转一篇从Gmatclub论坛上看到的文章，关于OG13th/12th的对比

sunzhaoshen

Hello Everyone,

The Official Guide 13th edition is now available for sale and can be purchased from Amazon for $28. Click here for the exact link. Those in US can get it from Amazon on March 22 (if they place order right away). We received an early copy from the publishers Wiley about a month back. Wiley notified us that an e-book is also in works (Kindle edition, iPAD edition etc.), but it has not been released so far. To our knowledge, these editions will release around March 19.

Our Initial Assessment

Disclosure: Please note that this assessment has been done using the evaluation copy we received from Wiley. We have reason to believe that the evaluation copy is very similar to the released version. However, there may be differences in the released version, and we will redo the evaluation once we get the print version in about a week.
On first count both the books, OG12 & OG13, appear very similar. Both have 840 pages, approximately the same number of verbal questions, and very similar sections. However, there are three very compelling reasons to purchase the 13th edition.

1. An entirely new section in Integrated Reasoning – about 15 pages
2. Access code for NEW! Companion website that includes 50 Integrated Reasoning questions
3. About 20% new questions both in quant and verbal.

Please find a brief overview of the Sentence Correction and Reading Comprehension sections below:

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SENTENCE CORRECTION

Our assessment is divided into two parts - what has changed and what hasn’t. Please read below:

Things that have not changed:
Here is a list of things that have not changed:
1. Introduction section on “What is tested”
2. The number of questions (OG 13 = OG12 = 140)
3. The format of explanations

What has changed?
Approximately 25 questions have been deleted and have been replaced by 25 new questions. Here is a listing of questions – both deleted and added.

LISTING OF DELETED QUESTIONS OF OG12
1,3,7,23,25,28,29,30,39,40,42,47,63,69,76,89,90,92,94,95,97,122,124,130,139

LISTING OF ADDED QUESTIONS IN OG13
1,2,4,7,9,15,19,26,35,38,40,48,56,65,68,71,74,79,87,97,107,111,114,132,138

We are still doing our assessment in terms of the category to which these questions belong.

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READING COMPREHENSION

Things that have not changed:
As in the sentence correction section, there are no major changes in the Reading Comprehension section. The introduction section on what is tested remains the same. The question types (Main point, Detail, Inference, Application, Structure, and Tone) remain the same. In fact, the total number of questions are unchanged – OG 12 has 139 questions and so does OG 13.
ð Number of RC questions = OG 13 = OG12 = 139

What has changed?
5 Passages have been deleted from OG 12 and replaced by 7 new passages. The passage that have been replaced as follows:

LISTING OF DELETED PASSAGES OF OG12
2 (Bio Sciences), 4(Business), 6(Business), 9(Social Science), 13(Business)

LISTING OF ADDED PASSAGES IN OG13
1 (Bio Science), 4 (Physical Science), 5 (Social Science), 9 (Business), 12 (Business), 17 (Social Science), 22(Bio Sciences)


What can be inferred?
Given that we have more passages but the same number of questions (139), it can be inferred that the new passages contain on average fewer questions per passage than the passages they have replaced. .

Are the passages entirely new?
We are not sure. We did a Google search on some of the passages and found that at least 2 passages listed on various forums, indicating that these may be retired GMAT prep passages.
?
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SUMMARY

The fundamentals that GMAT tests have not changed. While there have been some enhancements, our initial assessment is that the change is evolutionary rather than revolutionary (with the exception of Integrated Reasoning). Hence, those who are taking their GMAT in the next 15 days have little reason to worry even if they don’t have access to the book.

e-GMAT courses
We take great pride in ensuring that our courses cover all aspects mentioned in the latest Official Guide. The Reading Comprehension course has already taken these changes into account and will be “OG 13 compliant” on release. As we delve more into OG 13, we will elaborate more on the changes in SC and CR. All the e-GMAT courses will be updated (question lists, any new concepts, new examples) within the next 30 days. All the current and future customers will get these upgrades free of charge.

Should you purchase OG 13?
We recommend that you do purchase OG 13 if you have 1 month or more before your exam because
1. An entirely new section in Integrated Reasoning – about 15 pages
2. Access code for NEW! Companion website that includes 50 Integrated Reasoning questions
3. About 20% new questions both in quant and verbal.

Good luck!!

wikiwang

备考还剩整整一个月 速战速决 拒绝OG13~~~

zty1402

很给力！已有OG12在手，希望CD能尽快有13电子版~

cpeteryu

GMATPill’s Review of Official Guide 13 (OG13) for new GMAT Exam: book is great but not a 700+ guarantee


In early April of 2012, the GMAC folks who administer the GMAT exam updated their practice exam book.

In the past 3 years, everyone’s been using OG12 (12th edition) to study for their GMATs. Certainly, every few years there’s a few updates. This update is bigger for a variety reasons.

There’s a new section called integrated reasoning, and a slight change in mix of questions for SC and for CR.

And… it’s 839 pages. O_O!!


There is no place to get practice questions for Integrated Reasoning (at least for the first few months) without getting them from the Official Guide or the GMATPrep 2.0 software. (You can get the IR separately, see link below)

83% of the OG13 questions are the same as the OG12 questions. They basically removed 17% of the old questions and replaced them with new questions – so you’re not getting *more* questions – you’re simply getting questions that are most reflective of the latest version of the exam.

There are 907 questions – 158 of them are NEW. There is an additional 50 Integrated Reasoning questions but these questions are not in the book. You have to access them with a username/password on a companion website to the book (see below)



VERBAL

Sentence Correction – Similar concepts. You’ll find a few more questions that might lead you to two answer choices – one of them accurately captures the meaning of the question while the other won’t.

Critical Reasoning – same, some of them wordy and you’ll have to think through.  There are more wordy ones now that ask you to fill in the blank, basically complete the logical argument and fill in the missing piece.

Reading Comprehension – as with almost all tests, there’s a reading component. This is largely the same – passages in the same areas such as humanities, science, art, history. Staying awake is the challenge so you’ll need a strategy.

QUANT

Problem Solving – GMAC swaps in 45 new questions here. They vary in difficulty – but don’t be fooled. If you’re going for a 600+ and 700+ score, you won’t even see many of these easier questions. Don’t be fooled that 45 new questions here can let you “up” your game to above your scoring range – naturally on the exam if you’re doing well, you’re only going to keep getting more difficult questions and the easy ones from this book won’t really come up.

Data Sufficiency – GMAC swaps in 36 new questions here. They appear to be more difficult (the thought process is the same, just the wordiness can be annoying). But again, on the exam if you’re getting them correct, you’re just going to keep getting more and more difficult questions.

INTEGRATED

Integrated Reasoning – THIS SECTION IS NOT IN THE BOOK – it’s an online component with 50 questions which you can access with an account. The book has 11 pages dedicated to introducing you to the Integrated Reasoning section – it covers the 4 types of questions which takes up the bulk of it:

Multi-source Reasoning
Table Analysis
Graphics Interpretation
Two Part Analysis

See the IR post for more detail

If you are only interested in the IR section you can purchase it here for $10 (cheaper than $28 for the book):
http://www.mba.com/store/product-info.aspx?ProductID=5032

The companion guide login site is here:

http://www.wiley.com/go/officialgmatir



Key Takeaways

1) There will never be better questions to use than the ones from the Official Guide – they are after all, THE questions that have shown up in GMAT exam. In this sense, OG12 and/or OG13 are essential

2) Should you buy OG13? If you want the most accurate reflection of types of questions in the exam and are the 700+ type (meaning you’ll actually notice the type of question you’re getting wrong and that it’s “newer” than what was out there before), then yes, get the OG13.

3) Use the OG for practice – not for training. Critical reasoning question for thought: Buying OG13 will get me a 700+ score.

There is a flaw in this statement. Getting access to prior exam questions does not imply that you can answer that type of question in another form and in the amount of time that you’re alloted. OG provides practice questions – not exam strategy.

4) OG is the standard. There really is no reason to rate this book 3 star or 5 star – it’s the standard. GMAC is not here to train how your brain thinks – it’s here to give you sample questions from past exams.



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hwxdjiayouyou

期待电子版，纸质版真是超贵