Finished Manhattan Prep Q and OG, what now?

[JakeL840]

Hi!

I'm taking the test on July 16th and I've finished all the math strategy guides from MGMAT and all the OG questions (Math).

I was wondering what other practice questions I could do to stay warmed up until the actual test? Princeton Review? Kaplan material?

I understand MGMAT is one of the harder and more challenging courses. Will Kaplan and Princeton Review be too easy?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Hi!

I'm taking the test on July 16th and I've finished all the math strategy guides from MGMAT and all the OG questions (Math).

I was wondering what other practice questions I could do to stay warmed up until the actual test? Princeton Review? Kaplan material?

I understand MGMAT is one of the harder and more challenging courses. Will Kaplan and Princeton Review be too easy?

Thanks!

This question would be better placed in the General GMAT Strategy folder (first folder on the forum homepage). If you have more questions to ask, it's better to ask them in that folder.

First and foremost:
- I hear "I've finished all the OG questions" a lot.

In the vast majority of these cases, the student has just raced through the problems, with little (if any) review. Worse, the "review" often consists of just re-doing the problem in the same way as before"”"”which isn't worth much.

To be able to say, truly and honestly, "I'm done with the OG problems", you should be able to say "yes" to all of these items:

- Have you found every solution method you can possibly find for the problems?
Most official problems"”"”including virtually all of the "hard" ones"”"”can be solved in more than one way. If you're only finding one way to solve each problem, you're not fully prepared.

- Have you emphasized solution methods with which you're LESS comfortable, or at which you're LESS proficient?
E.g., if you're an "algebra person", have you spent MORE time on backsolving/plugging numbers/testing cases than on algebra?
This is THE MAIN POINT OF STUDYING.
Sure, it feels good to solve problems in ways you're already proficient at. But, in the end, that won't lead to improvement.
Improvement consists of taking your worst or least favorite methods, and practicing the living heck out of them. Yup.
Less fun, for sure. But no one said improvement had to be fun.

- Have you done the same thing, even on problems you find "easy"?
The best place to broaden your skill set is on problems you think are "easy". (If you were a musician and you wanted to "get creative", you wouldn't do it on pieces that were still hard for you to play. You'd do it on the "easy" ones that you can play without even really thinking.)

If you can't say yes to ALL of these, then you're not really "done" with the OG.
(:

[RonPurewal]

Also:

"- There are archives of problems from the GMAT PREP software. Lots of them are floating around the internet.
I have one, but it's somewhat old (based on the 2007 gmat prep software). If you want it, post an email address on here, and I'll send it to you (and then delete the address from your post).

As a warning, don't post your primary ("real") e-mail address if you do this; just create a throw-away gmail account. (If you post an e-mail address on a public forum, it's almost a certainly that you'll be inundated with spam.)


"- The MGMAT Advanced Quant book has some very good practice to instill/solidify the kind of pattern-recognition skills you'll need on the exam.

[JakeL840]

Thank you so much for the reply Ron. I can't honestly say "Yes" to all of those bolded points but I have kept an extensive error log and will get started on your suggestions right away.

I also just remembered about the 90 free practice questions from the GMAC and will also start on Veritas Question Bank afterwards.

My CATs are as follows:

MGMAT:
CAT 1: 630
CAT 2: 650
CAT 3: 670
CAT 4: 700
CAT 5: 660 (Terrible sleep night before)

Veritas:
- 740

GMAC Practice Test 1:
- 750

All of those in Chronological order. I have noticed that without a doubt, MGMAT prep questions have got my brain thinking in directions I would have never thought of before and thus improved my problem solving and logical reasoning skills. I will update after I take my test on the 16th but for now I have to say thank you MGMAT!

[jnelson0612]

You are welcome! Good luck!

[RonPurewal]

Try to stick with official problems as much as possible.

The official problems have a distinct style, which few other sources can mock up effectively. If you do too many questions from random third parties, you risk diluting, or even distorting, your understanding of how the official problems work.

Good luck.