utrain wrote:I just took the GMAT and somehow left the last four questions of the quant unanswered. I know there is a severe penalty for leaving questions unanswered. I ended up with a 35 on the quant. On Manahttan Prep I score between 38-42 on the quant.
Could the non-answered penalty impact my score that much? If so, is it enough of a penalty to consider re-taking the test?
Thanks in advance!!
The test is constantly updating its estimate of your ability as you answer each question. If you leave questions unanswered, some kind of penalty is applied to whatever estimate the test has of your ability at the end of your test. There's very little information available about this penalty, but from the small amount of credible data I can find, I have the impression that the penalty may be a directly proportional one, or at least something similar to that- that is, it may be that the test's estimate of your ability is multiplied by 33/37 if you leave four questions unanswered. If that's correct (and it's my best guess from published data, but I'm not at all sure, unfortunately), then at the time your Quant section ended, you had a 39 scaled score. Of course, if you had only had time remaining to guess randomly at the last four questions, that would have fallen a bit- perhaps to a 36 or 37. If you had had time to properly finish the test, you most likely would have ended up with something around a 39.
Whether it's worth retaking the test all depends on what score you need for admissions, but it does sound as though you could improve your math result a bit if you were able to improve on pacing.
.......thats the amount of difference missing Q's can make.
