Test Score Question!!

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Test Score Question!!

by Lance123 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:32 am
Hey guys, I jus took a GMATprep practice test.

imo my scoring was a bit unrealisitic.

I got 17questions wrong in my quantative and still scored a 41. I understand that they take into consideration the level of difficulity anf so on. But has anyone had any similar results i.e so many questions wrong yet scoring such a respectable score?

Thanks guys.
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by Yes.WeCan » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:47 am
That's possible yes. I've seen people scoring Q48 with 13 wrong answers, it all depends on the mean percentile of the questions you're offered.

Pretty decent score for an initial practice test I say.

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by Lance123 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:57 am
Thanks alot man,

I appreciate the reply. The last thing i would what to think is that i am seeing progress when it was really a program glitch.

Thanks again.

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by money9111 » Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:01 pm
I too just took my first practice exam, although I got a lot more wrong than you did haha.. I'm not too worried yet because Verbal has been my focus lately... and it turns out that I got the exact same split... so now it's back to Quant while still reviewing verbal...

Anyway... I'm not sure what the other practice exams report (i took MGMAT), but if they tell you the level of difficulty of each problem in the results, maybe you can keep track of that? If you start seeing that your % of 700-800 level questions go up... then getting more problems wrong would seem normal... guess that mean's they're inversely related :-/
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:21 pm
Good thread, guys - I'd like to add a few things:

1) The way that the test is scored, you can miss quite a few questions and still do well...because of the adaptive nature of the test, it's designed to challenge your threshold of ability, and for you to miss questions somewhat frequently so that it can assess your level.

2) More importantly than that, your job when taking practice tests is to learn:

-How you pace yourself on test day, and how you need to improve
-What mistakes you're making under test conditions
-Which topic areas and question types need more work, both in terms of speed and accuracy

Ultimately, the only score that counts is the one on test day, so I wouldn't spend too much time analyzing the score from your practice test...even if it is artificially high or low by 30-40 points, simply knowing that won't absolve you from having to answer the questions correctly. So, more proactively, look back at the questions you missed, the questions on which you spent more than an average amount of time, etc., and learn from those.

Far and away, the greatest value you can derive from a practice test is a diagnosis of your testing experience, and giving you a set of areas to emphasize for subsequent study. Overall, I'd reason that your score is probably pretty close to, if not identical with, the one that the computer posted for you...but ultimately that doesn't matter. The questions you missed, the errors you committed, and the things you learned about yourself in the process - those are actionable details that can help you ensure that your score on test day is as high as it can be.
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