I wrote the GMAT last week and it felt good to make it into the 700-club. I learned a lot from other people's posts so I promised myself that I would make a post so others could learn from my experience, too.
WROTE IT TWICE:
I got 660 (84%) the first time and was disappointed. I was 50 pts below my target schools and decided right away that I was going to write it again. The main difference was, I was going to buy other books to supplement my studies.
COMPARISON B/W THE DIFFERENT GMAT PREP PROVIDERS:
I bought Veritas, Manhattan, Kaplan and OG books. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses:
VERITAS:
Pros:
- Instructor was excellent. I took the intensive 2 weekend course.
- AWA was exceptional in providing a template that was easy to follow. I got a 5.0 the first time and 5.5 the second. It made it very easy to write. Plus Veritas offers the opportunity to submit your essay for a tutor to read, score and provide SOLID feedback. Very good.
- Quant books were good although a bit out of balance. I would have liked more focus on the algebra section and less so on the combos (since there are barely any questions on the GMAT and even so, they are pretty easy level combos).
Cons:
- Practice tests: Although they advertise that they have the most practice tests, they are not all very good quality. The "difficult" quant section was not what I would consider difficult. As well, some of the reading comp was far too difficult and long compared to the real GMAT.
- Verbal: The books did not teach enough tips and tricks for managing time. It just told you what to do, but not how to do it, esp. Reading Comp and Critical Reasoning. The SC book was okay, although the meat of the SC content was overly confusing, plus I found a bunch of typos.
Manhattan:
- Practice tests: By far the best thing about MGMAT is its practice tests. They offer you 1 for free and then 6 more. It gives a lot more details and insights than any other practice test software that I could find. MGMAT gives detailed solutions on each answer choice (why the 1 is correct and why each of the other 4 are incorrect). They also give so much ability to cut and slice your results that you can quickly navigate to your weaker areas. Great software. But, one note, I got a 49 and 50 in Quant and I could NEVER finish in 75 minutes. Very difficult. Verbal was doable in 75 min's, but scores were 5 - 10 pts inflated compared to what I got on the GMAT.
- Reading Comp/Critical Reasoning: I really liked the way that the books explained how to attack the questions. Very useful and something that helped boost my Verbal results by 15 percentile the 2nd time around.
Cons:
- Quant: It did not go into depth that other books did.
Kaplan:
Pro:
- They are probably the most polished and professional looking books.
Cons:
- Content-wise, I don't know if it would get you to the top level. Even the 800 book was not very structured.
- Practice tests: poor software. Not user-friendly and deflate your scores by a lot.
OG:
Pro:
- questions are worded the way they will appear in the actual test.
Con:
- for some reason, I felt that the questions in the books were easier than on the actual test. even the ones at the back of the book.
TIME MANAGEMENT:
- I went in the first time with too much pressure. Make sure to pace yourself. I ran out of time the first time, but the second time, I went in with a different, more positive frame of mind, and actually had a couple minutes to spare on both sections. Very surprising.
Good luck!
WROTE IT TWICE:
I got 660 (84%) the first time and was disappointed. I was 50 pts below my target schools and decided right away that I was going to write it again. The main difference was, I was going to buy other books to supplement my studies.
COMPARISON B/W THE DIFFERENT GMAT PREP PROVIDERS:
I bought Veritas, Manhattan, Kaplan and OG books. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses:
VERITAS:
Pros:
- Instructor was excellent. I took the intensive 2 weekend course.
- AWA was exceptional in providing a template that was easy to follow. I got a 5.0 the first time and 5.5 the second. It made it very easy to write. Plus Veritas offers the opportunity to submit your essay for a tutor to read, score and provide SOLID feedback. Very good.
- Quant books were good although a bit out of balance. I would have liked more focus on the algebra section and less so on the combos (since there are barely any questions on the GMAT and even so, they are pretty easy level combos).
Cons:
- Practice tests: Although they advertise that they have the most practice tests, they are not all very good quality. The "difficult" quant section was not what I would consider difficult. As well, some of the reading comp was far too difficult and long compared to the real GMAT.
- Verbal: The books did not teach enough tips and tricks for managing time. It just told you what to do, but not how to do it, esp. Reading Comp and Critical Reasoning. The SC book was okay, although the meat of the SC content was overly confusing, plus I found a bunch of typos.
Manhattan:
- Practice tests: By far the best thing about MGMAT is its practice tests. They offer you 1 for free and then 6 more. It gives a lot more details and insights than any other practice test software that I could find. MGMAT gives detailed solutions on each answer choice (why the 1 is correct and why each of the other 4 are incorrect). They also give so much ability to cut and slice your results that you can quickly navigate to your weaker areas. Great software. But, one note, I got a 49 and 50 in Quant and I could NEVER finish in 75 minutes. Very difficult. Verbal was doable in 75 min's, but scores were 5 - 10 pts inflated compared to what I got on the GMAT.
- Reading Comp/Critical Reasoning: I really liked the way that the books explained how to attack the questions. Very useful and something that helped boost my Verbal results by 15 percentile the 2nd time around.
Cons:
- Quant: It did not go into depth that other books did.
Kaplan:
Pro:
- They are probably the most polished and professional looking books.
Cons:
- Content-wise, I don't know if it would get you to the top level. Even the 800 book was not very structured.
- Practice tests: poor software. Not user-friendly and deflate your scores by a lot.
OG:
Pro:
- questions are worded the way they will appear in the actual test.
Con:
- for some reason, I felt that the questions in the books were easier than on the actual test. even the ones at the back of the book.
TIME MANAGEMENT:
- I went in the first time with too much pressure. Make sure to pace yourself. I ran out of time the first time, but the second time, I went in with a different, more positive frame of mind, and actually had a couple minutes to spare on both sections. Very surprising.
Good luck!
