Verbal part difficulty increased lately?

Question

Hello

I recently gave my GMAT exam. I scored 25 in verbal.
However, I was scoring 35-39 in my mock tests. I felt that the level of difficulty was very different from mock tests and study material that I used. My friends who have given the tests lately felt the same. 
I was wondering whether there has been a change in difficulty level and are there other people who felt the same way. 
I need to plan my retest and I was looking for someone to help me out.

Thankyou.

Posted from my mobile device

Earthandsky17 · Answer

Hello,

The change in difficulty of GMAT (or any of its sections) is a very slow process and such change doesn't happen overnight. The actual GMAT does feel a lot more difficult owing to the exam stress factor and a few other reasons. I would advise you to ensure that...

(a) take fresh mocks (don't repeat them), this may lead to inflated scores.
(b) take your next attempt at GMAT with a lot more confidence and a slightly carefree attitude.

Rest assured, it is not the change in difficulty of GMAT. It is your preparation and the exam temperament; work on both.

Good luck!

aanchalbansal · Answer

Hello

I agree that the real GMAT feels a lot more stressful than a mock test.
I will try to keep my stress levels in check and prepare in a better way.
Could you please suggest websites or study materials for GMAT (especially verbal) and for practise tests.
Earlier I had prepared from the
Princeton Review.

Thankyou

Posted from my mobile device

Earthandsky17 · Answer

Hello, Sorry for a delayed response as I have been out of action owing to Diwali festivities. Sure. Concentrating on one question at a time without worrying about how you are performing can quite ease the stress. Regarding study resources and mock tests, my prep relied only on the official material and Experts' Global. Experts' Global provides a test series with 15 mocks which I found quite awesome and representative of GMAT in every way. Their complete program is really comprehensive with a huge set of crisp and to the point videos, each followed by an exercise on a GMAT like interface. Overall, you get thousands of questions with detailed explanations and the video explanations are particularly useful. The portal is outstanding with some great features and wonderful analytics. Before committing, please take their free trial and see whether the course suits you. The official guides and tests are obviously a great resource and I used these at the end of my prep; with 15 mocks and large practice sets by Experts' Global together with official guides and 2 free GMAT Prep, I didn't need the paid official mocks nor the question pack but you may want to consider these if you wish to solve extra official questions. Reach me for any further questions. Happy to help

hibobotamuss · Answer

The same thing happened with me and I had to cancel my score. Before I started studying I had taken an official test where I scored 38 on Verbal. Over the course of my study and six official tests, it remained between 36-41

Test day? 24.
But also I was very nervous. But I don't remember being completely clueless so i don't know what happened.

Test day? 24. 
But also I was very nervous. But I don't remember being completely clueless so i don't know what happened.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Nervousness can play a major role in bringing your score down. Being familiar with GMATPrep questions can play a major role in inflating your practice test scores. But if you feel that the questions on your official practice tests were "fresh", you should feel confident about your ability to get a similar score on the actual GMAT.

dave13 · Answer

AjiteshArun I definitely think that difficulty of GMAT verbal increased. Compare for instance the two passages of the same level below:

(1.) https://gmatclub.com/forum/those-exampl ... 81067.html

(2.) https://gmatclub.com/forum/no-very-sati ... 81770.html

the second one is much MUCH easier than the first one (latest OG edition), though both passages are of the same level.

AjiteshArun · Answer

But that's not how the GMAT works. The difficulty of a question is determined by  the responses of actual test takers . So, if a very difficult question is introduced as an experimental question, it will get categorized as a very difficult question, because most people will not be able to solve that question correctly.

I'm oversimplifying the situation here, but the main point here remains that whenever a more difficult question is introduced, it is classified as such.

Earthandsky17 · Answer

Makes perfect sense. Over a very long period, a greater percentage of students may start getting questions of a particular difficulty correct, making the tests difficult. Such changes happen gradually over several years, not in the duration between your mock and real GMAT.

Free your mind of these thoughts and focus on the prep- that is the right attitude in my humble opinion.

All the best!

Verbal part difficulty increased lately?

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