How hard is the real GMAT?

[rabab]

I am horrified to see the stressed examinees complaining about the real GMAT is a lot harder than the questions in OG or even GMATPrep. Could someone pls shed a light on what kind of questions GMAC is really preparing these days? And how can examinees like me with average intellect can make a way through?

[VP_Jim]

My advice: don't overthink it. The real GMAT is not harder than the OG, nor is it harder than the GMAC practice exams. If you study hard and know all the material in the OG and scored well on the GMAC practice tests, you will do fine on the real thing.

Relax!

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

Since the GMAT is a computer adaptive test, it's not easy to compare it to paper linear study materials.

The OG, for example, has a mix of easy, medium and difficult questions (most of the questions in the guide are medium level difficulty). So, if you're a mid-500s scorer, then the questions in the OG will be very representative of the questions that you see on test day.

On the other hand, if you're a mid-600s+ scorer, the vast majority of the questions in the OG will be easier than what you see on test day. Most of the people who say that their real GMAT was tougher than the OG fall into this category.

So, don't worry too much about OG vs Test Day. Make sure that you master the material covered by the OG and for higher level practice rely on accredited CATs (e.g. GMAT prep and the ones offered by major companies such as Kaplan) and study materials like the Kaplan 800 study guide.

Finally, don't jump into the high level questions too quickly. One major mistake that people make is to focus only on the really tough questions, not realizing that to get to the hard stuff, you need to get through the medium level questions that appear at the beginning of each section. If you only do high end questions then you haven't been exposed to representative medium level ones and often struggle with the first 4-6 questions that you see, throwing off your entire test.

[rabab]

Thanks VP_Jim & Stuart Kovinsky for your replies.

One thing though, if OG11 is not representative of the mid 600+ level questions, then which guide is the best one to follow? I heard PR is the most easiest one and most of the questions are not representative of the real GMAT. So is about Kaplan 800 where only difference is it's a way lot tougher. Then which study materials would cover me for those difficult questions?

[gileyal]

Take it from someone who just took the test. The real thing is almost identicall to GMATPREP except you are nervous. In my case, this translated to 20 poitns less than my clean GMATPREP2 test.