Manhattan MGMAT 6th Edition Guides

Here's a more general overview of the changes. One big feature of the new quant guides is that there's a greater emphasis on building key strategies (Smart Numbers, Testing Cases, etc.) across subject areas.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... h-edition/

So far I have gone through the RC book and I can tell that it was pretty substantially rewritten. It is hard to judge if it is better or worse as different RC plans work better for different people. I would say that if you have the 5th edition and it did not help, get the 6th edition and vice versa.

On the Plus side of the RC:
1. I found good examples how to take notes - that's helpful and what takeaways to jot down along with some short hand examples (it is helpful to learn short hand)
2. New exercises, passages, and examples added (not all but I would say at least 30% of practice content is new, and potentially more)
3. It seems the RC has been somewhat simplified focusing on getting the most important things right - the 80%
4. Good selection of Scope questions though there is no dedicated chapter/section on scope (perhaps I missed it?)

On the Minus Side of the RC:
1. Fewer passages and questions. I found only 21 passages and 40 questions
2. The book never really stops to show a nice diagram of the RC question attack process - similarly to how SC book has it. That is the crown jewel and would be very helpful to use as a guide. I felt the book just threw me into the RC without easing into it (I felt the SC book did a better job of easing into the SC). This is a relatively minor grievance but it would be helpful to have a central reference point
3. Found some typos already (Page 18 has #6 instead of #2 and Page 23 has a different word in the answer explanation). Again, these are minor and every book out there has them so I would not fixate on this fact too much.

My takeaway: if you have 5th edition and need extra help with RC, buy the 6th edition MGMAT RC book. It will be worth a new fresh look... esp since the RC options are meager. If you are still struggling with RC, try the Kaplan Verbal Workbook - it is much more spartan in terms of content and strategies, but perhaps that is exactly what you need - a solid basic foundation.

P.S. Keep in mind that MGMAT has the MGMAT Verbal Foundations book - if you are a non-native speaker, buy it as a pre-requisite. It will be the most valuable book of all for you.

Hello BB,

I have already got MGMAT 5th CR book and was going to study from it, but i read this comparisons and now i am confused.. Should i change it for 6th edition or there is not much difference and i can go through by 5th edition?

thanks in advance..

mahawarchirag, the RC book is more likely to impact your score, particularly if you don't yet have a strong RC process. The updated IR book is nice, but IR is less important, mostly since it's not part of your 200-800 score. Having said that, if your RC is fairly strong and your IR is extremely low, you might consider going the other way.

Thank you for bringing it up. I did not get an advanced copy from MGMAT but I usually buy my books myself off Amazon and post the reviews there for ease of finding them.

I will post a comparison once I get a hold of these. I would guess it will take a few days to go through them to be thorough. Last time a few other folks helped as well - manhattan-gmat-4th-edition-vs-5th-edition-136713.html

As a rule of thumb - you do want the latest version and as another rule of thumb - usually it is not worth buying the new edition if you have the old one already but let's see what this release brings. Exciting!

Thanks BB. Those general rules are handy to know.
I look forward to the reviews

I imagine there will be a little more emphasis on IR so the guides can be relevant for a few more years but the real meat -- quant / verbal -- is what I'm curious about.

I got the books and had them for 2 days so far - still need time to review and write a debrief but so far, I am not seeing a lot of changes - only minor revisions. The surprising thing with this edition (perhaps was present with the previous one) is that each book comes with a unique code that you can use to get tests or additional practice material... so the cool thing is that you can get access to the 6 tests 8 times. The bad thing is that you will have to enter the code for each book separately to get the additional practice questions (many books come with as few as 25 questions so may not be worth the effort)

Thanks - I am looking forward to seeing the RC book. That would be real help.
I have so far looked through the GMAT Roadmap and a few quant books. I have also flipped through the SC, so I have a limited picture still.

Edit: I have just spent 5 minutes with the RC book and I see that it has undergone the most change so far from what I have seen. It has also gone shorter and some of the practice passages have been taken out in the last section. Can you comment on the number of questions and any changes that have been made in terms of adding/removing practice questions?

P.S. I like the new RC strategies - definitely an improvement to an already strong guide.

Thanks for your review BB and to Dmitry for the inside perspective.

That update on questions that have been taken out and added would be good to note.
I suppose since the OG 2015 wasn't changed so heavily from the 13th edition there's only updates in strategies as opposed to new types of questions to be tackled.

I guess the original rule of thumb holds -- if you have the option, get the new edition but it wont hurt too much if you already own the last edition.

Hey BB, thanks for this. I am considering to buy the Manhattan Complete Strategy Set 6th Ed and came across your review on Amazon. It's super helpful as I've been struggling to decide which set of books to purchase. I don't want to overload myself with books - I already have the OG2015 and am looking for one other comprehensive set of books for the fundamentals and tips and tricks. Looks like this bundle might be it!

That said, I have one question. You've mentioned in your review that, "these books don't emphasize tricks or easy ways to 700+ score, instead they methodically cover areas tested, and should be pretty much all you will need (besides the Official Guides - see below for links)." Are there other books that you recommend for tricks and easy ways to score 700+ besides this bundle and the official guide? Would you recommend investing in any other advanced book for those easy tricks? I don't want to overwhelm myself but I want to be equipped with the best tricks if this doesn't cover everything. Thanks a lot.

LOL. The tricks and easy 700 is a myth. Kind of like - easy money in a casino or one of those "work from home jobs" that pays $100/hour.

Best post ever! I always thought the same until I read so many blogs/700+ scorer records that talk about "tips and tricks". Glad to hear that nothing beats being fully prepped with fundamentals. I'll go with this set and the OG for now. Thanks a lot.

I already own the 5th edition books. Need I buy the 6th edition ones? I am planning to give GMAT towards the end of May. TIA!

U just mentioned that one gets access to 6 tests 8 times... I thought they would have given access to 6 different tests for each book!!! Am I correct or Dumb???

Hi sonidilpreet,

No, there are not 48 different practice CATs associated with those books (and even if there were, planning to take that many practice CATs would NOT be a good idea).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi All! I have the MGMAT 5th edition set and I'm struggling to find the correlation between problem solving set of each strategy book and OG 2016. Has anyone seen such topic around or can help me find the break down of questions?

Thanks in advance!

Hi alinefcs,

You might want to send a PM to Dmitry about this (he's further 'up' in this thread).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich