What is the REAL story- is the GMAT getting harder?

[tomslawsky]

It seems that there is a camp that is in consensus that the GMAT is getting harder. Has this been confirmed? It seems to me that there is a limit to the difficulty level of the questions.

[StaceyKoprince]

The test itself has the same mix / level of easy, medium, and hard questions that it has always had. The difficulty level / mix of the overall pool doesn't really change.

The way in which they write questions can and does change over time, though. (Slowly - it is a standardized test after all - but it does change.) And, as more people study extensively for the test, that can change what it takes to score at certain levels. (20 years ago, almost nobody studied for the test.)

If you see a question that looks a lot like 5 questions you've seen before, you think, "Oh, I recognize that, that's not too hard." If you see a question that looks nothing like what you've seen before, you think, "Oh, that's really hard - I don't know what to do with that! I have to figure it out from scratch."

The thing you're really studying (or should be!) is that ability to make connections between different problems - to see a new problem that superficially looks different, but is actually testing something that you already know and understand. When you can see through the "disguise" to recognize what's going on, then you'll think the question is not as hard as when you can't recognize what's going on.

So I don't think the actual difficulty level is changing all that much, no. But I do think that they're being more creative in the way that they present information, to see who can still make connections / recognize what's going on, and who can't. When we see something we don't recognize, we're both slower and less accurate.

[tomslawsky]

Thank you for replying. What you are saying, to me anyway is that the test is actually evolving to more of what it SHOULD be- a test of how well someone can critically think and connect ostensibly unrelated concepts.

[tomslawsky]

this is what i think of as an "easy" question disguised to be a ~700 level question.


http://www.platinumgmat.com/practice_gm ... stion_id=2

[StaceyKoprince]

Ideally, the best questions do fit your description, yes. They don't always live up to that standard perfectly, but they do a pretty good job. :)