Best GMAT Prep Books and only the best

This discussion is officially retired - Please see Best GMAT Books 2012 for the latest GMAT Book Recommendations

Below are our reviews of the best GMAT Books. However, people kept asking for my personalized recommendation over and over. So here it is - just tells you what to get
The first column lists book categories and the purpose behind them and the other columns list approaches to the GMAT from average to most hardcore.

Book Bundles and Study Plans at a Glance
	Standard Plan	Advanced Plan	Ultimate Plan	Beyond Hardcore Plan
General Strategy Books Explain how GMAT works, provide general principles and strategies, give an idea about weaknesses, provide practice tests	Kaplan Premier + comes with 6 practice tests	Kaplan Premier + comes with 6 practice tests Kaplan 800 - Poor guidebook, more of a question collection	Kaplan Premier + comes with 6 practice tests GMAT Test Simulation Booklet + Great for practice	Kaplan Premier + comes with 6 practice tests GMAT Test Simulation Booklet + Great for practice
Quant Books Refresh math principles, fill gaps, and learn patterns	Kaplan Math Workbook - missing probability and combinations	Kaplan Math Workbook - missing probability and combinations MGMAT Number Properties MGMAT Word Translations	MGMAT Guides MGMAT Math Foundations	MGMAT Guides MGMAT Math Foundations
Verbal Books Refresh grammar rules, aquire CR and RC strategies	Kaplan Verbal Workbook OR: PowerScore Verbal Bible	MGMAT Guides or Veritas Guides or PowerScore Guides	MGMAT Guides or Veritas Guides or PowerScore Guides SC: Ultimate GMAT Grammar	CR: PowerScore CR or MGMAT CR RC: MGMAT RC RC: LSAT Reading Comprehension SC: Ultimate GMAT Grammar + PowerScore SC or MGMAT SC SC: Doing Grammar
Practice Questions Additional practice	Official Guide 12th + 900 retired real GMAT questions	Official Guide 12th + 900 retired real GMAT questions Verbal Official Guide + 300 retired verbal GMAT questions Quant Official Guide + 300 retired quant GMAT questions	Official Guide 12th + 900 retired real GMAT questions Verbal Official Guide + 300 retired verbal GMAT questions Quant Official Guide + 300 retired quant GMAT questions Princeton Review 1012 + Great target practice	Official Guide 12th + 900 retired real GMAT questions Verbal Official Guide + 300 retired verbal GMAT questions Quant Official Guide + 300 retired quant GMAT questions Princeton Review 1012 + Great target practice Paper GMAT Tests + Official Retired tests available from GMAC
Tests Simulated Practice GMAT tests	GMATPrep, Kaplan, Free tests	GMATprep, Kaplan, MGMAT, some GMATClub tests	GMATprep, PowerPrep, GMAT Focus, Kaplan, MGMAT, GMATClub tests	GMATprep, PowerPrep, GMAT Focus, Kaplan, MGMAT, PR, GMATClub tests

1. Official Guide for GMAT Review 12th ed - Must Have
Published by the creators/owners of the GMAT. Must have for the advantage of having access to 900 real gmat questions but will need Strategy/Study guide to build up math/verbal skills and test-taking strategies.
Strengths:
1. 900 real GMAT questions
2. Real GMAT questions retired from past tests
3. The practice questions are organized by level of difficulty
4. The practice questions follow actual GMAT test patterns - great to have one's ear trained, esp. in verbal
Weaknesses:
1. The book does not contain any strategies
2. It does have a few short review sections but they are very weak
3. Mostly low and medium difficulty questions. Not very helpful to a person aiming to get above 700.
Other Notes: Differences between 11th and 12th Editions.




2. Manhattan GMAT set of 8 Strategy Guides
Not to be over-zealous but I would say the most comprehensive self-prep money can buy
Strengths:
1. Very in-depth overview of every GMAT subject in 8 dedicated guides (each is 100-200 pages long)
2. Includes access to 6 online practice tests
3. Hundreds of additional targeted practice questions available online (get free access by using the codes inside of each book)
4. Includes the best of the best gmat books such as: MGMAT Number properties, MGMAT Word Translations, MGMAT SC, MGMAT CR, and MGMAT RC
Weaknesses:
1. Requires Official Guide for best results (additional practice questions)

Other Notes:You can buy these separately but it won't be as good of a deal.



3. Veritas Prep Complete Course Set: 12 GMAT Strategy Guides
Very strong challenger to the Manhattan GMAT set
Strengths:
1. Very in-depth overview of every GMAT subject in 12 dedicated guides (each is 100-200 pages long)
2. Comes with a test simulation booklet and a basic math book for those who need extra help (MGMAT charges extra for these)
3. A gmat book for any subject, including probability, combinations, DS, etc
4. Has more practice questions (by far) than the Manhattan set
Weaknesses:
1. Could have used less paper - some books have only one question per page
2. Expensive! $250 on VeritasPrep

Other Notes: See a photo review of this set | Read a review of the books by Mohater




4. Kaplan GMAT Premier with CD-ROM
Recommended. Well-rounded guide for GMAT preparation. Questions are usually harder than GMAT and sometimes a bit off; however, the book comes with 5 GMAT Tests (1 in the book and 4 online)
Strengths:
1. Good review of fundamentals and valuable strategies - good first GMAT Book
2. 6 GMAT Tests included for the price of $27 with free shipping from Amazon
Weaknesses:
1. Several questions overlap with Kaplan 800 book
2. Not representative CAT scores
3. Some areas such as combinations or probability are not covered in sufficient detail
Other Notes: This is the same book as Kaplan GMAT Comprehensive Program (slightly cheaper) - the only difference is that this book has 4 additional CAT Tests on the CD, which makes it worth it. As of 7/10/2009, the CD version of the book has been out of print. Only the Online version is currently available - it is the same book except all testing material is online and limited to 6 months of usage.




5. Kaplan GMAT 800 (aka Kaplan GMAT Advanced)
This book is a great idea - create a resource for those who already mastered the lower levels of GMAT, do not require any information about the test or basic strategies but need to focus on higher difficulty questions, but it has its weaknesses, one of them, not living up to its name. Though a great marketing name, many feel it should realistically set expectations as a 650-700 bookStrengths:
1. Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
2. Contains more advanced strategies
3. Saves time for advanced test-takers
Weaknesses:
1. Review of mathematical content is not thorough enough and actually fairly basic
2. Guessing as well as Plug-in-the-number strategies are overused
3. Some questions are not very realistic (do not follow the GMAT patterns)
4. Very few 750-level questions
Other Notes: Discussion on GMAT 800.




6. Test Simulation Booklet with Marker ("Scratch Paper")
The laminated booklet and marker are exactly as the ones you will get at the test center. Great product to get familiar with the special laminated scratch paper.

New to the GMAT? - Free Guides

Other Books You May Find Helpful:

1. Official Guide for GMAT Review 10th ed - Great source of additional REAL GMAT questions
Strengths:
1. More questions - 1,400 questions vs. 900 in the OG 11 and OG 12
2. Price - right now it is under $10 with shipping for a used copy
3. Not too much overlap with OG 11 or OG 12
Weaknesses:
1. Significant overlap with GMATPrep and PowerPrep. Also some overlap with ETS paper tests is reported.
2. I would guess the questions on average are somewhat easier but can't really remember anything about the book anymore.




2. Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT
Average. Most feel that the book focuses mostly on shortcuts/tricks, while undermining the value of thorough knowledge involved in confidently answering the question. Many testtakers also feel question explanations are not detailed enough. The book comes with 2 online GMAT CAT Tests.
Strengths:
1. 2 online adaptive GMAT tests included
Weaknesses:
1. Questions in the book do not reach the difficulty level of the real GMAT.
2. Some areas such as function questions, series questions, complex word problems, combined probability with combinations are not covered in the book.






3. Princeton Review 1,012 GMAT Questions
Not a guidebook and contains only practice questions.
Strengths:
1. Review of factorials, probability, combinations, groups, Yes/No DS, assumption, and parallel structure questions
2. Good split between PS and DS in math
Weaknesses:
1. A lot of errors in explanations!
2. Weaker RC section
3. Verbal questions are a bit off but all non OG Verbal questions are off.


Fiction books to read for GMAT - improve your RC/SC and enjoy doing it.



Feel free to suggest other books you have liked or critique our recommendations


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Well, clearly the Official Quant and Verbal books need to be on the list.
I think most people agree that Manhattan GMAT sentence correction is one of the best books out there...

RE: Kaplan GMAT 2009 Premier Program w CD-ROM

I just read a lot of negative comments on this book. Is it correct that Kaplan GMAT 2009 Premier Program has numerous errors in the math section?

Thanks!
Steve

You can post in the Buy/Sell/Do forum, but there is not a ton of traffic down there. Not against the rules unless you are trading something you are not supposed to.
buy-sell-do-4/
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I think the Amazon reviewers have given a rather loud and clear message: STAY AWAY



AND


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Kaplan has much higher quality books - you are right.

However, the discussion is about McGraw Hill's 2009 GMAT Book, not Kaplan.
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I agree and that's why it is listed as #2 book on this list. I am not sure what the reviewers were expecting.
It is an all-in-one book for $35 bucks with 6! practice tests - best value i can think of. Is it enough to get 750? of course not - you do need the workbooks for more in-depth review, but I think 650-700 is doable fairly comfortably.

The main reason that I have seen Kaplan blasted over the years has been hard practice tests - test takers score 550 and that gets them depressed, and they think they did not learn anything. In reality, they would get 100 points more on the GMAT, but many are not aware of this discrepancy. Kaplan could improve its PR significantly if they fixed this little scoring glitch. I scored 640 on a Kaplan test a few days before getting 750 on the real thing.

You can take a look at the GMAT Score Estimator for correlation between the two.
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Guys,

I have a very basic qs about the new OG12, I just got it this week and took the 1st 5 diagnostic tests with 24 qs each in PS and DS and 17-18 qs each in RC, CR and SC. Now the guidance for the tests in OG is to take time to solve the problems as these tests are not timed !! Now I do understand that but still I am worried about the time I took and the score I got!
my timings and score from the translative score table given with the diagnostic test were as follows:

PS - score - above average
time taken - 50 mins
DS - score - excellent
time taken - 67 mins
CR - score - above average
time taken - 72 mins
RC - score - above average
time taken - 48 mins
SC - score - average
time taken - 84 mins (

I am really upset with the time I took for CR and SC, I won't say the qs were enormously difficult but a few were tricky and most of them very time consuming....are all the new beginers (have just started GMAT prep) finding these diagnostic tests like what i found or is it only me and everyone else is just finding it nice n easy?
Please let me know....

Cheers,
PC

Any word on the series "Master the GMAT" from Peterson's?

http://www.amazon.com/Master-GMAT-2010- ... 0768927846

I own this book and I think it's utter garbage. Specifically, the author, Mark Alan Stewart, writes on page 177:

"Always Check Your Work: Confirm your calculations ... with your calculator"

WTF? Nowhere in the book does Mark Alan Stewart advise the reader that calculators aren't permitted on the GMAT and it appears Mark Alan Stewart assumes calculators can be used on the GMAT. There seem to be numerous quantitative questions throughout the book that require the use of a calculator to solve it.

If you read the bio, Mark Alan Stewart has also written books on LSAT and GRE. It's an indication that Mark Alan Stewart's knowledge doesn't specialize on just the GMAT (as compared to other GMAT book authors) and the quality of his book is a reflection of that.

Really disappointed in Peterson's and this book.

I feel sorry for other students who only own this book for their GMAT preparation and did all their studying using a calculator.