What's the best score possible after being penalized?

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Hello everyone,

I'm shooting for 700+ and I'm following the 60 day plan from BeatTheGMAT. I'm using the Official Guide 12th Edition, 2009 Kaplan Premier, along with the Manhattan GMAT Quant books (Number Properties, Word Translations, Equations, and Geometry). I've also got a Pearson's Objective Arithmetic book and some KTS test prep books.

I've taken two practice tests so far and each time I have not finished the Quant section. Out of the 37 questions, I've only managed to finish about half of them in the allotted time. I've read in the forums and in Expert Articles that the unfinished questions are doubly penalized.

The first test was a Kaplan CAT (which came along with the book). I finished about 20 questions in Quant and scored 19, finished almost all of the Verbal and scored a 31, and got an overall score of 480.

The second test was from the freely downloadable GMAT prep program (#1). I finished maybe 21 questions in Quant and scored a 25, finished all of the Verbal (with 17 minutes to spare) and scored a 33, and got an overall score of 490.

I'm used to finishing each question and moving on to the next, and I'm learning that in this test that this habit has to be kicked and time management is of utmost importance. Hopefully, this will improve with the strategies I'm learning about in the books. And also, hopefully, I'll successfully apply these strategies on the test to finish on time!

But I'm curious, is there any way to tell what these scores would have been if I had finished all of the questions? Has anyone else had this experience of finishing only half of the Quant? In the best case, what is the best possible score available from a test like that?

(I'm sorry if this post is in the wrong section of the forums!)

Thank you, BeatTheGMAT, Experts, and GMAT-beaters for all the help thus far!
--Rishi
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

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by vineeshp » Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:00 pm
Difficult to answer. If you left 1 or 2, it would have been predictible. But since you have left 16 questions is a lot. Anything could have happened in those 16. You could have got all correct. You could have got all wrong. The permutations are just too many to actually predict what the score would have been.

Penalty is heavy for leaving a single question too!
Vineesh,
Just telling you what I know and think. I am not the expert. :)

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by Ian Stewart » Thu Jul 07, 2011 12:27 am
The only specific comment I've seen from official reports about the penalty for leaving questions unanswered is that the penalty is 'proportional'. But I haven't read anywhere just how that 'proportional' penalty is applied. If it's applied to the scaled score, then if you had answered 21 out of 37 questions (and left 16 blank at the end) they would just be taking your current score estimate and multiplying it by 21/37. Thus in the case you describe, where "I finished maybe 21 questions in Quant and scored a 25," your score estimate at the time would have been (37/21)*25 = 44 (approximately). Now I don't know for sure that this penalty is applied to your scaled score; it could just as easily be applied to your percentile rank, which would give a different result.

The upshot is that the penalty can be severe. You really can't do well on the test if you leave one third of your questions unanswered. You'll certainly want to devote a lot of time to honing your pacing strategy so you have a better chance of reaching the end (or close to the end) of the Quant section. Keep in mind that it does not hurt you much to get hard questions wrong. If you've invested a minute in a question and do not have a clear 'road map' that will lead you to a solution, you should most often be taking a quick guess (ruling out bad answers when possible) and saving time for when it might be more useful to you.

I and other experts have posted a few times in the last couple of weeks about pacing strategy, and you might find it helpful to search for those posts.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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by rishimaharaj » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:40 pm
Thanks VineeshP and Ian for the replies.

FYI, I took the Practice Test 1 again today and tried to apply the strategies I've been learning from the forums, articles, blogs, and books.

Last time around, Quant was 25 without finishing, Verbal was 33 with 17 minutes leftover, and Overall was 490. This time, Quant was 47 (guessed quickly on the last 2), Verbal was 33 with 7 minutes leftover, and Overall was 650.

Hopefully this is representative of the actual skill increase, and by the time the 60 days are through, the Verbal will rise as well! :-)

Once again, thank you for your guidance!
--Rishi