Is anyone familiar with GMAT scoring? I have been studying a lot and have recently taken two CAT's. The first one I completely ran out of time and didn't answer half of the quant or half of the verbal questions. I scored somewhere in the 400-range.

I just took the second CAT from the mba.com software. I paced myself much better so I could finish all the questions. I did have to guess on many of the quant questions that I couldn't finish within two minutes. Afterwards the software said my score was 760...I couldn't believe it. It said a 48 in quant and a 47 in verbal. But when I analyzed the questions I had 11 quant wrong and 6 verbal wrong. That is such a high percentage of incorrect on the quant. Is it possible that my score was correct? It doesn't seem right. I know it depends on the difficulty level of the questions but most I answered seemed to be medium level. Does anyone know if this scoring could be right?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

First, nice job! Second, there's nothing wrong with the test. The score is based primarily on the difficulty level of the questions answered and EVERYBODY gets a lot of questions wrong - even someone who scores an 800. Most people get about half of the questions wrong regardless of scoring level (though that doesn't hold true as you start to move higher in the 700s).

Officially, the score is a function of the level at which you can get half of the questions right and half wrong (though, again, this skews if your score is very high or very low). So, if you can answer 100% of 600 level questions right, your score is NOT going to be a 600, because what if you can also answer 100% of 620 questions right? A 100% data point doesn't tell me how much higher you could go! The way the test knows it has "found" your level is when it pegs you at the 50/50 mark - eg, if you get most of the questions right below a 700 level and most of the questions wrong above a 700 level, well, your level is 700.

As you find out from your first test, take the timing very seriously. There is an enormous penalty for running out of time - it will kill your score.

Stacey,

I just took a practice GMATprep and got a 47 Quant. This blew me away since I guessed on a bunch of questions...what gives? I also finished with a good 10 mins left!

Thanks, Stacey!
That makes me feel better. :)

Jimmy: everybody guesses on questions. Most people have to guess on 5-8 questions per section. This is because the test gets harder when you get things right - so, eventually, it's going to give you stuff you just can't do. I score in the 99th percentile and I still have to guess on a few. :)