Few things to clear up!!!!!

[effective_factor]

hi guys

i m slightly confused that which book's questions r nearest to the REAL GMAT exams?

i m aiming for 700+ so i might think books may have different difficulty levels?......what do u guys think of this

 

first Quant sec which book's difficulty section is nearest the real GMAT

1) Kaplan( plz mention the book name as well like kaplan 2005 etc)

2) OG

3) PR

 

Verbal sec which book's difficulty section is nearest the real GMAT

1) Kaplan( plz mention the book name as well like kaplan 2005 etc)

2) OG

3) PR

 

i hav also read somewhere that the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] quant sec questions r in the range of 600-650.............is this true? any comments will be largely appreciated!!!

[rak]

yo :-)

 

og is just for giving u basic ideas abt quants. it is awesome for verbal though.

i heard that kaplan 2005 and kap 800 math are close to actual gmat. i am yet to get done with my gmat.

 

pr review is good for verbal.

 

cheers

rak

[lego2401]

Hey guys,

 

I was supposed to write the GMAT last year, and so, I was following up on the post here all the time. The people who did the test back then mostly said the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] was the closest thing to the real GMAT, and that the Q section was nearest to the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and far from the difficulty of Kaplan (For example, look at Ursula's posts). This year I find people are saying that the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] is easy compared to the GMAT. Has the exam gotten harder?

 

The people who posted this last year were mostly in the 700+ range.

[jackson24nj]

in general the quant has probably gotten harder. the only problem is that people interpret the quant in different ways & most wont see the same set of questions. some may exaggerate while others may not. you really cant get an accurate read until you take the test I guess. Ive heard responses ranging from if you know [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] youll be fine to Kaplan 800 isnt hard enough. who knows.

[lego2401]

Hello again!

 

I was just with a friend who did the GMAT and did 51 on the Q. He hadnt touched anything but [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and told me that the hardest questions in the Q section were at par with the last 60 or so questions of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], nothing more difficult. Otherwise, I also realized that confidence plays a huge role in this. The last few days I've been checking out some of the problems posted in the question section and it actually got to my confidence, I saw my performance deteriorate from 9/10 average on practice questions to about 6-7, I guess it was the anxiety. I started to wonder how I'd solve these hard question, 37 of them in less than 75 minutes, but then I realized that these questions are just the hardest ones ever. If 100 people post, they will each post the most difficult question they've come across, and then u end up with a set of 100 hard question. We don't come here to post the average difficulty question. I know many of you have realized this, but for those who haven't, please keep this in mind when looking at the question: You will only see 3-4 at most of these on a real GMAT. Secondly, its not 2 minutes per question. Its 75 minutes total. Some questions will take less than a minute, and the harder ones you will have 3-4 to do.

[Stormgal]

Hello again!

 

I was just with a friend who did the GMAT and did 51 on the Q. He hadnt touched anything but [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and told me that the hardest questions in the Q section were at par with the last 60 or so questions of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], nothing more difficult. Otherwise, I also realized that confidence plays a huge role in this. The last few days I've been checking out some of the problems posted in the question section and it actually got to my confidence, I saw my performance deteriorate from 9/10 average on practice questions to about 6-7, I guess it was the anxiety. I started to wonder how I'd solve these hard question, 37 of them in less than 75 minutes, but then I realized that these questions are just the hardest ones ever. If 100 people post, they will each post the most difficult question they've come across, and then u end up with a set of 100 hard question. We don't come here to post the average difficulty question. I know many of you have realized this, but for those who haven't, please keep this in mind when looking at the question: You will only see 3-4 at most of these on a real GMAT. Secondly, its not 2 minutes per question. Its 75 minutes total. Some questions will take less than a minute, and the harder ones you will have 3-4 to do.

 

I am a firm believer of this post - confidence plays a huge role. I really don't think that the quant has gotten harder at all. The [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] is pretty much all that you need. If you can master the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], you should get at least a 650. Imagine getting a 51 on the verbal -the wonders that would do to your score?:idea:

[lego2401]

So so true, I think people are focusing too much on the Q section. If anything, the Q is easier for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the questions can't be too far off all the math problems out there. Secondly, it comes at the begining of the exam. RC on other hand comes at the end. If it wasn't already hard enough to read a boring passage off a screen, imagine doing so 2 hours into the exam. I am a native english speaker and I find that hard.

 

GMAT is not just maths, its verbal too. Concentrating too much on maths can kill the exam. Besides, 51 on math is not a full score. On powerprep, I did 760 last week, 51 on maths. I had about 4 mistakes.

 

My point is, we shouldnt over stress on things. Being relaxed and confident on exam day is perhaps more important than over solving extremely hard problems.

 

Secondly, I disagree with the notion of some that if we solve extremely difficult questions we will do better. Ursula a while back had suggested doing Kaplan first then [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip]. Her logic was, Kaplan will make u work faster, but real GMAT is more like [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip], so doing [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] before exam will make u pace urself better for the GMAT, otherwise you will rush through, as you are used to Kaplan's rate, and make small mistakes.

 

I fully agree. In fact I add the following. When we solve very hard question, we tend to start thinking in very complicated terms. Going back to easier problems now makes the easier problems look much harder, since we are now reading too much into them. It happens to me all the time. This can cause problems on the exam, as we are in the mind set that they are all hard problems, and we will make too much of a simple rate problem when it could have been done in less than a minute. So perhaps it is better not to prepare by solving problems that are more difficult than the ones on the actual exam, as we will over complicate them and think there is a hidden catch or trap everytime we see an easy one. That doesnt mean solving no brainers (1+2*5 :)). It simply means to be aware of the level of actual exam problems and be in that mind set. I think OG/Powerprep are a great indicator. I also urge everyone who hasnt already done so to read Ursuala's exam debriefing.