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OG Guide Question

by shaden » Sat Oct 11, 2008 2:38 pm
Hello all,

Does the OG guide (I am using 11th Ed) start with easier questions in each section and eventually get more difficult, or do they keep the same mixture of easy/medium/hard questions throughout each section?

The reason I ask is because I am doing very well on the questions in the OG guide compared to the McGraw Hill and Petersons guides. I am getting 85-90% of the questions correct in the OG, and like 60-70% correct in the other books.

Just wondering if the questions start easy and get hard in the OG, or if the difficultly is evenly mixed?

P.S. WinGMAT.com or TestCircle.com is a waste of money.
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by Ian Stewart » Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:22 pm
Yes, the OG progresses from easy to difficult as you proceed through each section. That was not true before the 11th edition- if you have the 10th edition, the difficulty is random- but in the orange 11th edition, the quetions get harder as you proceed through each section. I'd add that the hardest questions on current real GMAT tests are more difficult than what you'll find in the OG. Unless you're aiming for a score above the 85th percentile or so, this doesn't much matter, but if you are hoping for an elite Quant score, GMATPrep and GMATFocus will give a very good indication of what to expect at the most difficult levels of the current GMAT.

I won't comment on specific companies, but I agree that many GMAT test prep products are not worth spending time (or money) on. As with any other business transaction, I would recommend to anyone that they confirm, by reading reviews and testimonials as one finds throughout this forum, that a product is worth investing in. The GMAT market is saturated with products, many of which are not especially helpful (and some are even counterproductive). By reading this forum, you will find many recommendations for the good prep materials that are available.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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by shaden » Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:32 pm
Thank you for the insight Ian. Would you recommend the OG supplementary books for quant and verbal for the more difficult questions, or do they not cover the excessively hard questions either?

I am reffering to the OG for Quant or Verbal Review.

Thank you
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by Ian Stewart » Sun Oct 12, 2008 5:39 am
The OG supplements are very much like the OG -- they have different questions from the OG, but the difficulty range is similar. Both are excellent sources of practice questions; just be aware that you won't see many questions that are truly at the 800-level; you may need to look at GMATPrep or GMATFocus for those. But unless you're already at the 48-50 level (scaled score) in the Quant, the Official Guide and the supplement should give you plenty of useful material to work on.
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by VP_Jim » Sun Oct 12, 2008 3:27 pm
I agree with Ian and will caution you not to focus too much on the really hard questions unless you're getting top (i.e., 750+) scores. Unless you're up at that level, the questions in the Official Guides are excellent representatives of the type of questions you'll see on the actual GMAT.

Too many students get obsessed with the hard material while neglecting the more basic word problem type questions. Many of these students end up doing poorly on the actual GMAT because, as Ian says, you have to get the medium questions right before you see the hard questions. So, essentially, these students have spent lots of time practicing things they will not see.
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