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Warning: Not a single question similar to OG/GMAtPrep

by viswablr » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:43 pm
I took my GMAT yesterday and scored 650 (Q47 V33). (Little disappointed with my score as I aimed for >680)

Some of the posts in this section mentioned that, the actual GMAT exam will have at least 4-5 questions repeated or very similar to those from the official guide/GMATPrep. I warn you that it is not true (At least now, it might have happened earlier). I found not a single question similar to or anywhere closer to those from the guide/GMATPrep.

I unnecessarily spent too much time on the Guide/GMAtPrep than is actually needed, aiming to fish those 4-5 questions in each section.
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Re: Warning: Not a single question similar to OG/GMAtPrep

by beatthegmat » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:54 pm
viswablr wrote:I took my GMAT yesterday and scored 650 (Q47 V33). (Little disappointed with my score as I aimed for >680)

Some of the posts in this section mentioned that, the actual GMAT exam will have at least 4-5 questions repeated or very similar to those from the official guide/GMATPrep. I warn you that it is not true (At least now, it might have happened earlier). I found not a single question similar to or anywhere closer to those from the guide/GMATPrep.

I unnecessarily spent too much time on the Guide/GMAtPrep than is actually needed, aiming to fish those 4-5 questions in each section.
Hi viswablr:

Congrats on your score! You should definitely be proud of your score, even though it was a little shy of your target.

You are right--you should not take it as a fact that 4-5 questions on the GMAT will be virtual replicas of questions you've seen in OG. This has been the case for some folks who have taken the GMAT, but certainly not all.

Can you provide some more details about your study strategy?

Thanks and best of luck to you!
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sorry

by aim-wsc » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:09 pm
sorry for your disappointment buddy. :( i ll hv to find trend now

i am sure not me or Eric or any trusted authority here said that 'same problems' from guide repeate in actual test.
yet i say that you d find similar items.
...
sorry once again if my posts misled you anyway :|
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by viswablr » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:37 pm
I prepared for GMAT for about 45 days. I bought the following books.

1) Official Guide
2) Kaplan GMAT
3) Princeton Review
4) McMillan GMAT

I started with the official guide and did a quick walk through. Then took the Kaplan and finished it in a week. Third, I took the princeton, but as many people already said in this forum, it was very basic. (But the Quant session explanation is good in PR; He gives some nice short cuts to solve problems without going through the regular formula; But the Joe Bloggs technique he mentions will not work at all in real GMAT, according to my experience). I did not spend anytime on the 4th book.

Of these 45 days, I spent nearly 30 days on the OG/GMATPrep. I solved each and every problem, more than once; One week before the exam, I was almost in a state to tell the answer to any question from my memory without needing a pen/paper.

These are some of my observations during the exam:

1) Quant session was very easy. Questions were very basic.
2) By the time I reached the Verbal session, I was exhausted very much. I advise the members to carry enough eatables and have it during the breaks.
3) The official Guide mentioned that I would get two 5-minute breaks. But now they give two 10-minute breaks.
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by beatthegmat » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:03 pm
viswablr wrote:I prepared for GMAT for about 45 days. I bought the following books.

1) Official Guide
2) Kaplan GMAT
3) Princeton Review
4) McMillan GMAT

I started with the official guide and did a quick walk through. Then took the Kaplan and finished it in a week. Third, I took the princeton, but as many people already said in this forum, it was very basic. (But the Quant session explanation is good in PR; He gives some nice short cuts to solve problems without going through the regular formula; But the Joe Bloggs technique he mentions will not work at all in real GMAT, according to my experience). I did not spend anytime on the 4th book.

Of these 45 days, I spent nearly 30 days on the OG/GMATPrep. I solved each and every problem, more than once; One week before the exam, I was almost in a state to tell the answer to any question from my memory without needing a pen/paper.

These are some of my observations during the exam:

1) Quant session was very easy. Questions were very basic.
2) By the time I reached the Verbal session, I was exhausted very much. I advise the members to carry enough eatables and have it during the breaks.
3) The official Guide mentioned that I would get two 5-minute breaks. But now they give two 10-minute breaks.
Thanks for the details. And thanks for the heads up about the two 10-min breaks, that's great to hear.

Best of luck!
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by aim-wsc » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:44 pm
10 mins break.
yeah! i knew that already and i hv been telling that on various forums...

in fact i think i got this info from beattheGMAT forum. :)
...
i think some lady informed us on this forum.

sorry i cant provide links :( i hv limited access here.
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by aim-wsc » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:52 pm
ok
the user name of the lady is ''Fei''
find her post on page no. 2 of this forum.

thanks to beattheGMAT.com :) believe me, i am on all forum but i got this info from this site and no forum was aware of this then six months back. :)
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by limits660 » Sun Jan 07, 2007 8:13 am
What country / city did you write the exam in?

Im due to write the exam on Feb 17th in Toronto Canada. Ive been preparing for the last 8+ months on a wide variety of material.

Im currently concentrating on the Manhattan GMAT books on my last leg toward my first write. What material did you find to be the best relating to your write?
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by aim-wsc » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:27 am
limits660 wrote:What country / city did you write the exam in?

Im due to write the exam on Feb 17th in Toronto Canada. Ive been preparing for the last 8+ months on a wide variety of material.

Im currently concentrating on the Manhattan GMAT books on my last leg toward my first write. What material did you find to be the best relating to your write?
I dont know about the thread starters availability so I am answering your query on his behalf.
:)

I presume your concern is regarding 10 minutes break thingie ;)
(is it? )

well! i dont know from which place he appeared for the test.

but i can tell you that the rule is universal, valid everywhere.
The company who organises GMAT test all over the world has made all their rules consistent in everywhere.
Earlier there were paper tests in some poor countries.. while there was CAT in other :)

this is not the case when this new company took over the job.


I know persons from Australia, HongKong. Germany, UK, India... it has two 10 minutes breaks between AWA & MATH section and MATH & VERBAL section.

i hope this helps...

btw is that your query was? :lol:
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by limits660 » Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:30 pm
Kinda

I was just wondering since he said that the questions asked when he wrote it didnt really relate to the gmat prep questions, was wondering what they did relate too. Could be helpful :lol:

Thanks for the response though :D
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by gmat_enthus » Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:39 am
GMATPrep questions is a very limited pool of questions in my opinion expecting them to show up in the exam is a bit of a push.

However, as per my experience GMATPrep questions very closely demonstrate the standard of questions and concepts GMAT actually tests.

My suggestion: Go with concepts rather than expecting to see questions seen before. If you do see some questions which you have already seen, what can be better, If not you should be prepared enough?
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:24 pm
It is highly unlikely that you will see the exact question you saw in OG repeated on the official test. I never have. I have had a few students report seeing a repeated question (including one lucky student who got an entire passage) but those reports were generally right after OG 11 was published - fewer and further between since then. I haven't had a student tell me of a repeat in at least 6 months.

It is, however, highly likely that you will see similar types of questions on the test - but when I say "type," I don't mean that they just change the numbers and give you the same question. I mean that they really have a limited number of ways to ask about a particular piece of information - there are only so many ways they can test you on prime numbers, for example. So learn what those ways are and, the next time you see a question that doesn't use the word "prime" but nevertheless is trying to get at the concept of prime, you'll recognize it b/c you've seen another question like it in the OG (though different numbers, different details, everything - but a couple of key words will indicate that this one is really trying to get at your understanding of prime numbers).
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by limits660 » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:29 pm
Ohh, i couldnt agree more that the questions in the gmatprep and OG questions will even resemble the ones on the real exam. One question to pose though, if a question tests the concept perfectly, why retire it? I believe some of the questions in the OG and gmatprep were 'retired' because some of them are poorly written. Just an observation.
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by beatthegmat » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:51 pm
limits660 wrote:Ohh, i couldnt agree more that the questions in the gmatprep and OG questions will even resemble the ones on the real exam. One question to pose though, if a question tests the concept perfectly, why retire it? I believe some of the questions in the OG and gmatprep were 'retired' because some of them are poorly written. Just an observation.
Interesting point, Jeff. My hypothesis as to why GMAC retires GMAT questions is that people talk. Even though GMAT test takers sign NDAs, I think that there are enough unscrupulous characters (not on this forum of course) who would share live test question info with other people, and after a while an old GMAT test question doesn't test anything at all.

Just wanted to reiterate some policy, while I'm on the soapbox--live GMAT test questions will never be discussed on this forum. It's unethical to do so as well as a form of cheating.

Fortunately though, the members of Beat The GMAT all hold the highest ethical standards and would never be tempted to discuss live questions. :)
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