hi due,

GMAT Quantitative Scores - Convert Raw Score to Scaled Score

There are actually two different types of GMAT Quantitative scores: a scaled score (on a 0-60 scale) and a percentile rank (from 0% to 99%) - although only scaled scores are reported to the schools. One way to compare your performance on practice tests to that of other test takers is to calculate a simple raw score, which is the total number of questions you answer correctly, and then use a table to convert that number to a scaled score and percentile rank.

Keep track of your raw score for all four practice sets. Then use the following table to convert raw score to scaled score. You can also estimate your percentile rank using the same table. [How to Interpret the Table]

NOTE: An actual GMAT Quantitative section consists of 37 questions.

..raw score | scaled score | percentile rank

33-34 ------- 53-54 --------- 99
32 ---------- 51-52 --------- 97-98
31 ----------- 50 ----------- 95-96
30 ---------- 48-49 --------- 92-94
29 ---------- 46-47 --------- 89-91
28 ----------- 45 ----------- 86-88
27 ---------- 43-44 --------- 82-85
26 ---------- 41-42 --------- 78-81
25 ----------- 40 ----------- 74-77
24 ---------- 38-39 --------- 69-73
23 ---------- 36-37 --------- 64-68
22 ----------- 35 ----------- 58-63
21 ---------- 33-34 --------- 52-57
20 ---------- 31-32 --------- 44-51
19 ----------- 30 ----------- 38-43
18 ---------- 28-29 --------- 33-37
17 ---------- 26-27 --------- 29-32
16 ----------- 25 ----------- 26-28
15 ---------- 23-24 --------- 22-25
14 ---------- 21-22 --------- 19-21
13 ----------- 20 ----------- 16-18
12 ---------- 18-19 --------- 14-15
11 ---------- 16-17 --------- 12-13
10 ----------- 15 ----------- 10-11
9 ----------- 13-14 --------- 8-9
8 ----------- 11-12 --------- 6-7
7 ------------ 10 ----------- 4-5
5-6 ---------- 8-9 ---------- 2-3
0-4 ---------- 6-7 ---------- 0


How to Interpret the Table

* Quantitative scaled scores are based on a 0-60 scale. (There's nothing magic about this number range; it's just GMAT testing tradition.)

* Percentile ranking (0% to 99%) shows how you performed relative to all others taking the GMAT over a recent multi-year period. A percentile ranking of 60, for example, indicates that you scored higher than 60% of all other test takers (and lower than 40% of all other test takers). Remember: Percentile rankings are not reported to the business schools.

* One additional correct response makes the biggest percentile difference near the middle of the performance "curve" (because it's a typical bell curve).

* If you missed 5 or fewer questions out of 34, expect to rank in the top decile (10%) in GMAT Quantitative Ability.

* If you responded correctly to 20-21 questions out of 34, expect to rank near the 50th percentile in GMAT Quantitative Ability.

Hope this helps : )

I cannot say, whether they get all questions right but one thing is for sure that 51 is the highest score a test taker could get in Verbal or Quant.
So, yes, it's a maximum score. Also keep in mind that around 1/4th questions are experimental and are not counted in actual scoring, hence you can escape & get 51 marks even making some wrong choices.

I am under the impression that you cannot get every question right. Thinking about the nature of the exam... when you get a question right.. you get a more difficult question. So the exam would naturally push you to your limit fairly quickly. You can still get an 800, but I don't think you can get every question correct.

i agree with aim-wsc.. you can get a 51 without having answered all the questions correctly.

@ komal i know that these are the official metrics provided by the gmat, but i have not seen anyone score more than 51, and it is widely assumed that 51 is the max score

Critical Reasoning Premise: "No one has scored more than 51 in the GMAT"
Flawed Conclusion: "51 is the max possible score"

@komal I'm not sure where(or when) you got your data, but it depicts a raw scores above 51, which currently is not possible.

@money9111 of course you can get every question right, the maximum difficulty of the questions they have on-hand is not infinite.

@sars72 I agree that would be a flawed conclusion if you only have that evidence.

51 is the max score, and has been for awhile, here's my blog-post about it:
https://www.gmatmathtutor.com/blog/6152665909870137738

I did some experiments with GMATPrep and indeed you can get a 51 quant score on it with 4 tough questions answered incorrectly. Here is the link to the experiments:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/strategies-t ... 16283.html

The actual exam is not GMATPrep and it has experimental questions mixed in, which do not count in the scoring algorithm at all, so the above conclusion about GMATPrep should not be applied directly. On the other hand GMATPrep is a pretty good estimator of the actual score so if you achieve 51 on GMATPrep, you should also get it on the actual exam with the same strategies.