I took the GMAT today 4/30 and it was nothing like the OG 11

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Yes, I ran out of time on both sections.

Answered 25 out of 37 questions on the Q and 36 out of 41 on the V.

My score is 570.

If I don't get a 700 in the next time I take the GMAT, I will commit suicide or disavow a life of worldly possessions and forgo the capitalist juggernaut to go to a remote mountain in Tibet and become a philistine monk. (or wherever philistine monks are located, I get the feeling they are not in Tibet).

The thing that struck me today and the reason why I ran out of so much time on the Q was that none of the questions in that section to me resembled what I studied for in the OG 11.

I felt like that book was a waste of money and did not prepare me at all.

Granted, I should have taken a couple practice tests which I did not.

What am I supposed to study that has some actual relevance to what Pearson actually administers in the actual test?

Is the fact that GMAC now uses Pearson as opposed to ETS to administer the GMAT any consideration why the OG guide is not relevant to the actual test?

The OG 11 guide was published in 2005. Is it time for a 12th edition?

I plan to take the next GMAT by no later than the summer. I am not going to put off studying for a month or two and revisit later. I have decided to carry on the momentum of my past month's study and let today's score fuel my anger to achieve that 700 in next couple or few months.

Can anyone please recommend some very relevant study guides, books, links, anything?
Last edited by skang357 on Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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skang357 wrote:Yes, I ran out of time on both sections.

Answered 25 out of 37 questions on the Q and 36 out of 41 on the V.

My score is 570.

If I don't get a 700 in the next time I take the GMAT, I will commit suicide or disavow a life of worldly possessions and forgo the capitalist juggernaut to go to a remote mountain in Tibet and become a philistine monk. (or wherever philistine monks are located, I get the feeling they are not in Tibet).

The thing that struck me today and the reason why I ran out of so much time on the Q was that none of the questions in that section to me resembled what I studied for in the OG 11.

I felt like that book was a waste of money and did not prepare me at all.

Granted, I should have taken a couple practice tests which I did not.

What am I supposed to study that has some actual relevance to what Pearson actually administers in the actual test?

Is the fact that GMAC now uses Pearson as opposed to ETS to administer the GMAT any consideration why the OG guide is not relevant to the actual test?

The OG 11 guide was published in 2005. Is it time for a 12th edition?

I plan to take the next GMAT by no later than the summer. I am not going to put off studying for a month or two and revisit later. I have decided to carry on the momentum of my past month's study and let today's score fuel my anger to achieve that 700 in next couple or few months.

Can anyone please recommend some very relevant study guides, books, links, anything?
The most relevant book on GMAT is without a doubt OG11. I dont think that the change from ETS to Pearson changes this fact. I am not sure what you mean by "resemble", in OG11 you would find the type of questions and the topics tested on the GMAT.

If you want more practice then you can take a look at Kaplan, Manhattan GMAT and depending on your prep stage Princeton Review.

I would also say that not taking a practice test was a huge mistake and also probably the reason why you ran out of time. I suggest you take atleast 6-8 practice tests before you give GMAT again.

Regards

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by dubc1982 » Fri May 02, 2008 10:57 am
I'm amazed you got a 570 by only answering that many questions! That is encouraging. I need to score at least a 600 and last time I took practice tests I finished with a minute or two to spare. Do you know how many of the questions you answered you got right?

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by Rai-fan » Sat May 03, 2008 1:46 pm
I actually empathize with you there & agree.

I've sat for the GMAT twice. The first time, I canceled my score since I ran out of time on the math section (left last 5 questions blank).

The second time, I did well (41 V, 43 M, 690) but feel like both the generic Kaplan book & all 3 OG 11 guides are far too easy & not at all like what I saw on the exam.

I feel like Kaplan & the OGs are geared to average folks aiming to score in the low-600 range, perhaps in order to maximize their appeal & # of books sold.

For me, the Math was several orders harder on both my actual GMATs. I'm toying w/ the idea of re-taking, but it will take me a few weeks even to get back to the 650 range, let alone my goal of 720-750.

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by skang357 » Tue May 06, 2008 10:24 pm
dubc1982 wrote:I'm amazed you got a 570 by only answering that many questions! That is encouraging. I need to score at least a 600 and last time I took practice tests I finished with a minute or two to spare. Do you know how many of the questions you answered you got right?
I have no idea as my official report doesn't indicate that.

What I do know is that I got a 34 on both the Q and the V.

I did feel the questions getting harder on the Q. So I"m assuming that of the 25 I answered I got around 15 right at the least.

I have no idea how the GMAT is scored. All I know is that my score of 34 on the Q is like 40% ranking.

The mean is like 41 or 42%.

Yeah, but I feel that if I even answered a few more questions, my score would have been bumped up to 600.

I guess I did okay on the questions I did answer. If I had answered all the questions, I would assume that my score would definitely be in the low to mid 600's.

I studied content by answering all of the questions on the OG 11 guide.

The questions on the 2nd half of each section on the guide are markedly harder.

But the thing that really bothered me was that the type of questions on the GMAT were different from what I was exposed to on the guide.

Can anyone tell me whether doing all the problems on OG 10 will likely cover most if not all of the problems that are likely to appear on the next GMAT I take.

If that last test was any indication, it looks to me like the test makers are busy at work creating a new set of questions that are marked adjustments in type to traditional questions found on the guides to do something about the score inflation that has been the trend over the years.

I hear Kaplan and PR are not really relevant to the questions on the test although difficult.

I need relevant study guides so I can leave no stone unturned.

Is Kaplan 800 the viable alternative? What about those Manhattan prep books.

I also really think it's about time for them to create and OG 12 so they can prepare us for these damn curveballs they are throwing at us left and right on the test.

Jezus, I am not a genius. I know there seems to be many geniuses taking the test, but lets be realistic here Pearson.
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by netigen » Wed May 07, 2008 11:59 am
You will find the monks in Dharamshala India. Flight to Delhi and then a Taxi to Dharamshala. Ofcourse, I pray it doesn't come to that 8)

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hello friend,
i m also preparing 4 GMAT i m also targeting 750 score. i know this is ahard target but it can b achieved. for this purpose i m using OG 11 (only for assessing the difficulty level), Manhattan's official guide and other books for Verbal and Quant, Kaplan's GMAT 800 and other publications made by kaplan along with the study material provided by my coaching institute. if u find in GMAT nothing like that given in OG 11 then do use Kaplan' books it will help u out. i m telling u clearly that the level of Kaplan books is very high even than that of OG. so use it and tell me also about ur experience about KAPLAN books.

wishing u good luck for the next GMAT. :)
crack it down!

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harsimran_bathinda wrote:hello friend,
i m also preparing 4 GMAT i m also targeting 750 score. i know this is ahard target but it can b achieved. for this purpose i m using OG 11 (only for assessing the difficulty level), Manhattan's official guide and other books for Verbal and Quant, Kaplan's GMAT 800 and other publications made by kaplan along with the study material provided by my coaching institute. if u find in GMAT nothing like that given in OG 11 then do use Kaplan' books it will help u out. i m telling u clearly that the level of Kaplan books is very high even than that of OG. so use it and tell me also about ur experience about KAPLAN books.

wishing u good luck for the next GMAT. :)
Thank you... I do have the Kaplan 800. I will have to go through that book the next time I take this test. And also do some practice tests.

The GMAT is very crackable IMO, but you just need to be familiar with every kind of problem that is out there.

Gawd, I am so sick of studying. :lol:
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