Many people have heard that the early questions on the GMAT are crucially important because of the test’s adaptive nature; they have the (incorrect) sense that how you answer the first questions will determine the sort of questions you get for the rest of your test.

This belief is exaggerated and mistaken, as we have heard straight from GMAC.  But here’s another wrinkle – could the very first questions on the GMAT be experimental, and thus not count at all toward your score?

We recently heard second-hand from GMAC that every experimental item has been tested ‘in every position’ on the test.  That is, an experimental question will have appeared as Item #1, Item #2, . . . all the way up to Item #37 (on the math, or #41 on the verbal) before being added to the active item pool.  From this, it seems almost certain that yes, the very first questions you see may very well be experimental and not count toward your score.

What’s the concrete takeaway from this?  Among other things, it’s one more reason NOT to obsess too much about the early questions and maintain the correct pace throughout.  You don’t want to be spending extra time on a question that doesn’t count, and this applies as much to the first question as it does to one in the middle!  It also suggests the difficulty of trying to ‘read’ how you’re doing, as experimental items can appear at any time randomly, making it near impossible to gauge your own performance (though if you feel like you’re struggling with accuracy while keeping the right pace, it’s a good sign!).

Here’s more detail on the GMAC Summit from MGMAT Instructor Stacey Koprince:

Last week, I attended the GMAC Test Prep Summit, a biennial gathering held by GMAC specifically for test prep companies.  Most of the things we discussed are probably only of interest to those of us who work in the industry. There were a few things, though, that would be quite useful for students to know.

When Dr. Lawrence Rudner (GMAC’s Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Psychometrician) speaks, it’s definitely in all of our best interests to listen. He’s basically responsible for the construction and continued operation of a valid GMAT CAT. All data and quotes in this article courtesy:

Rudner, Lawrence M. (2009). GMAT Psychometrics. Materials presented at the 2009 GMAC Test Preparation Summit, New York City, NY. October 15, 2009.

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BusinessWeek just posted an article that talks about a trend among employers using GMAT Scores as a proxy for ability, sometimes to determine which candidates to interview.  The article even includes accounts of Business School administrators and professors advising MBA students to re-take the GMAT (after they’ve already begun attending Business School!) in order to burnish their credentials.

Who knew?  Apparently, your GMAT score sticks with you and may matter even after you get your admissions letter.  It’s a good reason to do as well as possible.

The above also suggests that students and others in the job market may be well-served to take the GMAT to be able to stand out to potential employers.  E.g. if you’re a senior in college and get a 750, that score on your resume might catch a company’s eye.

The organization that administers the GMAT, the GMAC, is always looking to make the test available to anyone who might be interested in graduate business education.  That’s why, once again, the GMAT bus is making the rounds, bringing the exam directly to students.

Originally launched in 2006, the bus will visit 32 schools in 14 states. Its 8-month cross-country tour begins in Stockton, California, at Humphreys College, on October 21 and will end with a visit to Bethune-Cookman University, in Daytona Beach, Florida, on May 7.  So if you’re far from a regular testing center, you should check out the tour schedule and see if it might be a fit.

The program aims to recruit more diverse business school applicants by bringing the exam to students who might have trouble getting to a testing location.  Kudos to GMAC for getting themselves out there.

Also, we’re just entertained that there’s actually a giant GMAT Bus!  Imagine seeing that on the highway . . .

The GMAT Bus

GMAC, the publishers and administrators of the GMAT, are hosting their bi-annual summit here in New York on Thursday.   The purpose of the summit is to let those in the GMAT ecosystem know about research, trends, and upcoming changes to the test (if any).  We’re very privileged to be invited again this year!  It’s always a fascinating day when you get to hear from and speak to the minds behind the GMAT.  We’ll post an update here after the summit regarding items of interest.

Update – Well, the GMAC Summit 2009 is now in the books.  In all frankness, there wasn’t much revealed to interest the average GMAT test-taker, aside from an affirmation of points made earlier (e.g. the early items are not worth expending extra time on).

Some of the items discussed include:

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As you probably know by now, the GMAT is a Computer Adaptive Test (“CAT”). This means that the questions that you see on the exam are selected by the computer based on your performance on earlier questions. For example, if you answer a question correctly, your next question will be harder. If you answer a question incorrectly, your next question will be easier. The exam is trying to gauge your ability level by seeing how well you do with questions (known as “items” in testing parlance) of varying degrees of difficulty. Generally speaking, the harder the questions you answer correctly, the better your score will be.

There are other factors besides difficulty level that influence the selection of items on a particular exam (e.g., question type (data sufficiency vs. problem solving, for example), content (e.g., algebra, ratios, assumptions, etc.), and exposure (i.e., how many times has the question been seen by other test takers already that month?)). But difficulty level is arguably the most important.

The CAT does not “bucket” items into “easy”, “medium”, and “hard” categories. Instead, each item can be considered easy, medium, or hard depending on the person to whom it is given. Each item is tested out for a period as an unscored “experimental” during the actual exams of people taking the GMAT. After a sufficient sampling of test-takers has answered the items, ETS compares the overall scores of the test-takers with their performance on the experimental items.

If, say, fifty percent of all test-takers scoring in the 600-620 range got a particular experimental item right, that item would be considered of medium difficulty for that ability level. If ninety percent of those scoring in the 700-720 range got the item right, it would be considered easy for that ability level. When the item is then presented as a real scored question on subsequent exams, the computer uses the experimental data to determine whether the item is appropriately difficult for someone performing at a given level thus far in the exam. The computer tries to give you questions that you have a 50/50 shot at, based on your performance up to that point. The better you do, the harder your 50/50 items will be.

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The GMAT is the Graduate Management Admission Test, a standardized test required by the vast majority of business schools because it provides a measure of an applicant’s academic ability. The GMAT test does not include any questions that gauge your business knowledge. The GMAT test is computerized and administered six days each week, 52 weeks per year. While the exam can be taken at virtually any time, it can only be taken once per 31 days and 5 times per year.

What is a Computer Adaptive Test?

The GMAT test is computer adaptive, meaning that instead of determining your score using a fixed set of questions, the exam provides you with questions of variable difficulty based on your answers to previous questions. GMAT test questions are not pre-set in advance. The GMAT begins with a question of average difficulty and if you answer it correctly, you will receive a slightly harder second question. If you answer it wrong, you will receive a slightly easier second question. Your third question, in turn, is based on your response to the second question, and so on. In this way, the GMAT test zeroes in on your ability level and assigns you a corresponding score. Because your real-time performance on the exam is essential to a final computation of your score, the way you take the GMAT test will differ greatly from your experience with other exams. Specifically:

• You will see only one question on the screen at a time. You cannot move onto another question until you answer the current one. Once you answer a question, you cannot return to it or review any questions that you have already answered.
• Correct responses to difficult questions are worth more than correct responses to easy questions. The raw number of correct questions answered is not indicative of your final score.

Despite these variables, the GMAT test will always present you with a fair mix of questions with regards to content areas for a given section. For instance, any test-taker will receive the same rough mix of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry questions on the quant portion of the test.

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Manhattan GMAT’s award-winning flash cards (okay, they don’t give out awards, but if they did . . . ) are now available online.  They’ve actually been downloadable for print for quite some time, but we went ahead and made them web-friendly as well.  With the new interface, you can ‘flip’ the cards onscreen, flag the cards that were tricky to you, and save your progress to return for another session.

You can, of course, still download and print them for a more corporeal experience.  To choose either flavor, click here.  However you choose to make use of them, we hope you find them handy!

We have completed our analysis of the GMAT Official Guide Quant Review 2nd Edition.  Of the 300 questions, 74 (25%) are new to the 2nd edition.

These 74 problems did not break dramatic new ground in terms of tested material.  The bottom line is that the 2nd Edition is a nice add-on, but you should still feel fine about studying from the original Quant Review Guide if that’s what you’ve got handy.  For a complete list of the new problems and a detailed breakdown by topic, click here.

We received a report of a student having her score canceled because she went to her locker during a break on test day and checked her cellphone for messages  (FYI, you put all of your belongings in a locker at the testing center).  Apparently, an official at the testing center flagged her for suspicious activity and canceled her test administration on the spot.

The moral of the story is, stay away from your electronic device during the breaks!  Keep it in the back of the locker and don’t pick it up again until you have your score report in hand (hopefully you’ll want to call your friends and share some good news!).   You CAN have a snack in your locker to scarf during the breaks, but keep it in the front of your locker and don’t rummage too much in there.  Apparently some of the testing proctors are very action-oriented.