Had 28 correct answers in Powerprep but scored me 154, shouldn't it be 158?

[karkas]

Hello, I have a couple of questions about the math section on the GRE. I took this morning a practice test, in the POWERPREPII software and had 28 correct answers in the math section, and as I have read in the official guide every question is weighted the same (1 point), but the scored I got was 154 in this section. Also in the Verbal section I had 23 corrrect answers, which should score a 153, but I got a 152. Why did this happened? are these scores given by POWERPREPII right?, or I should have scored 158 and 153 (311) as I thought?

 

Another doubt I have is about the on-screen calculator, It has the decimal point moved, some times one digit, sometimes two digits, 1/2 should equal 0.5 and it gives a 5 for example.

 

Lastly, in a numeric entry question, I was asked to determine a average, which was 36.52, exactly what I entered; it was incorrect, and when I checked the correct answer they had 36.5, but nothing was speficied about the amount of deciaml digits in the question. I can know this without any specification from the question?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

[VioletAyame]

1. Did you take the test all the way through? There should be 2 quant and 2 verbal sections, totaling 60 questions each. The test is adaptive, which means the first section will determine how difficult the second section is, and the higher the difficulty the higher your score will be. Thus I doubt that each question is equally weighted like you said. Maybe double-check the scoring guide?

2. I've never had any problem with the calculator both in my practice tests and during the exam. It's probably a glitch in the software, in which case you should contact ETS and let them know. They're pretty responsive regarding technical questions in my experience; they helped me install the PowerPrep software for my stupid windows 8 laptop. In the meantime, you can probably use your computer calculator as a substitute. It doesn't have the same layout, but I think that's not gonna be much of a problem. The main point is to get used to using an on-screen calculator, which tends to slow most people down compared to a hand-held one.

3. Again, I think your best course is to ask ETS directly. Maybe take a screenshot of the issue and attach it in an email? Sorry I can't be more helpful; I never had that problem before either.

[karkas]

Thank for your reply Espresso Shot, the GRE Guide says "within a section all questions contribute equally to the final score" then says "For each of the two measures, a raw score is computed. The raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly.

 

The raw score is then converted to a scaled score through a process known as equating. The equating process accounts for minor variations in difficulty from test to

test as well as the differences introduced by the section-level adaptation"

 

This should be what you're talking about. Thanks for this explanation.

 

About the other two questions, that's what I am going to do, I will contact ETS. Would it be okay to do it via the Contact Us section of the webpage? or is there a more apropriate way to ask them about this?

 

By the way, I should have said VioletAyame, I'm new in the forum. Excuse me.

Edited January 12, 2014 by karkas

[VioletAyame]

Ah no problem, I see people getting each other's screen name wrong all the time. I think the coffee thingy is our member status depending on how much we post, and I just love it, being a coffee fan.

I remember emailing them, but not where I get that email address. I think Contact Us would be the best guess. I'm at my part-time job and there's no computer around so I can't check for sure (my phone email app doesn't save history that long ago), but if you need it I can check when I get home tonight. Just PM me in case I forget.

[karkas]

Okay, I'll wait for that and PM to remind you. After all, is sunday and I don't think they will reply today. 

 

Thak you very much

[thegirldetective]

Within each section, every question is weighted equally. But how well you do in the first section dictates the level of difficulty in the second section. The difficulty of your second section has a HUGE INFLUENCE on your score. So for example, 5 questions correct in V1 and 15 questions correct in V2 will not necessarily give you the same score as 15 right in V1 and 5 right in V2. You can find specific tier cutoff a by googling, but I think it's something like 0-7 for easy, 8-15 for medium and 15-20 for hard. When I took a GRE class the instructors told me my #1 studying priority should be to make sure I could consistently get into the hard tier.