GMAT Strategy

Hello everyone!

In your opinion, how do questions from the following sources compare to the real GMAT? Think about the difficulty level or types or even, the mind-churning conceptual twists in the offered questions.

1. Official Guides (GMAT Review, Quant Review, and Verbal Review)
2. Kaplan
3. Manhattan
4. Princeton
5. Any other you may know!

Which do you think closely resembles the real GMAT?

One of my friends mentioned that the real thing is far harder than any of the official guides!?!?

jainh wrote:Hello everyone!

In your opinion, how do questions from the following sources compare to the real GMAT? Think about the difficulty level or types or even, the mind-churning conceptual twists in the offered questions.

1. Official Guides (GMAT Review, Quant Review, and Verbal Review)

The questions are obviously official. So for the most part they match. At the same time the questions in the official guides start off pretty easy and get to hard but not as hard as the hardest on the actual test.

2. GMAT Question Pack

Official again, with some decently hard questions.

3. Kaplan

I am not that familiar with their stuff, but from what I have seen it's a mixed bag, with some great questions and some that could be better.

4. Manhattan

Manhattan quant is pretty tricky and cool a lot of the time. At the same time, many of their quant questions involve more math than GMAT quant questions do. Actual GMAT quant tends to be more tricky than math heavy.

Manhattan verbal is pretty well done, and is better than that of many other test prep companies. Some of the questions have flaws that make them almost unanswerable, but much of Manhattan verbal is a pretty good representation of the GMAT verbal.

5. Veritas

Veritas quant fairly accurately matches the trickiness of actual GMAT quant. Some of the questions may be a little tougher than actual GMAT questions.

Veritas verbal is a mixed bag. The RC is particularly good, for the most part, and sometimes harder than actual RC. The SC questions can sometimes be harder because Veritas question writers tend to put many false decision points into SC questions. Overall Veritas verbal is about the same difficulty as actual GMAT verbal with questions that are not always exactly like the ones on the actual test.

6. Princeton

I am not familiar with their materials.

7. BellCurves

BellCurves quant is a mixed bag. Some of the questions are just like actual GMAT questions. Some are rather different from actual GMAT questions. Some are much more challenging than actual GMAT questions. Others are basic. BellCurves quant questions do tend to be tricky, cool and educational.

In BellCurves verbal only a small percentage of the questions are like actual GMAT questions.

8. GMAT Club

GMAT Club quant questions are often much more challenging than actual GMAT questions, and concepts incorporated into the questions can be outside or almost outside the scope of what you need to know in order to score high on GMAT quant.

GMAT Club verbal questions can be educational, but many of them don't really match what one would see on the GMAT, and they are not particularly challenging.

[email protected] wrote:Hi jainh,

As you plan out (and work through) your GMAT studies, it's certainly important to work with practice materials that are well-regarded and realistic. You will NOT find a large set of materials that are a word-for-word match for what you'll face on Test Day though. When training to face the GMAT, beyond making sure that you know the content that is tested, you should really be focused on how you work through questions (your critical-thinking skills, the Tactics, pattern-matching skills, note-taking, etc.) so that you'll be better able to handle any variation of a question that comes your way on Test Day.

1) Are you just beginning your studies?
2) What is your goal score?
3) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich!

I have been working on it for about 4-5 weeks. I haven't taken the GMAT, yet - I can't decide whether I am ready. I am trying out for over 700. I average 650 on the Kaplan tests -- 35V and 40Q.
Initially, I would leave a lot of questions in the end but I have focused on my speed and am able to finish the verbal section, but in quant I am still having problems finishing. I am usually at the 30th question when the time is up.

[email protected] wrote:Hi jainh,

Many Test Takers spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so if you're truly scoring around 650 after just 4-5 weeks of study, then you're doing quite well.

1) How many CATs have you taken and what were your scores on each?
2) Did you take the FULL CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?

You have to make sure to answer EVERY question in each section, otherwise you'll be penalized for each of those unanswered questions (by comparison, it would be better to blindly guess than to not get to those questions).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

I have taken 3 CAT's from Kaplan --
1st - 550 (ran out of time on 14 questions - 7 each on quant and verbal)
2nd - 650 (ran out of time on 11 questions - 6 on quant and 5 verbal)
3rd - 590 (ran out of time on 11 questions - 11 on quant and 0 verbal)

I am doing well on the paper exams, I haven't left any of the questions on them. I averaged only 8-10 questions incorrect combined on quant and verbal.

Recently, I have been practicing with GMAT Wiley practice sets and score anywhere from 45-65% with only the hard and medium questions.

My IR has been really bad with 0 or 1 each time - I have been practicing on the IR and trying to find where I have missed. Usually, I am wrapping up the 1st question and my time will nearing the end.

jainh wrote:Hello everyone!

In your opinion, how do questions from the following sources compare to the real GMAT? Think about the difficulty level or types or even, the mind-churning conceptual twists in the offered questions.

1. Official Guides (GMAT Review, Quant Review, and Verbal Review)
2. Kaplan
3. Manhattan
4. Princeton
5. Any other you may know!

Which do you think closely resembles the real GMAT?

One of my friends mentioned that the real thing is far harder than any of the official guides!?!?

1. Official Guides (GMAT Review, Quant Review, and Verbal Review)
Difficulty Level: Easier in OG but at par in Review guides
Conceptual relevance:

2. Kaplan
Difficulty Level: At par
Conceptual relevance:Poor as the questions tend to check macro concepts and not the ability of students to deal with twisted but same concepts

3. Manhattan
Difficulty Level: Above Par in Quant and at Par in Verbal
Conceptual relevance: Outstanding for Practice
ONE OF THE BEST PRACTICE TESTS SO FAR

4. Princeton
Difficulty Level: Poor (Below par)
Conceptual relevance:Poor

5. GMAT CLUB
Difficulty Level: Above Par in Quant and at Par in Verbal
Conceptual relevance:Outstanding for Practice
ONE OF THE BEST PRACTICE TESTS SO FAR
The only trouble is that they are not Full length tests and lesser sections for Verbal (7) but great practice for Quant section (24 sectional tests)

6. Veritas
Difficulty Level: below par
Conceptual relevance:fine

I hope this helps!!!

Hi jainh,

I have some ideas that I would like to share to help you make the best use of the Kaplan CATs you have taken. You mention pacing issues in particular. When you go back to review one of your CATs, the review screen will show you how much time you spent on each question. Check to see if there are particular question types or topics that tend to take too long for you. Often we spend the most time on questions that we get wrong, which is time that could have been spent answering other questions correctly. When you review the explanations for the questions, look to see if there was a faster way to get to the answer, especially in Quant.

When pacing is a challenge, there are two ways to work on it. One way is to learn reasoning patterns and shortcuts, like picking numbers instead of working out lengthy algebra. The other way is going into a practice test with a mindset that there will probably be a few questions that are too time-consuming and planning on guessing on a question when you come across one that you can't see a way to solve quickly. Guessing on a small number of questions scattered throughout the test that you choose to designate as too time-consuming or difficult has less of a negative impact on your score than leaving multiple questions unanswered at the end of the section.

I am confident that you can get valuable practice when taking full CATs (including AWA and IR) under realistic conditions, as you were advised in an earlier post. Then you can make the most of the experience with careful review of all aspects of your performance, including pacing and what tripped you up on questions you missed.

Best,
Jennifer Kindy