590 in Princeton review mock test but I don't understand how

[ankithsaleem]

Verbal 31 out of 37 right
Verbal 30 out of 41 right
Got (Q41,V30)
How???

[Bara]

Was this online? Is this your first and only diagnostic test? Usually the big guys (MGMAT, Veritas, Kaplan) have a firm grasp on scoring...

[[email protected]]

Hi ankithsaleem,

The scoring algorithm on the Official GMAT is far more complicated than most people realize. Since that algorithm is proprietary, no GMAT company has an exact match for it, thus CAT scores can vary a bit based on the 'biases' involved in their respective designs (and by extension, some CATs are far less accurate than others). The most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC (the 2 free CATs, and each of the 2 that come with Exam Pack 1 and Exam Pack 2), so it would be useful to know how you performed on one of those CATS. Once you have that score result, you should post back here and we can talk through what all of this data means.

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

[Bara]

The algorhytms are defiantly not the same as GMAC-- I've been at several meetings with them where I've witnessed my colleagues trying to nudge it out of them - -but they're still a good measure.

Bell Curves does a good job with this too

that said: the real GMAC CAT diag is the best to work with.

[ceilidh.erickson]

On the GMAT, you can't simply count the NUMBER of questions right and wrong and expect to know what your score will be. Because the test is adaptive (when you get one right, the next one is harder; when you get one wrong, the next is easier), your score is not determined by how many questions you get right, but WHICH ONES you get right.

More information on how GMAT scoring works here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... mat-quant/?
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... hs-busted/

Stop counting how many questions you've gotten right and wrong, and focus instead on WHY you're getting questions wrong. Try to make sure that you get all the easy and medium-level questions right.

[MartyMurray]

Hi ankithsaleem.

I am not sure how good the algorithm for that practice test you took is. At the same time, I can say that what matters on that actual GMAT is the order of your right and wrong answers. If you get long strings of right answers, you drive your score up as you get increasingly hard questions right. If your right and wrong answers are more mixed together and your strings of right answers are shorter, you basically hit a level and just bounce above and below that level.

So one can hit a variety of scores, though getting the same number right and wrong in each case.