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getting all wrong at the end of a section

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getting all wrong at the end of a section

by prachich1987 » Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:11 am
Does answering last few questions wrong affect score greatly?
In MGMAT CATs provide a chart showing percentile after each question we attempt.
and the percentile after we attempt the very last question is always equal to the percentiles in score report.

Today I took GMATPrep-2.
I got 14 wrong in verbal.The last six questions (from 36-41) went wrong.
and I scored miserable 33.So just wanted to ask whether answering last few questions right matters a lot?
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:42 pm
Hey Prachich,

Good questions - my take:

1) GMAC's own representatives have said that they're surprised when they model the scoring at how significant the penalty for not answering questions can be. So you really do need to answer the questions.

2) There is also some "official" evidence that simply guessing on a few questions doesn't make that significant a difference in your score, either - this is courtesy of the official GMAT blog: https://www.mba.com/community/MBA_com/b/ ... ssing.aspx
Based on an analysis of thousands of actual GMAT records, the question of whether to guess or leave questions blank (at the end) depends on the number of items you have left, the section you are on (Verbal or Quantitative), and your relative ability. Here is how it breaks down:

* If you only have 1 or 2 items left in either section, it doesn't make much difference if you guess or omit the question. You should finish the item you are on to the best of your ability and not worry about the others.
* If you are on the Verbal section, it doesn't make much difference if you guess when you have up to about 5 questions left. You should finish the item you are on to the best of your ability and not worry about the others.
* In the Quantitative section, your odds improve if you guess and complete all the questions rather leave the final questions unanswered. After all, there are fewer questions in this section, so each item left blank in this section comprises a higher proportion of the test than in the verbal section. Guess as smartly as you can, but guess nonetheless-do not leave items blank.
* If you have an idea what your relative ability is ahead of time (i.e., you've taken a practice test or diagnostic test), then your guess versus omit strategy differs based on where you think you would fall. If your scores tend to be relatively low on the section, leaving the questions blank may actually result in a higher score than getting even the easy questions wrong by guessing. If you are near the top of the scale, you have farther to fall if you omit the items and therefore you should guess. Low ability-omit; high ability-guess; medium ability-see above.
3) Given all of that, the most important thing is for you to pace yourself accordingly so that you don't have to make that decision of guess vs. omit. There's even a theory out there that I tend to believe is probably correct that if you know you're going to need to guess to make up time you should guess earlier (say, once every 10 questions and not in the last 3-4) than later. The reasoning is that multiple consecutive misses can really hurt your score as the adaptivity changes, and that because the GMAT weights finishing all the questions so strongly it's very unlikely that your last 2-3 questions will contain an unscored experimental - in that way, they'd be giving you a "free pass" on not pacing correctly, so they really have to make the last few questions count.
Brian Galvin
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by money9111 » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:47 pm
By the end of each section you're going to just be so relieved that you're through it that your mind will start to wonder anyway lol... trust me... I KNOW! ;-)
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by prachich1987 » Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:54 pm
Thanks Brian & money9111 for your advice.

Actually I have GMAT in a week.I started preparation 40 days back and really working hard since then
I am doing quiet ok in Quant :) But Verbal is hampering my score :(
Further I had heard that almost everyone scores higher in GMATPrep CAT than in MGMAT.So I was expecting a higher score in GMATPrep.
But I scored almost in the same range.I was really disappointed to see my verbal score.
This is in spite of the fact that I got 6-7 repeat questions throughout the test.These 7-8 questions were from OG.
1) Can it happen even in actual GMAT? Do OG questions appear in actual GMAT??

I want score at least 40 in Verbal and wan to have overall score 700+
Any last week tips will be appreciated.
RC is my weak area...hit rate is 50%
In CR & RC ,hit rate varies between 60-80%
During solving CR,I used to read first line of the question.But may be due to lack of concentration or something,I had to again read it.

So far my progress is as below

GMATPrep-1 Q49 V22 590
Knewton Q46 V25 590
Manhattan GMAT Q46 V38 690
Manhattan GMAT Q47 V34 670
Manhattan GMAT Q48 V38 710
Manhattan GMAT Q48 V36 690
GMATPrep-2 Q50 V33 690

2) Should I take few more practice tests and pace myself on verbal or should I try solving more and more questions?
3) What should I do in this last week?

PLEASE HELP
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by money9111 » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:28 am
prachich1987 wrote:Thanks Brian & money9111 for your advice.

Actually I have GMAT in a week.I started preparation 40 days back and really working hard since then
I am doing quiet ok in Quant :) But Verbal is hampering my score :(
Further I had heard that almost everyone scores higher in GMATPrep CAT than in MGMAT.So I was expecting a higher score in GMATPrep.
But I scored almost in the same range.I was really disappointed to see my verbal score.
This is in spite of the fact that I got 6-7 repeat questions throughout the test.These 7-8 questions were from OG.
1) Can it happen even in actual GMAT? Do OG questions appear in actual GMAT??

I want score at least 40 in Verbal and wan to have overall score 700+
Any last week tips will be appreciated.
RC is my weak area...hit rate is 50%
In CR & RC ,hit rate varies between 60-80%
During solving CR,I used to read first line of the question.But may be due to lack of concentration or something,I had to again read it.

So far my progress is as below

GMATPrep-1 Q49 V22 590
Knewton Q46 V25 590
Manhattan GMAT Q46 V38 690
Manhattan GMAT Q47 V34 670
Manhattan GMAT Q48 V38 710
Manhattan GMAT Q48 V36 690
GMATPrep-2 Q50 V33 690

2) Should I take few more practice tests and pace myself on verbal or should I try solving more and more questions?
3) What should I do in this last week?

PLEASE HELP
Here is a brief disclaimer - I probably shouldn't be giving you advice because your 38V score is exactly what I got on my highest GMAT. So it's like what position am I in to give you advice? But I will say my piece and let you take from it anything you think may help.

Do not worry about MGMAT vs. GMAT Prep vs. Miss Mary Mac (joke) Your scores will vary from test to test. I found that GMAT Prep exams were the most accurate for me. From the looks of your practice exams if you can just get your highest Quant paired with your highest verbal you will definitely break 700. Easier said that done, I know. Again... I KNOW from experience.

If you want at least a 40 in verbal I'm not sure what else you can do in a week that will help you get that. Brian can offer much better advice on how to do that.
My goal is to make MBA applicants take onus over their process.

My story from Pre-MBA to Cornell MBA - New Post in Pre-MBA blog

Me featured on Poets & Quants

Free Book for MBA Applicants

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:51 am
First off, know that there will be NO repeat questions on the official GMAT. I've talked to the overseers of GMAC and they take test security and validity incredibly seriously - to be included in the Official Guide, questions must be retired for a significant amount of time.

Now, for practice tests, it's not unlikely that a few questions might sneak into multiple pools (GMAC is pretty honest that the Official Guide is much more a "collection of retired questions" than a blueprint for exactly how the test looks - they're certainly not overly worried about making the OG series a perfect "Bible" that some see it to be). And when you take different companies' practice tests, you'll probably see some overlap as we often try to model practice questions off of templates from the OG or other official sources, so the more questions you see the more that you'll start to recognize certain setups.

In this last week, I'd focus on finding patterns in the mistakes you're making and the items that are costing you time. Some common culprits are:

1) Misidentifying the conclusion of a CR passage
2) Failing to focus on the exact question on an RC question and diving too quickly back into the passage or answer choices
3) Working too hard to understand the details of an RC passage on first read, and therefore struggling to stay focused
4) Missing the presence of game-changer words like "only", "never", "always", etc. that completely change and limit the meaning of a sentence.

I think you can get a lot more value out of identifying and correcting a couple things that tend to drag your score down than out of simply doing more practice tests. It sounds like you're done quite a few already, so the good news is that you have a book on yourself now - you can go back to determine why you're missing the questions you are or why you're spending as much time as you are, and work to correct that.
Brian Galvin
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Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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by prachich1987 » Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:58 am
Thank you so much Brian for such a nice advice !
I would try to implement as much as possible and hope to update you on my nice score this time next week.
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