Does anybody know if there's a penalty for not finishing the section?
-mj.
Penalty for not finishing?
This topic has expert replies
- meanjonathan
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:57 pm
- Thanked: 6 times
- Branham24
- Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:27 pm
- Location: Hermosa beach, ca
- Thanked: 3 times
- GMAT Score:690
I just received my score report and got an 8, and I didn't finish two of the problems. Figured that would be the best piece of evidence to answer your question.
- meanjonathan
- Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:57 pm
- Thanked: 6 times
- KapTeacherEli
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 578
- Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:00 pm
- Thanked: 136 times
- Followed by:62 members
That's pretty good evidence!Branham24 wrote:I just received my score report and got an 8, and I didn't finish two of the problems. Figured that would be the best piece of evidence to answer your question.
Let me expound on eagleeye's explanation for a moment. Once upon a time, when CATs were a brand new idea just getting off the ground, folks were trying to find holes in the system, ways to exploit the computer grading method. One theory was to intentionally skip the last few problems. After all, if you spent more time on the first 32-33 problems you could "raise your level" in the adaptive system, and even a few blank answers towards the end wouldn't offset the gains that you made! Now, it's not clear if this theory could ever work; most of the "decision tree" explanations of GMAT adaptive scoring are oversimplified. But the penalty for leaving answers blank at the end helps negate this attempt to bypass the testing system.
Since the IR section is not adaptive, it in turn means that the blank penalty isn't as necessary, so it's not there!
Regards,