Official Questions Enough to prepare ?

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

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!

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 .

@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,
Dabral