Here is what I would say about the five types of questions and the difficulty level and the materials to study:
First as applies to all question types, you need to have your strategies down. Ask yourself, "Do I have an approach in place for all three verbal types of questions and for the two quant types of questions?" I like to know that my students have the first 30 to 45 seconds of each question be automatic. The worst thing that you can do is to sit there for a minute - not even writing anything down - at the beginning of a problem.
I tell my students this, "when your pen is moving and you are working (on the quant side especially), do not even think about the clock. Time moves slowly when you are actually working through something. Just do it efficiently and carefully - not rushed. When your pen is not moving and you are sitting there, assume that the clock is spinning very fast. That is when the time just disappears when you are not actively doing something."
That is why it is best to know exactly what you are doing when you start out a question. For example, when I see a data sufficiency question I do the following:
1) Find the question mark and see what the question is asking.
2) Write down either "#" for specific number or "y/n" for a yes no question. This is important because the strategies for these question types are completely different.
3) Write down what the question is asking - in my own words. I make the question my own by determining what I need to know to answer it. For example, I would not usually write down "what is the measure of arc ABC" instead I would indicate that I need to know the central angle of ABC and the diameter since these two pieces of information are enough to solve for the Arc ABC. Thinking about the question first is very important to taking ownership of the question.
4) I then write down any facts that I am given in the question stem, such "x and y are integers" or "xy = 220."
5) I then choose which statement to evaluate and from there choose the proper strategy for this type of question.
It may seem like this is a lot to write down. But it is actually not. What it does is prevent the "silly mistakes" that plague test takers of all skill levels and it guides me in making sure that I consider everything and make no assumptions.
Do you have a strategy like this for each of the five main question types in quant and verbal? If not, you will want to get materials that will help you to develop these routines. Trust me, they prevent the silly errors and they also prevent the time wasted as you stare at a problem.
Okay so the five types of questions and what materials you need to study for each.
First, Critical reasoning: You will want to have something to supplement the official guide. The official guide is very good especially in the core types of questions like Strengthen, Weaken, Inference...but you will need more questions than they supply as well as tougher questions and a greater variety. You can use something specifically designed to bring you tougher GMAT -type questions like the Veritas Critical Reasoning 1 and 2 books or you could use LSAT critical reasoning questions. If you are thinking of using LSAT questions here is a post for you to read.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-to-stud ... 69915.html.
Next, Sentence Correction: Sentence Correction questions are easier to write and you can find good examples of these more easily than critical reasoning or reading comprehension. In addition to the Official Guide and the Verbal Review, I would recommend a source from one of the major companies.
Third, Reading Comprehension: As I mentioned, the Official Guide and Verbal Review do not provide enough difficult passages. Students report that those on the test often seem more difficult than in the Official Guide. As with Critical Reasoning, Reading Comp. questions are the GMAT are well-edited and of a consistent style. It is difficult to create these questions and passages. You will want a good source of passages. Once again you can get additional questions from a major company, such as Veritas, or you can use LSAT reading comp passages. If you are going to try using LSAT passages here is a post for you to read.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lsat-to-stud ... tml#322872.
Fourth, Quantitative Questions: I am going to group the Data Suff and the Prob Solving questions together here because although they are very different types of questions the sources are the same. When I said that the Official Guide is said not to have enough difficulty on the Quant this is what I mean: The GMAT has two kinds of difficulty. The first kind of difficulty is what people most readily think of, complex formulas, multiple calculations, lots of variables, what I call "
upfront difficulty." This is the difficulty that test takers are usually initially concerned with. For example, "What if I have to calculate the surface area of cylinder?" This type of difficulty is what the Official Guide seems to lack, in comparison to test day. You will want to get an additional source for these questions. In the Veritas books, the questions contain more "upfront difficulty" that the Official Guide. Depending on the type of questions you need to work on I would certainly recommend the Data Sufficiency book, the Statistics and Problem Solving book, and the Quantitative Review. You will want a GMAT specific source as there is no substitute (GRE, SAT, etc. are very different).
The second type of difficulty is what the Official Guide is good at, what I call "
Sneaky difficulty." This is something that the GMAT is very good at. I can explain it this way, in Data Sufficiency the GMAT makes you assume that you have information that you do not, or makes you think that you need more information when you already have enough. On problem solving the GMAT makes you solve for a particular variable, such as Y in order to get to X, where X is the correct answer and Y is a distraction. It is amazing to see how the GMAT questions can get otherwise sane people to answer a question that was not asked, to assume they have information that they don't and to just flat out miss questions that they know how to do. To me the essence of "sneaky difficulty" is this: I have often found that a student who has answer the problem incorrectly will be more confident that he has the right answer than one who actually gets it right! This is what the GMAT does to people and this is what the Official Guide really demonstrates.
As to the practice tests, the ones that you mentioned are considered challenging, though more of the "upfront difficulty" since the "sneaky difficulty" is tougher to obtain. The same is true of all unofficial tests, it is tough to compete with the GMAT when they spend thousands of dollars writing editing and testing each question!
Do you know that you can take each of the Official GMATPrep tests twice (for a total of four tests) and have very few questions repeat? Another source of Quant questions that have both types of difficulty is called the GMAT Focus and it is from the GMAT writers. The GMATPrep is free and the Quant Focus costs $25 for a 24 question test. Both are available at MBA.com.
Hope that helps!
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