How to utilize OG and Official Quant/Verbal

Question

Hi All!

Hope you guys are doing well. My GMAT got pushed back to August 27th and I wanted to ask you all for a bit of advice. I am now ~60 days out from my GMAT. I have completed all of the questions in the veritas course and wanted to ask how best to utilize the OG. I realized that the official GMAT guide contains over 900 questions, and that the verbal and quant guides contain 300 each. Should I aim to complete all 1500 questions? and if so what is a reasonable number of questions to complete each day? I just graduated college so i don't start full-time work until September 8th. I am also studying for the series 79 and just completed the series 63 yesterday, but the series exams aren't as hard/time consuming as the GMAT, just memorization. I currently wake up at ~7:00am and study gmat till ~10/11am, and then read through the series exam book in the evening.

Thank you,
2Big

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

I think you can easily get through the entire OG in the next 60 days. Do you also plan to take the 6 GMAC practice exams?

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi TooBig2Fail,

The last time we discussed your studies was about 1.5 months ago, so I'd like to know a bit more about how you've been studying during that time.

1) What type of study routine have you been following? How many hours did you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used over the last 1.5 months?
3) On what dates did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

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

TooBig2Fail · Answer

EMPOWERgmatRichC  Hey!

Because my GMAT Exam got pushed back I took about a week off. I then reread all of the veritas prep books and redid all of the lesson problems. I haven't taken a practice test in a while truth be told. The last ones i took were the ones we discussed:
Veritas 650(Q40,V39) 
Veritas 700(Q45,V41)
Official Practice 590(Q45 V27) (The test that made me rethink my life, and again the last time i took the REAL GMAT exam i got a V38)

Since I now have to study for the series 79 exam as well i typically spend about 3 hours a day studying for the gmat now, so that I can review the series 79 after.
Truth be told I'm pretty happy with a 45/46 quant, I really want to spend my time hammering in an getting my verbal (Especially CR) to the best that it can be. In my experience the Veritas quant is harder than OG, but the veritas verbal is easier and really isn't that great. My goal is really to fix my CR and stop spending 3 minutes per CR question. I just want to make sure that I'm studying the best way i can 57 days out. Do you think it's important to complete the whole OG?Or should i take a more strategic approach regarding my areas of weakness?

Thanks,
TooBig

TooBig2Fail · Answer

Hey  ScottTargetTestPrep ,

I just want to make sure that I'm studying the best way i can 57 days out. Do you think it's important to complete the whole OG?Or should i take a more strategic approach regarding my areas of weakness? I'm trying to understand just how important completing the whole OG is versus focusing on my weak areas like CR. I just responded to Rich below with a lot of context that might better help you understand my situation.

Thanks for your time,
TooBig

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi TooBig2Fail,

Since it's been about 2 MONTHS since you took those 2 practice CATs, we really need to better define your skills right NOW to make sure that you are focused on the proper subjects for this next phase of your studies. Thus, you should plan to take a NEW, FULL-LENGTH CAT sometime soon (perhaps this weekend). Once you have that next Score, you should post back here and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies.

While the most realistic CATs available are the 6 from GMAC, retaking a CAT that you've already taken is NOT a realistic way to assess your skills - since you will likely see some 'repeat' questions that you have already faced. Unfortunately, seeing even a couple of repeats can 'throw off' the Scoring Algorithm and impact your pacing, energy levels, fatigue, etc. (meaning that they would likely all appear to be better than they actually are). Thankfully, the CATs from Kaplan, MGMAT and Veritas are all 'close enough' to the real thing that they will provide you with a relatively realistic score assessment (assuming that you correctly take the CAT in a realistic fashion). If you're not a fan of the Veritas CATs, then you should consider the Kaplan or MGMAT CATs next.

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

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi TooBig,

I certainly think it's fine to get through the OG. That said, 57 days is a lot of time. I think you'll have time to get through more than just the OG. You know what I mean?

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