Working with OG

Question

Hey everyone!

I'm done with the MGMAT Quant books and am starting working with the OG now. Can anybody tell me what the best strategy is now, do I just do question after question? What about working on timing etc.?

Any tips are very appreciated!

Thanks,

Andy

BM · Answer

Hi, andih!

You know, my first strategy was exactly yours: finish all five Manhattan books and then tackle the OG Quant and then OG 12. After all, this process seemed okay for verbal. I finished Manhattan SC and Powerscore CR and then moved on to OG Verbal. The problem is that verbal was my strength at the time and the OG Verbal is too easy. Plus, English is my native language.

For math, though, things went terribly wrong. By the time I reached the OG, I forgot most of the lessons from the earlier quant books. I completely bombed the OG Quant. The first half was easy, but the majority of questions were too difficult after that. My second approached involved, among other things, re-reading the Manhattan math books and completing the assigned OG questions for each section. In others words, both were done at the same time. This way, I immediately reinforced the concepts from the guidebooks.

You might have two concerns with this approach: (1) you will run out of questions and have too much time left between the OG and the test, and (2) re-reading takes a lot of time.

Don't worry too much about (1). There's GMATClub tests or Jeff Sackmann's math sets to keep you busy. For (2), reading will actually be much quicker the second time - especially if you skip the end-of-chapter questions.

But that's just my opinion and experience. You could very well just jump into the OG books and everything will be alright. That approach has certainly worked well for many others. Make sure that you use both the OG Quant and OG Verbal, though.

Hope this helps.

BM · Answer

I forgot to answer your question about timing. The best way to get your timing down is to become familiar with the concepts. This is done through guidebooks, practice questions, and review. I realize that this reply is a bit basic and obvious, but it is important.

But as a general rule, mark a practice question down as "incorrect" if it takes longer than two minutes. By all means finish it, but repeat the problem later that day or the next. Overtime, you will condition yourself to stay within the two-minute limit.

Also, see for more information: timing-strategies-on-the-gmat-80176.html

andih · Answer

Hey bmillan,

thanks for the reply which was really helpful. I think I'll go with the way you suggested and do all the og questions mentioned in each chapter in the mgmat books. I still have 1 1/2month till the test, so we'll see how that goes time-wise!

Cheers!

TomB · Answer

Hi bmillan01

can you tell me best source for practicing verbal and quant as i already completed my mgmat guides and og. I posted my concern regarding this so many times but nobody replied. Can you help me.

BM · Answer

TomB,

If your math skills are in the 40-plus range, look into the GMATClub tests. For verbal, LSAT sources for LR (CR) and RC are pretty reliable. For SC, however, OG material is still the best source. There should be enough practice questions on the verbal forums to keep you busy.

TomB · Answer

Thank you very much for your insights. really helpful for me

andih · Answer

one more thing: i just re-checked the 3 month study plan thread and found this info:

"After you are done with the math section - start taking the math portion of the tests you have.
Evaluate results and decided if you need to spend more time in Math and patch up certain weak areas or move on to Verbal. This decision will be based on your target GMAT score. If you are looking for high 600's and 700's, I would not move past Quant unless I was able to score around Q44 (again Kaplan tests excluded as they are much harder)"

So after completing all the OG quant questions mentioned in the MGMAT books I'm just doing the math portions of the CAT's? Or does it make more sense to do verbal OG after quant OG is done AND THEN do full length tests after?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm getting a little nervous right now seeing the time flying by (my test is in 6 weeks, May 07th)

Thanks,

Andreas

BM · Answer

For sure, it's much better to make the practice tests as realistic as possible. So take full-length tests (with AWA) under timed conditions. Anything else defeats the purpose of the practice tests. As for your study plan, do whatever fits your needs. Whether verbal or math comes first in your schedule is a matter of personal preference. I personally studied both sections at the same time. While its' perfectly natural to be a bit nervous, please don't let this distract you from your goals. If you're very nervous all the time, then you're not in control. :wink:

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