Should we take GMAT Official Guides seriously ?

Question

Hi all,
While preparing for the GMAT exam, I came across this argument on many posts and forums that GMAT OG questions are easier than the questions on the actual exam and hence students should vouch for more study materials.

I wanted to know as how valid this statement is? If this statement holds true, then which study material should we refer to in order to boost our preparation ?

Gnpth · Answer

OG is by far the best book available. Since it is from the makers of the test themselves.

Also they are retired official questions. There are plenty of version available. You can use those study.

OG is must have. Once you are done with your preparation. You need to apply those strategies on the OG questions. Redo all incorrect ones as many times as possible.

Using OG will help read the GMAT style writing.

These are some of the benefits of using OG

Hope it helps..

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Depending on what score you are targeting, the difficulty of questions found in the Official Guides generally caters to the 600-650 crowd. It does not have very many hard questions.

You can find the distribution of difficulty in Last Year's or this year's OG Overview file:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-gu ... 29823.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/guide-to-the ... 44081.html

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi akshitkg,

The OG is a fantastic source for practice questions, so you would likely find it quite useful during your studies. Since you're asking about it, It sounds like you're just starting out. Is that true? Have you done any studying so far?

If you're just beginning, 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 bit of practice first, so that you can familiarize yourself with the general content and question types first, then that's fine - but you shouldn't wait too long to take that initial CAT. 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) What is your goal score?
2) When are you planning to take the GMAT?
3) When are you planning to apply to Business School?

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

AjiteshArun · Answer

The OGs have some of the best practice questions available in the market. Keep in mind that the GMAT is meant to measure a wide range of ability levels, so the OGs are not focused on (say) only high difficulty questions. You will still learn a lot from the official questions you do, so don't limit yourself to tough questions.

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Should we take GMAT Official Guides seriously ?

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