Do unscored items impact the difficulty of subsequent items?

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David@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2193; Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:30 pmFollowed by: 512 members; Location: Vermont and Boston, MA; Thanked: 1186 times; GMAT Score:770

by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Oct 03, 2012 4:15 pm

Hey!

Sorry if you have answered this before but I just want to be clear -- unscored items do not impact the difficulty level of future questions, correct? In other words if I get an "experimental" question correct not only does it not impact my score, but it also does not lead to my getting more difficult questions that do count.

Thanks!

David

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Ask the Test Maker | Wed Oct 03, 2012 4:15 pm

OfficialGMAT: Official Company Rep; Posts: 669; Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2012 9:06 pmFollowed by: 270 members; Location: Washington DC; Thanked: 143 times; GMAT Score:800

by OfficialGMAT » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:02 pm

Hello, David. Sorry about the delay in reply. You are correct: While unscored items cannot be skipped, they do not affect your score or subsequent questions. Thanks!

Leah
Official GMAC Representative

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David@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2193; Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:30 pmFollowed by: 512 members; Location: Vermont and Boston, MA; Thanked: 1186 times; GMAT Score:770

by David@VeritasPrep » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:20 pm

Do you happen to know how much uncertainty or variability these unscored items add?

I mean obviously you want to have lots of your mistakes be on questions that do not count...how much would that impact your score versus say getting all of the unscored ones right and having every mistake you made count against you?

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