Thank you so much for your response/s. I have taken the GMAT Prep and have scored around mid- 500s to 600s. But to me, it does not mean much because what matters is how you do on the real test and I agree that either the OG 12 or GMAT Prer are excellent source, the real exam is the real deal.
I am using few books from Manhattan and for the Verbal section, I am using the OG. I will do whatever I can and see how it goes. This damn test has taken over my life but I am also determined to nail it down no matter what.
I would love to know few real and workable ideas which could help me/us to at least score in mid-600s. I know... I know... prepare, prepare and prepare but as I know and I am sure most of you are also aware, like in anything, there are few things you could do which are very crucial to change the course of any anything.
Let me agree with Wharton750 and add a little. Let's break this into the two sections:
Verbal:
The OG is the best for Verbal. The thing about a verbal question - particularly Critical Reasoning and Reading Comp - is the editing. A well-edited question is one that has every word in the right place. This is true of the official questions you will see on test day. Unofficial questions are good as well, but I can tell you that having written a few, you always want another chance to edit and the OG 12th questions are perfectly edited. So I would do all of those questions throughout the entire verbal part of the 12th edition.
What the OG does not provide are strategies. For that you need to use other materials. But you were asking about what is closest to test day. For verbal it is the OG.
Quant:
For quant there are two kinds of difficulty. The kind of difficulty that is represented well in the OG 12th is the "Sneaky Difficulty" that the GMAT does so well. On the GMAT seemingly simple questions often have two tricks, one for you to find and think that you are quite smart and then a second trick to get you just as you think you are done. Data Sufficiency questions often have these tricks. The funny thing about this type of "trickery" is that very often those who have missed the question are more confident that they have the right answer than are those who got it right. Now that is a tough question to write!! And OG questions do it best. This is the type of difficulty that often gets the better of students who are really good at "pure math."
The second kind of difficulty is the up-front conceptual difficulty of questions that require more math skills. These types of questions are not represented as well in the OG. So, to get this type of difficulty you would want to go to other sources that train you for these questions.
Remember, two things. First, a Business Week article I read indicated that by the time a question appears on the GMAT, GMAC has spent about $3000 on that question! So these questions are well-edited and do exactly what the test-writers want then to, by the time these questions reach the OG they have been through additional editing and represent retired official questions that GMAC has specially selected.
On the other hand, you should also remember that the OG 12th edition - and all OG volumes are backward looking. They prepare you perfectly for the GMAT of the past, when these questions were part of the test. So they can help you get a great score if you could go back to, say, 2006, but for 2010 you need definitely need the OG and another source (or sources) as well.
Good luck![/quote]
