How effective is the quantitative verbal banks in OG ?

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dileeps: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:58 am

by dileeps » Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:06 am

Greetings,

I have registered an appointment for the 3rd of December for the test.

I have spent the last few days reviewing the quantitative banks of the OG, and I have to admit that I've found them far too easy thus far.

Ive tested the work I have put in by taking a sample test issued by a regional private tutoring course (reputable of course), and got floored in the mathematics. I spent too much time with most of the questions and did not finish in the time limit. This was never the case with the OG, in which the maximum time spent on a problem was ALWAYS less than 2 minutes.

Could previous test-takers please advise if the OG is meant to be used as introductory material into GMAT quant or was designed to be used as an exhaustive resource for preparation ?

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards.

Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:06 am

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by DanaJ » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:37 am

Since the OG is devised for the average test taker, if your level is above the average (somewhere around mid 500s), then the book will seem easy. Most students agree that the OG contains largely easy and medium difficulty questions. There will of course be some value out of working through them, because you get used to the structure of official problems. However, the book is not at all exhaustive - particularly at an advanced level.

Beware of unofficial problems: not all of them follow the structure of the test, unfortunately. Fact is, there are two possibilities:
- the questions you saw are not exactly GMAT-style, which is something you're not used to
- the questions are indeed more difficult so you'd best be looking for some other source of challenging material for your practice (some people recommend the Manhattan GMAT CATs - I myself have only taken two of them and found them quite difficult).

dileeps: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:58 am

by dileeps » Sat Nov 07, 2009 6:52 am

Greetings,

Thank you for your time and advise.

For the lack of time, and immediate unavailability of Manhattan material in my area, I think I might have to stick with the few Kaplan problem sets that I have for more advanced problems.

Therefore, Ill stick with the OG to get a feel of GMAT-style questions, while doing some KAPLAN to make sure im ready for more difficult questions down the test.

Wish me luck

Thanks again and best regards.

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