Studying on a budget

[vgreen350]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how you can study for this exam on a budget? I have been reading a lot of blogs and many people refer to Princeton, Kaplan, or Manhattan study prep material which I would love to take advantage of, but do not have the $1000+ dollars that they seem to cost. I have tried going to "meetup", but my geographical area does not have any active gmat study groups. What are some suggestions? I am completely at a loss, I recently took a practice test and scored 490 so I know I need some help. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[amittilak]

Are you located in USA? My GMAT exam is this friday and if I get a respectable score, I would be happy to send you my books for free. I have MGMAT books and Kaplan book. You should try looking on Craigslist as well. You might get lucky!!
Good luck for your exam.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how you can study for this exam on a budget? I have been reading a lot of blogs and many people refer to Princeton, Kaplan, or Manhattan study prep material which I would love to take advantage of, but do not have the $1000+ dollars that they seem to cost. I have tried going to "meetup", but my geographical area does not have any active gmat study groups. What are some suggestions? I am completely at a loss, I recently took a practice test and scored 490 so I know I need some help. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[vgreen350]

Thanks amittilak for the response. I do live in the US. I will check out craigslist also.

[jpnguyen]

I was in the same position. My first gmat practice test was in the same ballpark. My suggestion is to pick up the following text. I think I was scoring in the vacinty of 520-550 on gmat prep before I started my prep

1. Manhattan GMAT Series + Official Guides from GMAC - I bought mine used for $70 on craigslist or $250/new
2. Powerscore critical reasoning bible - New $20, downloadable version online Free
3. GMAT (GMAC) Paper tests 1-9 - $75 at mba.com, downloadable version online (somewhere) Free

***Read Powerscore CR Bible's first few chapters at the beginning of your prep to get an understanding of the test***

That's about 2-3 months of prep material for less than $200. My mock test results from gmat prep are at about 680-700 now. And i'm not even done prepping for verbal. Still need to finish MGMAT Sentence Correction and work on some CR questions. I expect my verbal to be close to 37-39 when I'm done and my quant to be around 47-49. Which is right around 690-710.

[beatthegmat]

Not sure I recommend this myself, but I have heard of Beat The GMAT members who have prepared for the GMAT and have done well, exclusively with the free GMAT resources found here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/resources

If you're on a budget, I highly recommend practicing with the GMAT questions found in this forum. A couple of good books would help as well. Check out these GMAT book recos.

Good luck!

[vgreen350]

Thank you all for your responses. You all have been really helpful.

[beatthegmat]

Thank you all for your responses. You all have been really helpful.

Good luck vgreen350, we're here for you!