(Part 2) Top products from r/GMAT

Congrats on starting the process of preparing for the GMAT - - success on this test is one of the most important aspects of your candidacy AND one thing you can really manage as you head up to applying (the other is your application and essay).

While setting up a schedule first seems to be the most logical thing to do, before you create one, take a diagnostic and see where you already stand! You can save a lot of time and frustration by seeing which areas you should be dedicating the most time to. We recommend you take an official GMAC CAT test, which you can find free on the GMAC website. Knowing how you perform with questions written by the same people who create the real test as well as create the CAT's (computer-adaptive) algorithm, will give you the most reliable score.. 

After your diagnostic, identify what types of questions you’re answering wrong, which ones you guessed on, and which ones you had NO idea how to even approach. While the content you’re tested on is finite, it's best to use your time to grok what you need to work on rather than doing everything -- you don’t need to fix what is not broken. Stay focused on what you need to improve.

Once you know the time blocks in which you’ll devote time to study each day/week up until the test, you’ll want to further break down this time into what you're doing.  Consider the number of hours you can devote daily without feeling overwhelmed (we always recommend a day off from studying each week). Working in 45 minutes-1 hour segments, followed by a 5-10-minute break will help your cognitive engagement. The brain needs time 'not' studying to integrate information. Plan on going through a process where you learn the material, practice your skills, then quiz yourself on it.  Students who work carve out time prior to work hours, during their lunch, and after dinner. Weekends are always ideal for marathon sessions. For quant, we recommend our students use Bell Curves' student center.

For the verbal portion, you’ll also want to identify what you need to learn, and even how well you know American formal written English! Just because you’re a native speaker, it doesn’t mean that the sentence correction will come easily. In addition to the Manhattan Prep material, I recommend you check out our Full Potential Sentence Correction Intensive book, which can be found on Amazon. For some students, they can just ‘feel’ whether a sentence is correct/incorrect, for others, it’s a process going through the ‘rules.’ Figuring out how you'll reliably answer correctly will help ensure there are fewer surprises on test day.

You’ll also want, for verbal, to identify your reading speed. Since this is a timed test, you’re penalized if you cannot answer questions in a timely manner. The quickest way to increase your reading speed...is to learn speed reading. We teach a GMAT speed reading clinic (1-day/5 hours), but there are likely other online or local solutions, though no other GMAT specific speed reading training that I know of. So put that training on your schedule as well.

Throughout your schedule, plan on taking timed diagnostic tests so you can continue to track your progress AND identify when you don’t fully understand a particular question type. The more questions you see, the more you get a feel for the kind of questions you’ll have to work on to succeed on the test. Aim to take as many practice tests as possible, before your test date.

Forums like Beat the GMAT and GMAT Club are great places to ask peers and featured experts (like ourselves) questions as well as get support, commiserate, and celebrate. There are listed, there, in fact, specific schedules to follow.

Another thing we recommend is to do audit your mental outlook and integrate ways to feel your best. Some ways to up-level -- like meditation and exercise, are a cumulative activity. You want to be sure that you enter the test focused, calm and without any stress or anxiety. If you have issues here, we recommend you identify the ‘symptoms’ hindering you, then seek out solutions. We use hypnosis, visualization, mindfulness, sound therapy, and more. We are to test-takers what trainers and sports psychologists are to high-performing athletes.

Finally, if you go on our Instagram, we have a #45DayGMATChallege series of posts that provides helpful tips on setting up a schedule, working on time management, handling stress, prepping for and succeeding on your GMAT.he test go beyond basic grammar and into the ‘meaning’ and implications of what is read. You’ll need to utilize and flex your critical thinking skills and analyze data. 

Stay alert, aware, honest, focused and track your progress. A schedule is a great document to use as a guide, and adaptable as needed. It's great you're starting early enough to make huge strides. But take note: for our students, it typically takes 6 - 8 weeks to reach his/her goal...so yours, working alone, shouldn't be too much more beyond that.

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Best of luck!

First, yes, the material is still very relevant. There have been some slight deviations in sentence correction, but nothing too substantial. Specifically, if you have the Manhattan set, I think the SC book was revamped but otherwise I don't think they haven't changed much over the last couple of versions (other than updating the suggested OG question lists as the OGs have changed).

Second, still go out and buy the new 2016 GMAT Official Guide because it contains only real test questions and they are the most accurate compared to the real verbal section (many 3rd-party questions verbal are average at best and many more are terrible). If you already have an older official guide, that can still be helpful, but this likely has mostly different questions (about 25% get swapped out most years). Also, you can get the official guide 2016 bundle with the individual quantitative and verbal books if you want more official practice questions, but those tend to be on the easier side, so the main official guide is more important.

Third, www.gmatclub.com is pretty helpful (and free!) and the forums have some resources and, more importantly, contain almost every GMAT question that's on the internet. Again, avoid 3rd-party verbal questions, but 3rd-party math questions are often really useful (and often you can find harder than GMAT questions, which helps to push up into the high 40s in quant). You can search the forum by tag to specify which type of questions you want, or you can use the directories:

• GMAT Club Sentence Correction
  
• GMAT Club Critical Reasoning
  
• GMAT Club Reading Comprehension
  
• GMAT Club Problem Solving
  
• GMAT Club Data Sufficiency
  
  Fourth, mba.com official GMATPrep tests are the most accurate. You get 2 question banks for free (and you can attempt each of them multiple times with varying levels of question overlap among retries) and you can buy 2 more (but it's expensive, like $50 or something). If you want more tests, Veritas, GmatClub, Manhattan, Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc. all have at least one free test available.
  
  Fifth, if you want the set of Manhattan tests and the codes don't work, first talk to them. I've heard of them extending access and such, but I don't know how reliable that is. If that doesn't work, buy a kindle version of any of the Manhattan books in the set for like $10 and get a new code instead of paying full price for the same tests (again, I heard the SC book was vastly restructured, so that might be one worth getting if you decide to buy one for a code).
  
  So, for the price of the OG 2016 book and maybe one Manhattan book, you should be good to go.

Thank you! I'm ordering some books to drill out practice problems. I don't struggle much with the theory, more the way to go about problems quickly and efficiently. I noticed, having my math background, I was trying to rigorously prove/find an exact solution for almost all quant problems. I didn't exactly run out of time, but I felt like I ended up guessing quite a bit because I would try to keep myself to about 2min per problem. The verbal section I did a bit better than average which was a nice surprised, and the IR was the same case. I have to make some calls/emails to the programs I'm applying to for deadlines to determine when i will need to retake the test. Other than practice problems, would you recommend any strategy books? The two packages I was looking at are provided via Amazon links. The 2018 on looks good, but has 700 or so less reviews than the 2017 one. Let me know what you think which one would be more beneficial and why. Thanks again!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119396174/ref=zg_bs_11686_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8TJGNN2M6BAHGKH4TZEF

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119347637/ref=zg_bs_11686_19?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8TJGNN2M6BAHGKH4TZEF

Kaplan Premier for the basics and practice CATs (I used MGMAT and Kaplan). Actually relied more on MGMAT only because it was the first one I opened.

OG (Official Guide) for practice - they're actual, past GMAT questions.

GMAT Club for additional resources. The regular posters are very helpful and there are a ton of extra questions to practice with available there. Just be careful, as some are of pretty poor quality.

And don't forget, when you register for the GMAT, you'll gain access to two CATs via the GMAT Prep software. Those are the best indicators of your ability as they're written by the creators of the test.

Good luck!

What were really helpful to me:

1. Geometry (Manhattan Prep)
   
2. Number Properties (Manhattan Prep)
   
3. Word Problems (Manhattan Prep).
   
   Manhattan Prep does a poor job explaining probability and combinatorics. If you're looking to strength in those subjects, Kaplan (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506220428) was really helpful. Please use the online forum GMATclub for questions you do not understand. Some people are amazing at solving problems in a more simple way than what the book shows. I am confident you will do well with your strong verbal score already.

To get an idea of the resources you'll need, I suggest that you take an official practice test. It may be the case that you're already scoring above your target score, in which case you may not need to prepare at all :-).

Resources-wise, be sure to get GMAC's Official Guide for the GMAT, which you already have.

For extra practice questions, the test maker has a quant-only book and a verbal-only book, each with 300 questions.

As far as instructional resources go, the one that's best for you will be the one that best suits your learning style.

In addition to learning the core concepts and GMAT-specific strategies, be sure to work on your endurance and test-taking skills (e.g., time management) by taking several practice tests.

Cheers,
Brent

You've already done all the hard work during the past 3 months. Keep your remaining study sessions light, and designed to simply reinforce and keep fresh what you already learned.

In terms of physical "nerves", there are a few things you can work on that can help relax your body:

• sufficient sleep
  
• proper nutrition and hydration
  
• exercise. this one can make a measurable difference: (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691817301336)
  
  In terms of your negative internal dialogue, try this exercise: try to realize that the voice in your head is not you - we can simply call that voice, "the thinker." for many people "the thinker" engages in an internal dialogue constantly, often causing intense suffering and draining energy. the way to start taking away "the thinker's" power over you, is to be begin Watching the Thinker. Pay attention to the dialogue, and realize that that dialogue isn't all there is to you - its simply a small part of your mind. Once you separate your concept of self from this thinker, and realize they are different things, you can begin to reduce its effect on your mental space. (This is from a book called "The Power of Now", which was a #1 bestseller: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808)
  
  I just finished my own GMAT journey recently, and I hope these tips that worked for me, help you too my friend. You are not alone, and your self-doubt is normal. Using the strategy above, you'll realize your self-doubt is nothing more than just a small voice, one small part of what makes up your entire conciousness. Keep up the good work! We never regret outcomes out of our control - what we regret is not trying, and you are trying!

If I were you I would buy this book as soon as it goes public (sept 24th): GMAT Official Advanced Questions https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119620953/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6daIDb53B8DZP
It is a new book by the GMAC focused on 700+ questions. Also I would check all the 700+ questions on gmatclub.

I got the 2017 bundle on Amazon for like $35

https://www.amazon.com/dp/111925468X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1119101816&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=TV6NERQWXTS1BT1PYEGG


EDIT: also, $40 off Magoosh ($159 total) using this link: https://gmat.magoosh.com/invite/VNND8V

Use the LSAT questions for reading comprehension and critical reasoning. LSAT is the 'GMAT' for law school aspirants. The questions are designed in a similar way to how GMAT questions are designed and more importantly, tested in a controlled environment. It's an invaluable resource.
You can buy them in paper format only and they come in packs of 10 tests usually. Check this out:


https://www.amazon.com/More-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0979305039/ref=sr_1_12?crid=1M3GTJPKTLEJQ&keywords=lsat+practice+tests&qid=1562685057&s=gateway&sprefix=LSAT%2Caps%2C298&sr=8-12

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Note that there is an extra section of logic games that you can ignore. The rest is fair game and very helpful for improving your Verbal.


As for sentence correction there is unfortunately no more than the ones available through GMAT, but they can be more than enough if you review them thoroughly.


Whatever you do, avoid questions that are not designed by an official testing board. They do more harm than good.

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Cheers.

Thank me later. ; ) https://www.amazon.com/Complete-GMAT-Sentence-Correction-Guide/dp/0997517808

https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Official-Guide-Quantitative-Review/dp/1119507715/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1537034111&sr=8-3-fkmr1&keywords=2019+quant+review+gmat


If you buy 2017 or 2018 edition and activate it, it gives you access to 2019 questions. There's only one website.

Selling OG 3 book bundle, complete Manhattan 10 book guide set, and log ins for both (expires January 2020) for $80 shipped. Links below are what I bought exactly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119507723/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1941234100?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Correction-Strategy-Manhattan-Preparation/dp/1935707671

http://www.amazon.com/The-Official-Guide-GMAT-Review/dp/1118109791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397341611&sr=8-1&keywords=original+gmat

Do every problem. Twice. Make sure you understand the logic they are testing in each problem.

Your problem may be how you are studying. I used Manhattan books and saw results by applying 'deliberate practice' technique to each practice problem until I had mastered the concept. If you want tips on deliberate practice here's a link.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/positive-psychology-methods/lecture/Jem3C/angela-duckworth-4-1-deliberate-practice

https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544947223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510885438&sr=8-1&keywords=deliberate+practice

Bite the bullet, and learn your grammar rules. When the questions get hard, everything “sounds” bad. And if you’re really reading every answer choice for “sound,” you’re taking too long. You need to eliminate answer choices according to grammar rules. For our GMAT students who have really struggled with SC - and many had exhausted the resources already suggested - we’ve recommended this SAT book with much success:

3rd Edition, The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar https://www.amazon.com/dp/1511944137/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OejPAb9MEZ08Z

Disclaimers: We don’t get any kickbacks for recommending this. It is an SAT book, and the GMAT SC is obviously more difficult. But, the author gives - hands down - the most detailed, yet succinct plain language treatment of English grammar from a standardized test prep point of view. Buy an old, used edition. Work through it. Apply those principles to Official Guide and practice exam questions you got right and wrong. Worst case, you’ll be out a few bucks. But, it certainly will not hurt.