Relevance GMAT Official Advanced Questions (book) - Quant

Question

Hi all,

I have been studying for GMAT for 2,5 months by now and after reaching Q51 on PT4 and Q50 on PT6, I really thought my quant knowledge was well enough to ace the GMAT. However after I tried to solve the Quant questions of GMAT Advanced (the book), I noticed that these questions were far more difficult and harder to solve than all the questions I got on my PT's (where I scored Q50/Q51).

So now my question is the following: Are the questions of the GMAT Advanced book not representative or are the established scores of my PT's unreliable if one compares it with the real GMAT exam? Is there someone who experienced the same as I did?

Thanks in advance!

Quentin

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Quentin,

If you were to Score in the Q49 - Q51 range on the Official GMAT, then you wouldn't see more than about 5-6 questions that would consider to be 'really hard.' Thus, comparing an entire book of upper-level questions (in which you'll see the toughest versions of just about every Quant concept that's tested) to the handful of tough questions that you'll see on any one practice CAT/mock is NOT a valid comparison.

Assuming that you took reputable CATs under realistic testing conditions that match-up with what you will face when you take the Official GMAT, then those Score results are likely an accurate assessment of what you could score on the Official GMAT. Keep in mind that the GMAT will always give you the score that you EARN - meaning that just because you scored a Q51 on a CAT doesn't mean you'll hit that same mark on the Official Exam... unless you do all of the necessary work to EARN that Score.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
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)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

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

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Impressive to get a Q51 on any Official Mock.

qdbeurme · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thank you for your elaborated and quick response. So if i got your explanation right, the questions on the practice tests of GMAT are representative for the real exam, where I will also get 5-6 hard questions (only) IF I reach the score of Q50 as well?

Beneath you can find my responses to your questions:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
I started to prepare for the exam on the 23th of september and did in the beginning 1-2h/day of practice. The last 3 weeks I practiced approximately 4-5h a day on GMAT

2) What study materials have you used so far?
I began by doing PT1, before studying. I scored 500- on this test, so I knew that there was a lot of work to do. I began studying by making all the questions of the Official Guide and Verbal/Quant Review.
After 4 weeks I did the PT1 again and scored 660 (all the questions I got on both Quant and Verbal were different than before). But after I noticed that I missed some theory about Quant I started studying the Theory bundle of 124 pages (can be found on GMAT Club). This helped me a lot as it resulted in a Q49+ score. So I really advice everyone to start studying first the Theory bundle before doing any PT's or official exercises. After doing the Official Guide I finally discovered GMATClub. So from then till now I'm only doing exercises (approximately 100-120 questions/day) that can be found on GMAT club. Furthermore I really enjoy the timer. This helped me a lot to track my time for each response.

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)?
Up till now I did 5 PT's
2x PT1 (1x Q35, V18 -> 450 on 24th of Sept. /// 1x Q50, V28 -> 660 on 21th of Oct
1x PT2 (Q50, V40 -> 740 on 23th of Nov
1x PT4 (Q51, V42 -> 760 on 29th of Nov (here I experienced the Quant questions to be extremely easy, anyone who had the same?)
1x PT6 (Q50, V38 -> 720 on 5th of Dec)
My exam is scheduled on the 15th of December so I will take PT 3 and 5 in the upcoming week. As you can see there is still some improvement possible for my Verbal. Would it be possible to give me some advice? The latest PT I had on each of the 3(RC, SC, CR) topics 2-3 errors. So there is no topic where I scored far more better than another. What kind of questions are the best to practice in the upcoming week and from what sources?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
As high as possible of course

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?
I'm planning to apply before the end of this year. Currently I am reaching out for London Business School, Imperial College Business School, HEC to do a MSc in "applied" finance program.

5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to? I'm planning to apply before the end of this year. Currently I am reaching out for London Business School, Imperial College Business School, HEC to do a MSc in "applied" finance program.

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Quentin,

To start, the process of taking (and reviewing) a CAT/mock requires a significant amount of energy and effort - and takes time to 'recover' from. This is one of the reasons why you typically should not take more than 1 CAT per week - and your last CAT should be taken about 1 week before Test Day. Since you just took a CAT yesterday - and your Official Exam is in 9 days - taking 2 additional CATs is probably NOT a good idea (taking one more is fine, but taking 2 would increase your chances of 'burning out' before Test Day). That same idea applies to your studies during these last 8 days - you do not want to do too much studying (so NO "cramming"). Light review and general practice is fine - and in the last few days, you should try to get some extra rest so that you can go into Test Day calm, clear-headed and ready to work.

To clarify what we discussed about 'hard' questions in the Quant section, since it's not clear which types of questions YOU find most difficult (or WHY you find them difficult), the number of questions that YOU will find to be particularly challenging may vary a bit on Test Day. Based on the Algorithm though, you won't see more than about 5-6 Quant questions that are objectively 'really hard.'

Based on your CAT results, you don't have any big 'weak spots' in the Quant or Verbal sections, so you would have to nitpick your performances in those CATs to define WHY you've gotten questions wrong (and if there were any particular areas that you think you need to put some extra time into). Since you're interested in Finance Programs, if you score in the Q49 - Q51 range and have a reasonably strong Overall Score, then you would likely be fine with applying as you have planned to.

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

Hovkial · Answer

The quant questions in the GMAT Advanced book are indeed much more difficult than those found in the official guides and some of the prep questions. They are all questions taken from past exams and provide good practice.

As to whether they are representative of quant questions that you may see on the actual exam, that is debatable. Since these are retired questions, the questions may or may not be similar to the new ones that are currently used. I would suggest not anticipating seeing similar types of questions, but rather to use these questions to help refine your concepts.

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