Just bought this book for self studying.. Thoughts?

Monkeys,
I just bought the Official GMAT Guide 2017 (the green one) + the various Manhattan books in PDF.
From where do you think is better to start?
Is the green one a good book?
I have 2 months, target: >680

Cheers

 
  1. Buy the three official guides and read them.
  2. Start doing some exercises on Wiley until you get familiar with the type of questions that appear in the exam
  3. Take a mock exam from the free GMATPrep software so you know where you're standing
  4. Repeat (2) until you get most questions right and check Manhattan or other source if you feel you're not progressing fast enough
  5. Take the 2nd mock from the free GMATPrep software.
  6. Focus on your weaknesses and schedule a test date
 

The benefit of the other 2 is the additional exercises you get on Wiley. I bought the Kindle version for all 3 books.

That's all I needed to practice for the exam, but everyone is different (I had an engineering background which makes it easier, I guess) I didn't find Manhattan material books particularly useful and my test scores were pretty discouraging and disconnected from what I got in the official exam. That's why I suggest using official CATs when possible.

 

Did you at least take a practice exam? Maybe you are already above 650. If you are a native english-speaker 680 is easy af. Better invest in CATs instead of books (btw you can always pirate them).

 
Best Response

This is the official guide - it contains real GMAT questions, so yeah, I'd say it's a good source, but the explanations are a little light, and there's no test taking strategy. So if you're going through questions and aren't improving much, you may need another source to emphasize strategy and then use the book to test your progress. The other OGs ("official guides") are pretty redundant. There are more questions, sure, but it's not different material and doesn't have any additional strategy related resources. There's not really a reason to get all 3, and around 1/2 of the questions are repeated anyway. Basically, the GMAC puts out a new guide every year refreshed with some of the more recent retired questions. Just get the most recent one (which you have).

I recommend using this book for sure, but supplementing with something that covers strategy. I found magoosh really helpful (www.magoosh.com) but people swear by other resources. Try beatthegmat.com or gmatclub.com for more gmat specific guides, advice, and resources.

 

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