Understanding GMAT Focus Score Report - GMAC Prep

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I purchased the GMAT Focus bundle of 3 with the goal of gaining practice on the quant side and determining to which areas I should pay more attention.

I've just completed the tests and quite frankly I'm baffled by them.

Generally speaking, if anyone has opinions about GMAC prep tools, I would like to know if they are indeed the best way to prepare as they're provided by the makers of the test. I've noticed when I google for answers that all the questions are posted from 3-4 years ago. Where can I find a bank of official questions people are posting from the past year?

My questions are as follows:

1. Both in the Official GMAT prep exams and in the GMAT focus exams I noticed that I can have more errors in one exam relative to another, but nonetheless my quant score is higher. If this is true, how is success measured? If I answer more questions correctly but score less, how can I aim to score higher (should I answer questions incorrectly on purpose). I even once ran out of time and left the last question unanswered, and this did not adversely affect my score (despite GMAC claiming to penalize unanswered Q's).

2. What do the percentages in the following charts reflect? Can someone help me interpret them? For example, my percentage of correct answers in the DS category is 66.7, and the chart notes that "excellent" is 99.38%, yet I received a most likely rating of 'excellent'. Not to mention- where are these figures coming from?!

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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:55 am
1. There are three factors in your score:

1. the number of questions you answer (there is a penalty for not finishing questions, though leaving one blank won't hurt too badly)
2. the number of question you got right
3. the difficulty of the questions you got right

Simply put, you are rewarded more heavily for getting the harder questions right. If you start well, you'll get harder questions earlier in the section, and it's entirely possible that you'll get more wrong than if you had started a bit slower and seen easier questions.

2. I think those percentages reflect the probability that your score will fall into a given area. If you add the percentages in a row, the sum is 100.
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by gmaterial » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:50 pm
Thanks very much.

And one last question, I noticed forums have many official gmat questions... this is because when I google to search for an answer, I usually find that the question I've practiced was posted online between 2006-2009-- I guess when these questions must have just been retired.

I am somewhat worried that most of my study from the official guides is outdated and that when I take the test I won't be prepared for the current types of questions the gmat asks-- do you think there is any basis for my concern?

As a pre-emptive measure I'm going to do the new questions that appear in the just released 13th edition, with hopes that they are the 'freshest'.

Only 5 days until test day so I can only hope that will do.

BTW-- I enrolled in Veritas in NYC, and my instructor was great.

THX for your quick and helpful reply

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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:58 am
The fact that GMAC has kept the the majority of questions from the last edition of the Official Guide is an indication that the concepts and question types haven't changed all that much. The breakdown of questions you're likely to see may have; for example, there seem to be more factor and multiple questions than there were a few years ago.

Definitely focus on the new questions, but the old ones are still worth a look.

Also, I'm glad you enjoyed our course!
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