categories for level of difficulty?

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun May 21, 2017 5:41 am

categories for level of difficulty?

by hoppycat » Fri Jun 23, 2017 9:34 am
I think I already know the answer (no), but I'll ask anyway. On the search tool here https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... properties is there a way to filter certain levels of difficulty?

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Elite Legendary Member
Posts: 10392
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Thanked: 2867 times
Followed by:511 members
GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Fri Jun 23, 2017 11:17 am
Hi hoppycat,

It doesn't appear that functionality currently exists in the search function here. However, it's likely not something that you should be focusing on right now anyway. Many Test Takers become overly concerned about the implied 'level' of the questions that they face, instead of defining WHY they're getting questions wrong.

As a way to gauge what I'm talking about, I suggest that you do a full review of your last CAT. In the Quant section, how many questions did you get wrong:

1) Because of a silly/little mistake?
2) Because there was some math that you just didn't know how to do?
3) Because the question was too hard?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
Image

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2095
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pm
Thanked: 1443 times
Followed by:247 members

by ceilidh.erickson » Sun Jun 25, 2017 1:07 pm
hoppycat wrote:I think I already know the answer (no), but I'll ask anyway. On the search tool here https://www.beatthegmat.com/forums/tags/ ... properties is there a way to filter certain levels of difficulty?
No, there's no way to do this, because OPs rarely include difficulty level when posting (in fairness, they rarely know the difficulty level of the question they're posting). GMAC does not post difficulty levels of OGs, and test prep companies often only post difficulty levels of CAT questions (for which they have student score data) but not of strategy guide questions (for which they do not).

If you have a copy of the OG, you might be interested in using Mprep's GMAT Navigator. This tool allows you to track your accuracy & timing on each OG question, and they also post answer explanations and question difficulty (based on the accuracy of tens of thousands of students who log answers on our platform). https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/stor ... navigator/

Otherwise, you might be able to find lists of OG questions by difficulty posted somewhere online.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2630
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:32 pm
Location: East Bay all the way
Thanked: 625 times
Followed by:119 members
GMAT Score:780

by Matt@VeritasPrep » Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:02 am
Most of all, don't sweat the difficulties too much - focus more on learning. If the problem seems hard, it has something to teach you, and if it seems easy it either IS easy and is a waste of time or merely SEEMS easy and is a great chance to practice the suspicion of the obvious that you'll need to succeed on test day.