Official Guide 13th edition - Initial analysis

[e-GMAT]

Hello Everyone,

The Official Guide 13th edition is now available for sale and can be purchased from Amazon for $28. Click here for the exact link. Those in US can get it from Amazon on March 22 (if they place order right away). We received an early copy from the publishers Wiley about a month back. Wiley notified us that an e-book is also in works (Kindle edition, iPAD edition etc.), but it has not been released so far. To our knowledge, these editions will release around March 19.

Our Initial Assessment

Disclosure: Please note that this assessment has been done using the evaluation copy we received from Wiley. We have reason to believe that the evaluation copy is very similar to the released version. However, there may be differences in the released version, and we will redo the evaluation once we get the print version in about a week.
On first count both the books, OG12 & OG13, appear very similar. Both have 840 pages, approximately the same number of verbal questions, and very similar sections. However, there are three very compelling reasons to purchase the 13th edition.

1. An entirely new section in Integrated Reasoning - about 15 pages
2. Access code for NEW! Companion website that includes 50 Integrated Reasoning questions
3. About 20% new questions both in quant and verbal.

Please find a brief overview of the Sentence Correction and Reading Comprehension sections below:

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SENTENCE CORRECTION

Our assessment is divided into two parts - what has changed and what hasn't. Please read below:

Things that have not changed:
Here is a list of things that have not changed:
1. Introduction section on "What is tested"
2. The number of questions (OG 13 = OG12 = 140)
3. The format of explanations

What has changed?
Approximately 25 questions have been deleted and have been replaced by 25 new questions. Here is a listing of questions - both deleted and added.

LISTING OF DELETED QUESTIONS OF OG12
1,3,7,23,25,28,29,30,39,40,42,47,63,69,76,89,90,92,94,95,97,122,124,130,139

LISTING OF ADDED QUESTIONS IN OG13
1,2,4,7,9,15,19,26,35,38,40,48,56,65,68,71,74,79,87,97,107,111,114,132,138

We are still doing our assessment in terms of the category to which these questions belong.

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READING COMPREHENSION

Things that have not changed:
As in the sentence correction section, there are no major changes in the Reading Comprehension section. The introduction section on what is tested remains the same. The question types (Main point, Detail, Inference, Application, Structure, and Tone) remain the same. In fact, the total number of questions are unchanged - OG 12 has 139 questions and so does OG 13.
ð Number of RC questions = OG 13 = OG12 = 139

What has changed?
5 Passages have been deleted from OG 12 and replaced by 7 new passages. The passage that have been replaced as follows:

LISTING OF DELETED PASSAGES OF OG12
2 (Bio Sciences), 4(Business), 6(Business), 9(Social Science), 13(Business)

LISTING OF ADDED PASSAGES IN OG13
1 (Bio Science), 4 (Physical Science), 5 (Social Science), 9 (Business), 12 (Business), 17 (Social Science), 22(Bio Sciences)


What can be inferred?
Given that we have more passages but the same number of questions (139), it can be inferred that the new passages contain on average fewer questions per passage than the passages they have replaced. .

Are the passages entirely new?
We are not sure. We did a Google search on some of the passages and found that at least 2 passages listed on various forums, indicating that these may be retired GMAT prep passages.
 
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SUMMARY

The fundamentals that GMAT tests have not changed. While there have been some enhancements, our initial assessment is that the change is evolutionary rather than revolutionary (with the exception of Integrated Reasoning). Hence, those who are taking their GMAT in the next 15 days have little reason to worry even if they don't have access to the book.

e-GMAT courses
We take great pride in ensuring that our courses cover all aspects mentioned in the latest Official Guide. The Reading Comprehension course has already taken these changes into account and will be "OG 13 compliant" on release. As we delve more into OG 13, we will elaborate more on the changes in SC and CR. All the e-GMAT courses will be updated (question lists, any new concepts, new examples) within the next 30 days. All the current and future customers will get these upgrades free of charge.

Should you purchase OG 13?
We recommend that you do purchase OG 13 if you have 1 month or more before your exam because
1. An entirely new section in Integrated Reasoning - about 15 pages
2. Access code for NEW! Companion website that includes 50 Integrated Reasoning questions
3. About 20% new questions both in quant and verbal.

Good luck!!



Your e-GMAT Team