Confused about GMAT Prep Scoring

stonehenge · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:06 pm Post subject: Confused about GMAT Prep Scoring

I just took the GMAT Prep test #2 and scored a 750 (Q 48 V 45). I have two questions:

I missed 15 quant questions. Does my score seem too high? Can I miss 12-13 questions in quant on the actual test and still score above a 700?

Also, is this a reliable indicator of how I will do on the test in a another week or so?

I scored a 660 on the first test (Q47 V 34) but I took the verbal too lightly and have since focused on this.

Thanks.

beatthegmat

Stacey Koprince · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:48 pm Post subject:

Hi, actually, you should expect to get many questions wrong on the real test even at high scores - completely normal. It seems weird b/c in school we were graded based on how many we got right. On this test, the number right doesn't matter nearly as much as the difficulty level.

People scoring in the 300-700 range can expect to get approx. half the questions wrong (and half right). The difference in the scores is due to the varying difficulty levels of the questions, NOT the number wrong. Above 700, you'll get more right than wrong, but you'll still get a number of questions wrong. Even a perfect score on the test still reflects something like 3-6 incorrect questions per section.

It's actually really important to know this before you go in so that you don't get psyched out, thinking that you're doing poorly b/c you know you're missing a bunch of questions. Expect to miss a bunch - that's how the test is designed.