CAT exams - not getting 700-800 questions?

[rich.black]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could explain why I my last two CAT exams were not giving me many 700 - 800 questions for quant, even though I got 19 of the first 20 questions right.

I ended up getting 34 / 37 right only to find that many of the questions were 500 - 700 range. In fact, I only scored a 45 section score, yet got a 99% percentile rank. This seems odd, as previous tests have given a section score of 50 and only a 95% percentile, or a section score of 48 and only 86% percentile rank.

I thought to be a bit strange that the CAT exam wasn't upping the difficult even though I was getting the vast majority right.

My theory is that these two CAT exams are the last in the set of 6, and so I may have "used up" the 700 - 800 questions in previous CAT exams. Is this nonsense?



Many thanks in advance,

R

[StaceyKoprince]

You're probably right. If you have been getting mostly 700-800 questions right from the first test, then you used most of them up already, and the algorithm is not permitted to give you any repeat questions until you get to test #7. The algorithm does, however, still have to stick to the other category requirements (eg, a certain number of triangle questions, a certain number of rate questions, etc), so if you've already used up the 700+ pool in a category, then the algorithm will give you a lower-ranked question in that category instead.

If that was your test 6, then when you take a new test, the exam will be permitted to give you repeats, so you'll see 700+ questions again... but they'll mostly be problems you've already seen.

Here's a thought: if you're doing so well that you're using up all the 700+ questions before even getting through 6 exams, maybe it's time to schedule your real exam!