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Scoring on Princeton Review tests

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Scoring on Princeton Review tests

by givemeanid » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:04 am
I just took the third online CAT on Princeton Review's website. I got 35 out of 37 correct in the Quant section and 35 out of 41 correct in the Verbal section. The scaled scores were Q:51 and V:37. Overall 710.

Is it possible to get a scaled 37 after getting 35 correct in the verbal section? Shouldn't the scaled score be higher?

On the second online CAT that I took a week ago, I got 34 correct on the verbal section but my scaled score was 41. Does anybody know or can anyone comment on what might be going on?

In CAT2, I got the following questions wrong in the verbal section: 4,15,19,24,32,33,40

In CAT3, I got the following questions wrong in the verbal section: 5,8,12,16,18,19

Could it be that I got 6 out of the first 19 wrong on CAT3 and Princeton Review assigns more weight to earlier questions than to later ones? Anyone else has similar experience(s)? Any insight will be helpful.

Is it really true that GMAT also assigns more weight to initial questions than to later ones? Stacy? Anyone...!!!

Thanks a lot.
Last edited by givemeanid on Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Scoring on Princeton Review tests

by mayonnai5e » Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:52 pm
givemeanid wrote:I just took the third online CAT on Princeton Review's website. I got 35 out of 37 correct in the Quant section and 35 out of 41 correct in the Verbal section. The scaled scores were Q:51 and V:37. Overall 710.

Is it possible to get a scaled 37 after getting 35 correct in the verbal section? Shouldn't the scaled score be higher?

On the second online CAT that I took a week ago, I got 34 correct on the verbal section but my scaled score was 41. Does anybody know or can anyone comment on what might be going on?

In CAT2, I got the following questions wrong in the verbal section: 4,15,19,24,32,33,40

In CAT3, I got the following questions wrong in the verbal section: 5,8,12,16,18,19

Could it be that I got 6 out of the first 19 wrong on CAT3 and Princeton Review assigns more weight to earlier questions than to later ones? Anyone else has similar experience(s)? Any insight will be helpful.

Is it really true that GMAT also assigns more weight to initial questions than to later ones?

Thanks a lot.
there have been numerous posts on this forum debunking that myth and even the OG11 book states that the "more weight on initial questions" idea is just a myth [pg 17 OG11]
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by givemeanid » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:47 pm
Yeah. I remember reading that bit in OG. Also, I remember reading some posts that say GMAT does not weigh the first questions more than the later ones. However, some people have mentioned that Princeton Review tests are a good indicator of real GMAT too. So, I am kind of confused looking at the verbal scores on my two tests that I mentioned in the original post. The number of correct answers was greater in the second test but the scaled score was lower.
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by mayonnai5e » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:51 pm
givemeanid wrote:Yeah. I remember reading that bit in OG. Also, I remember reading some posts that say GMAT does not weigh the first questions more than the later ones. However, some people have mentioned that Princeton Review tests are a good indicator of real GMAT too. So, I am kind of confused looking at the verbal scores on my two tests that I mentioned in the original post. The number of correct answers was greater in the second test but the scaled score was lower.
your score is not only based on how many you get correct, but also how difficult the problems are. in the case that you are mentioning, it may be that the answers you got correct were not as hard as the ones you got correct on the first test.
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by Stacey Koprince » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:01 pm
And also, frankly... just from the numbers you posted, I can tell that the algorithm of this particular test does not use IRT correctly (IRT is the testing theory behind the CAT).

If you really were able to get those percentages correct, you would score an 800 on the official CAT. But you will never get that many right, because the questions will just keep getting harder until you can't do them (on the real thing). Most people get about 50/50 (that is, half right, half wrong) and even at the 95+ percentile (which you're at on math), you're still maybe only getting 70-80% of the question right.

As Eric said, it is a myth that earlier questions are worth more than later questions. Some companies still construct practice tests based upon this myth and that helps to perpetuate it - but they are not correctly mimicking the official CAT.

By the way, nice job! :)
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by givemeanid » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:55 am
Stacy, thank you so much. That makes a lot of sense. I was a little worried about my scores being all over the place. While they might still be all over the place, I at least know what is going on :)

Although I did manage to get quite a few correct on the Quant section, the Princeton Review questions are tad on the easier side. When I started studying a few weeks back, on my first GMATPrep baseline test, I barely managed to finish both sections on time. However, on PR tests, I had more than 8 minutes left on both sections. I do have prepared more since then but I still feel PR questions are not real representatives of the actual questions.

Thanks again for your input.
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