Official material

[Number7]

Dear all,

I have two more questions. I have recently read that it is useful to use as much "official material" as possible. I have already read much from other sources besides the Official Guide and now I want to practice, practice, practice.

Question 1:
Although - of course - one might never see a question in the test that has already 1:1 been published in any official prep material is it reasonable to assume that the questions will be quite similar (just other numbers, little changes)? If this were the case, I would not concentrate on too much Princeton, Kaplan or other sources concerning practical questions in the end but more on the official material.

Of course there are hundreds of official question-variations but perhaps the "kind" of questions is always similar and resembles those of the OG or other official material...?

If Princeton/Kaplan/Manhattan-questions are different from the test and "only" give you an idea of the questions I would not use their material too intensively now since I want to have "some kind of a deja vu"-effect in the test - if possible.


Question 2:
Are there any more Official questions besides the one you can get at www.mba.com (Official Guides, Paper tests, diagnostic tests, off. prep. software)? E.g. Other retired tests? Do you know any sources?

Thank you very much in advance!

[lunarpower]

i can't speak for kaplan or princeton review, but i'll tell you a little bit about our materials.

our STRATEGY GUIDES feature problems that are NOT like the official problems. they aren't meant to be like official problems; instead, the problems in the strategy guides are meant to BUILD BASIC CONTENT KNOWLEDGE. in other words, they'll help you learn the basic skills and fundamentals that you'll then take into the official problems.
at the back of these guides, you'll find lists of problems from the official guides, which cross-reference those problems by content area and topic (a valuable resource, since the problems are not at all indexed by topic in the official guides themselves).

our PRACTICE TESTS, on the other hand, are very similar in content and spirit to the official tests, and we have found high fidelity in the match between students' scores on our tests and their scores on the real thing. there are a few discrepancies - for instance, there are no experimental questions, which means that our tests will be somewhat longer and more arduous for high scoring students (because experimental questions come at all difficulty levels, meaning that most of them will be easy for those students) - but, overall, you'll find them to be valuable preparation.

in any case, be sure that you're studying the official problems with the appropriate degree of DEPTH. in other words, be sure that you are BUILDING CONNECTIONS between the problems and their content, not just solving problem after problem after problem without bothering to relate them to each other.

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

A Kaplan perspective (as Ron said, I can't speak for other companies):

Kaplan is a huge company (the biggest Test Prep company in the world). While bigger isn't always better, it certainly is when it comes to research and development.

Kaplan spends a LOT of money on R&D. A good chunk of our R&D is devoted to ensuring that our questions are representative of real GMAT questions.

Our materials clearly delineate between in format and out of format questions. If you're working on mastering basic math, what you'll see will resemble a good ol' grade 9/10/11 math textbook. If you're working on GMAT strategies, you'll always face GMAT-esque questions that will be very similar to what you see on test day.

As for other Official materials, the most common are the Official Guide (11th Ed) and the Official Math and Verbal supplements. You can find links to those books on this site at https://www.beatthegmat.com/books.html (or just click the "Resources" tab at the top of your screen).

You may be able to find older versions of the OG online or at used bookstores, but remember: the older the material, the less likely it is to be representative of today's GMAT.

[Number7]

Thank you very much!

[lastday]

Well, I myself don't work for any of the test prep companies, but in my experience as a test-taker the Princeton Review tests were the most accurate.

Don't bother with the old paper tests or Powerprep tests. They're not reflective of the current GMAT.