Confused on GMAT Scores

[nandia885]

Stacey,

Here is my debrief...

he test started off smooth. I completed the AWA sections and I used all the time to make sure that I wrote good quality essays. Next came the quant section and the story was somwhat different. I completely got thrown of by the first question and I guessed and moved on after about 2 and 1/2 minutes. During the quant section, I felt that the questions were easier, especially when compared to MGMAT. I was very nervous because I didn't see any geometry questions or absolute value questions. I had that weird feeling that I was not doing well. I started second guessing myself and double checking my answers very quickly, in order to make sure that I was not making any careless mistakes. Towards the end...around question 28, I started to feel the time pressure and I picked up my pace a bit. Just to be clear, I still worked on the problems but I did not double check my answers. In the end I guessed on the last question and maybe 3-4 questions total in the quant section.

After the quant section, I was not sure what to think because I felt the test was much easier than my other practice test. Nonetheless, I completely forget about my quant performance, ate a granola bar, and refocused for the verbal section. I honestly do not know what happened in this section. The first question was a sentence correction and I thought it was not a difficult question. As I progressed through the test, I started to build my confidence and I felt I hit my stride so to speak. Throughout the test, there were a few curve ball questions but nothing out of the ordinary. The one thing Howver, I realized that my reading comprehension passages were very short and there was no science passage. I started to spend a little more time on the questions because I felt that the questions started to get a bit easy. Eventually, I did get some critical reasoning questions that made me thing a bit but nothing crazy. Towards the end of the test, I started running low on time and I received alot of crtitical reasoning question. I had to blindly guess on two or three critical reasoning questions towards the end so that I had enough time for the final question, a sentence correction question.

I used the strategies from the class, including diagram and and splitting the answer choices in sentence correction. Some of the strategy did use more time than normal, however, I felt that I was doing well throughout the verbal. As a result, I did not think the two or three questions that I guessed on would really kill my verbal score.

I have set an appointment for the Post Exam Assessment and I will try to incorporate any suggestions after the discussion. Since I intend to apply for the first round at most of the schools on my list, I will have to take the exam very soon, maybe Mid July early August. I will start my studies again today and hopefully the results will be very different the next time.

Thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

And you submitted this info for your PEA too, right? That will give the instructor lots of data to work with in order to advise you.

I'm concerned that you may have a larger timing problem on verbal than you think. I know that you only had to guess on a few at the end, but that is usually only the "tip of the iceberg" when you have timing problems. Usually it also mean that you rushed elsewhere in the section (by doing some questions, say, 30 to 45 seconds faster than they should have been done). The more you rush, the more likely you are to make careless mistakes - and you wouldn't know you made the mistake, of course. So you likely had more wrong due to timing problems than just the last few on which you had to guess.

Also, relative to your last GMATPrep performance, your drop in score really came from the verbal side, not the quant side, so that makes sense with the above.

This is something to discuss with your PEA instructor. If you haven't had your meeting yet, email him/her to mention that you're particularly concerned about your timing and want to know what s/he thinks you should do. That way, when the instructor is reviewing your practice tests s/he can pay special attention to that data.

I also just want to point out something sort of paradoxical: you felt much worse about the quant section, but your score didn't drop on that one. You felt much better about the verbal for a while, but then ran into trouble at the end. It's not unusual on this test for it to happen that the worse you feel, the better you're doing (relative to what you can expect to score). So just remember that for next time: just because you feel like you're doing poorly doesn't mean you are doing poorly.

After you've had your PEA, if you'd like to discuss any of the advice you receive, let us know!

[NehaP561]

Do I lose more marks if get 300-550 level questions wrong in comparisons to 550-800 level questions?

My weak links in verbal are, (sadly I have two weak links) comprising of 2/3 of the verbal section RC and CR, this something I have observed over the 2 CATS and 1 GMATprep test, and a couple of wiley.com practice tests I have taken.

So I took an only RC and CR test today of 34 questions of medium and hard level on wiley.

For RC I got 7/10 hard on medium level questions right and 3/4 on hard questions right.

For CR, I scored 4/10 for medium questions and 5/10 for hard questions.

So in case of CR and RC both I have scored less on medium level questions than hard level questions.

If I scored a 75% on RC, a 95% on SC and a 65% on CR, they take the average of this score right? and then they take average of my score on quant and then they take the average of both quant and verbal. Is this how it works?

Thanks a lot!

[StaceyKoprince]

Do I lose more marks if get 300-550 level questions wrong in comparisons to 550-800 level questions?

Essentially, yes. If you get a lot of lower-level questions wrong, your score will not lift up to the higher-level questions in the first place.

The test is not scored based on number correct, nor is it based on an average of your percentage correct across the question types. If you would like to learn more about how the scoring works (and I strongly recommend doing so!), please read the Scoring section of our free e-book The GMAT Uncovered. (There's already a copy in your MPrep Student Center.)

In your student center, go to Resources & Downloads and click on the link for GMAT Uncovered Guide.

I think everyone should learn about this, as it has significant implications for how you take the test!

So in case of CR and RC both I have scored less on medium level questions than hard level questions.

Technically, yes, but the numbers are so close that I wouldn't say that. I would say that your performance is about the same on both.

If you have taken one of our CATs, use this to help analyze the test results:
http://tinyurl.com/analyzeyourcats

This will help you to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses more precisely. If you'd like, you can share that analysis with us here. If you do, please first read these two articles:
http://tinyurl.com/executivereasoning
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Think about how what you've been doing does and doesn't match up with that and how you may need to change your approach accordingly. Then tell us that along with your test analysis. (note: don't share just the test data - you do actually have to do the analysis

[NehaP561]

thank you Stacey

[StaceyKoprince]

You're welcome!