Manhattan MGMAT 7th edition vs. 6th edition

New Manhattan GMAT's 7th/2019th Book Bundle is Out and Available!

After almost 5 years since the 6th Edition, the new, 7th edition is finally out and available on Amazon for about $100!

The content and examples are mostly the same (more in-depth review is below). However, many of the topics/points have been expanded upon to emphasize certain aspects and to focus attention on the most common questions situations while moving the advanced chapters online. Thus while the strategy may be completely the same, it has been amended and expanded with additional tips and points. What's complete new is that the bundle comes with just 3 books! Yes, instead of 9, it is just 3 and it looks like all of the Quant books/topics (Number properties, Fractions, Word Problems, Algebra, and Geometry) have been combined into a single book. All of the verbal (CR, RC, and SC) have also been combined into one as well. I no longer see the GMAT Roadmap though and I wonder if it has been incorporated somewhere such as the Online Study Plan that MGMAT offers. I will know next week as well and will share when I publish my detailed analysis.

The book bundle still comes with 6 Manhattan Prep CAT's, and individual practice questions for each of the Quant, Verbal, and IR guides. Also included is the Navigator product that provides alternative explanations to the OG Questions, and finally access to the online study plan via MGMAT's Atlas platform. What's Interesting - the books no longer mention an edition. I see no reference to the 2019th or 7th Edition anywhere.... this tells me this edition is here to stay for a while. Also, the books were released on Sept 3rd and I have not really seen them announced anywhere. It is a big deal and not sure why it's been quiet... conspiracy?




Summary of Changes:

Summary: I feel the MGMAT books got simplified to be more mainstream, to be palatable to those looking for a 680 rather than a 700+ score. As mentioned before, it seems things have been simplified and shortened. Almost all of the 90th percentile+ items have been taken out. The purpose of those changes is not very clear but my guess perhaps MGMAT is planning to publish a separate Advanced book/book series? MGMAT already has the Advanced GMAT Quant but that book is quite different from the chapters that have been cut. A new version is coming out in January, and possibly will be revised to incorporate some of these cut chapters... that's my hope. The current Advanced Quant book is mostly a collection of very hard questions with helpful tips how to tackle them, like a case study with super hard questions. I think at the end of the day, the new edition presents a more focused and manageable option to test takers who are looking for a 680 as opposed to those who are shooting for a 750+ score (for those I would suggest the old edition). Perhaps my personal disappointing aspect of this edition is that it offers very little new content, substance, or practice compared to the 6th edition.


Quant & Verbal Changes:

• Overall, cut verbal content by 17% and Quant by 30% of page volume
• Certain topics/chapters have been rearranged among the books. Usually it is the same information or very similar, just swapped out
• The sequence of topics also changed, e.g. Geometry now goes last and Number properties before Geometry. I don't know that it matters really
• Some of the harder questions have been simplified (e.g. instead of 168/24, it is now 96/64) likely to make them less calculation intensive
• Quant problem sets now got questions with answer choices so they are more like GMAT questions, allowing picking numbers and back-solving.
• The guides no longer suggest solving some of the questions AFTER finishing all guides. My guess students were not doing it perhaps
• Some of the topics/chapters that previously had no practice questions, got them
• DS strategies have been moved up earlier in the book
• Many of the additional practice questions such as Repeating/terminating decimals in DFP's, Extra strateiges in Algegra, DS Word Problems in WP Book, the additional geometry practice and geometry DS chapter/practice, additional SC chapter at the end (pronouns and verbs extra)
• Verbal questions got answer choices in many cases (though usually just 3 instead of 5 or sometimes 4). Not really sure why 3 or 4
• Removed the symbol/logic shorthand table that was recommending certain symbols; too geeky? too hardcore?
• Removed wrong answer analysis chapter in RC

IR & AWA Book
Seems like the IR and AWA sections got the most revisions of any book. I saw quite a few changes that were going deeper and adding material to the book as opposed to cutting it for the others. All in all, the IR section gained about 15 pages and this is the only book that has grown in size. It is a bit puzzling since most don't spent a whole lot on the IR but perhaps the MGMAT team felt that since this was pretty much the only decent IR book on the market, it made sense to improve it? I am not sure, but at the end we got a better IR product with a slimmer Q/V book sets. Definitely recommend the IR book if you are having challenges with that type of thing. We still do not know really how or for what purpose BSchools use the IR scores or if they are even evaluated.



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