Why you should refer to the GMAT Official Guide 2022

Every successful GMAT aspirant refers to the GMAT Official Guide during the course of his/her GMAT preparation. The book is an indispensable part of the preparation because it provides access to almost 1000 real retired GMAT questions, along with detailed solutions. But that's not all that the book contains. It comes with a host of other features and is a power-packed book that has a lot to offer to every GMAT aspirant.

The latest GMAT Official Guide 2022 comes in 2 parts:

1. The book version which can be purchased either as a hardcopy or as a Kindle version

2. The Online Companion which provides additional GMAT prep content, including an online version of the book

So if you're referring to the book already or are planning to purchase it soon, this post provides you all the details you need to know about so that you can use the book efficiently. 

What does the GMAT Official Guide 2022 (book portion) contain?

The GMAT Official Guide 2022 book contains the following:

1. What is the GMAT exam

This section of the book provides an aspirant with all the preliminary information about the GMAT exam, such as why you should attempt the exam, what is the GMAT exam format, a brief overview of all the sections in the exam, and an explanation of how GMAT scores are calculated

2. How to prepare for the GMAT exam

This section of the book provides suggestions on how to prepare for the exam as well as what to expect on GMAT test day. It also explains to you how to use the book itself, and also gives information about other Official GMAT Prep products.

3. Math Review

This is the part of the GMAT Official Guide 2022 book where you start studying for the GMAT exam. The Math Review section of the GMAT Official Guide 2022 gives you a complete overview of all Math concepts that are tested on GMAT. It teaches you all the basic concepts such as Inequalities, Probability, Geometry, Statistics, Indices, Factors, and a lot more. The coverage here isn't too detailed, so this cannot act as a substitute for in-depth preparation. However, the concepts are well covered, and for someone who needs a quick refresher for the Math section of GMAT, this should suffice.

4. Problem Solving question type

The Math section of GMAT consists of 2 question types: Problem Solving (PS) and Data Sufficiency (DS). In this part of the book, there is an overview of the Problem Solving section, the instructions that you have to follow while solving questions in this section and suggested test-taking strategies that you can apply to PS questions. 

Thereafter, the actual questions begin. The questions are presented as follows:

1. 230 real retired GMAT Problem Solving questions

2. An answer key to the questions

3. Answer explanations for all the 230 questions.

The answer explanations are very detailed. Below every question is also a mention of which Math sub-topic or concept the question belongs to.

5. Data Sufficiency question type

After the Problem Solving (PS) questions, we have the Data Sufficiency (DS) questions. One the first few pages of this section of the book, we find an overview of the Data Sufficiency section, the instructions for solving DS questions, and suggested strategies for tackling DS questions on GMAT. 

Thereafter, the actual questions begin. The questions are presented as follows:

1. 230 real retired GMAT Data Sufficiency questions

2. An answer key to the questions

3. Answer explanations for all the 230 questions.

Just as in the Problem Solving section, the answer explanations in the DS section are also very detailed. Below every question is also a mention of which Math sub-topic or concept the question belongs to.

6. Verbal Review

The next chapter in the book is a Verbal Review, which gives you an insight into the types of questions asked in the Verbal ability section of the GMAT exam. For the Reading Comprehension section, there is an explanation of how to analyze passages in RC. Inductive Reasoning and Deductive Reasoning, which have to be used to tackle question in the Critical Reasoning section, have also been explained. Next comes the Grammar rules that ate tested on GMAT. The coverage is quite elaborate and runs into almost 20 pages of the book. Key grammar rules that are tested in the Sentence Correction section of GMAT are Agreement, Pronoun Usage, Tense usage, Logical Predication (Modifiers), Rhetorical Construction, Parallelism, Diction, and Idiom usage. All these have been explained here.

7. Reading Comprehension

In this part of the book, there is an overview of the Reading Comprehension section, the instructions that you have to follow while solving RC questions, and suggested test-taking strategies that you can apply to PS questions. 

Thereafter, the actual questions begin. The questions are presented as follows:

1. 150 real retired GMAT Reading Comprehension questions spread across 30 passages 

2. An answer key to the questions

3. Answer explanations for all the 30 RC passages.

The answer explanations are very detailed. Below every question is also a mention as to whether the question is a Main Idea question, a Supporting Idea question, an Inference question, an Application of an Idea question, or an Evaluation question.

8. Critical Reasoning

The Critical Reasoning chapter of the GMAT Official Guide 2022 follows the same structure as the other sections. There is an overview and some suggested strategies for CR, 

Thereafter, there are practice questions. The questions are presented as follows:

1. 150 real retired GMAT Critical Reasoning questions. 

2. An answer key to the questions

3. Answer explanations for all the 150 CR questions

The answer explanations are very detailed. Below every question is also a mention as to whether the question is an Argument Evaluation question, an Evaluation of a Plan question, or an Argument Construction question.

9. Sentence Correction

In the Sentence Correction chapter, there is an overview of SC followed by some comments about how it works. This is followed with detailed coverage of the 8 question types that ate tested in GMAT SC. Thereafter there are some study suggestions, test-taking strategies, and instructions. Then the practice questions follow, which are presented as follows:

1. 150 real retired GMAT Sentence Correction questions

2. An answer key to the questions

3. Answer explanations for all the 150 SC questions

. The answer explanations are very detailed. Below every question is also a mention of the grammar category that the question tests you on. Most questions test on more than one category, hence for most questions you will find at least 2 categories mentioned. For example: Grammatical Construction, Parallelism.

10. Integrated Reasoning (IR)

Besides the Verbal and Quant sections, the GMAT exam also has two more sections - the Integrated Reasoning (IR) section and the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section. In chapter 10 of the GMAT Official Guide 2022, you can learn about the Integrated Reasoning section, what it measures, an explanation of the various question types that are asked in GMAT and how to strategize for the same, and the instructions for attempting this section.

11. Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

This chapter of the book provides an overview of what the AWA section on GMAT is all about, what is measured (scoring criteria), some strategies for attempting AWA, directions, a detailed scoring guide, and a sample AWA topic with actual responses provided by candidates along with an explanation for the scores awarded.

12. GMAT Official Guide question index

The last chapter in the book is an index of questions organized as follows:

1. Difficulty level of the question: Easy, Medium or Hard

2. The GMAT section to which the question belongs

3. The Math or Verbal concept(s) that the question was testing candidates on

This chapter will also allow you to pick questions belonging to a certain topic or sub-topic by scanning the index for that topic. So, if you plan to practice questions from the GMAT Official Guide 2022 according to topics, this is the place to refer to in the book.

13. Appendix A

At the end of the book, you are provided with answer sheets that you can use while solving questions from the book. There is a

1. Problem Solving answer sheet

2. Data Sufficiency answer sheet

3. Reading Comprehension answer sheet

4. Critical Reasoning answer sheet

5. Sentence Correction answer sheet

The above description is for the GMAT Official Guide 2022 in its physical format. However, alongside the book you also get an Online Companion, which allows you to access the book as well as some additional GMAT preparation material using an app or on the learning portal.

How to use the Online Companion for the GMAT Official Guide

The Online Companion can only be accessed if you have the code provided in the GMAT Official Guide. Using the code, you get complimentary access to the same questions as provided in the book, along with 50 Integrated Reasoning questions. This access is valid for 12 months from the date of activation. The code can be used only once, so if you have a used copy, you might not be able to access the online question bank.

Some of the features of the Online Question Bank of the GMAT Official Guide are

1. You can build you own question bank based on a combination of

a. Difficulty level of the question AND

b. Type of question (i.e. PS, DS, SC, CR or RC)

2. Get to see how much time you are taking per question so that you can identify areas that you need to work upon

3. Use the question from the GMAT Official guide in Exam Mode, in which you can practice questions under timed conditions.

Summary

In summary, the GMAT Official Guide is an extremely useful book that you can refer to during your GMAT preparation. The book is very comprehensive and covers every aspect of the GMAT exam. It contains learning content as well as practice questions.

The questions from the book can also be accessed online, which allows you to use additional features such as time-management and creation of question sets based on question type and difficulty level.

Happy studying!