Confused with MGMAT CAT Scoring, please help!

[confused GMATer]

My MGMAT CAT core seems a little weird so I was hoping someone could explain this for me.

So...Over HALF of the questions I got on the Quant section were 700-800 questions (22 to be exact), of which 9 I answered correctly (not very impressive). Of the 600-700 questions (I got 10 of those), I answered only 4 correctly. Still, my quant was 40 (61%).

I know 40 is really bad, but I thought it would be lower given how many I got wrong. Why didn't I get more easier questions, say, in the 500-600 or even 600-700 when I got a little less than half of the 700-800s wrong?

And how can I be 40 with getting more than half wrong? This was one of the hardest MGMAT CAT in that every question was at my upper limit.

Same thing happened with verbal, although I was able to get more correct, and it gave me a 39 (89%, by the way, I have been stuck at 88%-90% forever- on both MGMAT and GMATprep, extremely frustrating). I was given 28 quetions in the 700-800 range and answered 16 of them correctly. I was given 10 600-700 questions and answered 7 of those correctly. The rest were easy questions and I didn't miss any of those.

Based on how my quant was scored, I think my verbal score should have been higher than 39. Of course, I know that the two sections are scored relative to how others perform, but still, it just seems a little off to me.

Is this even someone reflective of how the real GMAT CAT works?

I cannot seem to "break" 640-670. I've been studying for two months- going over my weak areas, studying each section, putting in some serious hours of study, but I just can't seem to improve. No matter how I doon the MGMAT CAT (whether I get a lot correct or not a lot correct) my score seems to come out in in low to mid-600 range.

I am just scared that I will walk into the testing center and receive a bunch of difficult ones (700-800) and miss about half and come out with a score like 540. Or get a bunch of easy ones and get most of them right and still do horribly. If any of those two scenarios actually take place, I think I might literally jump out the window of the testing center.... can you tell I am a bit frustrated here?

Thanks,
Super-stressed-and-unable-to-move-north-of-mid-600s

[confused GMATer]

My MGMAT CAT core seems a little weird so I was hoping someone could explain this for me.

So...Over HALF of the questions I got on the Quant section were 700-800 questions (22 to be exact), of which 9 I answered correctly (not very impressive). Of the 600-700 questions (I got 10 of those), I answered only 4 correctly. Still, my quant was 40 (61%).

I know 40 is really bad, but I thought it would be lower given how many I got wrong. Why didn't I get more easier questions, say, in the 500-600 or even 600-700 when I got a little less than half of the 700-800s wrong?

And how can I be 40 with getting more than half wrong? This was one of the hardest MGMAT CAT in that every question was at my upper limit.

Same thing happened with verbal, although I was able to get more correct, and it gave me a 39 (89%, by the way, I have been stuck at 88%-90% forever- on both MGMAT and GMATprep, extremely frustrating). I was given 28 quetions in the 700-800 range and answered 16 of them correctly. I was given 10 600-700 questions and answered 7 of those correctly. The rest were easy questions and I didn't miss any of those.

Based on how my quant was scored, I think my verbal score should have been higher than 39. Of course, I know that the two sections are scored relative to how others perform, but still, it just seems a little off to me.

Is this even someone reflective of how the real GMAT CAT works?

I cannot seem to "break" 640-670. I've been studying for two months- going over my weak areas, studying each section, putting in some serious hours of study, but I just can't seem to improve. No matter how I doon the MGMAT CAT (whether I get a lot correct or not a lot correct) my score seems to come out in in low to mid-600 range.

I am just scared that I will walk into the testing center and receive a bunch of difficult ones (700-800) and miss about half and come out with a score like 540. Or get a bunch of easy ones and get most of them right and still do horribly. If any of those two scenarios actually take place, I think I might literally jump out the window of the testing center.... can you tell I am a bit frustrated here?

Thanks,
Super-stressed-and-unable-to-move-north-of-mid-600s

Sorry, forgot to mention that I got 650, although I am sure you can put the two together and figure out what the total was...

[StaceyKoprince]

The test isn't so much a function of how many you get right - it's more a function of the difficulty level of the questions. You will always feel pushed to your limit because the test will just give you stuff around the level of ability it calculates for you.

I do have one big question for you - how are things at the END of the section? Go back and look and see if you have a drop-off in performance at the end (indicating by dropping difficulty levels, more clusters of wrong questions towards the end, lower average time spent per question b/c you were running out of time and rushing, etc.). Don't think of the test as an average of your performance throughout the section. Think of it as a reflection of your performance at the end, when the section ends. (This isn't exactly what's happening either, but it's closer to the real scenario than is an average.)

So it's perfectly possible to be scoring in the 700 range for part of the section but then have your performance drop before you're done. The two biggest culprits here are usually timing (running out of time at the end, rushing, and making errors you wouldn't normally make) and stamina (just basically losing steam and, again, making errors you wouldn't normally make). Go back and look at the data and think about your testing experiences. Are either (or both) happening to you?

Also - you aren't the only one who gets frustrated by this exam. You're in very good company. But you CAN get better - it'll take some work, but you can.