Best GMAT Books - Latest Update

Hello, new to the forums. I've been reading through posts for the past 2 weeks and am getting ready to start my preparation for the GMATs.

First, I've taken the gmatprep practice exam as a diagnostic. My results are as follow:
Overall: 730, 96th percentile
Quant: 49, 85th percentile
Verbal: 40, 89th percentile
Integrated Reasoning: 8

I'm planning to purchase a set of books today to get started with the preparation. My plan was to grab the OG + MGMAT set as recommended in the original post. Looking on amazon, I noticed newer versions out. I understand this thread is from 2012 rather than 2013, but I was unable to find an updated version, so I wanted to confirm my planned purchases.

The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition (original post was 12th Edition)
Manhattan GMAT Complete Strategy Guide Set, 5th Edition (original post was 8 books, while this shows 10)
Manhattan GMAT Test Simulation Booklet w/ Marker
(Apologies, I wanted to post links to the above on Amazon, but I am too new)

Would these likely be sufficient to review/practice/bump up to a 750+?
Further, the original post mentioned MGMAT Math Foundations, MGMAT Advanced Quant, and MGMAT Verbal Foundations. How do these differ from the complete MGMAT set? Do they contain additional topics? New tricks or advanced strategies for solving questions?

Thanks for the response!

*Edit: Additionally, is there a recommendation for preparing for the AWA, since I didn't see any books listed. I've found the list of 130+ sample essays and sample responses. Should I just practice going through these and banging out response after response? Is there a way to have these reliably scored or to get feedback of some sort?

manhattan gmat guide set

The Official Guide for GMAT Review
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
Manhattan GMAT Set of 8 Strategy Guides
Kaplan GMAT 800: Advanced Prep for Advanced Students
Manhattan Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (comes as part of Manhattan set of 8 Guide)
The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
Integrated Reasoning and Essay GMAT Strategy Guide

Hi alexkosy, which one did you end up choosing between the MGMAT 4th editon (8 books) and the 5th edition (10 books)? I have seen people recommending the 8 books and buying the Integrated Reasoning and Essay GMAT Strategy separately? Also, have you found the MGMAT CR book sufficient, or would you recommend me buying "The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible" as well?

Thanks for your help and I hope your study for the GMAT is going well!

Hi alexkosy even i had a similar querry whether to opt for the latest edition of MGMAT or the previous one. Can any one please suggest the better option among the two.

Also which books to refer for AWA.

Thanks.

The 5th edition books are better; however, you can see my analysis and comparison of the 4th and 5th editions here: manhattan-gmat-4th-edition-vs-5th-edition-136713.html

Ok. I have read a lot of posts on here, but now I am confused. So many options... What about the online study sites...like Magoosh? Or the "The Economist" GMAT Online system? Are either of these, or another, great?

I took the GMAT just today with little studying (maybe 5 hrs...mainly focused on Quant)
Here are my scores:
Q 40
V 37
OVERALL: 640

I started studying with the "The Economist" GMAT Online system, which helped-for what I did with it.

However, I will be hopefully taking it again in 1.5 months or so and I am aiming to get into the MIT/HKS MBA/MPP Program or the Wharton Program--so I believe I need at least a 730 (maybe? can you also tell me if this is accurate?).

Can you recommend a list of books and/or sites for the second time around? Thanks.

Hi,

I'm going to start with my GMAT prep.

Which books should I order?
I'm not a native speaker and I'm weak at the quant.

I was planning to get the MG series, OG and either one of the Kaplans books or the official guide for quant review.

I have +/- 12 weeks time to prepare (fulltime) and a need to get a score of at least 650 to get in. Which books do you recommand?

Hi! I'm new to here and am (like a few people here) a little confused what books to use. My math sucks so I want to concentrate on that. After reading some recommendations here I got the Manhattan Foundations of GMAT Math (which I breezed through) and the Kaplan Math Workbook (which I'm sort of struggling with). But I also read somewhere that the Kaplan questions aren't GMAT ones so is it worth going through?
Also, what should I do next?? Which book should I work on now?
Thanks!!

@ssrree : I think as recommended by everyone you should now focus on all the Manhattan strategy guides for maths which are really helpful and you will be able to do all the OG13 and the Quant Review questions as well. So jump on to that for now...

I just scored a poor Q-46, V-30, Total - 620 in GMATPrep 1 Mock Test yesterday. My target score is 720+ but i realize that jumping 100 points is going to be a challenging task. Therefore i plan to improve in two stages - From 620 to 670 and then from 670 to 720. Now for the first stage, i realize that i will have to raise my verbal from V-30 to around V-36 while maintaining my Quant at Q-46/47. I won't discuss about the second stage yet. I am still to analyze my test and so will post my accuracy in the three verbal sections in a couple of days.

Some observations from my Mock test.
RC Questions - I was not comfortable with majority of them. The moment i see RC on screen, there is a strange sense of fear that gets activated. Simple English looks a little tough. When i am finally able to overcome the panic, i say 'wtf - let me move on'. And when i simple move on to avoid the torture, i mark incorrectly thereby bringing on a bigger pain.
CR Questions - Comfortable in some ; uncomfortable in others. Don't really panic though.
SC Questions - Comfortable in almost all, even if i mark them wrong (well not all of course).

I have the following material to refer to:-
1. e-Gmat SC course - I have been skimming through this course for few months now, but haven't really made notes and revised the concepts frequently. I still do not follow their procedure for attempting SC questions. So, in a way i am still going by "what sounds right" approach in few questions. I will have to come up with a more disciplined way to learn and apply the fundas i learn from them.
2. Powerscore CR Bible - I have gone through this book as well but it seems haven't learnt to apply what i know. When CR questions appear in the test, i find it hard to recall the 10 step method and try to solve the questions using whatever i know at that time. Again, i need to practice lots of CR questions using a method i learn.
3. Official Guide 12 and 13.
4. Verbal and Quant Supplement Guides.

Does anyone know about Aristotle RC Grail Edition 3? Also please suggest what ways have worked for you in your quest to improve in verbal. How do you make sure that you APPLY what you know UNDER TIME PRESSURE.

Thanks to all who reply in advance.

Taran

An Update on the accuracy:- TOO BAD GMATPREP DOESN'T ALLOW TO REVIEW THE QUESTIONS AGAIN...GRRRRRRRRRRR.

Taran, you might want to try upgrading to the new GMATPrep software if you haven't already. GMAC released a new version in late March, and you can review the questions now. Carcass started an excellent thread on the new software a couple of months ago: new-gmatprep-update-version-149820.html

Hopefully, this will remove at least one source of frustration.

Nice books.. It is very necessary that if you are preparing any competition exam then you should prepare it from a good book and also hard work is very necessary.

You can find books on various categories such as GMAT Math, GMAT Math Foundations, Essential GMAT (flashcards) in very cheap price from bookfari.

Dear GMAT Club,
I am just starting my GMAT prep and I just wanted to know the latest editions of the following books:
The Official Guide for GMAT Review
The Official Guide for GMAT Review - Quants
The Official Guide for GMAT Review - Verbal
MGMAT Series.

Also, does the latest edition include the new section of Integrated Reasoning?

Best Regards,
Dipti
-

Hi Everyone,

I wrote the GMAT last week and scored 540 - (Q42,V23). I only studied with Kaplan Premier, my target score is 650 - 700. Needless to say, I'm going to re-write and have lots of work to do!

I'm thinking of buying the following:
Aristotle Verbal Grail Combo - RC/SC/CR
MGMAT - Either the Complete Prep Set or Complete Strategy Guide Set (which do you recommend? It's a difference of $100)
PowerScore CR Bible
OG Verbal

Any thoughts? Thanks guys.

Are these books reflective of the new test format that was revised in 2012?

Other than the KAPLAN Premier, none of those particularly target IR