Unable to see toughness level of QBank questions

[Saharsh]

Hi All,

I have bought the GMAT mock test series and Question Bank access. I am unable to see the difficulty levels of the questions even after solving the question bank. Thus, I am unable to identify my performance against a difficulty level. How can I identify the difficulty level of the questions?

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi! It is indeed the case that the Question Bank questions don't show a difficulty level—you'll only see difficulty level in the practice exams.

The Question Banks are not adaptive, as the practice exams are. The Question Banks are just a static set of questions—if you redo the bank, you'll see the same set of questions the second time. So the QBanks aren't designed to give you a score estimate or an estimate of how you'd do on the real test (they can't do that, in fact, since they're not adaptive).

When you're reviewing QBank problems, this is what I'd analyze:

Bucket 1: Strengths
– I got it right legitimately. Great! Are there any other shortcuts or ways to improve what I already know how to do?
– I got it right but I got a little lucky. Maybe I narrowed to two and then guessed. Or maybe I was right but I wasn't actually sure that I was right. Review the content or strategy so that I can confidently select the correct answer next time.

Bucket 2: Prioritize Your Studies Here
– I got it right but it took me a while. How can I solve more efficiently in future? Figure that out, then practice.
– I got it wrong but it was a careless mistake. I knew what I was doing. Understand what careless mistake I made and why I made it. Then come up with some new habit I can implement that will help me to avoid that entire type or class of careless mistakes in future.
– I got it wrong but I used to know how to do it. Maybe I haven't reviewed that topic in a couple of months. Go review that topic now.
– I got it wrong but now that I see the explanation, I understand how to do this. Go practice whatever this new thing is, including practicing how to recognize that a problem is testing or asking for this thing and how to actually solve whatever that thing is.

Bucket 3: Let It Go
– I got it wrong and I still don't fully get it or feel comfortable with it, even when I read the explanation.
– I got it right but it took me a long time AND I don't really see a good way to do the problem more efficiently.
– For *both* of the above bullets: Until your next practice test, put these in your "guess immediately and move on" bucket. Study the problem only far enough to figure out how you're going to know within 15-30 seconds to guess and move on if you see something like this on your next practice test.

Between now and your next practice test, focus on the Bucket 2 items. Put most of your study energy on the things that are your best opportunity for ROI (return on investment)—where you were almost there. For now, do *not* spend a bunch of study time on the stuff in Bucket 3, your biggest weaknesses. After your next practice test, assess the data and redo your priority list. Some of your bucket 2 items will move up to bucket 1 (Strengths), making room for some of your bucket 3 items to move up to bucket 2.

I also recommend using this same analysis for practice tests, by the way! None of it depends on the difficulty level of the problem. It just depends on your specific strengths and weaknesses.

[Saharsh]

Thanks for the guidance. However, the package description on the website mentions : "QBanks are broken down by section, question topic, and difficulty level". I am referring to the package "GMAT PRACTICE EXAMS PLUS QBANKS" as mentioned on the webpage https://www.kaptest.com/gmat/practice/gmat-practice.

How can I access the questions categorized by difficulty level?

Thanks,
Saharsh

[StaceyKoprince]

Ah, thank you for drawing that to my attention! That's an error.

I apologize for the error. I'm guessing that the language was mistakenly pulled from some other product line—Manhattan Prep's Qbanks are not broken down by difficulty level. I'll ask our marketing team to fix that text right away.

The reason we don't show that info, though, is because it really shouldn't impact your prep! First, the GMAT will give you a range of difficulties, so you do need to practice at all levels. Even as you lift your score, you still have to answer lower-level questions correctly to get yourself into your higher scoring range—if you don't keep practicing those, you may start making careless mistakes and preventing yourself from getting to higher levels.

Second, during the test, you never know the difficulty level of the problem on the screen—you have to decide based on the problem itself whether you can do it in a reasonable amount of time and, if so, how you want to approach it.

And finally, when you're reviewing a problem after you've tried it, what matters is whether you got it right, how much time it took, whether there's a more efficient or easier way to solve it, etc—or whether you think this problem is so hard for you or takes so long for you that you'd rather guess if you see something like it on the real test.

None of that analysis depends on the difficulty level of the problem. I've often seen people get so focused on difficulty level that they're not thinking through all of the stuff that I wrote above.

Difficulty level is useful when you're reviewing an adaptive set of questions (eg, a practice test), because the changing difficulty helps you to see what you were capable of earning as the test progressed. But in a static bank of questions, difficulty is not particularly useful.

[arthurd647]

How can I reset my exams ? I don't see any button to do it.

[StaceyKoprince]

Contact our student services team at gmat@manhattanprep.com and they'll be happy to help you!

Note: You will still be able to see all of your results / reports from your first time through the tests—you won't lose the data. All that happens is that the database is reset to allow you to see questions that you were already given in the first set of 6 tests.

Within the second set of 6 tests, questions will not be repeated (eg, on the second test in the second set, you will not see any questions that were given on the first test in the second set)—but you may see questions that were given to you in the first set of 6 tests.

Happy studying!