Mike MᶜGarry

Best GMAT Prep Books and Resources (2022-2023)

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Top GMAT Prep Books (2022-2023)

There’s so much great online material out there for the GMAT. But GMAT books definitely have their place in the canon of study materials! If you prefer non-digital study resources or eBooks, you definitely have a huge array of materials to choose from. So how do you pick?

Never fear! Here are our recommended best GMAT prep books. The table gives a brief overview, but you can also scroll down for more in-depth reviews, as well as our summary of the best free GMAT study resources out there!

Category #1 #2 #3 #4
Book Complete GMAT Strategy Guide Set The Official Guide to the GMAT Review GMAT Math Prep Course The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible
Publisher Manhattan GMAC Nova PowerScore
Pages 1912 1088 (OG), 336 (Quant), 544 (Verbal) 516 434
Most Recent Edition 7th 2022 2021 2022
Practice Tests/Questions 6 practice tests 1900+ questions 600+ math questions 600+ verbal
Approx. Price on Amazon (New) $140.99 $77.85 $19.95 $33.24
Notes You don’t need the most current edition. The 10-book 6th edition that separates the books by section is an acceptable alternative. 3 books. Worth buying for the official practice material from GMAC. Worth buying if you need additional challenging math practice. Three books (one for each verbal section). Consider buying only for extra practice on the subjects where you need it. The CR book has best reputation.

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Table of Contents

We’ll start with five paid resources and then look at three free ones.

We know that you’re busy and have probably already done your fair share of research on the available options. Feel free to click the links below to jump ahead in the post. No judgement.


 

Manhattan Prep’s GMAT Books (MGMAT)

MGMAT-best GMAT books-magoosh

TL;DR: This is an excellent series of GMAT prep books. The newer versions (“All the GMAT”) are slightly better for Problem Solving questions and in terms of overall organization. However, the old ones are really top-notch as well—and can come quite a bit cheaper.

The best GMAT prep book award goes to Manhattan Prep. This full set (purchasable on Amazon.com) is a truly comprehensive guide to the whole GMAT. Don’t just learn a bunch of nifty tricks; learn the fundamentals behind the questions, so you won’t just be flailing about on test day, relying only on guessing strategies.

Across Magoosh we refer to different “books” from Manhattan, because the 6th edition has 10 books that have been changed into “units” in the new 7th edition (pictured below).

The 7th edition (purchasable on Manhattan’s website) combined all the three Verbal and Quant books into massive subject books (All the Verbal and All the Quant) with the sections that were once separated into separate books now reorganized as “units” in their respective book. IR and Essay remains its own book in any available edition, and the relatively unhelpful GMAT Roadmap (its own book) is now gone. The order of the units and books remains the same in either edition, making either a fine choice in terms of content.

The 7th has some advantages. It’s a much better-organized package, and the formatting in the books is much cleaner, lending itself to an overall better studying experience. While practice questions broadly remain the same, the language now has been altered on roughly 20% of the questions (especially PS questions) to make them appear far more GMAT-like. That gives it a clear edge over the 6th by our estimation.

However, the 6th edition separates into 10 books rather than as units in a single package, which means that if you’re looking to only improve one particular section, then you can select your subject a la carte, only buying the books you need.

This brings us to another point: not every Manhattan book is built equally! In general, the Quant material is of a higher standard than that of the Verbal. The Quant material is marginally more difficult than what you’ll see on the test, while the Verbal questions are noticeably easier.

The Manhattan series consists of the following (click each link for a full Magoosh book review). Keep in mind that Quant and Verbal were books 1-5 and 6-8 respectively before the 7th edition grouped them together as units into the new All the Quant and All the Verbal books.

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GMAT Official Guide (OG) by GMAC

cover of the GMAT Official Guide 2022Before we get into the nitty-gritty, check out our GMAT expert’s video review of the OG and where it ranks among the best GMAT books!

As Erika says here, books in general aren’t the ideal or only way to prep for the GMAT, because:

  1. The test is taken online with a computer, so it’s best to prep with one!
  2. And books aren’t adaptive (of course!)

However, when you’re out of GMAT materials online, the OG is a solid book to have on your bookshelf. In fact, some would argue that the GMAT OG material is the actual bible of GMAT preparation, and the rest mere apocrypha. After all, the main OG book and its two companion books that focus on Verbal and Quant are made by the brilliant people (GMAC) who actually write the questions you’ll see on GMAT test day.

  • With that said, we suggest that you don’t rely on the Official Guides for strategies (the way you would with MGMAT), instead using official material for the best source of high quality GMAT questions.

You can get an elite score using any one edition of the OGs, but we still encourage students to use one of the more recent editions of the GMAT OG (2018 and on). By contrast, the older books (pre-2018) have practice tests and format explanations that don’t reflect the changes in the test that took place in April 2018. In other words: if you started to study for the GMAT a couple years back and you already have the 2018 or 2019 book, then that will do the trick.

However, if you don’t already own one of a copy of the Official Guides, we usually recommend buying the most recent available. Owning the newest edition is not 100% essential, but just preferable to older copies due to the small changes they make between each edition.

For example: the 2022 version of the OG has 50 new practice questions than the 2021 version, while the 2021 version has 70 more questions than the 2020 version. In turn, the 2020 version has 100 more questions than the 2019 version.

That sounds like the setup for a Quant question in and of itself, but the takeaway: while the 2022 version is technically the best buy, it’s not by a huge margin. Definitely consider getting an older book, particularly if you can save some money in doing so.

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The GMAT Official Advanced Questions by GMAC

The Advanced Guide compiles 300 difficult questions from all sections of the exam, making it an excellent supplemental resource for those looking to reach 700+ scores on the test. Released in September of 2019, the Advanced Guide is one of the most recent and helpful resources for the GMAT. Its strengths and limitations are very similar to those of other GMAC-created resources. Expect excellent practice questions (coupled with frustratingly opaque explanations).

It also, interestingly, leans more towards more DS than PS questions in the Quant section, while the Verbal questions are nearly evenly distributed between CR, SC and RC. Across the book, the RC gets the highest difficulty spike, because each question is engineered to be very hard (whereas an ordinary RC section would have a much wider spread of difficulty for each question reading prompt).

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Nova

Nova Math Bible-best GMAT books-magoosh

Need even more math questions? Nova’s GMAT Prep Course has a wealth of math practice material and advice. Magoosh’s experts have taken a close look at this resource and found it to be flawed but still very useful.

The newest edition, released in 2021, appears to be virtually the same book as the 2019 edition. Upon review of the books side-by-side, we still can’t spot the difference! In fact, 2021’s edition still lists the testing requirements for the pre-April 2018 GMAT (it says that there are 37 questions in the math section but this number was reduced to 31). That means we recommend choosing whichever is the better priced of the two copies at the time you look into purchasing the book.

Understand that this book uses the same studying philosophy as Manhattan’s resources: it prefers to challenge test-takers with questions slightly more challenging than their supposed difficulty. Some might prefer this approach, which tends to over-prepare students by testing the upper limits of what is tested on the exam, but for others, the process could be disheartening.

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PowerScore

PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible (book review)

PowerScore built its reputation as an LSAT company with its LSAT Critical Reasoning Bible. For those who don’t know the difference between GMAT vs. LSAT, the LSAT is the GMAT Critical Reasoning section on steroids. So, you can bet that PowerScore really knows how to dissect one of the most difficult question types on the GMAT. We’d recommend it as a supplement for those wanting an academic approach to CR. It also seems consistently accurate, especially compared to Manhattan’s CR resources.

The 2022 edition is the most up-to-date publication. Compared to its 2021 and 2019 counterparts, the biggest difference comes in the form of a bigger font which makes it easier to read, if ever so slightly. The question problem set for each chapter hasn’t changed. Because of that, borrowing from a friend or buying second-hand will be just as useful as purchasing the most recent edition.

The chapters explain how to easily take apart arguments through the recognition of their different parts (premises and conclusions), and to select the strategies for attacking each question type. Additionally, the book will also show the most frequently used ‘wrong answers’ that GMAC uses to trick test-takers. If you don’t mind a more academic approach to CR strategy and appreciate dissecting problems rather than learning through trial and error, then this book will be highly valuable in your test prep journey.

Expect an in-depth study aid, and prepare to be thumbing frequently between the chapters and the book’s expansive glossary. You might very well feel that you’re ready for either the GMAT or the LSAT after diving into learning about logical fallacies and cognitive traps.

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Best Free GMAT Exam Resources

Remember: Just because a resource is free doesn’t mean that it isn’t high quality. A lot of students begin prepping for business school and start to think that the number of dollar signs in front of something is a symbol of quality. Sure, there’s often a correlation there — but cost:quality isn’t a causal relationship. Most students will use a mix of paid and free resources to prep.

Here are the best free resources you can start using right away.

Resource Company Why You’ll Love It
Magoosh.com Magoosh Wide range of free resources, including study schedules, eBooks, video lessons, and practice questions.
GMAT Math Flashcards Magoosh Available for Android, iPhone, or web. You can study anywhere.
GMAT Idioms Flashcards Magoosh Available for Android, iPhone, or web. You can study anywhere.
Beat the GMAT Beat the GMAT Forum for GMAT students and instructors. Honest reviews on GMAT prep options.
GMAT Club GMAT Club Forum for GMAT students and instructors. Honest reviews on GMAT prep options.

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Finding the Best GMAT Books and Resources

The first step in preparing for the GMAT is finding the best resources. With the welter of test prep companies touting their respective books, this first step can be downright daunting.

Over the years, the Magoosh team has logged hundreds of hours purchasing and researching dozens of GMAT books. In this article, we review five GMAT books and several additional resources, including material from GMAC, Manhattan GMAT, Nova, and Powerscore. Your prep starts and stops with the material above.

As you’ve seen in these reviews, many of the best GMAT prep books come from online forums, reputable websites, and book publishers such as Manhattan, Nova, PowerPrep, GMAC and so on. But good GMAT study material can come from many other sources. What’s important is that you seek out as much high-quality GMAT prep as possible! If you’re looking for something more than self-study GMAT books, we recommend you check out our review of the best GMAT prep courses.

Editor’s note: none of the following content is sponsored! Magoosh has purchased each of the best GMAT prep books reviewed below to ensure the most objective reviews possible.

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners, and the use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.

Author

  • Mike MᶜGarry

    Mike served as a GMAT Expert at Magoosh, helping create hundreds of lesson videos and practice questions to help guide GMAT students to success. He was also featured as “member of the month” for over two years at GMAT Club. Mike holds an A.B. in Physics (graduating magna cum laude) and an M.T.S. in Religions of the World, both from Harvard. Beyond standardized testing, Mike has over 20 years of both private and public high school teaching experience specializing in math and physics. In his free time, Mike likes smashing foosballs into orbit, and despite having no obvious cranial deficiency, he insists on rooting for the NY Mets. Learn more about the GMAT through Mike’s Youtube video explanations and resources like What is a Good GMAT Score? and the GMAT Diagnostic Test.

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