Percentile and Raw Score

[camtip]

Hi,

I have just taken a Practice test, and scored a 600 (Q37/V32).

My target is to have an almost balanced score i.e. Q37/V37. But is there a way to know which score a

Q37/V37 would give?

Thank you

[OfficialGMAT]

Hi, Camtip.
The short answer to your question is "it depends." Your total score is based on raw performance on both the Verbal and Quantitative sections. A range of raw scores will map onto a single scaled score, but since the Total score is based on the raw performance, greater differentiation is possible. That means the same Quant and Verbal scores can map to different Total scores. A 37 score in Quant would put you at Mean, and a 37 in Verbal would be above Mean, but it would be difficult to estimate your Total Score.

[camtip]

Let me rephrase:

If I understand well, a student can score Q37/V37 and a total of 610 and another student can score

Q37/V37 and score 650?


Thank you

[OfficialGMAT]

Hello, Catnip. Two students with a balanced score of Q37/V37 could receive different total scores, yes.

[David@VeritasPrep]

Camtip -

Two things - if you look at the percentiles a score of 37 and 37 is pretty unbalanced actually. The Verbal percentile would be much higher at 81%-ile while the Quant is only the 46th-tile. Even your current score of Quant 37 and Verbal 32 is still weighted toward the verbal with a 64th percentile in Verbal equaling a scaled score of 32.

Second, while it is true that different percentiles are represented by the scaled score "37" (i.e. a "high 37" and a "low 37.") It is just not possible that the same score would give you a 610 and someone else a 650. Rebecca said that two students with the same scaled score "could receive different total scores" but that would mean 610 and 620 but not 610 and 650. The variation in scaled scores is simply not that great as to take you from the 67th %ile (a 610) to the 79th %ile (a 650). GMAC is always very careful in what they say and so I thought I would make that clarification for you.

[camtip]

Camtip -

Two things - if you look at the percentiles a score of 37 and 37 is pretty unbalanced actually. The Verbal percentile would be much higher at 81%-ile while the Quant is only the 46th-tile. Even your current score of Quant 37 and Verbal 32 is still weighted toward the verbal with a 64th percentile in Verbal equaling a scaled score of 32.

Second, while it is true that different percentiles are represented by the scaled score "37" (i.e. a "high 37" and a "low 37.") It is just not possible that the same score would give you a 610 and someone else a 650. Rebecca said that two students with the same scaled score "could receive different total scores" but that would mean 610 and 620 but not 610 and 650. The variation in scaled scores is simply not that great as to take you from the 67th %ile (a 610) to the 79th %ile (a 650). GMAC is always very careful in what they say and so I thought I would make that clarification for you.

Thank you david,

That was exactly my point. So, I understant that a balanced score means "balanced percentile" a Q45 V36 is actually a balanced score since both are ine the 72-73rd percentile.

[David@VeritasPrep]

I agree with you!

That is how I would define a balanced score - balanced percentages.

It is very interesting that the room in the scale is all on the top end of the verbal, I mean everything from a 45 to a 51 is all just within the 99th percentile band, and the room is all on the lower end of the Quant, with just 12 scaled score points above the 50th percentile (40 to 51) and over 20 points of scaled score below the 50th percentile.