How could you possibly get questions "partially" right on a multiple choice test?

For a given problem, you must get all of the individual answers correct to receive credit.

Deanrobbins1 wrote:How could you possibly get questions "partially" right on a multiple choice test?

IR doesn't only consist of multiple choice questions.
However, there are several problems that consist of several questions... so you can miss some questions while answering others correctly.
Just look at a few examples and you'll understand.

Kevin,

When I take MGMAT CATs I score in a devastating 3-5 range (< 30 percentile)... I feel like the timing is way harder than on the Quant/Verb parts.. especially the table analysis always consumes about 4-5 minutes.

I definitely agree with you. This stuff is really tough. Check out Stacey Koprince's article on GMAC's release of IR percentiles. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06 ... he-scoring. The good news is, as with AWA, we won't need great scores, just good enough scores. Apparently that means in the 4-5 range. So only about 50% accuracy.

(And yeah, dude, I'm totally kicking myself for not being on top of this before the change. I totally empathize with you. Something tells me, though, that we'll both do great.) Good luck!!!

-mj.

meanjonathan wrote:Kevin,

When I take MGMAT CATs I score in a devastating 3-5 range (< 30 percentile)... I feel like the timing is way harder than on the Quant/Verb parts.. especially the table analysis always consumes about 4-5 minutes.

I definitely agree with you. This stuff is really tough. Check out Stacey Koprince's article on GMAC's release of IR percentiles. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06 ... he-scoring. The good news is, as with AWA, we won't need great scores, just good enough scores. Apparently that means in the 4-5 range. So only about 50% accuracy.

(And yeah, dude, I'm totally kicking myself for not being on top of this before the change. I totally empathize with you. Something tells me, though, that we'll both do great.) Good luck!!!

-mj.

I kind of liked IR, when I first glanced over it. So I thought it wouldn't be too bad to invest a bit more time in a sophisticated preparation. Looks like I was wrong

I'm hoping the MGMAT Percentile calculation is totally off and it won't be too bad when I take the actual exam...

On dichotomous choice IR questions, which are three yes/no or true/false question in a single table, you must get all three correct to get any credit.

This may seem harsh, but it's actually fair--this is a good opportunity to practice some GMAT math!

Since there are two choices each for three questions, there are 2^3=8 possible combinations of right answers. That means a stone-cold guess will be right 1/8 times--that's a little less than half as often as guessing on the quantitive or verbal section.

However, there are 3C2 = 3!/(2!1!) = 3 ways to pick two correct answers and get the third wrong. If partial credit were awarded for partial answers, then there would be 3 + 1 = 4 credited answers out of 8. So, you'd have a 4/8 = 50% chance of getting points on a random guess! This is way too high, and so of course, the testmaker can't credit partial responses.