| Topic Name: |
GMAT RUMOR |
| Message Name: |
Yes... mostly true. |
| Date Posted: |
01/05/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
The test is adaptive, and if you get right a hard question it gives you harder and so on, until it finds a level where you can answer comfortably. Theoretically, it should recover from bad starts, but in practice it does not. The algorithm places great value to the first 5 to 10 questions and pre-classifies you in a target zone, and spends the rest of the test refining. If you did really bad in the first 5, your chances of scoring high are low, because high scores are out of your target zone. I do not know specifics as how many right or wrong you can have, but I did make some tests on the exams provided by GMAC and it is surprisingly true, even controlling every single answer, if you f*ck up three or four of the first 6, your score never hits 700, even if your answers after those first are perfect. At least it happened with the version I had. I actually sat right when they changed from paper to computer, so I researched the method with what I had, having no way of asking a real person who sat through the test. This might have changed since then. |
| Message: |
Of course, it's a different story for the Quant and Verbal questions... but yes, if you do poorly in the first 5-10, then you just won't be able to score high IN THAT SECTION. I don't think this is unfair.
Think about it this way: The first few questions are of medium difficulty. If you get the first one wrong, then you get a slightly easier question. If you get the first 3 wrong... or even 3 of the first 5, then you've proven to the CAT that you can't correctly answer questions at a medium difficulty. If you can't answer questions at a "500 Level"... I can't see how you could expect to score high! Getting 1 or 2 questions wrong early won't screw you.. but if you consistently screw up questions of a medium difficulty, then you just don't deserve a high score!!!
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