How hard are the OG verbal questions in general?

Question

I just finished the RC questions on the verbal section of the OG verbal... Got ~80% correct so needs tons of improvement(mostly on history stuff..). I am curious as to how difficult are these questions overall compared to the real test? The book does not say which difficulty is which question and i dont see a particular pattern in my incorrect questions. Is it roughly the difficulty i would expect or people find the real exam harder? thanks!

mohater · Answer

The hardest OG verbal problems are easier than the hardest real GMAT problems. I would guess the toughest questions in the OG verbal guide are in the 600-700 difficulty range.

phoenix09 · Answer

Also remember that you will be under timed scenario, stress, and your mind will be semi-fried by mid-verbal section...so even an easy question might seem hard....

topher · Answer

What's the best way to prepare for RC? I feel this is my strongest area in Verbal, but I didn't purchase any books for it (e.g. MGMAT RC or Powerscore RC).

If I consistently get about 2 RC questions wrong in an entire Verbal section, I feel that there is not much I can do right? Also, to get let's say 40V, 45V, or 50V, how many questions can you get wrong in each scenario?

phoenix09 · Answer

IMO, it is beneficial to practice with passages that are dense with complex info. I find that The Economist is a great resource for this. Especially since it has articles on science, culture, etc. Also, the Editorial page of a major newspaper has nice size passages. Also articles in FT, WSJ on business earnings, etc since they mix numbers with words. Practice reading at a quick pace, making a mental note of what might be pertinent and where it is located. After whatever you read, do a quick mental summary of the article, its format, and tone.

Skimming a passage never worked for me. I just found reading the way I described above every day built up my reading and retention skills.

Skimming a passage never worked for me. I just found reading the way I described above every day built up my reading and retention skills.

Av · Answer

I've had a similar experience with RC. I typically miss about 2 questions per exam, but I'm not sure if a book would be a significant help. One way you might be able to improve is if you're consistently missing the same type of question (inference, tone, etc.).

40V vs. 45V vs. 50V - Although this varies significantly based on when you miss questions and their proximity to one another, this is the  best case scenario  from what I've seen (reading posts).

40V ~10 Questions Wrong
45V ~5 Questions Wrong
50V ~0-1 Question Wrong

Don't take that to the bank, because someone may step in and correct me, but I use those approximate numbers as a guide.

vannu · Answer

Could you tell how hard the SC questions are in OG, please? I hardly get 60% correct.
Please pour some tips to improve in SC.

shaselai · Answer

couple of the passages from the OG 12 really beat me up - the last couple were really hard to understand and i ended up guessing on them... In a real test do I just have to read it again and again or make educated guesses when the passage is really difficult to understand?

topher · Answer

Alright thanks for the 40V/45V/50V breakdown. I would like to get myself to 45V, but right now I am upper 30's. Most of my wrong q's come from SC (working through MGMAT SC). CR is ok, but I need to work on it as well. RC, as stated before, is pretty good.

mohater · Answer

What are you using to learn the material? If you're scoring that low, something is wrong with your approach to the problems.

vannu · Answer

I am using MGMAT SC and the Spideys notes. What else should I read? When I do the same question second time(without seeing the right answer),I get it right most of the time.

I split the questions as suggested by the SC and after the completion of the chapter, I am working on the questions. How can I improve? Is there any scope to improve? WHen it comes to RC, most of the times my strike is around 75-100% depending on the passages. Please suggest me few things which would help me improve my score.

shaselai · Answer

i just started to do SC following MGMAT SC's question suggestion. I guess since the questions are laid out by topic you could see what topic you are getting wrong on and practice that particular topic.

for RC, can you find anything particular about the passage itself that you are getting ~75% wrong on? I know for me i found couple of the theory/economic passages to be extremely boring and hard to read/understand while the science and other parts were a breeze with decent results. I am planning to go through all the MGMAT books and the suggested questions (which will cover most the ques in the OG) and after all that go through the OGs again and try to see if i make the same mistakes again etc.

Do you also try to cross out answers you know are wrong when doing problems? I am doing that and for questions i am not sure on i put question marks so i will check it out even if i "guessed" it right.

mohater · Answer

It sounds like you have an approach issue. MGMAT SC and Spiedys notes are helpful, but (from what I'm gathering) your shortcoming seems to be material and not strategy.

Getting a question right the second time around is useful, but you want to consistently score 80% or higher on practice problems.

Do you know what concepts in SC give you trouble (tense, agreements in #, order of events, idioms, etc.)? Simply reading the chapter and then doing the problem doesn't mean you've acquired the proper written English rules. Try to be aware ALL the time to improve your proper written English (writing emails, speaking, IM'ing, etc.). The more aware you are of proper written English, the better you'll do on the SC section.

Try to figure out what's tripping you up in SC.

Different people will swear by different approaches for RC problems. I found writing a sentence for each paragraph helped me retain information, and also ranking the solutions (depending on the question) helped eliminated obvious incorrect answers.

vannu · Answer

I get 75-80 percent correct in RC questions.Most of the times,I miss the primary purpose and suggest or inference(details) questions.I am sure with practice I can improve.

I am doing 30-45 SC problems at a time so I may be rushing when attempting the answers.I'll try working 10 problems at a time and see if I can reach to 80 %. And I guess I should concentrate on the rules and approach.Another problem is I try to read one or two answer choices(not in an order, mostly catchy answer choices) and pick one of them.I don't know when I'll give up this...

vannu · Answer

I have problem with the tense, order of events. Most of the times, I rush..I work on 30-45 SC problems at a time and tend to rush..One bad habit is I try to fix one answer by just seeing one or two answer choices and most of the times, I ignore to read rest of the answer choices...Another pattern I observed is, I get 3-4 questions straight incorrect... I am not a native speaker so I should push myself to cross the barriers.

Please suggest.

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How hard are the OG verbal questions in general?

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