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Anyone else get a weirdly low score on PR's free test?

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Anyone else get a weirdly low score on PR's free test?

by emilybarry » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:26 am
Hey!

I took my first official GMAT a month ago and got a 690, which was disappointing because my mba.com official gmat practice tests were in the 710-770 range. Been studying to take it again and figured I'd download a test by someone else to get a more holistic idea of how I'm doing and I got a....640??

What's weird is looking at the breakdown I got 33/41 on verbal correct with a difficulty around 6-8 for most of it, and 30/37 correct on quant with a 7-8 difficulty.

Has anyone had a similar experience with this specific test/scoring method? Is the MBA.com one more reliable or am I actually doing worse than before? Haha.

Thanks!!
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by [email protected] » Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:54 pm
Hi emilybarry,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. It takes into account a number of different factors - far more than just the number of correct answers. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs. GMAC has publicly stated that the Official Score that you earn on Test Day is within +/- 30 points of actual ability. Considering the 690 that you scored, your 'range' is likely between about 660 (at the 'low end') and about 720 (at the 'high end'). A far more useful gauge would be to review each CAT and determine how many questions you SHOULD have gotten correct, but didn't (due to a silly/little mistake). Those mistakes are the things that you have to fix to score at a higher level.

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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:27 am
emilybarry wrote:Hey!

I took my first official GMAT a month ago and got a 690, which was disappointing because my mba.com official gmat practice tests were in the 710-770 range. Been studying to take it again and figured I'd download a test by someone else to get a more holistic idea of how I'm doing and I got a....640??

What's weird is looking at the breakdown I got 33/41 on verbal correct with a difficulty around 6-8 for most of it, and 30/37 correct on quant with a 7-8 difficulty.

Has anyone had a similar experience with this specific test/scoring method? Is the MBA.com one more reliable or am I actually doing worse than before? Haha.

Thanks!!
Not uncommon at all. In fact, it's rare that I teach a class and don't get some version of this question. Even if this had been an official practice test from mba.com, you wouldn't want to read too much into any single result. And given what you had been scoring on official tests, it's entirely possible that you could waltz into a testing center tomorrow, get a 730, and be done with it. Your goal is to slide that range on the official tests up and address any psychological factors that might account for the gap between your official exam and your practice tests.
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