Difficulty of questions GMATprepTest vs OG vs Kaplan

This topic has expert replies
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:37 pm
I have my test on 4th march and have been preparing for the past 3 weeks. I had first bought the OG and recently Kaplan Strategies, Practice and Review. I am practicing questions from here. I find the level of difficulty of Kaplan questions at par with OG questions. In Maths I tend to get 9 out 10 question correct on average and in Verbal I tend to get 7-8 out of 10 questions correct. I am euqally bad/good at all sections within Verbal.

2 days back I took one practice test from the GMATPrep Test (downloaded from mba.com). The questions in both maths and verbal were more complex and lengthy than the questions I had practiced from the 2 books. And I scored 610 :cry: Break up was 44 in Math and 29 in Verbal.

Can Anyone Help me answer the following questions-
1. Has anyone else also spotted this huge difference in level of difficulty ?
2. Why would Prep Test questions be more complex n difficult than OG when both resources are prepared by GMAC itself?
3. Is the PrepTest adaptive?
3. Are the questions in the real GMAT far more difficult than the assortment of questions given in OG?

Really appreciate any insight on this as I am demotivated and lost! :? :( [/img]
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

User avatar
MBA Student
Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2011 5:54 pm
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Thanked: 46 times
Followed by:26 members
GMAT Score:760

by therealtomrose » Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:14 am
The difficulty level is indeed changing on you, but it's not a mistake. Here's what is happening:

The GMAT is adaptive. Your performance on previous questions determines the difficulty of questions you get next. The GMAT algorithm will give you questions that it thinks you can answer with a probability of roughly 60%.

The Kaplan problems you have been doing out of a book are static difficulty levels. The fact that your accuracy is at 90% on the quant suggests that you are doing questions that are FAR too easy for you. You want to do problems that you can only answer with about 60% accuracy.

When you take an adaptive test, the test is choosing these problems for you so that they always seem difficult.

You're not crazy. It's just the GMAT's tricky hand at play. Welcome to the roller coaster :)

T
Like the advice? Remember to click the "thank" button. It's my only source of gratification :)

-Tom Rose

MIT Sloan MBA, Class of 2011
The MBA Show: https://www.TheMBAShow.com

Full disclosure, I work for
ManhattanGMAT: https://www.manhattangmat.com/gmat-tutor-rose.cfm