Scoring pattern in Manahttan CATs

[parag.b.mehta]

Friends,

I have given 4 MGMAT tests till now and following are my scores:

Test 1
Q 44; V 34 Score 640 (No repeats)

Test 2

Q 49; V 38 Score 710 (Some repeats)
Issue here is I had 14 wrong in verbal yet I got a 38

Test 3

Q 48; V 45 Score 750 (Some repeats)
Issue here is I had 11 wrong in verbal yet I got a 45

Test 4

Q 48; V 40 Score 720
Issue here is I had 13 wrong in verbal yet I got a 40

What I need help on is trying to evaluate whether the actual GMAT also gives such good verbal scores if one has so many wrong questions. I have my exam coming up in 2 weeks and some help on this and the Manahattan answering will be really helpful so that I can benchmark against the actual exam

Cheers !!!
Parag

[tim]

I know this person's GMAT has long come and gone, but I'll answer the question in case others are wondering the same thing. Remember, the CAT adjusts to your ability level, so regardless of your level you should still expect to get a significant number of questions wrong. It's just that if you're a really good test taker your wrong answers will be harder than those of other people. Because of this, the raw number of missed questions is pretty much a non-issue in determining your overall score.

[devenh]

tim, thank you for responding. your feedback definitely helps others like myself that are scouring the forum trying to learn how to improve.

i hear what you are saying...that difficulty level is more important than the raw number of incorrect questions, but intuition tells me that if you are getting significantly more questions correct than the difficulty should also be adjusting by giving you harder questions. then, it would make sense that if you get more questions right you should generally expect a higher score.

similar to what parag.b.mehta posted i'm wondering if the actual gmat is less forgiving than mgmat tests because i seemed to get more questions right, but my score seemed to go down. i'm not sure why. here's my post:

post38074.html

[StaceyKoprince]

You aren't getting (significantly) more questions right, though. The test continually adjusts by giving you harder stuff till you can't get them right. For the most part, the vast majority of scores (between about 400 and 700) are earned by getting about 60% of the questions right.

That does start to skew when you get to the highest and lowest scorers, but even 99th percentile scorers are not getting all of the questions right.

I will also say that, on the real GMAT, it's typically a lot harder to tell when you've gotten something wrong. One of the things their experimental questions can tell them is the kinds of wrong answers people tend to pick. They could put out the same experimental, for example, with three different sets of wrong answers, and see that most people tend to cluster toward these four wrong answers, so those are the 4 they'll use with the question when it finally goes live. Those 4 wrong answers will be based on the mistakes that people are most likely to make - thinking that they're right when they're not.

So you think you're getting a lot more right on the real test, but really you're just not as able to tell when you're making mistakes or falling into traps... :)

[david.khoy]

I really wonder how the MGMAT CAT verbal scoring system was programmed.

Although I got only two wrong answers in the verbal section of my last MGMAT CAT exam, my verbal score was only 45. Actually, I got 45 for each of my last four CATs, but I made 5 to 6 errors in the first three.

Is it actually possible to get more than 45 on the verbal part of MGMAT CAT?

[StaceyKoprince]

Until very recently, 45 on verbal was the 99th percentile. Sometime in the last month or so, they updated the scale a little so that 46 is now the 99th percentile (and 45 is the 98th percentile). I'm guessing our programmers just haven't updated the scale in our algorithm yet - does it show 98th or 99th percentile on your score report?

[david.khoy]

It shows the 99th percentile.

[tim]

Hi David, one thing to consider is that if you've taken a large number of CATs you may have exhausted the difficult problems in our database. It sounds like this may have been the case in your experience. If that is what is happening, you may max out at a particular score simply because there aren't enough difficult questions remaining to accurately peg your score at a higher level. Once you have exhausted the difficult questions, there will come a point where our system simply can't reflect your true ability. Consider this good news.. :)

[david.khoy]

Hi David, one thing to consider is that if you've taken a large number of CATs you may have exhausted the difficult problems in our database. It sounds like this may have been the case in your experience. If that is what is happening, you may max out at a particular score simply because there aren't enough difficult questions remaining to accurately peg your score at a higher level. Once you have exhausted the difficult questions, there will come a point where our system simply can't reflect your true ability. Consider this good news.. :)

Yes, indeed, I took a large number of MGMAT CATs and I only got eight 700-800 level questions during my last CAT. Thanks for the explanation, I did not think of it!

[tim]

i've seen it happen a lot. Hopefully that will be a lesson to everyone else: DO NOT take more than six of our practice exams unless you actively want the system to report erroneous scores.. :)

[stuart]

Hi Tim,

Sorry to re-open an old thread.

I did CAT's 1-3 before my first attempt at the real GMAT.
Unhappy with my first GMAT score, I've decided to retake it and revisit my Manhattan prep. So to reset the CATs and start afresh, I skipped through the remaining CATS 4-6 (I attempted the first 2 questions for fun then promptly ended each section). This brought me round to CAT1A.

But given what you've said above, will my scores second-time round be accurate? (does your scoring algorithm consider the fact that i've taken a test before?)
I am curious since i've scored identically in my CAT 1A and CAT 3A, in both percentiles and scores, and I also have had the verbal top out of 45 described above. Is this just coincidence?
The vast majority of questions I see in both Quant and Verbal are still in the 700-800 range.

Will the remaining CATS 4A to 6A be accurate for me?

Many thanks for your help,

Stuart.

[tim]

sorry, you totally ruined your tests. there's nothing you can do to fix this. i hope this will serve as a warning to others not to do things you're not supposed to with the system..