GMAT Strategy

I received a PM asking me to respond.

bekkilyn is offering some good advice. It is absolutely not the case that OG only prepares people up to about 550 or 600. OG does, of course, include a range of questions from very easy to difficult, so you have to account for that in your study. For example, if you're hoping for a 700, then you should not only have 100% accuracy for the first 50 problems in each section, but also be able to answer those in half of the usual time. And you should be able to get to an answer on any question, even the hardest ones, within two minutes. (Note that I didn't say you should be able to get to the right answer - just an answer. You're not going to get everything right on the test itself.)

I don't think your issue is that you've "used up" a lot of the available problems. I think your issue is that you didn't study what you needed to study the first time through those problems. Lots of people don't - this isn't uncommon - but what you don't want to do at this point is just start going through a bunch of new (likely lower quality) problems and still not study what you need to study. You're not likely to get a different result if you do that.

For those OG questions you studied, can you answer the following questions (about every single problem)?

For the ones you got wrong:
1) Why did I get it wrong (as specifically as possible)? This could have to do with not knowing content (math or grammar), not recognizing what content they were talking about (same), not knowing how to use the content, not knowing or recognizing the techniques / approaches available to use for this type of problem, making some kind of careless error when you actually did know how to do the problem (and, if so, name the specific error(s) you made), falling into a trap, and so on.
2) What could I do to minimize the chance of making that error (or those errors) again?  How will I make whatever that is a habit so that I really do minimize chances of making the same error again?
3) What are the right / best ways to approach it?
4) Of the right / best ways, which one is the best way for me (combining both efficiency and effectiveness) given my strengths and weaknesses?
5) How will I recognize problems of similar type in future so that I can apply that "best way" to the problem?

For ones you get right:
1) Did I really know what I was doing or did I get lucky?  If I got lucky, review all of the "wrong answer" questions, above
2) If I did know what I was doing, did I also do it in the best way (for me)?  If not, figure out the best way for you.
3) How will I recognize problems of similar type in future so that I can either repeat my original success or apply my new "best way" to the problem?

For ones you got right or wrong:
1) How would I make an educated guess on this problem? How will I recognize similar problems in future so that I know I can use the same educated guessing strategy I used for this one?
2) What traps exist here? How can I recognize that they're here - what language or set-up in the problem is the clue that the trap exists?
3) What shortcuts exist here? How can I save some time on this problem without harming my chances of getting it right?

For verbal in general:
1) Why is each wrong answer is wrong?
2) Which wrong answer is the most tempting and why?
3) How can I recognize that the tempting wrong answer is still wrong anyway so I can eliminate it?
4) Why might someone be tempted to eliminate the right answer?

Can you really answer all of those questions? Until you can, you don't understand those problems to the point that you can recognize similar problems in future and immediately know the best way for you to approach the problem, where the traps might be, how to save time, how to make an educated guess, etc. Think about it: if you can recognize what to do, rather than have to figure it all out from scratch for each new problem, then you (a) save a lot of time, and (b) improve your accuracy, because you're trying an approach that you know actually worked on a similar problem in the past. And that's exactly how you get a 700 on this test!