Chance to have in the real exam the same questions from the books

Question

I've noticed that there are the same examples in the "The Official Guide for GMAT Review" 2014, 2015 and 2016 books.
What is the chance that in the real exam I will have the same questions from these books?

bb · Answer

Ha!

I wish it was that easy. While GMAC does recycle their questions a lot (25% new questions in 2016 edition vs 2015 and no new questions in 2015 edition vs 2014 or 2013 one), they don't follow this rule on the GMAT. Having said that, many questions follow patterns ESP in the 650 and below difficulties and if you can breeze through the OG then you are kind of guaranteed a 600. You have to do quite a bit more to go higher however and get a diff set of materials or courses.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi FireShock,

You will NOT see any of the OG practice questions on the Official GMAT. However, since the GMAT is a predictable, standardized Test, you WILL see the exact same concepts tested in many of the same general ways that they're tested in the OGs. Part of your training should be to learn the patterns that occur in GMAT questions and utilize Tactics that can help you to get to the correct answer easier.

1) How long have you been studying?
2) What resources have you been using?
3) What is your goal score?
4) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

shapla · Answer

Hello FireShock,

Ref to your inquiry, I would like to reply that, Chances to get similar questions like OG editions in real GMAT test is Zero. Only the very few basic idea has been portrayed in these OG editions, where it lacks lot many fundamental things-to-be-discussed-in-depth, and need to be developed thoroughly before anybody seats for the real exam. In my perspective, when it’s about the books in understanding the fundamentals or basic tactics, it is Manhattan series of collections where a lot many approach/tricks along with examples has been discussed essentials for final test. I would recommend GMAT club 'Math Book' and 'Grammar book' (can be downloaded freely) as an obligatory indulge-in before approaching any mock tests/quizzes/fee tests. Nonetheless, lot many handouts/notes/slides/tricks has been made available by GMAT club as well as other sites. Before you swim into the sea of overloaded information, I do suggest you to strengthen your basic by easily available options which seems to be the idealistic amidst of all.

FireShock · Answer

Thank you, all!

EMPOWERgmatRichC, 
I started studying only 2 weeks ago. And I have an exam at the beginning of January.
I must reach 600.
I have The Official Guide for GMAT Review 2016 Bundle.

shapla ,
Thank you for the suggestion.

Could you give me any other suggestions, how to spend last month?
On which section I need to concentrate more - Verbal or Quantitative? On which parts of these sections?

I ask owing to the fact that you may know that, for instance, concentrating on Verbal Sentence Correction could help me reach a high score due to the fact that this part has high level questions. Or rather, I should concentrate more on the geometry.

How would you plan your time?

jz4analytics · Answer

You should take the Diagnostic Test at the beginning of the OG first. Have you done so? That will tell you whether you are Excellent, Above Average, Average, or Below Average on each of the 5 sections. I'd recommend doing the Quant all the way through, take a break, and then do the Verbal all the way through, giving yourself about 100 minutes for each. People start with very different strengths.

You should also take one of the GMATPrep exams early and review the results. You can download two of the CATs for free from mba.com, and the purchase an additional two if you'd like.

From a very general perspective, though, math concepts such as number theory, integer properties, fractions, percents, and algebraic equations show up the most. You'll also see some descriptive statistics and word problems (usually rate/work problems).  Magoosh broke this down here.  If you have limited time to study then I'd focus on these topics first.

On the verbal section, you'll spend roughly 25 minutes on each question type, so you should be somewhat familiar with all of them. You should know the types of questions asked in RC and CR (RC passages usually ask you the "main idea" and CR questions ask a lot of strengthen/weaken/assumption questions) and how to eliminate low hanging fruit in SC (parallelism, logical relationships, pronoun agreement, subject-verb agreement).

shapla · Answer

Thank you for the suggestion.

Could you give me any other suggestions, how to spend last month?
On which section I need to concentrate more - Verbal or Quantitative? On which parts of these sections?

I ask owing to the fact that you may know that, for instance, concentrating on Verbal Sentence Correction could help me reach a high score due to the fact that this part has high level questions. Or rather, I should concentrate more on the geometry.

How would you plan your time?
...................................................................................................................................................................................

Hi FireShock,

Understood from your message that you don't have much time before your test. I would suggest you to take an extra load as much as possible at this point of time. Regret to say, you can't carry on only with one section by keeping other deprived. Emphasize simultaneously to each section!!

For each topics in Quant part, if you already have learned the basics and tricks to break the brick, then please approach to  https://gmatclub.com/tests-beta/dashboard/starttest.html  along with free GMAT tests available at mba.com after your registration.

For verbal part, please be informed, this is the toughest part ever anybody could face, as i heard. Here, out of three section, the effort should be violent for SC and RC, since RC mostly relies on the reading speed and how well individual's can perceive the intended meaning in quick manner. Moving on with SC, you can try to go with the directory by topic available in  https://gmatclub.com/forum/sentence-correction-question-directory-topic-and-difficulty-129750.html   and then practice some tests to unravel your progression. While acing CR, you have to make yourself very much comfortable with the question. Otherwise, its a mess. You can go through  https://gmatclub.com/forum/critical-reasoning-question-directory-topic-and-difficulty-128861.html  to understand the nature of each question.

To sum up, there is no short cut to win the heart of GMAT. You have to give yourself a lot to it, in order to take max from it.

bbednar · Answer

I was studying to retake the GMAT a few days after taking the real thing and i could have sworn I came across a question in the OG that I had on the test... but i probably was just remembering its origination wrong..

bb · Answer

There are only so many patterns in the questions.... so it may have been a "twin". Also GMAC has about 30% of the questions on the test as experimental and who knows what kind of mind-experiments they are running :lol:

P.S. You took the GMAT without going through OG first?

bbednar · Answer

No i had gone through OG before I took it the first time, just not the whole thing. I used Princeton Review (don't recommend) and the OG software a lot before I took it the first time

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi FireShock,

With a Test Date in early January, you have about 3-4 weeks to study, which is not a lot of time.

If you have not taken a FULL-LENGTH CAT (including the Essay and IR sections), then you should plan to take one soon (maybe this weekend). You can download 2 for free from www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). A FULL CAT takes about 4 hours to complete, so make sure that you've set aside enough time to take it in one sitting. Once you have those scores, you should report back here and we can talk through your options.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

FireShock · Answer

Thanks, I will. Firstly, I need to run through OG.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi FireShock,

If you have to choose between taking a FULL-LENGTH CAT or completing the OG this weekend, then you should take the CAT. Without that initial score, we have NO IDEA what your current abilities are, so we don't know your strengths and weaknesses and we don't know how to maximize your limited study time going forward.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

Hi FS,

Good question. Unless someone messes up at some point at GMAC then you won't see any of the  exact  questions from any of the "released" Official GMAT resources. That said - on a GMAT I took a few months ago I did see a critical reasoning question that was  almost the same as one from the GMAT prep software . It was the same exact story/argument but instead of being a weaken question it was an assumption question.

So there may be some duplicate critical reasoning arguments floating around. Can you take advantage of that? Probably not:)

Happy Studies,

A.

AtlanticGMAT · Answer

If it was CR, it is possible that you saw the same argument paired with a different question. A student of mine from last year claimed that he saw a duplicate reading passage. I don't actually remember whether it was a dupe from another GMAT he had taken or from Official Materials.

Happy Studies,

A.

bbednar · Answer

No mine was a reading passage as well

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

It is very unlikely to happen. But if it did happen, following can be the reasons:

1. It was a non scoring question
2. It might be a passage on the same topic, but exactly the same
3. IFFFF and it is again very unlikely the passage was same, then questions would have been different.

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