The
GRE is now only available as a computerized test. Here is how
it works: instead of having a pre-determined mixture of easy,
medium, and hard questions, the computer will select questions
for you based on how well you are doing. The first question will
be of medium difficulty (500 level questions are half-way between
200 and 800). If you get it right, the second question will be
selected from a large group of questions that are a little harder;
if you get the first question wrong, the second will be a little
easier. The result is that the test is self-adjusting and self-correcting
to your skill level.
Fig.
1.1-This graph shows how the test keeps a running score of your
performance as you take the test. The student's running score
goes up when he gets the first three questions right (blue) and the score goes down when the test taker gets
questions wrong (red) (questions 4 & 5 on lower axis).
As the test progresses, the swings caused by getting a question
right or wrong progressively decrease.
Harder Questions
Count More
A
result of the CAT format is that the harder problems count more
than easier ones. If one student does twenty easy questions,
half of which he gets right and half of which he gets wrong,
and then another student does twenty very difficult questions,
half of which he gets right and half of which he gets wrong,
the second student will get a higher score.
The
student who answered ten out of twenty very difficult questions
incorrectly would still get a very high score on the GMAT CAT
because the harder questions are more heavily weighted. Simpler
questions might be easier to answer, but they count much less.
Your goal should be to get as many hard questions right because
that will get you your highest possible score.
Start Off Strong
The CAT puts much more value on
the earlier questions than the later questions. The computer
has to make large jumps in the estimation of your score for each
of the first few questions. The later questions are used to fine-tune
your score. To get the best possible score, focus more time on
the earlier questions than the later questions.
Fig 1.2-Get those first
questions right! The blue graph
shows a student who got the first 8 questions right and the remainder
wrong and the red graph show a student who got the first
8 questions wrong and the remainder right. The blue student scores
much higher, despite answering fewer questions correctly.
.
A skilled GRE test-taker focuses
his efforts on getting early, hard questions correct. Therefore,
as we'll see in the next section, the optimal strategy for the
CAT is to go extremely slowly and carefully at the beginning
of the test.
w 1d. Pacing strategies
for the CAT
