different question types across platforms and books

[KatharineT943]

Hi there,

To study I have been practicing OG16 and OG17 problems and taking CATs. So far, these problems have all seemed similar to me and of similar difficulty level. However, I recently expanded my practice problems, and am now practicing using the Question Bank questions and the Quant17 book. How old are the Question Bank questions? They seem older, because the platform design looks dated, and because the questions are very hard/on topics/challenges that I don't imagine ever coming up in the OG or the CATs. Conversely, the problems in the Quant17 book seem significantly easier that the quant problems in the OG books, even when I'm practicing problems that are supposed to be at the highest level.

Is there actually a discernable difference between the CATs, the Questions Banks, the OGs, and the Quant Review books?

I realize that there will be some differences between questions Manhattan Prep provides vs GMAC questions, but it's odd to me that Questions Bank and CAT questions would seem so different, and that OG and Quant Review questions seem so different.

Any guidance? I'm worried that I might be spending too much time on certain questions types or levels that don't actually come up on the actual GMAT test. Just want to practice with the questions that are the most similar!

[StaceyKoprince]

There are a number of (official) question sources that we study when putting together our materials—we do, of course, look at OG, but we also look at GMATPrep, GMAT Focus—basically, all of the material that they have ever published.

On our CATs, we do try to mimic the real test as much as we can, with one big caveat: we also try to skew a bit harder. On purpose. We'd rather have you feel that the practice test was harder than the real test vs. the opposite. Train hard! (But full disclosure: the way we go harder sometimes has to do with just making something more computation-intensive on quant—and that's not always what the test is like. We're working on that.)

Our question banks are specifically designed to test you on lessons learned in the corresponding strategy guide, so sometimes the questions won't feel exactly like a question that you would see on the test, but the problem is still testing some fundamental skill you would want to have for the test. So that's why those ones sometimes feel different. (Think of it like this: a professional athlete doesn't always just play her sport in order to practice. She's doing all kinds of other training to get better at micro-skills that make up the whole.)

Of the officially-published materials, I think GMAT Focus allows the opportunity to see the hardest (and best-quality, in my opinion) questions. I say "opportunity" because you have to earn those hard questions—this product is adaptive, like the CAT itself. (It's also available for quant only, unfortunately.)

After that, I would say that the GMAT Prep materials have a higher proportion of more-recently-released questions. A majority of the OG questions were released years ago. (Each new edition of the books has, on average, about 15% new questions. So do the math. )

Within GMATPrep specifically, the 4 paid exams were released more recently than the 2 free exams and the paid question set (Question Pack 1).

When you feel like you're ready to really test yourself on quant, I would try GMAT Focus—I think it's the best of all of their products. (It's also proportionally the most expensive, on a per-question basis.)

[KatharineT943]

Thanks!

One more question about levels of difficulty - I am using the GMAT Prep software that comes with the OG to do practice sets, but their categorization for difficulty level does not match the levels given on the Navigator. For example, GMAT Prep software labels OG17 DS 245 as 'hard' but the Navigator categorizes it as 'easier'. Why is there a difference? I could understand the label difference if MPREP thought this question actually really wasn't that hard, but shouldn't the difficulty levels be based on the amount of points earned for the question? Wondering how I factor this difference into my prep.

[StaceyKoprince]

Our difficulty ratings in Navigator are based on the people who are using Navigator—basically, our students, a subgroup of the people taking the real test. There are various reasons why our subgroup will have skewed numbers. Generally speaking, serious studiers are going to score more highly, so something that is rated harder on the entire population might be only medium or easier for our subgroup.

It's also possible to go in the other direction, and this probably has to do with demographic factors. There are certain things that are easier or harder for various geographic populations, for example, depending upon how those things tend to be taught in that region. We have a skewed subgroup here, too.

I am puzzled, though, by your report that the GMAT Prep software labels OG 2017 DS 245 "Hard." That might be a typo. The general rule for OG is that lower-numbered questions within a given chapter are easier (and higher-numbered questions are harder)—they publicize this. The DS chapter starts at 231 and goes all the way up to 404, so by their own general classification / ordering in the book, DS 245 should be an easier problem.

[KatharineT943]

Ah okay, yes that makes sense. And yes, it was a typo! DS 345, although, GMAC software is still labelling it as 'hard' and Navigator as 'easier'. Sounds like this is a one off though, so won't worry about it too much!

[StaceyKoprince]

Got it. Yeah, given their numbering scheme, you'd think 345 was on the medium/hard border somewhere. And then it's "easier" in Nav because, for some reason, it's easier for our subgroup.