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Official Questions Enough to prepare ?

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Official Questions Enough to prepare ?

by gmat_winter » Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:11 am
Is it sufficient to practice all the official questions and write the test ? I have studied the basics and I have all the official questions available in the market. I would like to know whether doing only the official questions ( including GMATPREP questions) is enough to cross 710+ score?
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by GMATinsight » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:20 am
gmat_winter wrote:Is it sufficient to practice all the official questions and write the test ? I have studied the basics and I have all the official questions available in the market. I would like to know whether doing only the official questions ( including GMATPREP questions) is enough to cross 710+ score?
Those are very good questions but certainly not enough questions as GMAT asks questions in various ways and it's important to learn as many variations as possible therefore you might considering referring to more study material.

Other material may include:

1) Manhattan Questions bank (Books)
2) GMAT CLUB Question Bank
3) Beat The GMAT Questions Bank
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by David@VeritasPrep » Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:16 am
gmat_winter -

You ask an impossible question! For some (rare) people just doing the questions from one official book is enough to go in and get a score much higher than 710.

Most people, however, will need some help with a combination of:

1) knowledge (formulas, equations, grammar, etc.)

2) techniques (how to approach the five main question types CR SC RC PS DS)

3) tactics (how best to approach weighted average venn diagram, etc)

4) recognition (how do I know what type of question this is?)

and 5) test strategy (now that I can get problems right how do I earn the highest possible score?)


The official GMAT sources only really give you practice questions and no real discussion of the above. Of course, you many not need any help.

There is only one way to tell! Take one of the GMATPrep official practice tests and see if you score more than 700. If so then you may be able to just practice official questions and tests and go take the exam.

Remember to take the practice test under timed conditions and if you can please include the AWA essay and the Integrated Reasoning section so that you simulate the entire exam.

Let us know how you score...good luck!
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by [email protected] » Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:21 pm
Hi gmat_winter,

It sounds like you've defined your goal score (710+), but I'd like to know a bit more about your overall timeline so that I can help you put together a plan to get to that score.

1) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
2) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

Most Test Takers need 3 months (or more) of consistent study time to hit their goals; during that time, it's common to spend 10-15 hours per week studying. Overall, it's a big task that can be broken down into lots of little pieces.

As the other posts have mentioned, you're probably going to need more practice materials than the ones that you listed. Before we figure out which ones you'll need, we need to get a sense of your current abilities, strengths and weaknesses. As such, you should take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT (you can download 2 for free from www.mba.com) and report back with your scores. That data will be useful in helping you to put together a solid study plan.

If you have any specific questions, then feel free to contact me directly.

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by gmat_winter » Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:11 pm
Hi !

I am back with my 1st gmatprep score -i.e 630- Q 45 v31 . How do Improve from here? I know this is a very open ended question , but like I mentioned in the previous post I would like to focus more on official questions . My mistakes were across the board and not concentrated on any particular topic or concept . I scored 2 in IR and did not do well in AWA as I haven't started preparing for the two sections . Though I made sure I utilized the entire 60 mins .


Also,I want to add that I scored 580 in MGMT few days back ( Q42) don't remember the verbal score . I felt quant on a tougher side and I have read many students stating the same . So I am staying away from MGMT as it will demotivate me ;intead, I am going to purchase Veritas tests and see how I perform .

Sad part is, I have exhausted all the GMAC's official questions ( OG 13 , OG Verbal and quant guide , GMAT question pack , gmat paper test ) . IS it worth redoing these questions again as I have already reviewed then twice and maintained an error log . Redoing SC/RC/Quant feels okay as I do not remember the answers.

My concern is in CR ; I remember most of the CR questions and revisiting these questions doesn't make much sense to me . what should be my tactical approach for the next 3 weeks ( official gmat in 3 weeks )?

I also wonder how test takers improve from 600+ to a 710+ after one /two attempt/s . I am pretty sure most of them would have gone through all the official gmat question before their first attempt .I am curious to know what strategy they follow - redoing the entire official question again or doing more Mocks ?

Kindly help me build a strategy to improve .
Last edited by gmat_winter on Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by dabral » Wed Oct 22, 2014 5:00 am
@gmatwinter

It is a good strategy to solely restrict one's practice to official GMAT questions. They are the highest quality questions that are available to test writers and it is best to get a sense of the style and preferences of the official test writers.

Other than the the list of official sources you mentioned, I only see GMATFocus and GMAT Exam Pack 1 that are missing. These are more for doing tests under timed conditions. Other than that you have questions available in the older GMAT guides, OG12th, OG11th, and OG10th, the last being the best. Yes, the questions aren't at the same difficulty as the current exam, but considering your score of Q45, it will still be of help.

My main issue is that if you have already done so much practice(sounds like at least 2000 quant questions), then there is something more fundamental missing in your preparation. Somehow you are not internalizing your mistakes. I would focus on that element. I would recommend finding a tutor locally who can identify what is missing in your preparation as opposed to just practicing with tons of questions. The other comment I want to make is that redoing GMAT questions is rarely of much benefit, because GMAT questions lose their difficulty if you have seen them before.

Best wishes,
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by [email protected] » Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:48 pm
Hi gmat_winter,

While I understand why you wanted to focus on Official GMAC study materials, there are PLENTY of useful study materials on the market that were not created by GMAC. Re-doing past question can be a very useful part of the study/review process, but you really have to focus your attention on the work (perhaps even try using a different approach to answer the questions) and not just skim the questions and remember how you originally solved them.

With only 3 weeks remaining, it might be difficult for you to study enough to improve by 80+ points (and hit your goal). Do you have the flexibility to push your Test Date back a bit. While I understand why you might not "want" to do so, if an extra couple of weeks of study are possible, then you really should take advantage of that time.

It might also be tempting to do lots of CATs, but you should spend the bulk of your time on practice and take a CAT approximately once a week to measure your progress.

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