How is the GRE scored?

[lcl_90]

My bf and I took the GRE the same day (though we probably got different tests). However, we happened to get the same number of wrong answers in the Verbal section (I found out today you can check the number of questions you got wrong as well as their level of difficulty in MyGRE account).

 

Him: all level 4s and 5s wrong

Me: 2 level 3s and then all 4s and 5s wrong

 

(this should be irrelevant though since all questions are supposed to be weighted equally)

 

He got a 161 (84% percentile)

I got a 159 (81% percentile)

 

How is this possible if all questions are weighted equally in the GRE?

 

Is it because your raw score accounts for some differences in difficulty between tests? if that's the case, a 3% difference is kinda big, doesn't look like they're doing a very good job of standardzing level of diffculty between tests..

 

I actually also care because it's possible that programs have a 160 cutoff, so 159 and 161 when getting the same number of wrong ansewrs could make a difference/be important..

 

 

[Meglet]

It's my understanding that questions within a section are weighted the same, but not all questions are weighted equally.  You would both have gotten a medium-difficulty set for your first verbal (and math), and then how you do on that determines whether it gives you an easy, medium, or difficult second section.  If you get yourself a difficult second section, it's going to get you a higher score than if you earn a medium or easy section.  I'm not sure exactly how things work within a section - a medium difficulty section could still contain level 4 and 5 questions.  I'm guessing either your boyfriend got less wrong in the first section, so was able to get a harder second section than you and earn a higher score, or the distribution of where you got questions wrong vs. where he got them wrong means yours were weighted differently.  You can always ask ETS, but I hear they're not actually all that helpful when you ask for an explanation of your score.

[VulpesZerda]

I find this to be really interesting - but unfortunately I have no insight for you, sorry.

 

I am wondering, though, how were you able to view the number of questions wrong/their difficulty?

[lcl_90]

@VulpesZerda I'm glad you asked! I think this is something useful (esp for people re taking the test wanting to know what section they want to improve on /study more for next time yet I don't see ETS advertising it that much). When you're in the main myGRE account, under "Scores" section, you'll see a link to "GRE diagnostic service". Then you enter some personal and test info and you'll be able to see it..

 

@Meglet Thanks for the insight! I was curious so I directly compared individual scores. We both got 5 wrong answers in the first section.

 

First section (answers wrong)

Him: 4 qs level 4, 1 q level 5

Me: 2 qs levels 5, 2 qs level 4, 1 q level 3

 

(Based on this first section breakdown, I'm assuming we got the same difficulty level on the second one if all questions within a section are weighted equally)

 

Second section (answers wrong)

Him: 3 qs level 4, 7 qs level 5

Me: 4 qs level 4, 5 qs level 5, 1 q level 3

 

So yea I still don't understand but oh well. I wouldn't bother writing to ETS, they are not the best at customer service..

Thanks again for your insights

 

*PS: Correction he got a 160 (84%) (not 161)

[pentaprism]

I don't know about now, but when I took GRE years ago, I was told (officially, in some document) that some of the questions in the test were "experimental."  Those questions had score of 0.  In other words, they didn't count.

 

Could some of the questions your bf got wrong "experimental"?

[lcl_90]

Hi pentaprism,

No I don't think so.. The way it's now, a whole section is experimental (not individual questions within sections).

There are 2 Verbal (20 questions) + 2 Quantitative (20 questions) real sections.

In addition, there is one experimental (either Verbal or Quantitative) with also 20 questions.

But in the report, I see the 4 sections that were actually scored..

[VulpesZerda]

@VulpesZerda I'm glad you asked! I think this is something useful (esp for people re taking the test wanting to know what section they want to improve on /study more for next time yet I don't see ETS advertising it that much). When you're in the main myGRE account, under "Scores" section, you'll see a link to "GRE diagnostic service". Then you enter some personal and test info and you'll be able to see it..

 

 

Thanks so much! I'm actually kind of annoyed that ETS didn't make this more known. Extremely helpful since I'm retaking in a few days.