MGMAT CAT's

[rkim81]

Is there a way to reset all of the CAT exams so you can do them over again? It would be great to see the difference in performance after you've come back to the test after a month of additional prep.

[StaceyKoprince]

Talk to techsupport: 800.576.GMAT or techsupport@manhattangmat.com

I believe you can just keep taking the tests (that is, I don't think you actually need to reset anything), but IT is constantly updating things, so I could be out of date. :)

[rkim81]

Thanks Stacy! Will do. Another question. I just finished another practice CAT and noticed something about the verbal section. Majority of the questions were all in the 700-800 bank. 2 questions 500-600 level, 5 questions in the 600-700 level, and the rest in 700-800.

Even if I got answers wrong in the 700-800 level consecutively, the CAT would give me the same level of difficulty. When I got the question right, it would move down to 600-700. I was really confused because previous tests would give me an easier level of difficulty if I got a question wrong especially in the 600-700. Did I catch the test with a flu? How come it didn't adapt to my performance? ( Does this mean that there are different levels of difficulty of tests with in each range?) And does this mean that for my remaining two CAT's I'll run out of 700-800 questions?

Interestingly, my strongest point in verbal, SC, turned out to be my weakest on this test, but what surprised me more, was that overall, I got more questions incorrect than other tests but got the highest raw verbal score to date! I'm so confused!

Thanks in advance!

[rchdvincent]

I had a very similar experience today taking my CAT. I got 6 questions wrong in a row and every one of them was 700-800 level.....very odd.

[tkulkarn]

Thanks Stacy! Will do. Another question. I just finished another practice CAT and noticed something about the verbal section. Majority of the questions were all in the 700-800 bank. 2 questions 500-600 level, 5 questions in the 600-700 level, and the rest in 700-800.

Even if I got answers wrong in the 700-800 level consecutively, the CAT would give me the same level of difficulty. When I got the question right, it would move down to 600-700. I was really confused because previous tests would give me an easier level of difficulty if I got a question wrong especially in the 600-700. Did I catch the test with a flu? How come it didn't adapt to my performance? ( Does this mean that there are different levels of difficulty of tests with in each range?) And does this mean that for my remaining two CAT's I'll run out of 700-800 questions?

Interestingly, my strongest point in verbal, SC, turned out to be my weakest on this test, but what surprised me more, was that overall, I got more questions incorrect than other tests but got the highest raw verbal score to date! I'm so confused!

Thanks in advance!

I have not experienced that with verbal. But last cat I took, Q fed me an inordinate number of 700+ questions. Not complaining about that though because the score was high.
V kept feeding me questions which were lengthy and wordy.

[StaceyKoprince]

Technically, the algorithm does not base its next question choice on just what you did with the last question. Instead, the algorithm calculates your total performance to that point on the test (including the last question) and gives you a question based on that. So it's not just possible but somewhat common, actually, to get a 700+ question wrong but still have an overall score to that point in the section that merits another 700+ question.

Also, difficulty level is not the only metric that the algorithm uses. The algorithm also has to factor in specific question types, specific content areas within those question types, etc. The test might determine, "okay, the next question needs to be a DS geometry triangle question and it needs to be in the 700 range" and the closest question might be a 670 or it might be a 730. Remember that the standard deviation of standardized tests is fairly high (30 points on the real test, 50 points on our test), so that doesn't actually represent that much of a swing.

Finally, you may have gotten more wrong, but they were at higher difficulty levels, so that's why your score went up. As long as your wrong answers are fairly spread out, you can get quite a number of questions wrong and still get a high score because you are constantly "recovering" and lifting your score. If you have a string of wrong answers in a row, though, then that can start to bring you much further down.