Is my score correct !!! Please help.

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Is my score correct !!! Please help.

by sp19 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:49 pm
Hi.
I am new to this site and also have performed miserably in the real exam. I scored 530 Q-43, V-20 . After browsing several messages, I realised that my score though not great looks incorrect.

Can anyone please guide me if my total is correct ? How do you map the scaled to a percentile ? I referred to OG 11 guide and see that even though 43 maps to 70th percentile i was given 68 and V was 20 , i was given 19 and then average of both was taken as 44 and hence mapped to 530 which was correct .

But, my question is why my percentile mapping for each score is lower than what is mentioned and also how come many people have scored much higher with similar kind of scaled scores like me.

Is there anything I am missing ?

Please help.

Thanks.

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by sp19 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:16 pm
Hi,
Posting again to see some responses. Can anyone please explain me how is the total calculated? I have the official score report. Can someone tell me how is the each Quant and Verbal percentile used to calculate the total ??

Please reply.

Thanks.

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by osamakhan » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:19 pm
I think percentile change every year so check at mba.com for the new percentile matrix. You gona get ur answer.

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by sp19 » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:07 pm
osamakhan,
Thanks for your reply. I do have the official score report that shows the matrix but i have question about how the two percentiles in Q and V total to a score 530. Is it an average of Q and V percentile ?

That part is not stated in the score report. How do they come to a figure 530 or any total ?

Thanks.

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by BlueRain » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:14 pm
sp19 wrote:osamakhan,
Thanks for your reply. I do have the official score report that shows the matrix but i have question about how the two percentiles in Q and V total to a score 530. Is it an average of Q and V percentile ?

That part is not stated in the score report. How do they come to a figure 530 or any total ?

Thanks.
The percentile is probably not calculated by average from what I've seen so far. Seems Q percentile is weighted a bit heavier than the verbal in my experience. There is no public formula on how GMAT converts from raw score to final score.

Basically reinterating that there is no official public formula, see this related thread: https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-raw-scores-t17344.html

Instead of worrying about converting the score, maybe more time could be spent toward studying for the next attempt? :wink:

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by Ian Stewart » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:45 am
No, the score is not a direct average of your percentiles- that wouldn't make sense to do, statistically. You can think of it this way- say you score in the 90th percentile on the Quant *and* 90th percentile in the verbal. If scores are randomly distributed, the probability is 0.1 that you'll score that well on Quant, *and* 0.1 that you'll score that well on Verbal. This is now a GMAT-style probability question- the probability that you are above 90 in both is (0.1)*(0.1) = 0.01. That is, approximately one percent of test-takers should score above 90th percentile in both sections. 81% will score below 90 in both, and 9% will score above 90 in one, below in the other. Now, that doesn't mean you should be in the top 1 percent if you score in the 90th percentile in both, because someone might be in the 99th in one section, and in the 88th in the other, and deserve a higher score than you. As it turns out, if you are in the 90th percentile in each, you will end up in the 96th percentile or so overall. But the point is, if you're above average in both sections, you'll be even more above average in your overall score, and if you were, say, in the 90th in each section, you are part of a very small group of test-takers. There are statistical principles you could learn to understand exactly how this combination is performed, but I won't get into that here.
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 sp19 » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:37 pm
Ian .
Many thanks for the clarification !