Guide to buy Best GMAT Books and Preparation Software

Okay!! I know this is gonna be awesome! Books!! The best part of the entire exercise is the part where I get my new books. The smell is itself is so inspiring...forget about the content!! But yeah...there's a lot to be done before you get the books. Books and the prep material which you have can make or break your GMAT. So one needs to make a wise choice before buying the books. Also these books aren't very cheap so as to say. So when you get them, you better suck up every comma, full stop in that book.

Before you buy...think what you aim for, where do you stand right now, how much time do you have....things like that.

Many guys have been asking these questions again and again to me. So I was thinking of writing a post which tells you all about buying your books. And hey!! I am not endorsing any particular publications or any prep classrooms. Whatever I suggest to you is entirely based on my own experiences and my observations. So I can assure you that this is going to be the most unbiased and trustworthy suggestion you can get. And I am equally sure of the good results and benefits you all can reap. :)

Okay so enough of the disclaimer...now the gyan:D

You want to start your GMAT prep??
Get these books :

1. The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition
2. Kaplan GMAT, 2007 Edition: Premier Program (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom))
3. Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan Gmat Prep)

These books are a must. The OG is a must. I have told this several times that doing and redoing the OG is the key. The Kaplan Gmat book will help you know the question type better. It has good theory and will give you a solid background in all the sections. The Sc part is not very good in this book. So you will need a special SC book. No book does it better than the Manhattan SC. My acuracy in SC improved drastically. I cannot imagine my gmat prep without these books. For more info and reviews on these books, you can click on the thumbnails to your left.

You feel you need to work on the verbal/quant section??

Okay! So this is where the supplemental books come into the picture. You can get these books:

1. The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review
2. The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review
3. Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook
4. Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook

You can get either the Official guide reviews or Kaplan Workbooks. Both are not recommended. I would personally go for Kaplan. Why because the language in this book is very inspiring and I feel motivated while doing the problems.

The Verbal review really helped me a lot. I didn't get the Math workbook for myself, but one of my students did. And I am happy to say that it helped him. So if you are really weak in maths, you should get one right away. Its not recommended for people who are above average level in maths.

I think I am in the 750+ league!!

Is that so?? Great!! If this is the thing then there's one book I know which is great and a must must buy for people aiming for somewhere around 750...anyone aiming above than 700 should do this book. And I am very sure that this book will improve your score by 20-30 points if you follow this book well. No surprises here!!

Kaplan GMAT 800 2008-2009


Shortcomings in these books: none of the books is good enough for tough maths. Actual GMAT has tougher question than any of the problems in these books when you reach the 50 level. These books do not give you the "gyan". But that you can always get it from here :D Any one book is not sufficient in itself. They all demand rigorous practice.

For the test materials:

GMAT prep...free to download
Kaplan cd...comes with the book
Apart from that paper tests...both power prep ones and kaplan ones.
And if you get timeyou can always help yourself with some tests there on the web.
But I really dont think you need to spend extra bucks for taking practice tests.

For more info and reviews on these books, you can click on the thumbnails to your left.