Veritas Prep Books vs Manhattan GMAT Books

Hi bb,

I am willing to purchase one particular book from Veritas store.
However, i don't see the individual books in the url https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/

Can you please post the url if possible?

They have a strange store. I remember their books were sold in an area separate from their /store location... very unusual.
One easy place is Amazon; https://www.amazon.com/Veritas-GMAT-Book ... IY8GH13ER3

Or here:

P.S. I think Veritas has stopped offering their tests with the purchase of guides.

In India we get Official VP books from their partner (White - glow Consulting)..I ordered a few books from them in November and did receive codes for the CAT's (although i can take each CAT only ONCE)...Regarding the new books i was told that they are available but they are of little use as they are specifically designed to be used with the VP course (online or in class) and therefore are not suitable as stand alone books..I was told to order the older books which i did.

Thanks bb. That helped.

Thanks vomhorizon for pitching in.

I believe Veritas Prep published a new version of its series (as of February 2013). There are 12 books now, as opposed to 15. In my package, though, a laminated test booklet was not included. This was disappointing. I also didn't find much value in the first book, Foundations of GMAT Logic. The rest of the series is a decent resource.

Veritas presents its questions in a more GMAT-like fashion than Manhattan does. The end-of-chapter questions for Manhattan, at least for the fourth edition, were terrible and actually harmed my performance.

I think Veritas has a big disadvantage (in relative terms) in that it does not offer the books in electronic format, I have to carry them around all the time, and some libraries do not even allow any printed material inside! This is a fairly significant inconvenience. I wonder if we can lobby to rectify that!

I think overall comparing these books is not a good idea. They are structured differently and many topics explained differently. I do not think mentality of "one thing over another" is appropriate in this situation. If your "life" level is high (in other words you are "mature"), you will be fine with any set of books...which is by the way the case for many of those who claim to score high in a matter of 1-2 months (it is not the books, it must be that they have worked hard before). If your level is not solid (for some reason you were studying for anything other than understanding of what was being taught), each set of books will provide you with unique ways of thinking about certain problems. There is some overlap, but this overlap is not high to the point where it would be the reason to pick one over another. Of course if you are short on money (like many of us are), I think, with a gun to my head, I would go with Manhattan. But if you can afford it, go for both.

If you buy veritas live or on demand then you get access to online videos, problem sets etc.

Even if some one can afford, i dont think there is any need to buy both the guides, Veritas books are very thorough and goes deep in terms of theory specially for quant. The best part is each guide comes with around 100 practice questions which are extremely close to the real gmat.

Looks like I'm a little late in responding to BM's point here:

I also didn't find much value in the first book, Foundations of GMAT Logic. The rest of the series is a decent resource.

But since the title of this thread caught my eye I hope it's not too late to bring this up - that first lesson, I'd agree, probably doesn't "pop" in a self-study book format particularly for those who have already done a little bit of GMAT Prep and are familiar with the structure of the test, the types of questions, etc. But as a classroom lesson I think it's very valuable, particularly if someone is going to go through several of our other lessons - the frameworks we set up in that first lesson will come back over and over. So for anyone who does study with the Veritas Prep books I highly recommend checking out the video component of that lesson, which you can stream for free with a free trial account (and I think it's available for free in the iTunes App Store, too):

https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat/gmat-on-demand-free-trial/

And as far as e-books...they're on my wishlist, too!

Thank you for the clarification, VeritasPrepBrian! Your contributions are welcome regardless of the timing.

After reviewing my previous post, it seems that I didn't do the VeritasPrep books sufficient justice. The series is a powerful resource and I enjoyed going through the guidebooks. Overall, I recommend them!

I thought this thread compared ONLY the books offered by the two companies (without going into merits of accompanied offerings). I focused just on the printed materials and I hope it cannot be inferred from my post that one Prep is better than another Prep. I am simply not talking about the Preps and their options. From the RC & CR, remember the scope guys!

Neither did I imply "do not go with Veritas and go with Manhattan books". For me personally (assuming one starts from 0), the organizational structure of the books and a more chewed MGMAT approach is more appealing. But this is just me. But overall, these books really complement each other - albeit it is a huge bundle altogether. I began with Veritas (when I was at 0) - improved a lot, and just for fun went through Manhattan, and I felt that many gaps were closed. I'm sure it would have been a similar experience if I went the other way around. As far as Veritas, you should not avoid getting Probability/Combs and Geometry books. Manhattan, Number properties & Word Translations are indispensable.

Also, a small disclaimer, I am a bit more biased towards Quant materials as this is what gives me more trouble. On the verbal part, I do not think either set is particularly strong. RC & CR are just an intro... and for SC I have a slight preference for Manhattan (not sure if I am saying anything new here).



In general, I would agree the practice problems are valuable - sure, but then you can get a few question banks. In my view, the books are meant for thorough explanations and foundations, not for a bunch of problems. Even so, and reiterating my point (about inappropriateness of comparison) the problems are "thought of" very differently in both sets of books, that is the angles the authors use when attacking or even writing the problems.

Bottom line, go for both sets if you need strong foundations, you have time, money, and most importantly guys...the motivation

There wont be any benefit to counter my reply, i answered your post because i thought you are not aware of there online advantage.
Neither i said Mgmat books are not worth nor i mentioned that one should buy veritas books solely because of their practice problems.

Bottom line- Lets not spam further.

Awesome! I am deciding between manhattan and veritas. I took a practice test from GMAT Prep and here are the results:

Q46 V28
Overall: 610

Before taking this test, I did some self-preparations and completed the majority of the questions from OG. Will it still be worth it if i go with Manhattan GMAT? Thank you.