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	<title>2016 Official Guides &#8211; GMAT</title>
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		<title>Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 4</title>
		<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-4/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2015 22:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Critical Reasoning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Announcements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reading Comprehension]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sentence Correction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2016 Official Guides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Verbal]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=9702</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve just finished trying all of the new verbal OG problems. (If you haven’t yet read my earlier installments, start here.) This installment includes my summary of All Things Verbal as well as lists of the new problems by book and question type. Also, we’re hard at work writing new solutions to add to our [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-4/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 4</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve just finished trying all of the new verbal OG problems. (If you haven’t yet read my earlier installments, <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-1/">start here</a>.) This installment includes my summary of All Things Verbal as well as lists of the new problems by book and question type.</p>
<p>Also, we’re hard at work writing new solutions to add to our GMAT Navigator program, so if you have access to Navigator, you can start to check for new solutions there in—best guess—July.</p>
<h2>What’s new in Verbal?</h2>
<p>Now that I’ve seen everything, I’ve been able to spot some trends across all of the added and dropped questions. For example, across both The Official Guide for GMAT<em>®</em> Review (aka the big book) and The Official Guide for GMAT<em>®</em> Verbal Review (aka verbal-only or the verbal supplement), 6 science passages were added (out of 11 new passages total), while only 3 were dropped. In addition, 3 social science passages were added (compared to 5 dropped) and 2 business passages were added (compared to 2 dropped).</p>
<p>So, in the books at least, there’s a slight shift towards science. It’s unclear whether this signals an actual change in emphasis on the test, though; these may just be the best retired passages that they wanted to use.</p>
<p>For Critical Reasoning, the same total number of questions were added and dropped. The differential (added minus dropped) for Strengthen questions was +8. Further, 6 of the 22 total new Strengthen questions are fill in the blank (FitB) format, and no new FiTB&#8217;s were introduced that were not Strengthen questions.</p>
<p>The differential for Weaken questions was -8 and for Inference questions, it was -4. I’m not entirely sure what to make of the drop in Weaken. I’ve been hearing from students that they’ve been seeing a lot of Strengthen / Weaken on the real test and not many (CR) Inference questions. The Strengthen jump and the small Inference drop seems to go along with that, but not the larger Weaken drop. (This is why I’m always skeptical about drawing broader conclusions based on changes in the books.)</p>
<p>As I mentioned in my first report on Sentence Correction (<a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/13/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-2/">part 2 of this series</a>), it is difficult to compare categories here because one SC can (and usually does) cross multiple topics. The trends I reported before still hold after my review of the Verbal supplement: meaning and sentence structure are increasingly important, and parallelism and comparisons are just as important as they’ve always been.</p>
<p>Ready for the problem lists?</p>
<p><span id="more-9702"></span>New verbal problem lists</p>
<p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Official Guide for GMAT® </span></em><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Review 2016 (aka the big OG)</span></em></p>
<p><em>Reading Comprehension</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" class=" wp-image-9689 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-rc.png" alt="OG RC" width="500" height="585" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-rc.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-rc-256x300.png 256w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Critical Reasoning</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-9688 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-cr.png" alt="OG CR" width="500" height="717" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-cr.png 780w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-cr-209x300.png 209w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-cr-714x1024.png 714w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Sentence Correction<br />
Note: we only tagged two topics per problem; many SC problems test more than two topics. Also, the order in which the topics are presented is generally whatever we happened to notice first in the original sentence or in the answers.</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" class=" wp-image-9690 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-sc.png" alt="OG SC" width="500" height="630" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-sc.png 792w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-sc-238x300.png 238w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Official Guide for GMAT®Verbal Review 2016 (aka the verbal-only book)<br />
</span>Reading Comprehension</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9683 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-rc.png" alt="V RC" width="500" height="486" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-rc.png 782w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-rc-300x292.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Critical Reasoning</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9682 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-cr.png" alt="V CR" width="500" height="466" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-cr.png 786w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-cr-300x279.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Sentence Correction<br />
Note: we only tagged two topics per problem; many SC problems test more than two topics. Also, the order in which the topics are presented is random—whatever we happened to notice first!</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9681 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-sc.png" alt="V SC" width="500" height="546" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-sc.png 788w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/v-sc-275x300.png 275w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<h2></h2>
<h2>Phew. I think that’s it…</h2>
<p>A week and several thousand words later, I think that’s all, folks! Of course, I’m sure that we’ll have plenty of things to discuss over the coming weeks as we dive more deeply into all of the fun new OG questions. But for now, I hope you’ve found this review valuable and I’m going to go take a well-earned break. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>Happy studying!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><strong>Missed anything in this four-part series? <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-1/">Start here! </a></strong></em></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-4/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 4</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
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		<title>Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 3</title>
		<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-3/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2015 23:20:13 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Data Sufficiency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Announcements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Problem Solving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2016 Official Guides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data sufficiency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[problem solving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quant]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=9679</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>I have now done every last one of the new quant problems in both new books—and there are some really neat ones! I’ve also got some interesting observations for you. (If you haven’t yet read my earlier installments, start here.) In this installment, I’ll discuss my overall conclusions for quant and I’ll also give you [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-3/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 3</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have now done every last one of the new quant problems in both new books—and there are some really neat ones! I’ve also got some interesting observations for you. (If you haven’t yet read my earlier installments, <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-1/">start here</a>.)</p>
<p>In this installment, I’ll discuss my overall conclusions for quant and I’ll also give you all of the problem numbers for the new problems in both the big OG and the smaller quant-only OG.</p>
<h2>What’s new in Quant?</h2>
<p>Now that I’ve seen everything, I’ve been able to spot some trends across all of the added and dropped questions. For example, across both The Official Guide for GMAT® Review (aka the big book) and The Official Guide for GMAT® Quant Review (aka quant-only or the quant supplement), Linear Equation problems dropped by a count of 13. This is the differential: new questions minus dropped questions.</p>
<p>That’s a pretty big number; the next closest categories, Inequalities and Rates &#038; Work, dropped by 5 questions each. I’m not convinced that a drop of 5 is at all significant, but I decided that was a safe place to stop the “Hmm, that’s interesting!” count.</p>
<p>Now, a caveat: there are sometimes judgment calls to make in classifying problems. Certain problems cross multiple content areas, so we do our best to pick the topic area that is most essential in solving that problem. But that 13 still stands out. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>The biggest jump came from Formulas, with 10 added questions across both sources. This category includes sequences and functions; just straight translation or linear equations would go into those respective categories, not formulas. Positive &#038; Negative questions jumped by 7, weighted average jumped by 6, and coordinate plane jumped by 5.</p>
<p>Given that Linear Equations dropped and Formulas jumped, could it be the case that they are going after somewhat more complex algebra now? That’s certainly possible. I didn’t feel as though the new formula questions were super hard though. It felt more as though they were testing whether you could <em>follow directions</em>. If I give you a weird formula with specific definitions and instructions, can you interpret correctly and manipulate accordingly?</p>
<p>If you think about it, work is a lot more like this than “Oh, here are two linear equations; can you solve for <em>x</em>?” So it makes sense that they would want to emphasize questions of a more practical nature.</p>
<p><span id="more-9679"></span></p>
<h2>Anything interesting about the new questions?</h2>
<p>In an earlier installment, I told you about some interesting problems from the big book. Here are a few more observations from the Quant-only supplemental book.</p>
<p><em>Problem Solving</em><br />
Of the 176 questions in the Problem Solving (PS) section, 44 of them are new. (Disclaimer: I hope I counted correctly for all of these sections, but I’ve been going through about 1,500 questions and hundreds of pages quickly in order to get this review out to you right away. So please forgive me if I miscounted anything! I’ll correct any errors as soon as I find out about them.)</p>
<p><em>Note: I can’t actually reproduce the text of the question for copyright reasons, but I’ll cite the problem number so that you can look it up if you do decide to buy the book.</em></p>
<p>A number of questions relied on some type of pattern recognition: #125, #143, #161. They’re not interested in you doing crazy math. They’re interested in whether you can recognize patterns and draw some kind of meaningful conclusion.</p>
<p>In my notes, I labeled #80 “Wow. That’s just mean.” And #152 got a “Pure evil” tag. (#152 requires mental manipulation of a 3-D shape and that’s just not something I have ever been able to do.)</p>
<p>I’d far rather work backwards on #127 than do the actual math. Others may feel differently, but the textbook math on this one is pretty annoying.</p>
<p><em>Data Sufficiency</em><br />
Of the 124 Data Sufficiency (DS) problems, 32 are new to this edition of the Quant OG. There were some doozies.</p>
<p>I couldn’t believe #124, the highest numbered question in the section: a parabola inequality (not even an equation!). Now, if you like geometry, great—learn how to tackle parabolas. If you don’t, then if you happen to get one of these on the real test, give yourself a mental high five for earning this question, then pick your favorite letter and move on!</p>
<p>I almost fell into the trap on #123. I’m so used to rate and work questions specifying that <em>whatever</em> was moving at a steady rate that I almost didn’t notice the omission in this one…</p>
<p>Also, as with the big book, I was <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/03/19/gmat-problem-solving-strategy-test-cases/">testing cases</a> all the time on these DS problems. That technique is just a lifesaver (and it even works on some PS problems!).</p>
<h2>So what are all the NEW problem numbers?</h2>
<p>Here you go! I’ve got these organized by book and question type.</p>
<p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Official Guide for GMAT®</span></em><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> Review 2016 (aka the big OG)</span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>Problem Solving<br />
Key: FDP = Fractions, Decimals, &#038; Percents; WP = Word Problems; NP = Number Properties</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9686 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-1-753x1024.png" alt="OG 2016 PS #1" width="500" height="680" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-1-753x1024.png 753w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-1-221x300.png 221w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-1.png 874w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-9687" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-2.png" alt="OG 2016 PS #2" width="500" height="572" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-2.png 870w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ps-2-262x300.png 262w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Data Sufficiency<br />
Key: FDP = Fractions, Decimals, &#038; Percents; WP = Word Problems; NP = Number Properties</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9684 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-1.png" alt="OG 2016 DS #1" width="500" height="455" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-1.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-1-300x273.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9685 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-2.png" alt="OG 2016 DS #2" width="500" height="435" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-2.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og-2016-ds-2-300x261.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Official Guide for GMAT<em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">®</span></em></span></em><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> Quant Review 2016 (aka the quant-only book)</span></em></p>
<p><em>Problem Solving<br />
Key: FDP = Fractions, Decimals, &#038; Percents; WP = Word Problems; NP = Number Properties</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9694 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps1.png" alt="Q 2016 PS#1" width="500" height="550" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps1.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps1-273x300.png 273w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9693 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps-2.png" alt="Q 2016 PS #2" width="500" height="386" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps-2.png 870w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ps-2-300x232.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Data Sufficiency<br />
Key: FDP = Fractions, Decimals, &#038; Percents; WP = Word Problems; NP = Number Properties</em></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9691 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-1.png" alt="Q 2016 DS #1" width="500" height="271" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-1.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-1-300x163.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-9692 aligncenter" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-2.png" alt="Q 2016 DS #2" width="500" height="403" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-2.png 866w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/q-2016-ds-2-300x242.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></p>
<h2>What about Verbal?</h2>
<p>Next time, we’ll dive into the final summary of everything verbal and I’ll also have the problem lists for you.</p>
<p>Until then, happy studying!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-4/"><strong>Check out Part 4 of this series</strong></a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-3/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 3</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
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		<title>Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 2</title>
		<link>https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-2/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey Koprince]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2015 00:41:40 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[GMAC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GMAT Announcements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Quant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Verbal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2015 Official Guides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2016 Official Guides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Official Guides]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OG 2016]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/?p=9673</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[<p>The new Official Guide books are here! Last time, we talked about the Quant portion of The Official Guide for GMAT, aka the OG or the big book. In this installment, we’ll discuss the Verbal section of the big book. Later installments will talk about the Quant Review and Verbal Review (the smaller books), as [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-2/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 2</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
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										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-9612" src="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og2016-ads-2-300x300.png" alt="OG2016-Ads-2" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og2016-ads-2-300x300.png 300w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og2016-ads-2-150x150.png 150w, https://cdn2.manhattanprep.com/gmat/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2015/06/og2016-ads-2.png 504w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The new Official Guide books are here! <a href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/08/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-1/">Last time, we talked about the Quant portion of The Official Guide for GMAT, aka the OG or the big book.</a> In this installment, we’ll discuss the Verbal section of the big book. Later installments will talk about the Quant Review and Verbal Review (the smaller books), as well as question lists for the new questions.</p>
<p>(Note: I have not yet had time to analyze the IR problems that come via your special online access. I’ll get to that soon—the quant and the verbal are higher priority!)</p>
<p>Part 1 included an overview of the changes to the whole book; I’ve included that overview here as well (the next section!), in case you’re reading this installment first. (The only difference is one sentence in the first paragraph.)</p>
<h2>What’s new in OG 2016?</h2>
<p>Approximately 25% of the questions are brand new, and there are some beauties in the mix. As I worked through the problems, I marveled anew at the skill with which the test writers can produce what I call <em>elegant</em> problems. On the verbal side, I loved how some of the new questions wove meaning into the issue of Sentence Correction; if you have been focusing on grammar and shortchanging meaning, you’re definitely going to need to change your approach.</p>
<p><span id="more-9673"></span>Rich D’Amato, spokesperson for GMAT, confirmed that a decent number of the new questions were produced relatively recently; that is, you’ll be seeing questions that were on the real exam not too long ago. (The older questions are still great study questions, too; the GMAT is a standardized test so, by definition, the test makers can’t change things too drastically or rapidly. There can be some mild trends over time, though. For example, the test makers may decide that certain idioms should be retired from or introduced for Sentence Correction problems.)</p>
<p>The opening chapters of the book describe how the GMAT works and how to study for the test; these sections have not changed. Nor has the Math Review (chapter 4). This is no surprise—again, the GMAT is a standardized test and, as such, it remains very consistent over time. The Diagnostic test in chapter 3 also has not changed.</p>
<h2>What’s new in SC?</h2>
<p>Of the 140 questions in the Sentence Correction (SC) chapter, 35 are new. Sentence Correction is always difficult to classify because one question can test multiple different topics, and one difference can straddle the line between two topics. A full 16 of the new questions, though, test meaning or sentence structure (or both). I thought that there were some interesting sentence structure examples; keep an eye out for my eventual problem lists, in which I’ll add notes about things that caught my eye when doing the problems.</p>
<p>When comparing the questions that were dropped to the ones that were added, meaning definitely jumped in the count. This is again a judgment call: when do we classify something as pure meaning vs. a grammar error that messes up meaning? But using a consistent standard across all of the questions, I counted 10 new meaning SCs compared to 3 dropped.</p>
<p>All of the other categories didn&#8217;t change substantially (not a big surprise, since this is a standardized test). I do want to point out that 19 out of the 35 new questions cover parallelism or comparisons. In other words, these two topics were important before and they still are. Study them!</p>
<h2>What’s new in CR?</h2>
<p>Of the 130 questions in the Critical Reasoning (CR) chapter, 35 are new.</p>
<p>When comparing the number of questions dropped vs. added, it was the case that Strengthen questions jumped a bit, while Weaken and Inference dropped a bit. These trends also appeared in the Verbal supplement, so I’m noting them here, though I also want to add that the numbers are small enough that we can’t say definitively that they reflect any kind of change in the test. (Also, there were some other seeming trends that didn’t actually hold for both books, so I’m ignoring those.)</p>
<p>All of the questions except for one (#39) fit neatly into our existing classification categories. I’m still trying to decide how I would classify #39. It’s in the Assumption Family but I keep going back and forth on whether I would call it a Strengthen or a Weaken. The question stem alone is most like a weaken (an “alternative explanation” would be like saying “Hey, here’s a better conclusion than the one you came up with!”). But the reasoning for the correct answer choice can be interpreted as a Strengthen. I’m going to be asking some fellow teachers, and even GMAC, about this one; I’ll get back to you.</p>
<h2>What’s new in RC?</h2>
<p>We lost 3 shorter and 3 longer passages from the 2015 edition; 3 of these were social science, 2 were science, and 1 was business.</p>
<p>We gained 4 longer passages and 2 shorter ones; 4 of these were science and 2 were social science. I’m not sure whether that indicates any kind of increased emphasis on science topics, but it’s certainly interesting that not one of the new passages is a business passage.</p>
<p>There are 31 new questions total out of 139 questions total. 15 specific detail question were dropped and only 7 were added. That 8-question differential was added to specific purpose (why) questions (+5), weaken (+2), and main idea (+1). The latter two are pretty small changes, but I found it very interesting that 5 why questions were added.</p>
<h2>What else? Tell me more!</h2>
<p>I’ve got more for you! In later installments, we’ll talk about the Quant Review and Verbal Review (the smaller OGs) and I’ll give you lists of the new question numbers as well as the updated question numbers for the problems that are in both books. Until then, happy studying!</p>
<p><a href="//www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/2015/06/17/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-3/"><strong> Check out Part 3 in this series</strong></a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-official-guides-part-2/">Everything you need to know about the New Official Guides, Part 2</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat">GMAT</a>.</p>
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