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Study Material (Self Vs Course)

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Study Material (Self Vs Course)

by tlinCA » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:26 pm
Hello everyone, I'm roughly 2 weeks into studying for the GMAT. I've decided to self-study and have gotten a few books from friends who've taken them already. As of now, I'm using Kaplan books as a guide, for practice problems and also for practice tests. A friend of mine took the Manhattan GMAT course and she recommended me:

https://www.manhattangmat.com/storeitems ... 29&catid=1

She used this throughout her course and speaks highly of the material/class.

My question is... are there certain materials more beneficial and better suited for self studying? Or will this complete set she used during her course be helpful to me as well without an instructor teaching me the strategies? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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by bkw » Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:51 am
If you have plenty of time ahead, then mgmat quant books are usually considered sufficient. They are well-written.

For verbal, hmm I don't really know here, but a good start would probably be:
SC: MGMAT SC
CR: Power prep CR
RC: not found good material here, yet not read veritas rc which I will soon. rc is simply about understanding what you read, how can it be so hard?? try to learn about the structure of the passages, where tricks usually goes, when to be extra careful etc. gmatclub have some user submitted resources that probably will be useful.
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by VivianKerr » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:45 pm
A course can be good for people who need a little more structure and discipline, but it's absolutely possible to self-study. You just need some good materials and a solid study plan!

For books, MGMAT is great. I especially like MGMAT SC and MGMAT Number Properties. I also recommend getting the OG12 if you don't already have it, as well as Powerscore CR which was already mentioned.

If you need more help with Quant, Kaplan has some good questions. For RC, strategy is definitely the most important thing, and no book is going to give you that. You'll need to try a few out and see what works for you. I, personally, am a big believer in taking notes as you read and extracting the topic, scope, function for each paragraph, author's point of view, and primary purpose for every single passage.

I would check out the study plans here on BTG and work backwards from your test date. If you can devote at least an hour or two a day to GMAT, and a few extra hours on the weekend, you can definitely be ready in 3 months!
Vivian Kerr
GMAT Rockstar, Tutor
https://www.GMATrockstar.com
https://www.yelp.com/biz/gmat-rockstar-los-angeles

Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

Thank you for all the "thanks" and "follows"! :-)
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