How to define difficulty level

[ankitdhingra007]

Hello Everyone,

To begin with my apologies if i am posting this in the wrong thread/forum.

I am slightly confused when it comes to defining the "Hard Questions" in GMAT.. I have been practicing majorly from GMAC provided material and occasionally when i do stuff from test prep companies such as MGMAT or Grockit, i find that the quant questions here do not reflect the GMAC question.

GMAC questions usually have a smart point (as in there is small simple concept hidden in question; which once discovered makes smooth sailing) where as test prep companies usually have calculation intensive questions. So if some one wants to prepare for these "HARD" questions what would the experts suggest??!!

Thanks
Ankit

[StaceyKoprince]

You're right that a lot of test prep company materials don't have as many of the "elegant tricks" that the official question have. That's why the best source of practice questions is the official test questions themselves. (We are working on that, by the way - my company is, at least.)

I'll assume you already have OG13 and the Quant and Verbal supplements, 2nd edition. You can also get OG12 and the 1st edition supplements - most of the questions are the same but some are new.

Within GMATPrep 2.0, there are 90 free questions, 15 of each type. You can also buy Prep Pack #1 from within GMATPrep, which will give you an additional ~200 quant and ~200 verbal at varying difficulty levels (as well as 24 IR questions).

You can also use GMAT Focus (www.gmatfocus.com), which are adaptive mini-CAT quant sections (24 questions rather than 37). These are adaptive, so you should hit whatever questions are in your scoring range. (Note: there is a limit to the number of times you can do GMAT Focus without seeing repeated questions.)

All of the above adds up to a couple of thousand questions. That should be more than enough, assuming that you aren't just blowing through all of the questions but you are actually taking the time to learn from each one. :)

Finally, one important thing. Always define "harder" as "harder for you." It's not worth it to go study the hardest questions out there UNLESS and UNTIL you really are capable of tackling all of the questions below the top level. You won't see the very hardest questions unless / until you're good enough to lift yourself to that level. So just remember: "hard" really means "hard for you," whatever your skills and scoring level. That's where you concentrate!

[ankitdhingra007]

Hello Stacy..

Thank you for the reply!

I completely agree with you and thank you for proving my conclusion some what right!

luckily, i have GMAT focus, question set and the OG and unlike my last attempt.. i am trying t take out as much as i can from the OG problems!

Further, your posts on topics such as time management, last 14 days plan are extremely educating and my compliments for the same to you!!

I guess you will be in India sometime soon and although i couldn't take Manhattan in person classes, the material is absolutely top notch.. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of analysis i was able to extract from OG archer..

Wishing you and the MGMAT team a successful future in India!

Thanks!

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks - and good luck with your studies!