Patterns among those who scored 750+ [2022 Edition!]

Hello and welcome to all of you

First of all I am sorry for this long post but this was inevitable to include all the good debriefs in this thread. We already have three old posts covering the same subject. The first one was posted in 2013 by bb and can be found here. The second one was posted in 2015 and can be found here. The third one was posted by me in 2019 and can be found here.

This is the latest 2022 edition and covers three years of data from July 1st, 2019 to June 30th, 2022. In these three years, we have had approximately 200+ debriefs posted in this forum and I selected some 80 debriefs from them. These are some of the outstanding stories that can help our members reach their goals.

A separate section at the end is allocated for some of the exceptional stories with less than 750 but more than 700 scores. At the end of the post, I have also posted a summary and concluding remarks of the material used by these test-takers. Member will be able to know what material has been used the most.


This post can help members:

• to get inspired by these outstanding stories of hard work.
• to get an idea to use GMAT material and how to use that material effectively.
• to learn different tips and tricks for GMAT Prep.
• to assess how the use of the material has changed (or not) during the last 3 years.

Summary

Must have books for the GMAT

• GMAT Official Guide 2022
• GMAT Official Guide Quantitative Review 2022
• GMAT Official Guide Verbal Review 2022

Official books and Computer adaptive tests (CATs) are not ranked in this summary as they are the must-have material.

Top GMAT Books/Courses used by above test takers

Quant

Apart from Official GMAT guides and official CATs, overall 13 different books/courses were used by test takers and the top 3 books/courses from those are the following.

1. GMAT Club (Test + Math book + Forum explanations)
2. Manhattan GMAT Quant Guides
3. Target Test Prep Quant Course

Verbal

Overall 15 different books/courses were used by the test takers and top 3 books/courses from those are the following:

Sentence Correction (SC)

1. Manhattan SC Guide
2. e-GMAT Course
3. GMAT Club + Target Test Prep.

Critical Reasoning (CR)

1. PowerScore CR Bible
2. e-GMAT Course
3. Manhattan CR Guide

Reading Comprehension (RC)

1. Manhattan RC Guide
2. e-GMAT Course
3. GMAT Club RC Forum (Butler project)

Tests

Computer adaptive tests from 8 different prep companies were used by the test takers and the top 5 from those are the following:

1. GMAT Prep.
2. GMAT Club Tests
3. Manhattan CATs
4. Veritas Prep CATs.
5. Expert Global CATs

Concluding Remarks

Quant Section

• One can get a Q50 score by using the GMAT Club only (by using quant articles, question banks, tests, and answer explanations).
• Manhattan GMAT Quant guides continue to be the most popular GMAT quant books.
• Target Test Prep is being used the most for the GMAT Quant section.

Verbal Section

• Manhattan SC Guide is the most popular GMAT SC book to date.
• e-GMAT course is being used the most by the non-natives for GMAT Verbal section and especially the SC section.
• PowerScore CR bible continues to be the most used book for CR preparation.
• e-GMAT is the most popular course for the GMAT CR section.
• Manhattan RC Guide is the most used book for the GMAT RC section.
• Target Test Prep full course has now started appearing in debriefs.

Computer Adaptive Tests (CATs)

• GMAT Club Tests are the second most popular GMAT CATs excepting only the Official GMAT CATs
• Expert Global GMAT CATs are being used more than their GMAT courses and are good value for the money, 15 CATs for 50$ is a worthy deal. They are the emerging GMAT CATs in the market.