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Does the GMAT CAT practice test calculate accurate scores?

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Does the GMAT CAT practice test calculate accurate scores?

by awais_khan » Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:12 pm
Hi,
I am new to this forum. I just gave my first diagnostic test using GMAT CAT (mba.com) - practice test 1.

I scored a 610 but i had 20 incorrect math questions and 12 incorrect verbal questions. I am just wondering how I could get a 610 with so many incorrect questions, especially in the math section. My scores, in my opinion, should be much lower.

How reliable are the GMAT CAT scores on the practice tests.
thanks!
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Re: Does the GMAT CAT practice test calculate accurate score

by aim-wsc » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:16 pm
awais_khan wrote:Hi,
I am new to this forum. I just gave my first diagnostic test using GMAT CAT (mba.com) - practice test 1.

I scored a 610 but i had 20 incorrect math questions and 12 incorrect verbal questions. I am just wondering how I could get a 610 with so many incorrect questions, especially in the math section. My scores, in my opinion, should be much lower.

How reliable are the GMAT CAT scores on the practice tests.
thanks!
The practise GMAT test from mba.com ( GMAT Prep (tm)) that you've taken is very reliable; & you can trust its score.

Most of the students find resembling questions and results in real GMAT from GMAT Prep (tm) :D

...Afterall, it's the practise test software from the official GMAT site!!
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by v1shwanath » Tue Jun 17, 2008 1:45 am
Hi,
the exact sme experience i had with the gmat prep software.
i did very poorly and was thinking of a score arnd 350-400 and it scored 670
quant : 20 out of 37
verbal: 31 out of 41
i ran short of time and guessed a lot of the answers to complete both the sections.
i too am worried if this software simply gives out a good score so as to not sdiscourage us :)
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by utulip » Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:54 pm
Hi, can anyone tell me what GMAT practice test I should take first (I'm just getting started with GMAT). Also, is there any order of practice tests that I should take, for example, Manhattan, then Kaplan,... And where can I get access to these practice tests, whether I need to buy the CDs or take the tests online.
I'm really confused here. I really appreciate it if someone could help!
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by v1shwanath » Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:17 am
1)gmat prep software: 2 tests (free dwonload)
2)kaplan premier book: they give a cd with 4 tests

3)official guide 11th edition
4)official guide for each section (sentence correction, reading comprehension, quantitative etc)
5)books by manhattan
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by utulip » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:33 am
thank you!
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:19 am
That's exactly how the test works - you will get a lot of questions wrong no matter what your score is. Most people get about half of the questions wrong - even at a 700 level!

So we really can't say whether we did well or poorly simply based on the number of questions right / wrong. The test is actually scoring us based on the difficulty level of the questions we're answering, not the pure percentage correct.

This is probably the easiest way to think about it:

On static, paper tests, everybody takes the same test. So the paper test includes questions from very easy to very hard and the score is based on the percentage that someone can get right.

On CAT tests, everybody takes a different test. Because the test can customize the mix of questions, it doesn't have to rely on percentage correct to calculate a score - and percentage correct actually does have a key limitation to it.

Let's say you and I both answer a bunch of 600 level questions and we both get them 100% right. Is our level 600? All we really know is that our level is at least 600. Maybe I can also answer all the 610 level questions right, but after that I start to get some wrong. Maybe you can answer all the questions up to 650 right, but then you start to get some wrong. Hmm. What does that mean?

What I really want to do (as the test algorithm) is find the level below which you tend to get questions right and above which you tend to get questions wrong. Then I know I've really found your true scoring level. So I give you questions that are clustered around what you're getting right and wrong as you take the test in an effort to find your "50/50" level - the level at which you get most of the questions below that level right and most of the questions above that level wrong.

Okay, so if that's how the test works, what does that mean for us in terms of being prepared to take the test? It's not based on percentage correct. I will get about half of the questions right and about half wrong. This is true up until the low 700s; above that, things do start to skew to more right, BUT even 99th percentile testers are getting a surprisingly high percentage of the questions wrong. 99th percentile does not mean we're getting them all right!

So I need to know, before I go in there, that whatever I can do, the test can give me something I can't do. And it will. When that happens, I can't let myself get so sucked in that I blow a bunch of time, or get so upset that I'm still thinking about it on the next question (or the one after that...). I just have to pick something and keep going. That means I have to (a) know how much time is too much time, so I don't go over, (b) have some other means of picking an answer, so I can put SOMEthing down and keep going, and (c) understand that this is how the scoring works so that I don't get totally flustered when I have to let a question go.

I guarantee that you'll have to let questions go during the test. HOW you choose to do that is up to you (and could have a significant impact on your score).
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by Ian Stewart » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:00 pm
I agree with almost all of what Stacey says above. For most above-average test-takers, the test will get harder and harder until you aren't able to answer the questions. This is how the test determines your level. On one minor point, I would clarify- the test does not try to discover the level at which you answer 50/50; it takes into account that people can guess answers correctly. The test does try to determine at which level you answer 60% correctly, 40% incorrectly (which takes into account the possibility of guessing correctly). For most, it's expected that you won't be able to answer several questions on the test- you should not panic if you see a question on the real GMAT that you cannot answer. That's how the test is designed. However:
Stacey Koprince wrote: I guarantee that you'll have to let questions go during the test. HOW you choose to do that is up to you (and could have a significant impact on your score).
If I am teaching someone, I would hope this will never be true. If you are well-prepared for the test, you should never see a question which you are absolutely unprepared to answer. Yes, under time pressure, you might not be able to work out an answer quickly enough, but you should always, with appropriate preparation, be able to recognize what concepts are being tested, and be able, at the very least, to make a decent guess, and hopefully be able to make a decent attempt at a solution. Many test-takers are able to answer all questions correctly. The GMAT is not designed to discriminate among test-takers well above the population average, so if you are at the top ability level, the questions you see should not be unduly challenging for you. I do not accept that everyone will need to 'let go' certain questions during the test.
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 Stacey Koprince » Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:46 pm
Semantics: I consider making an educated guess "letting go" - primarily because most of my students consider that they are "letting go" or "giving up" if they cannot get a full solution in the "right" way. Even if it's a very good educated guess - as in, you can eliminate four wrong answers - going with that still seems to feel like "letting go" for most people. While you and I are probably experienced enough to feel very confident with such a guess (I wouldn't even consider it a guess, personally), not everyone views these situations in the same way.

And, yes, the test does not literally work on a 50/50 principle - I've just found that's an easy way for people to understand the distinction between that kind of scoring algorithm and one that is based on percentage correct.
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by pawelc » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:05 am
Hi,

I completed 5 MGMAT CATs and always got scores around 700, while usually getting 50-60% of questions right. I just did the GMAT prep CAT for the first time and scored only a 620. I have no idea how this could happen since I got 46 in Quant (24/37) and only a 30 in Verbal (28/41). Looking at the questions I got wrong.. it's impossible that I have been answering low score questions. The first 10 questions I got 8/10 right! If this was a MGMAT test, when looking at the order of questions I got right/wrong I'd probably get around a 700.. I don't see how the 620 is possible. What do you guys think?
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by Stacey Koprince » Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:18 am
Hmm. GMATPrep is written by the same people who make the real test. So that's the gold standard - the next best thing to the real test.

That's probably not fantastic news for you, I realize... but it is true. :(

How did your quant and verbal scores compare with what you were getting on your MGMAT practice tests? I'm guessing your verbal was higher than 30? Something occurred to harm your score on the practice test so we just need to figure out what that is. (And be glad that it happened on a practice test and not the real thing! At least now you can fix whatever the problem is before the real thing.)

Did anything feel different on the GMATPrep test? How was your timing, your stamina, etc? Let us know how everything went and we'll help you try to figure out what went wrong (and how to fix it!).
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