.. going to totally count on your suggestions

Question

I am so new to GMAT world that it took a while to understand all the abbreviations here like OG, CR and all. Please be kind and guide me for best prep material. After going through this Forum, I realize that Kaplan is not as good as the hype around, Princeton is too basic. I have made up my mind to buy Manhattan's guide for SC on the basis of strong reviews here. What I could not decide is if I should go for OG 11 or Manhatten for rest topics? 

Please tell me if I am right to figure out that OG is the best for tests but Manhatten is the best for resources.

Right now I want to concentrate for only prep material rather than practice tests as I want to make my concepts clear as I am a mom of toddler who has not been in Maths after high school and also not so great in English. Please suggest.

kryzak · Answer

OG all the way. Old questions from the REAL tests are always better than study prep companies trying to emulate the real thing (and messing up horribly doing so). 

For SATs I used old practice tests. For GRE I used old practice tests. And now for GMAT, I will use old practice tests (OG). 

I just ordered the Manhattan SC book, that's my only weakness right now.

Good luck!

vsaxenaGMAT · Answer

Manhattan SC book has merits. You can supplement OG with this for more practice of SC.

snow wolf · Answer

IMHO I would suggest you get both the OG and ALL the whole manhattan series.To get a real thorough practice on the GMAT exam.

CrazyHorse · Answer

If you don't have time for both, then definitely focus on the OG.

kryzak · Answer

Actually, now that I'm halfway through the Manhattan SC, I highly recommend it for your weakest subjects. At least for SC, it gives a very organized, step-by-step approach to attacking the SC questions on the OG, and it'll cover all the OG questions if you work through the entire book. It even has a matrix at the end that shows you what each SC question in the OG tests (pronouns, verb tenses, etc...). It's a WONDERFUL book.

ishcabibble · Answer

I also think it depends on your strengths/weaknesses. Math is (and always has been) my weakness, and I've really gotten a lot out of the Princeton GMAT Math Review book. It gives much more in depth explanations of certain mathematical subjects than the OG. However, I would stay away from the Barron's Math Review all together! 

I've used both the Kaplan GMAT review and the OG 11 also, and for verbal, I think they're both good. The benefit of the OG is that they use actual old GMAT test questions, so it may be more indicative of the actual test. I've also just recently gotten the Kaplan 800 book, and although I've only just briefly looked through it, it seems to be a good source of just hard questions and tips.

Good luck to you!

kryzak · Answer

Second on the PR Guide. The math review there did help me quite a bit, but I didn't need as much math help as I did in SC.

The only problem with non OG/GMAC verbal questions is that the format and the way they test you is quite different. I've heard that it could mess you up quite a bit if you study based on non OG questions.

shmegs · Answer

I agree with the OG/PR/MGMAT suggestions. I also picked up Veritas Project GMAT, which has some interesting strategies for harder quant problems.

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