Verbal Section: Recently getting harder?

Question

It seems that many people have stated the verbal section of recently taken tests were suprisingly harder than what people have seen in their studies. Am I just picking up on the negitive side, or are most people feeling this way as well?

CookieMonster · Answer

im sure people who did worse on the test will voice their complaints more often than those who did well.

i thought the difficulty of the verbal section on my GMAT was consistent with that of the gmat prep tests.

riverripper · Answer

It does make sense that they would try to do this to the test since if you look at stats the scores are increasing. A 750 used to be 99% and now its 98%. The further you go down it can be even more pronounced. The test will lose its purpose if everyone is getting 700+ and they probably want to maintain the mean and median about where they have traditionally been. So if suddenly the mean is a 600 then they are going to have to make the test more difficult to bring it back down to where it needs to be.

Personally I do think that I saw more difficult questions than many in the end of the OG sections. Also the old paper tests were a cake walk compared to the CATs. In the paper tests I practiced I got 770-790 on most while I got a 740 on the real test and I definitely had more difficult quesitons on the real CAT test. Having the test get harder is good though since it keeps the value of a 700+ score. In ten years imagine how it would feel to think you would have to have a 770 to apply to any top 10 school, much like everyone feels a 700 is a requirement now Hell, thats how half the Indian applicants already feel and look at the pressure some of them put on themselves to retake following a 730.

dosa_don · Answer

Great points river...I agree with the last piece of your argument too- I myself am thinking about retaking the GMAT with a 720. 

Also, I think the average scores will tend to get higher as the GMAT becomes a more global examination. For ex, ISB, one of the top schools in India which was established only a few years back, uses GMAT scores. This requires Indians who plan to apply to ISB, to give the GMAT, who might not have given the test a few years back. 

I think I see a slight change in the GMAT pattern coming in a few years-making it a little more difficult to get such high scores.

lanter1 · Answer

I can say first hand that the verbal section was harder. I scored over 41 on all GMAT prep tests and over 42 on four paper tests and was very poised and knew how to attack every RC and SC. 

The real thing was by far the hardest verbal section I have encoutered. There was an RC where it should have just been in japanese. The answers were all inference questions with subtle differences and very, very long.

kryzak · Answer

I felt that the real GMAT Verbal and GMATPrep2 Verbal were both much harder for me than verbal for GMATPrep1 and all the OG questions I did (except for the 2nd to last OG11 RC passage). I was actually struggling a bit instead of finishing early. At least I ended up getting the average score of my two GMATPrep tests ((V38 + V44) /2 = V41!)

But it is quite scary how the scores are getting higher and higher... I just can't imagine what people have to do to get into B-school in 10 years!

trahul4 · Answer

off topic: Well, may be you have a case guys. But i really feel whoever is going to take the test in next couple of weeks (like me

) should stop worrying about the difficulty level of questions that he/she is going to get. Instead try ot focus on building good confident mindset.

riverripper · Answer

Dont take Kaplan prep tests right before you take the real thing...that is a confidence killer since people seem to test 50 points lower than they get on the real thing...I know I did.

bkk145 · Answer

I wholeheartedly feel this way. I am not sure if it is because I remember some of the questions when I took GMATprep, but when I take the real thing, I scored V25. I consistently scored 34+ on GMATprep, even 40+ on MGMAT. I am obviously disappointed and feel very very low.

emarinich · Answer

i took the exam thursday 8/9/07.

in my opinion, the verbal section was similar to the GMATPrep and Princeton Review software i used to study. i scored 40 on the exam for verbal, or 89th percentile, which is approximately where i was scoring on practice exams.

the math section on the other hand - i choked and ended up with a 42, which is below where i was scoring on practice exams.

nervousgmat · Answer

I might be in the minority here but I did not think that the verbal section in actual GMAT was any harder than that in GMATPrep. In fact, I think it was easier (SC especially). Maybe I peaked at the right time but that's how I feel. I think the best way to approach the verbal section on actual test is like with everything that challenges you - if you get scared, you might panic and you WILL fail. My advice - go in with confidence and keep track of time. You will succeed

zakk · Answer

interesting...seems to be evenly divided.

kryzak · Answer

might be the luck of the draw with the types of questions. I know some types of SC/CR/RC trip me up while others are a cakewalk to me. Go figure...

But your Verbal score should NOT drop by 10 pts between GMATPrep and GMAT unless you get nervous and froze up. Even if the GMAT is harder, it is not *that* much harder. Try to relax and think of the test as a game... I've been repeating that ad naseum, but I think it's all in the mental state and your attitude.

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