Hi chintanjadwani,

The simple truth behind this CAT behavior is that you have exhausted all of the 700 - 800 level quant questions! When we first designed the CATs, we figured that most students would test out evenly and improve their score over time - working up to the 700 - 800 level questions. However, if students start out at a 700+ level in a given section, he or she will receive more 700 - 800 level questions earlier on and will exhaust these questions in that section.

Right now, our response is threefold. First, if you are exhausting all of the challenging quant questions on the CATs, you are more likely than not extremely prepared for that section of the GMAT, so don't worry too much about your subscore in that section. Second, we are currently working on creating more 700 - 800 level problems to put into the CAT pools to remedy these concerns. Third, if you're looking for some really difficult quant problems, check out our Challenge Problem Archive. These super-challenging problems test at the 750+ level and are only recommended for students who are scoring in the 700+ level range in the quant section.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Hi michael

I was wondering if the following point that you mention in a previous post has been addressed :

"Second, we are currently working on creating more 700 - 800 level problems to put into the CAT pools to remedy these concerns."

I took the 1st free CAT and scored 730 on it. I have registered for the 6 MGMAT CAT tests now. It will be nice if it the above issue has been addressed as an enhanced CAT will test my abilities at higher levels of difficulty.

Thanks.

Hi ILAKSHMIR,

I wanted to respond to your question as Michael is on vacation.

It's hard to say without knowing the breakdown of your 730 if you'll run into this issue. That being said, we are continually updating the question pool and because of this problem, high difficulty math problems are the top priority. If that 730 was evenly split or weighted towards the quant side, then yes, you will most likely run out of the highest level quant problems. It shouldn't happen until exam 5 or 6, but it will most likely be there. It's obviously not an ideal situation, but hopefully it won't exist much longer.

Best,

Thanks Brie,

In the test where I scored 730, I did see a big boost coming from the quant section.

I took the 4th MGMAT CAT today and got a 750. I found the quant test easy and finished 4 mins ahead of time. But the test shows several questions in the 700-800. Does the effective score imply that remaining 700-800 range questions are easier or that I have improved ?

Any insights will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
ilakshmir

Hi ILAKSHMIR,

Like Brie said - without a specific breakdown, it's difficult to say! If you scored a 750 and see many questions coming from the 700 - 800 level, though, then it would suggest to me that you did make some improvement since you want to be scoring well in the 700 - 800 level.

However, keep in mind that the 20 point increase could just be due to a standard performance fluctuation. A real GMAT has a standard error of about 30 points, meaning that you can score 30 points above or below your true ability level due to circumstantial fluctuations in your performance. (e.g. different questions, fatigue, health, etc.)

Overall, it's a good idea to not care about your overall score and instead look at your general performance in various GMAT subsections. This way, you can pinpoint the sections you need most help with and be more effective at studying for the test.

Best,