consecutive correct answers and how that effects difficulty

Stacey Koprince wrote:I can't comment on PR's algorithm because I don't know how they have constructed it - I've seen some data in the past that's made me think they don't base it on IRT (the algorithmic theory behind the official GMAT) or at least that it isn't very tightly based on IRT, but I don't know that for certain.

On the real test, you will find it incredibly difficult to get 9 in a row right. The test is constantly trying to find your upper and lower limits - if you're getting things right, it's going to try to "break" you by giving you things it expects you to get wrong.

It would be nice if we could get as many correct in a row as possible (how about 37 and 41? ) but there are only 2 scenarios here:
1) you can get many in a row correct without going over on time (in which case, yay, come work for us), OR
2) (the most common scenario by far) you spend extra time trying to do this but you can't actually sustain it because the test will start giving you impossible questions - and then you will also have to rush at the end or run out of time, which means you get questions wrong which you should have gotten right and your score nosedives.

Think of it not as what you want to do but want you want to avoid: you want to avoid getting many questions in a row wrong. The vast majority of people cannot maintain streaks (of right or wrong questions) of more than a few in a row - not because they haven't studied enough or they aren't smart enough or anything like that, but because this is how the test is constructed. You can't outsmart it (at least, not in this respect).