Use 2020 or 2021 official study guide if taking GMAT in 2020?

Question

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be taking GMAT this year (2020), and I'm not sure whether I should buy the 2020 Official study guide, or the 2021 Official study guide to prepare?
Is the 2021 guide for those who will be taking the test in 2021?

Thanks!

fauji · Answer

Hi, Check here. It will help you in decision making: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-official ... 22631.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-officia ... 22427.html Hope it helps! Thanks.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

OG 20 and 21 have no such major difference except 150+ new Official questions in OG 21.
If you already have OG 2020 edition, Then don't purchase new edition.
If you are yet to buy OG , Invest in newer edition.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Behold the Holy Grail and I don't see a reason as to why you wanna buy the OGs... At all
 Official Guides Directory

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi mariazx,

Many of the questions in an Official Guide carry-over to the next version of the book, meaning that you would be fine using any recent version of the Official Guide (going all the way back to the GMAT2015). Thus, either the GMAT2020 or GMAT2021 would be fine to work with. That having been said, while the OG books are great sources for practice questions, they're not designed to teach you Tactics, patterns or the little 'secrets' behind the GMAT - for those, you'll need Course-oriented materials. To that end, you might want to work on the OG a little later on in your studies.

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 take 2 for free at 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 3.5 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

office · Answer

as far as i know there is no major differentiation between those two versions. but just to be safe you may want to check both !

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Maria, The OG 2020 and 2021 are almost similar. It’s just that OG 2021 has a few new questions than OG 2020. So, OG 2021 would be a better choice if you want to buy. An OG has nothing to do with the year in which you appear for GMAT as question types remain the same. Assuming that you are in the initial stages of your preparation, let me share a few tips of how to start your ideal GMAT preparation. While OG is a great source for GMAT questions, it is definitely not the ideal way to start your preparation. I would rather suggest to take a mock on mba.com and look at where you are standing. Based on the score, you can analyse the scores and start working towards the preparation. The ideal thing would be to be to create a study plan with proper deadlines. An ideal study plan should consist the following things : Step 1 - Start working on one section at a time. I recommend starting from your stronger section. Now in this section take up one topic at a time and master this topic in 3 simple phases Phase 1 - learn the concepts tested on GMAT. Phase 2 - learn a methodical approach to solve questions. This is the most crucial step. Most people don't do this and that's where they struggle. You can check out GMATWhiz as it is an application driven course that teaches you a methodical approach for every question. Phase 3 - Practice questions and identify your weak areas right away to improve them. Don't move to the next topic unless you're getting at least the easy and medium questions right consistently. Follow these 3 phases to learn all topics. Step 2 - Once you've learned all topics, then start ironing out the gaps by taking sectional tests. Take a sectional test for each module (read SC, CR, RC, etc.) and then identify weak areas and work on improving them. Repeat step 2 and take a few mocks until you reach your target. While doing so focus on improving the method you follow to solve questions because that's what stops people from scoring 700+. Hope it helped. You can check the free trial of GMATWhiz at https://www.gmatwhiz.com. Feel free to contact if you have any further queries regarding your preparation and the resources to be used.

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Use 2020 or 2021 official study guide if taking GMAT in 2020?

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