Merry GMAT Christmas, everyone! The Official Guide 2019 is here and, along with a new color scheme, it brings along some new problems and other content, so we at Clayborne are here to bring you everything you need to know about it in a three part series. Part 1 of this series will bring you all of the new Quant material, part 2 the new Verbal material, and part 3 a nice wrap-up of the odds and ends.

GMAC gave us 51 new Quant problems in this year’s guide (out of the 404 that appear in the book). Unfortunately, they did not provide any new advanced problems (rated as a difficulty level of 8 or higher on our 10-point scale). In fact, the most difficult of the new problems only rated at a level 6. So the Quant section of the new Official Guide might not be more helpful than the 2018 version for those of you aiming for the 700+ level.

Contentwise, the 2019 book is quite similar to the 2018 edition, as to be expected. There were slight increases in the numbers of Algebra and Geometry questions at the expense of Arithmetic questions. In more granular detail, there are 5 new Statistics questions, granting it entry into the double-digit club (stats is now covered in 10.4 percent of questions). This shift seems consistent with the material covered on the official practice tests as well. So we would certainly recommend emphasizing stats in your GMAT prep. The other significant increase came in Equations, specifically Modeling Equations, which accounted for most of the increase in Algebra problems.

In conclusion, the Official Guide 2019 doesn’t provide all that much in the way of new and challenging content on the Quant section, but still provides the most up-to-date material for your GMAT prep. If you have any questions about the new Official Guide or the GMAT, please feel free to email me at james@clayborne.com. Happy studying!