It is hard. Of course it also depends on luck a bit (like fighting tough enemies solo sometiems missing the enemy just once makes all the difference on a battle.) or also for inexperieneced people leveling takes a while.

But over all the leveling is hard and long, I hear it takes about a month, of constant leveling and knowing how to level well, just to reach level 30.

But in short, ya it's hard to level and takes quite a bit of time.