Shocked with the GMAT prep test scores

[sidceg]

Hi,

GMAT Prep test 1 - 690; Q48V35; Q - 11 mistakes and V - 16 mistakes
GMAT Test Pack 1 - 630; Q48V28; Q - 11 mistakes and V - 11 mistakes

I am shocked to see the dip in score when I have reduced the number of mistakes. I am aware of experimental questions and penalty for consecutive errors. In fact, in the verbal section, the second has only 1 set of 2 consecutive mistakes and other mistakes are spread across the verbal section whereas the 1st one has 2 sets of 2 consecutive mistakes and 1 set of 6 consecutive mistakes!

I have few questions that're bothering me
1.How can this happen?
2.Can this happen on the real exam too?
3.How many mistakes I can afford to make and still get a 700+ and
4.Where can I afford make the mistakes or, in other words, where should I be extra careful not to make mistakes (whether in the first set of questions or around the middle or towards the end)?

TIA

[[email protected]]

Hi sidceg,

While it might be tempting to focus on the number of correct answers on each CAT (since that's how you were likely tested in school), that's NOT how the GMAT assesses your performance. The Score Algorithm is far more complex than most people realize, so trying to figure it out is not a good use of time. Instead, you should do a FULL review of every CAT that you took (including the questions that you answered correctly).

On this latest CAT:
1) How many questions did you get wrong because of a silly/little mistake?
2) What could you have done differently to get those questions correct?
3) How many questions did you guess on and get 'lucky?'
4) Did you have to rush through 'gettable' questions at the end of a section because you were low on time?
5) How many Verbal questions did you 'narrow down to 2 choices' but still get wrong?

The answers to these questions should help you to pinpoint where your missing points are.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[sidceg]

Hi Rich,

Thank you for the insight. Like I said, I know that GMAT doesn't just look at the number of questions answered correctly but also the difficulty of the questions answered wrongly and whether I have made any series of mistakes.

Though your points make sense and are very useful on how to analyze a CAT, I feel my questions are not answered yet. I am confused on how, even after avoiding consecutive mistakes and reducing the number of errors (which means the difficulty of the questions would have gone higher and hence the mistakes I made must also have been in the tough questions), I ended up with such a bad score.

I am not looking to decode the algorithm here but if I know what went wrong in the strategy, I can correct my mistake.