Hi all... 
First of all, I would like to thank all the great people for their extremely useful posts that mean so much to all of us newcomers.
For some time now I've been reading these topics and was preparing for a second trial on GMAT, one that happened just this last weekend... Because it was a great disappointment, I wanted to check within the community whether others also noticed some shifts in difficulty of the Verbal part of the exam lately?
Namely, my first real GMAT exam had a total of 640 points (Q 45/V 33), took it on 29.01.2010. Since I was aiming at 700 +/- 30, I've decided to retake it last week after studying the verbal some more (because Quant is my strong side, and I'm a non-native English speaker). At the last GMATPrep® test I scored a total of 720 (Q 49/V 40 - essay not included in the simulation, deleted the .log files every time to reduce the number of repeated questions) ...
My shock was, to put it mildly:-), huge when I saw a 610 total (Q 48/ V 28) on the real thing. I've never ever had the verbal points so low, even when I did an initial GMATPrep® test for diagnostics (so, just my normal English level without any prep going on)... My verbal has always been around 33 +/- 3 in the beginning... Seeing this 28 in verbal was quite unbelievable to me, so I have a few questions:
1.) Did anyone else also noted the shift in verbal difficulty lately (lately meaning the period of past few months), especially in SC part of the exam?
2.) Statistically, what is the point spread that the "test non-rated" questions could have on your average GMATPrep® results? Namely, even though the situation of placing all of your right answers in the "non-rated question" bin is not so probable (so that all of your wrong answers fall in the relevant questions set, and thus, at let's say 10 wrong answers, makes a 37%ish portion of the rated questions), does anyone know the statistical interval for this kind of situation?
3.) Even though I was searching on GMAC pages for an official statement about the reclamations on the exam outcome, I haven't found anything about it? So, is it possible to have an insight in your test situation on question level (wrong/right?)... I would guess no, because it would mean that maybe they would have to reveal the non-rated questions of the test or something, but if anyone has some info on that situation, it would be great!
Thank you all for your answers and great posts once more! Third time's a charm.
MimicATree
First of all, I would like to thank all the great people for their extremely useful posts that mean so much to all of us newcomers. For some time now I've been reading these topics and was preparing for a second trial on GMAT, one that happened just this last weekend... Because it was a great disappointment, I wanted to check within the community whether others also noticed some shifts in difficulty of the Verbal part of the exam lately?
Namely, my first real GMAT exam had a total of 640 points (Q 45/V 33), took it on 29.01.2010. Since I was aiming at 700 +/- 30, I've decided to retake it last week after studying the verbal some more (because Quant is my strong side, and I'm a non-native English speaker). At the last GMATPrep® test I scored a total of 720 (Q 49/V 40 - essay not included in the simulation, deleted the .log files every time to reduce the number of repeated questions) ...
My shock was, to put it mildly:-), huge when I saw a 610 total (Q 48/ V 28) on the real thing. I've never ever had the verbal points so low, even when I did an initial GMATPrep® test for diagnostics (so, just my normal English level without any prep going on)... My verbal has always been around 33 +/- 3 in the beginning... Seeing this 28 in verbal was quite unbelievable to me, so I have a few questions:
1.) Did anyone else also noted the shift in verbal difficulty lately (lately meaning the period of past few months), especially in SC part of the exam?
2.) Statistically, what is the point spread that the "test non-rated" questions could have on your average GMATPrep® results? Namely, even though the situation of placing all of your right answers in the "non-rated question" bin is not so probable (so that all of your wrong answers fall in the relevant questions set, and thus, at let's say 10 wrong answers, makes a 37%ish portion of the rated questions), does anyone know the statistical interval for this kind of situation?
3.) Even though I was searching on GMAC pages for an official statement about the reclamations on the exam outcome, I haven't found anything about it? So, is it possible to have an insight in your test situation on question level (wrong/right?)... I would guess no, because it would mean that maybe they would have to reveal the non-rated questions of the test or something, but if anyone has some info on that situation, it would be great!
Thank you all for your answers and great posts once more!
Third time's a charm. MimicATree
