GMAT Focus is Section Adaptive (and question adaptive)

The GRE is section adaptive (but not question adaptive). If you do well on the the first section of the GRE the entire next section is harder. If you don’t do well on the first one then the second is easier. 

Why? It allows the test to be more granularly scored. By giving you questions that are more in your range the test can pinpoint your score more accurately and potentially with fewer questions needed making the test less expensive to create and administer.

Old GMAT = Question Adaptive

The old GMAT was question adaptive in that each question in a section informed what questions you would get next (easier, harder, the same…). However, it wasn’t section adaptive. Performing well on the Quant had no effect on the difficulty level of the Verbal section (and vice versa).

New GMAT Focus Edition = Section Adaptive

Now, in addition to being question adaptive, the GMAT Focus Edition (GFE) is section adaptive. Different than on the GRE, the adaptivity on the GFE only informs the first question of a section (GRE adapts the entire section).

What’s the best section to start with?

Start with what you feel most comfortable with regardless of the adaptivity. The adaptivity is slight and will not make or break your score. That said, if it is a tossup, start with the section on which you score the best. That way you will have a better chance at a higher difficulty level on your next section.

Why would I want more difficult questions?

The test is scored not only by the number of questions you get right but also by the difficulty of those questions. So you could get an 82 on the quant with 5 wrong or get an 82 on the quant with 8 wrong depending on the difficulty level. With that in mind, it is a good things to be fed challenging questions.

You might think: I am going to get those tough ones wrong anyways, that’s why they are tough. So what’s the point??? That’s possible. But what is challenging for you might be different than what is challenging for someone else. You may find some easy or medium difficulty level questions really hard because you are weak at that content but find a challenging question easy because it is centered on content that you are very familiar with. Again, overall, a higher difficulty level is to your advantage.

Should I panic if my GMAT feels easy?

Try to avoid spending any energy evaluating difficulty level. You just never know.

Bottomline: the section adaptivity on the GMAT Focus is a minor consideration. Start with what you feel most comfortable with but given that is satisfied, start with the section you score best on.