Difficulty level of OG questions vs actual test

Hi all, This is my first post and still a bit unfamiliar with the website so please bear with me if this has been discussed elsewhere and I will move the discussion. I would be greatly appreciative if anyone could address any aspects of the f…

Hi all,

This is my first post and still a bit unfamiliar with the website so please bear with me if this has been discussed elsewhere and I will move the discussion. I would be greatly appreciative if anyone could address any aspects of the following questions:

1. I have heard from a number of sources that the level of difficulty of the questions in the OG is not as high as those one would encounter in order to achieve 700+ level score in the actual test. (Specifically that the most difficult questions in each section are more in line with a 650-670 level score). Can anyone who has achieved a 700+ level score as well as worked through the OG varify this? And if this is the case where would be the the best resource to "top-up" my preperation with more difficult questions that most closely mimic the actual GMAT questions and dont just add difficult but untested areas of study?

2. To my mind, the logic of the GMAT scoring algorithm would mean that one should be getting a 50% hit rate on questions that are at the level of the score you "should" obtain. I know this is an oversimplification, but in general does this mean that if I have been scoring say 90% in the hardest questions of each section of the OG that I should score above a 650-670 in the actual test (assuming this difficulty level is true of the OG)?

3. Lastly, I have found that the question difficulty in the OG does not seem to vary greatly between the "easiest" questions and the "hardest" questions especially in the verbal sections. For example for both the SC and RC sections I averaged approximately 90% for the first half of the question bank and about 95% for the second. I realise part of the reason for this may be that I had picked up on a few extra tricks during the process but I can still say that I did not notice a substantial difference in the level of difficulty. Would anone know if this would also be true of the difference between a "650" level question and a "750" level question, or beyond 700 would qustions get substantially more difficult? Can any one who has achieved a 700+ and worked through the official guide indicate approximately what your "hit rate" was in each section of the OG and how many questions you would estimate you missed in the each section of the actual test?

Thank you in advance, I would greatly appreciate any advice!

ps. I am writing on the 29/05/2009, good luck to all others writing soon!