Is OG 2016 outdated?

Hi Luigi,

To answer your initial question: NO - the GMAT2016 OG is not outdated. All of the material in that book is still great practice material. However, considering your score goal, you will almost certainly need more than just a few books to get to that level. A 700 is approximately the 90th percentile, meaning that 90% of Test Takers never score that high (regardless of how long they study or the number of times they take the GMAT). Thus, you're going to have to put in some significant effort to get to that level - and you'll need to learn the proper knowledge and Tactics. Many Test Takers also spend 3 months (or more) of consistent study time before they hit their 'peak' scores, so you might need more study time than you've planned for.

Since it sounds like you're just beginning your studies, then it would be a good idea to take a FULL-LENGTH practice CAT Test; you can download 2 for free from www.mba.com (and they come with some additional practice materials). If you want to do a little studying first, so that you can familiarize yourself with the basic content and question types, then that's okay - but you shouldn't wait too long to take that initial CAT. That score will give us a good sense of your natural strengths and weaknesses and will help provide a basis for comparison as you continue to study. 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 come up with a study plan.

I'd like to know a bit more about your timeline and goals:
1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) What Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

Hi EMPOWERgmatRichC,

Thanks for your response! I just took my first full-length practice exam from the GMATPrep software, and I scored 510. In detail, I scored 38 on Quantitative, 22 on Verbal, and 8 on Integrated Reasoning. I guess I will have a lot of work to do to reach my desired score.

Regarding your other two questions, I plan on applying for a Master of Science in International Management by January 2018 (most deadlines fall on Jan. 15, 2018). At the moment, my schools list include Rotterdam School of Management (min. 600), Vienna University of Economics and Business (avg. 650), and Stockholm School of Economics (avg. 683).

Any tips will be appreciated, thanks!

Hi Luigi,

To start, a 510 is a decent 'starting score' (the average score on the Official GMAT hovers around 540-550 most years). That having been said, to raise a 510 to a 680+, you will have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections - and all of that work will likely take at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study. Based on the Schools that you plan to apply to, you don't necessarily need a 680+ though. This is all meant to say that you'll likely need to either change your timeline or change your score goal. Considering the application deadlines you're dealing with, you certainly appear to have time to extend your studies.

1) Is there a specific reason why you're limiting your studies to just 2 months?
2) Going forward, how many hours do you think you can consistently study each week?

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

Hi Rich,

The main reason I set such an early deadline is because the Stockholm School of Economics has an early application deadline on November 15, 2017. Another reason is that if I don't get a satisfactory score on my first attempt, I will have time to try it a second time in December considering that all schools have application deadlines in January.

What do you mean when you say:

I set a goal of 680+ mainly because of the SSE has an average of 683, and I don't know how to interpret the minimum score of RSM. I think that scoring above average will give me a competitive advantage over other applicants.

To answer your second question, I made a rough schedule for the next 7 schedules that consist of 2 hours per day on Tuesday and Thursday and 5 hours per day on both Saturday and Sunday. Do you think this will be sufficient to get at least close to 680?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Luigi

Hi Luigi,

While the advice that "the higher the GMAT score, the better" is generally true, the GMAT Score is just one 'piece' of the application - and no GMAT Score will guarantee you anything (not even an 800). If you know how to calculate the average of a group of numbers, then you know that not everyone who got into SSE last year scored above 680 - in fact, LOTS of them would have scored under that average. This is meant to say that if you have a reasonably strong OVERALL profile, then you probably don't "need" a 680+. If you're convinced that you do need to score that high, then that brings us back to one of my prior points:

To raise a 510 to a 680+, you will have to make significant improvements to how you handle BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections - and all of that work will likely take at least another 3 months of consistent, guided study. So I don't think that your current timeline/plan will be enough to get you to that goal score. To be fair, no one here knows what you're truly capable of, so perhaps you could improve that much in under 2 months. You would have a much greater chance though if you gave yourself the 3-4 months of study time that you actually have available.

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

I would agree that OG2016 is not outdated. For most people 2016 or 2017 will be just fine as most of the questions are the same anyway.

As you study OG - regardless of which edition, you may want to track your errors and perhaps view videos of how other expert test takers approach each question. GMAT Pill provides a tracker like this with video walk-throughs to accompany your journey here:

https://www.gmatpill.com/official-guide- ... ition=2016

You can learn more about GMAT Pill at https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials

It'll be hard for anyone to say whether that will be "sufficient". You should start, and then make any adjustments that may become necessary.