atilarora
seriously ?? is this a 700+ question ?? its very simple rationalization ..
Dear
atilaroraMy friend, you are obvious very skilled in mathematics. IF you have the "difference of two squares" at your fingertips, and IF you remember how to square a radical (you'd be surprised how many folks are confused by even that!), and IF you are familiar with the procedure for rationalizing an expression such as this, then yes, this question is very easy. I am guessing that less than 10% of the GMAT taking population meets all of those "IF" conditions.
I was estimating the difficulty based on what most students studying for the GMAT know or don't know. Some people's brains short-circuit as soon as they see a fraction of any kind, and a fraction with radicals send some of them into conniptions. The entire idea of rationalizing a fraction with an expression involving addition of a radical in the denominator --- holy mackerel! For a large swathe of the test-taking population, such a problem might as well be written in Sanskrit! Obviously, you are quite familiar with this. Don't confuse "easy for you" with "easy" in general.
This, in a way, is the paradox of all math --- when you don't know how to do it, it's impossibly difficult, and when you know how to do it, it is often trivially easy, and just one insight or shift in perspective can make the difference between those two.
Does this make sense?
Mike