I'm studying for the GMAT, and am putting my answers in excel to help me study.

In my spreadsheet I have 5 columns labeled: first attempt, second attempt, third attempt, -blank-, and correct answer.

what I want to do is conditional formatting that will highlight the cells if the attempted answer and correct answer do not match. Each column has answers a-e. (this will help me home in on the topics that I struggle with, I hope)

I wish it was as simple as =if(c2=g2,"",format the damn thing)

Conditional formatting formulas are actually much shorter than that. They are are simple TRUE/FALSE constructs.

So based on your example, if C2 and G2 do not match... the formula would be:

=C2<>G2

... then select your formatting colors.