. I got a wrong SC question on GMAT. The underlined portion did not match with the 1st option.
This took a lot of time and distracted me considerably. This became even more perplexing when I got another SC question with a clause inside brackets.
Since I have never encountered such questions and verbal was the critical part of my exam. I couldn't pickup momentum from there on. Result- v27 :(
I want to know is this normal or was I dreaming ?.... ! Or was too much experimentation going on?
Should I contact GMAC about this?
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kushwahanuj28
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Schools: Great Lakes '15 Jindal '16 Northeastern '17 Rutgers '17 Rotman '17 Ross '17 McDonough '17 LBS '17 ISB '16 Duke '19
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Wrong Question on GMAT 18 Nov 2014, 20:55
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shivendra
Hi,
I want to share here a very weird experience with GMAT. This was my third attempt
GMAT1=620 q50 v23 IR6
GMAT2=680 q49 v32 IR7
GMAT3=640 q50 v27 IR6
Now wait, my reduced score is not my only concern. I got a wrong SC question on GMAT. The underlined portion did not match with the 1st option.
This took a lot of time and distracted me considerably. This became even more perplexing when I got another SC question with a clause inside brackets.
Since I have never encountered such questions and verbal was the critical part of my exam. I couldn't pickup momentum from there on. Result- v27 :(
I want to know is this normal or was I dreaming ?.... ! Or was too much experimentation going on?
Should I contact GMAC about this?
Show more

Hi Shivendra

Colleges lately have started taking highest gmat score irrespective of number of attempts . So you should not worry about that . However having said that I would suggest you to contact GMAC . You can write to bb , owner of this forum . He must be having answer for this .

Regards
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sk142857
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Wrong Question on GMAT 23 Nov 2015, 03:09
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Just to add latest updates about my scenario. GMAC accepted their mistake but have refused to change the score because, as per GMAC, it was a non scoring question.
Now I don't know how to tell them that a non scoring question screwed me up bad during the exam by distracting me and slowing me down. I retook an attempt and got 730. Peace.
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EMPOWERgmatRichC
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Wrong Question on GMAT 23 Nov 2015, 14:34
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Hi shivendra,

Business Schools don't care if you take the GMAT more than once, so having more than one score is not going to impact your applications. Your recent 730 also far outweighs your prior performances, so that's also another 'plus.'

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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AjiteshArun
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GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
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Wrong Question on GMAT 24 Nov 2015, 02:35
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shivendra
GMAC accepted their mistake but have refused to change the score because, as per GMAC, it was a non scoring question.
Now I don't know how to tell them that a non scoring question screwed me up bad during the exam by distracting me and slowing me down. I retook an attempt and got 730. Peace.
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I would've hoped that they'd offer a free retake in this situation. Anyway, good to see that you ended up with a really high score.
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sk142857
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Wrong Question on GMAT 24 Nov 2015, 02:53
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EMPOWERgmatRichC
Hi shivendra,

Business Schools don't care if you take the GMAT more than once, so having more than one score is not going to impact your applications. Your recent 730 also far outweighs your prior performances, so that's also another 'plus.'

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Hey,
Actually I had taken my latest attempt last year Dec 23, exactly one month after my 3rd attempt. I'm updating this now because I felt someone may end up in a situation similar situation to mine. I applied to Tepper, Ross, ISB and Darden. Fingers crossed now. No interview calls yet!
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EMPOWERgmatRichC
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Wrong Question on GMAT 24 Nov 2015, 10:48
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Hi shivendra,

I can tell you that your 730 has made all of those Schools 'happy.' Now we just need to see how well you 'packaged' your overall application. You should plan to post back here once you hear back from each of the Schools.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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VeritasPrepBrian
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Wrong Question on GMAT 24 Nov 2015, 16:01
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Wow, that's a tough way to learn this lesson, shivendra, but for everyone else please keep this in mind:

On your GMAT you will see *several* (it's definitely more than 10) unscored, experimental problems that GMAC is running through the pool to gather data. There's a decent likelihood that some of those problems are flawed, including:

-A question is culturally biased (the right answer is right and the wrong answers are wrong, but there's something in the subject matter that favors people from a particular region or background)
-A question is ambiguously worded (in trying to "hide" the key to unlocking the problem, the author was unable to include enough information for it to reasonably or concretely be solved)
-A question is too labor-intensive (it's not "wrong" but it takes too much time to be fair within the time limits of the exam)
-A question has a second correct or defensible answer choice
-An "insufficient" DS statement is actually sufficient if one draws on a field of study (say trig or calculus) that the authors didn't anticipate
-A question is formatted poorly (like what you saw)
-A question is missing key information (like "not drawn to scale" on geometry for example)
-Etc.

Like GMAC said, those questions won't count until they've been statistically confirmed and "graduated" into the live, scored pool. But like you saw, it can be distracting or unnerving to feel like you've found a flaw or are facing an unfair question. So just know in advance that there is a fair likelihood that you'll see an unfair question. And if you do see an unfair question, there's an incredibly low likelihood that that item itself will affect your score. So just do your best and if you're really distracted, tell yourself "it's experimental." I've had multiple students come back from their tests and claim that there was an unsolvable Problem Solving question or a verbal question with the same answer repeated twice or something like that. And there's a good chance that was the "fog of war" talking...their minds were spinning and they were exhausted and they just blew it. But maybe they did see that, and if so you have to be able to tell yourself "it probably doesn't count, so make a reasonable decision and move on."

This is also why it's a terrible idea to try to read into your performance by the difficulty level of the problem in front of you. If you see a dead-easy problem at #15 it may, indeed, be dead easy and you might as well go home because you're performing/scoring so poorly. BUT there's also a fair likelihood that it's an easy experimental problem and they're gathering data on how well a genius like you handles such a problem (if more than a few 750 scorers get a 300-level problem wrong, it's probably flawed and GMAC needs to know that). Or what makes it hard is that most people don't even see the little trap lurking there. Either way, if you see a way-too-easy question or a way-too-hard problem or a potentially-flawed problem, just tell yourself that it could be experimental and do your time-efficient best just in case it does count. And then be ready for the next question.
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