Third time's a charm...GMAT 760 (Q49/V45)

[mj12g]

Hey all,

I've been on this forum a few times, mainly to complain about my previous GMAT scores. Well now, for the first time, I can actually report success. I took the GMAT this past Saturday and scored 760 (Q49/V45).

My first two tries were by no means complete disasters, but I was constantly disappointed by my quant score. On my first try, back in September 2009, I had a 720 (Q40/V50). My second, just two months ago at the beginning of September this year, was even lower at 700 (Q44/V41). This time around, I pulled out all the stops and got a tutor. While he certainly did help, the best advice he gave me was to really focus on the Official Guide. In my first two takings, I simply assumed that the OG questions were too easy for me, and so I only did the last 50 or so questions in each section. Big mistake. When I first started going through the OG, I realized that it was actually the questions of moderate difficulty that I was getting wrong. Once I powered through all the questions, I felt much more at ease with easier questions, and so I had more time to tackle the tough questions.

On another note, I think my scores demonstrate something about the GMAT: it's not nearly as consistent as the test creators would lead you to believe. To go from 50 to 41 to 45 in verbal simply is too large a swing to justify under the "30-point standard deviation" mantra, especially considering I did almost no verbal preparation at all. And while the quant score is on a clear upward trend, I find it hard to believe I actually went from 44 (66th percentile) to 49 (85th percentile) in such a short time. So let this be a lesson to all of you who are surprised by a low GMAT score: the variance in your score will be high, and a retake may surprise you just as much as your first taking. Just make sure to use the OG!

[Luke.Doolittle]

In my first two takings, I simply assumed that the OG questions were too easy for me, and so I only did the last 50 or so questions in each section. Big mistake. When I first started going through the OG, I realized that it was actually the questions of moderate difficulty that I was getting wrong. Once I powered through all the questions, I felt much more at ease with easier questions, and so I had more time to tackle the tough questions.

Thank you for making such a great point. I feel like so many people could benefit greatly just from making that realization. The test isn't all "700+" level questions even if you are scoring Q49+. And some types almost only occur in "easier" questions (like rate-work); that makes them easy to gloss over and that's a mistake.

[AbhiJ]

Verbal 41-44-50, all vary with around 0-8 mistakes as in GMAT Prep. So its possible. Similarly in quant. Scaled score is non linear. Getting a few questions correct at certain points really propels the percentile when compared with certain other points.

[mj12g]

Verbal 41-44-50, all vary with around 0-8 mistakes as in GMAT Prep. So its possible. Similarly in quant. Scaled score is non linear. Getting a few questions correct at certain points really propels the percentile when compared with certain other points.

And I think this perfectly highlights the problem with the GMAT. For a test that purports to arrive at something close to your "real," "unbiased" score, very small deviations in performance can cause very large deviations in the final score. The problem, statistically, is small sample size. Although I'm sure the GMAC would defend their methodology to the death, the test really should be longer, or the number of experimental questions should be VERY small.

[tuanquang269]

Thank you for sharing exp