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I scored very well on the GMAT and it’s really testing how diligently you prepare for it, and that is the predictor of success, not the content of the test itse

by gaius 8y ago

I scored very well on the GMAT and it’s really testing how diligently you prepare for it, and that is the predictor of success, not the content of the test itself, IMHO.

barry-cotter 8y ago
I’m sure you did improve. Practice effects exist. They’re also limited. Just as I will get faster if I train to run the 100m or run a marathon you can get better at the GMAT, LSAT etc. But there’s a plateau you hit where you can’t get better. If you try to take someone from 50th percentile to 99th on the GMAT in the majority of cases you will fail. An increase of 0.26 standard deviations isn’t nothing but on the GMAT it’s only ~30 points. https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&amp=&context=articles&amp=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fscholar.google.com%252Fscholar%253Fhl%253Den%2526as_sdt%253D0%25252C5%2526q%253Dgmat%252Bpractice%252Beffect%2526btnG%253D#search=%22gmat%20practice%20effect%22 https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a... Retesting in selection: a meta-analysis of coaching and practice effects for tests of cognitive ability. Previous studies have indicated that as many as 25% to 50% of applicants in organizational and educational settings are retested with measures of cognitive ability. Researchers have shown that practice effects are found across measurement occasions such that scores improve when these applicants retest. In this study, the authors used meta-analysis to summarize the results of 50 studies of practice effects for tests of cognitive ability. Results from 107 samples and 134,436 participants revealed an adjusted overall effect size of 0.26. Moderator analyses indicated that effects were larger when practice was accompanied by test coaching and when identical forms were used. Additional research is needed to understand the impact of retesting on the validity inferences drawn from test scores.
- gaius 8y ago
  Yes and no. You can certainly practice GMAT style questions directly and get better at them that way, but the real trick is to meta up a level and see that they follow a pattern, at which point getting a very good score is easy. I think the test is really testing for that (I guess deliberately or why put the pattern in in the first place?). Or maybe it is really testing for the personality type that likes to prepare in advance rather than winging it, that would obviously correlate well with success in any field.
  - jpadkins 8y ago
    or it's testing for people who have the ability to 'meta up a level and see they follow a pattern' which is part of what we call IQ.

by gaius 8y ago

I scored very well on the GMAT and it’s really testing how diligently you prepare for it, and that is the predictor of success, not the content of the test itself, IMHO.

barry-cotter 8y ago

I’m sure you did improve. Practice effects exist. They’re also limited. Just as I will get faster if I train to run the 100m or run a marathon you can get better at the GMAT, LSAT etc. But there’s a plateau you hit where you can’t get better. If you try to take someone from 50th percentile to 99th on the GMAT in the majority of cases you will fail. An increase of 0.26 standard deviations isn’t nothing but on the GMAT it’s only ~30 points. https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&amp=&context=articles&amp=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252Fscholar.google.com%252Fscholar%253Fhl%253Den%2526as_sdt%253D0%25252C5%2526q%253Dgmat%252Bpractice%252Beffect%2526btnG%253D#search=%22gmat%20practice%20effect%22 https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a... Retesting in selection: a meta-analysis of coaching and practice effects for tests of cognitive ability. Previous studies have indicated that as many as 25% to 50% of applicants in organizational and educational settings are retested with measures of cognitive ability. Researchers have shown that practice effects are found across measurement occasions such that scores improve when these applicants retest. In this study, the authors used meta-analysis to summarize the results of 50 studies of practice effects for tests of cognitive ability. Results from 107 samples and 134,436 participants revealed an adjusted overall effect size of 0.26. Moderator analyses indicated that effects were larger when practice was accompanied by test coaching and when identical forms were used. Additional research is needed to understand the impact of retesting on the validity inferences drawn from test scores.

gaius 8y ago
Yes and no. You can certainly practice GMAT style questions directly and get better at them that way, but the real trick is to meta up a level and see that they follow a pattern, at which point getting a very good score is easy. I think the test is really testing for that (I guess deliberately or why put the pattern in in the first place?). Or maybe it is really testing for the personality type that likes to prepare in advance rather than winging it, that would obviously correlate well with success in any field.
- jpadkins 8y ago
  or it's testing for people who have the ability to 'meta up a level and see they follow a pattern' which is part of what we call IQ.