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Confused about Scoring/Percentiles

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Confused about Scoring/Percentiles

by noscare » Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:57 am
So here's what I don't get:
I just did my first practice test from GMATPrep. I scored 49 on quant - 88th percentile, 42 on verbal - 95th percentile, and yet I got 750 overall - 98th percentile.
How can I be in the higher percentile range overall than for both verbal and quant???
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by grockit_andrea » Fri Aug 06, 2010 8:01 am
noscare wrote:So here's what I don't get:
I just did my first practice test from GMATPrep. I scored 49 on quant - 88th percentile, 42 on verbal - 95th percentile, and yet I got 750 overall - 98th percentile.
How can I be in the higher percentile range overall than for both verbal and quant???
Most people will, at best, do quite well on either verbal or quant, and much less well on the other. Your overall percentile range is a reflection of the fact that you did very well on both sections. That's what puts you in the 98th percentile.
Andrea A.
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sat Aug 07, 2010 4:43 pm
Andrea is right - you do get a premium for being consistent. Anyone whose scores are within a few points on the two sections will always get a higher overall percentage.

One thing that you should note is that you did well on verbal and that is a plus. You reported the 95th percentile in Verbal at a 42 and the 88th percentile in Quant at a 49. The way that you scores are determined is based on the points you earn in those scaled scores. The higher your combined scaled scores the higher your overall score. Take note of the fact that you actually have more points to gain on the verbal before you reach the 99th percentile than you do on the quant. That is because verbal is emphasized on the top end of the test.

Keep up the good work and you will score at least that well on test day!

David
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