Hello, Thulsy. That is a great question. Our research team here at GMAC did a blog post about it. They explain it much better than I could! You can read it here: https://officialgmat.mba.com/2009/09/17/ ... -guessing/

Please note that for the IR section, each question will have multiple answer prompt. You must answer each prompt correctly to get credit for the question.

OfficialGMAT wrote:Hello, Thulsy. That is a great question. Our research team here at GMAC did a blog post about it. They explain it much better than I could! You can read it here: https://officialgmat.mba.com/2009/09/17/ ... -guessing/

Please note that for the IR section, each question will have multiple answer prompt. You must answer each prompt correctly to get credit for the question.

Hi OfficialGMAT,
Thanks for the article. I think that does not relate to IR. Let me be more specific about my question. For an IR question at the end of the exam that we assume is not experimental (we know there's no partial credit),
Student A: got it wrong
Student B: left it blank
Then what's the score for each of the two students on this particular question?
(A)Both students get 0 point
(B)Student A gets 0 point, whereas Student B gets a negative point (so we call it "punishment for unanswered questions")
(C)Student A gets a negative point, whereas Student B gets 0 point (so we call it "punishment for wrong answers")

I think the answer to this question would help us decide whether to leave blank or to make a guess (within negligible amount of time) in case of running out of time at the end. Thanks.

Hello again, Thulsy. First, my apologies in the delay in replying to your question. I did not see that you had posted a follow up.

To answer you: In the IR section there are no negative points. So, if you leave any part of the question blank or answer any part incorrectly, you will receive zero points. If you do not answer any part of the question, you will also receive a zero.

I hope that answers your question.