OGT Secrets Your Key To OGT Success
by Morrison Media

$19.95

This is a 157-page manual by Morrison Media that “seeks and exploits specific weaknesses in the OGT assessment” in order to share those secrets with users. The authors specifically say they did not set out to create a study guide, but a “tactical weapon” designed to exploit weaknesses in the OGT itself and help users avoid the most common errors test takers make.

Using a completely different approach to the OGT, this manual offers no standards, benchmarks or grade-level indicators for anything. Instead, it elaborates on how to guess the answer to a multiple-choice question, using simple rules of probability; how to use practice tests to gain confidence without wasting study time and other general strategies.

The manual then launches into practical tips for tackling each aspect of the OGT. Example: “A detailed knowledge of algebra and trigonometry is NOT necessary to succeed on the OGT mathematics test,…only the ability to recognize basic problem types and apply simple formulas and methods to solving them.”

Users are encouraged to memorize some basic definitions (example: equator, longitude, WTO) to get the upper hand on the social studies OGT. They are also urged to memorize basic facts like the names of the continents and the meaning of concepts like expansionism and Harlem Renaissance.

In the section that addresses the reading OGT, students are given a series of “tips” to help them perform better without studying more. Tips include “focusing on the first sentence of each literary passage, which is the most important. The main topic of the paragraph is usually there.” Another advises students to “look for answer choices that have the same key words in them as the question.”

For the science portion of the OGT, students are told to jump into the test immediately and go completely through answering all the questions they can. Then, go back and address those questions where they are uncertain. This section also lists important definitions that students should know for the test, along with skills and applications.

The writing test section again provides basic advice for achieving success without extra study. Example: “create a logical flow” and “pick a main idea.”

The final chapters of “OGT Secrets” provide “special reports” or sample questions from each OGT test subject, along with a description of how to apply the manual’s advice in answering these questions. One of the book’s last chapters addresses “math anxiety” or the fear that many people have of numbers, their applications and analytic thinking.

Finally, the book directs users to a Web site where they can find bonus material on preparing for the OGT.