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GMAT prep Test 1 (Re-take) funny score

by nimitashirsekar » Fri Dec 06, 2013 12:26 am
Hi,
I just took the GMAT prep test 1 again. I took it the first time around in October, when i scored 550. I took it again today (December) and scored a 700 (Q49, V36).
What i found unusual while reviewing the responses, was that i got 16 wrong in each of the two sections(Verbal and Quantitative) and in spite of that got a decent score of 700. Is this possible? And i can assure you that i did not remember any question from the first time i took the test. So it was like taking a new test altogether.
I know that the scoring is not linear since the test is adaptive, but getting such a high score in spite of these many incorrect answers is suspicious.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Fri Dec 06, 2013 5:13 am
I am going to send you a reply that I gave another student with a very similar question.

"A true CAT test like the actual GMAT and like the new Veritas exams is delivered and scored based on item response theory. Basically the test is adapting to you by trying to see what level of question you are comfortable with. Various questions help to distinguish those who are, for example, above the 60th percentile from those who are not above the 60th percentile. Once the computer is satisfied that you are likely above that level, it is not going to be giving you very many questions below the 60th percentile because that will not help to clarify exactly what your score is. Instead the computer is going to work with the idea that you are above the 60th (after your responses have established this) and it will be trying to see exactly where you are above the 60th. So you will be facing questions above that level for most of the test.

With your score of 700 this means that you faced questions above the 80th percentile most of the time on the quant and on the verbal. You could be expected to miss some questions at this level! So missing around 2 of every 5 questions seems about right. What this means is that you impressed the computer and the computer was testing to see how high your score might be."

So no - that is not suspicious! Nice work!

If you want some confirmation. Try the new Veritas Prep Free practice test - the link is in my signature line.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:44 am
To further support what David said, consider this experiment I performed: I took GMATPrep Practice Test #1 four times, and each time I answered every odd question correctly and every even question incorrectly (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 7th percentile to the 54th percentile.

So, as David said, your scores aren't based on how many questions you answer correctly; they're based on the level of difficulty of the questions you answer correctly.

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

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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