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OG 12 Difficulty Levels & Scoring

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OG 12 Difficulty Levels & Scoring

by and1ms238 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:07 pm
I know there are different levels of difficulty in OG 12 - Easy (1-77), Medium (78-154), and Hard (155-230). My question revolves around scoring percentiles. See, I've gone through the questions... timing myself as if it were a real exam (minus the CAT part). On the easy level, I moved pretty efficiently getting about 90% of the questions correct. The medium questions saw a decent drop off. I scored right around 50% for the medium questions. I did not attempt the Hard questions yet.

So assuming a CAT exam, does that mean I'm scoring around 50% Percentile right now? Seeming If I get 50% of the medium questions right, I will fluctuate around that range? Or are my assumptions off?

I'm simply trying to get a feel for where I stand. Obviously I need more work on the medium questions. My flaws seem to be in the arithmetic and algebra portion of the exam. When fractions or percents are placed into the problem - I get flustered. Need to review those topics.

Anyway, if you could give your two cents on percentile question and maybe offer at strategy for practicing medium level questions... I'd truly be grateful. Thank you in advance! Regards.
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:12 pm
i don't think your hit rate translates into your percentile. the percentile is calculated relative to others... so you got this question right relative to 50% of other people. at least that's how i understand percentiles on the GMAT
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:15 pm
The better strategy is to just take the time to learn how to do every problem in the officical guide so you are adequately prepared for the exam. Otherwise, you are rolling the dice that you won't be asked a question with the same fundamentals as the problems you don't know how to do.
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by and1ms238 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 3:52 pm
osirus0830 wrote:The better strategy is to just take the time to learn how to do every problem in the officical guide so you are adequately prepared for the exam. Otherwise, you are rolling the dice that you won't be asked a question with the same fundamentals as the problems you don't know how to do.
So what your saying is that the question formats in the OG 12 are pretty redundant to that of the ones on test day? And I should see very similar structure to them on the real exam? If that is the case, then doesn't it make sense to go through problems multiple times to remember the exact steps? Sorry, still trying to improve my study strategy. Right now I'm going through timed practice problems and then I'm reviewing the ones I got wrong. If that strategy can be improved - please inform me! thanks.
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:39 pm
in essence yes the OG problems will be THE MOST similar to what you'll see on T-Day, D-Day, G-Day whatever you want to call it. It would seem intuitive that you would want to memorize the processes used to derive each answer but this is not 100% of the story. As you'll soon learn, the key to GMAT success is understanding not only HOW the answers are derived, but WHY. Once you know all of the intricacies of each type of equation, then you'll be able to solve most answers in the book. Some of the advanced ones are just insane, but on the other hand they are solvable.

Do you have the Manhattan GMAT Quant study guides?
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by and1ms238 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:51 pm
That's great advice. I'm in the process of going through each problem that I currently did... reading through the OG explanations. I do have a few of the MGMAT Quant Guides... I have Word Translations and Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. Do you recommend another?

Here is my situation. I take the GMAT in 9 days. I need a score of 560. No less, and technically I don't need more - but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to score higher. Still, just need to pass the 560. That is my target, nonetheless.

Again, with that said. Any advice on obtaining this target? Should I focus on a certain range of question types, difficulty levels?
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:02 pm
If you can have the number properties guide rush delivered to you.. that would be the best one. That can help you in all aspects of the quant section. it's easy to read though but definitely requires a couple days of drilling. Since you have 9 days left that's the one I would recommend. At this point I don't think you should change much to your strategy. Just really focus on WHY the solutions are the way they are. Really really study those explanations.

At this point the most important thing is... if you don't understand something or need further explanation... POST IT in one of the forums and we will help you out.

560 here we come!
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by kelsi111 » Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:15 am
I think that you should redo every problem that you missed until you can get them correct (and not correct by rote because you've memorized the problem itself, but correct by fully understanding the mechanics of the mathematics in the problem). Money9111 is right. Your hit rate of accuracy and your percentile are not the same. If you only got easy and medium problems and missed ten (and those you missed were all the medium levels) you would get a much lower score than if you'd gotten medium and mostly hard and missed ten (and those you missed were all hard). You shouldn't be missing hardly any of the easy problems. If you are missing them then there is something fundamental about GMAT math that you aren't getting and you should post on these forums and read the solution guide until you start to feel it clicking.

Focus deeply on each problem as the fundamentals repeat themselves in many of the problems, especially those that will help you get your target score of 560. Good luck with the last bit of study!
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by salmaan » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:04 pm
This has been causing me concern, too.

After doing fairly well on my GMATPrep 1 (720), I have continued with the OG12. I'm probably toward the end of the medium sections/beginning of the hard sections, but I've noticed a HUGE dropoff in DS and PS. Many people say that the OG problems are not difficult, so either OG12 has some pretty hard problems now, or the GMATPrep was not accurate.

Some of these problems are really tough if you're seeing them for the first time - in terms of concepts as well as trickiness. Maybe I just had a few bad days. Gotta keep doing problems and tests and reviewing strategies, I guess.
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