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Congrats on starting the process of preparing for the GMAT - - success on this test is one of the most important aspects of your candidacy AND one thing you can really manage as you head up to applying (the other is your application and essay).

While setting up a schedule first seems to be the most logical thing to do, before you create one, take a diagnostic and see where you already stand! You can save a lot of time and frustration by seeing which areas you should be dedicating the most time to. We recommend you take an official GMAC CAT test, which you can find free on the GMAC website. Knowing how you perform with questions written by the same people who create the real test as well as create the CAT's (computer-adaptive) algorithm, will give you the most reliable score.. 

After your diagnostic, identify what types of questions you’re answering wrong, which ones you guessed on, and which ones you had NO idea how to even approach. While the content you’re tested on is finite, it's best to use your time to grok what you need to work on rather than doing everything -- you don’t need to fix what is not broken. Stay focused on what you need to improve.

Once you know the time blocks in which you’ll devote time to study each day/week up until the test, you’ll want to further break down this time into what you're doing.  Consider the number of hours you can devote daily without feeling overwhelmed (we always recommend a day off from studying each week). Working in 45 minutes-1 hour segments, followed by a 5-10-minute break will help your cognitive engagement. The brain needs time 'not' studying to integrate information. Plan on going through a process where you learn the material, practice your skills, then quiz yourself on it.  Students who work carve out time prior to work hours, during their lunch, and after dinner. Weekends are always ideal for marathon sessions. For quant, we recommend our students use Bell Curves' student center.

For the verbal portion, you’ll also want to identify what you need to learn, and even how well you know American formal written English! Just because you’re a native speaker, it doesn’t mean that the sentence correction will come easily. In addition to the Manhattan Prep material, I recommend you check out our Full Potential Sentence Correction Intensive book, which can be found on Amazon. For some students, they can just ‘feel’ whether a sentence is correct/incorrect, for others, it’s a process going through the ‘rules.’ Figuring out how you'll reliably answer correctly will help ensure there are fewer surprises on test day.

You’ll also want, for verbal, to identify your reading speed. Since this is a timed test, you’re penalized if you cannot answer questions in a timely manner. The quickest way to increase your reading speed...is to learn speed reading. We teach a GMAT speed reading clinic (1-day/5 hours), but there are likely other online or local solutions, though no other GMAT specific speed reading training that I know of. So put that training on your schedule as well.

Throughout your schedule, plan on taking timed diagnostic tests so you can continue to track your progress AND identify when you don’t fully understand a particular question type. The more questions you see, the more you get a feel for the kind of questions you’ll have to work on to succeed on the test. Aim to take as many practice tests as possible, before your test date.

Forums like Beat the GMAT and GMAT Club are great places to ask peers and featured experts (like ourselves) questions as well as get support, commiserate, and celebrate. There are listed, there, in fact, specific schedules to follow.

Another thing we recommend is to do audit your mental outlook and integrate ways to feel your best. Some ways to up-level -- like meditation and exercise, are a cumulative activity. You want to be sure that you enter the test focused, calm and without any stress or anxiety. If you have issues here, we recommend you identify the ‘symptoms’ hindering you, then seek out solutions. We use hypnosis, visualization, mindfulness, sound therapy, and more. We are to test-takers what trainers and sports psychologists are to high-performing athletes.

Finally, if you go on our Instagram, we have a #45DayGMATChallege series of posts that provides helpful tips on setting up a schedule, working on time management, handling stress, prepping for and succeeding on your GMAT.he test go beyond basic grammar and into the ‘meaning’ and implications of what is read. You’ll need to utilize and flex your critical thinking skills and analyze data. 

Stay alert, aware, honest, focused and track your progress. A schedule is a great document to use as a guide, and adaptable as needed. It's great you're starting early enough to make huge strides. But take note: for our students, it typically takes 6 - 8 weeks to reach his/her goal...so yours, working alone, shouldn't be too much more beyond that.

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Best of luck!

First, yes, the material is still very relevant. There have been some slight deviations in sentence correction, but nothing too substantial. Specifically, if you have the Manhattan set, I think the SC book was revamped but otherwise I don't think they haven't changed much over the last couple of versions (other than updating the suggested OG question lists as the OGs have changed).

Second, still go out and buy the new 2016 GMAT Official Guide because it contains only real test questions and they are the most accurate compared to the real verbal section (many 3rd-party questions verbal are average at best and many more are terrible). If you already have an older official guide, that can still be helpful, but this likely has mostly different questions (about 25% get swapped out most years). Also, you can get the official guide 2016 bundle with the individual quantitative and verbal books if you want more official practice questions, but those tend to be on the easier side, so the main official guide is more important.

Third, www.gmatclub.com is pretty helpful (and free!) and the forums have some resources and, more importantly, contain almost every GMAT question that's on the internet. Again, avoid 3rd-party verbal questions, but 3rd-party math questions are often really useful (and often you can find harder than GMAT questions, which helps to push up into the high 40s in quant). You can search the forum by tag to specify which type of questions you want, or you can use the directories:

• GMAT Club Sentence Correction
  
• GMAT Club Critical Reasoning
  
• GMAT Club Reading Comprehension
  
• GMAT Club Problem Solving
  
• GMAT Club Data Sufficiency
  
  Fourth, mba.com official GMATPrep tests are the most accurate. You get 2 question banks for free (and you can attempt each of them multiple times with varying levels of question overlap among retries) and you can buy 2 more (but it's expensive, like $50 or something). If you want more tests, Veritas, GmatClub, Manhattan, Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc. all have at least one free test available.
  
  Fifth, if you want the set of Manhattan tests and the codes don't work, first talk to them. I've heard of them extending access and such, but I don't know how reliable that is. If that doesn't work, buy a kindle version of any of the Manhattan books in the set for like $10 and get a new code instead of paying full price for the same tests (again, I heard the SC book was vastly restructured, so that might be one worth getting if you decide to buy one for a code).
  
  So, for the price of the OG 2016 book and maybe one Manhattan book, you should be good to go.

To get an idea of the resources you'll need, I suggest that you take an official practice test. It may be the case that you're already scoring above your target score, in which case you may not need to prepare at all :-).

Resources-wise, be sure to get GMAC's Official Guide for the GMAT. For extra practice questions, the test maker has a quant-only book and a verbal-only book, each with 300 questions.

Regarding strategy, to achieve a solid GMAT score, you must:

1. Learn the concepts and techniques tested on the GMAT (e.g., circle properties, divisibility rules, past perfect tense, equation-solving, etc.)
   
   
2. Master GMAT-specific strategies (e.g., testing the answer choices, rephrasing the target question, identifying subjects and verbs in sentences, etc.)
   
   
3. Understand the many different ways the test-makers can test your knowledge of each concept
   
   
4. Hone your test-taking skills (e.g., endurance, time management, guessing strategies, etc.)
   
   Many students make the mistake of limiting their preparation to item #1 and perhaps item #2. So, once they fully grasp a concept and successfully answer 1 or 2 related questions, they move on to the next topic.
   
   The problem with this strategy is that the test-makers can take ANY concept, no matter how simple, and create dozens of wildly different questions, each requiring a different approach. Take, for example, the relatively simple concept of averages (arithmetic mean). The test-makers can take this concept and create super simple questions like this and they can create super hard questions like this, both of which test the same concept. So, to achieve a great score, you must answer A LOT of practice questions specifically-related to each concept tested on the GMAT.
   
   To find tons practice questions related to a certain concept, you can use the question-tagging tools at GMAT Club or Beat The GMAT. Alternatively, our GMAT course is arranged so that students can fully explore a certain concept. For example, at the bottom of the video lesson page for inequalities, you’ll find links to dozens of practice questions that test the specific concepts covered in that video. This format lets you fully explore the ins and outs of each concept.
   
   Finally, your study plan should include several full-length practice tests. Keep in mind that the GMAT is a test of your math and verbal skills AND it's a test of your test-taking skills. So, 700-level math/verbal skills, combined with 600-level test-taking skills, will likely result in a score that's closer to 600 than to 700.
   

If you want to do a bit of work in preparation for a GMAT class, be sure to get GMAC's Official Guide for the GMAT. For extra practice questions, the test maker has a quant-only book and a verbal-only book, each with 300 questions.

As far as instructional resources go, the one that's best for you will be the one that best suits your learning style. We have a free GMAT video course you might want to try.

Finally, it's a good idea to have some kind of Study Plan. We have a one here if you're interested.

Cheers,
Brent

Thank you very much Brent!

Do you think a Manhattan book like Foundations of GMAT Math or the [GMAT Quantitative Strategy Guides] (https://www.amazon.com/Quantitative-Strategy-Guide-Manhattan-Guides/dp/1941234119/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499028151&sr=1-6&keywords=Manhattan+gmat+strategy+guide) would work well? And if so, which do you think is better? I need to score in the 720+ range, so I want to make sure the guide includes explanations for the higher difficulty problems/logic. I'm leaning towards the Strategy Guides ones, but want to make sure I choose the right books.

Thanks again for your help!

Hello! If your quant feels too rusty at the moment, start with Mgmat’s fundamental math guide. A link for reference:
https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-GMAT-Manhattan-Preparation-Guide/dp/1935707590/ref=nodl_

I am doing Gmat on a tight budget so found all the Mgmat books in my local library (yay public libraries!).
Heard great things about TTP here on reddit.

Keep your practice tests for a bit later. Not everyone fares well with an initial diagnostic test and in some cases it shakes your confidence badly.
So study for 2 weeks and then give one to assess your strengths and weaknesses. For a lot of people usually 1 test a week is enough to keep them motivated and prevents mental fatigue. But to each his own. Most importantly, make sure you experiment with the section orders so that you can figure out which section order works best for you.

Edit: For verbal Manhattan has a basic verbal book too.

I would definitely recommend to start with this collection: GMAT Official Guide (OG) 2020

- Take the evaluation test in the beginning and review some of the basic materials/subjects. This should refresh the base knowledge you need to know as well as give you a feel for how the test is structured. Then, take a free practice test online (official gmat one). See how you do and proceed from there.

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From the above, you should be able to get an idea of how well you can perform now and what gaps you may need to fill to get your desired score.

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For more focused review on subjects/improving on weaknesses, I would suggest: https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Manhattan-Prep-Strategy-Guides/dp/1506219705/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=manhattan+gmat+prep&qid=1574377630&s=books&sr=1-1

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For adv quant, many people on this subreddit have recommended TTP: https://gmat.targettestprep.com/

Eh it's OK. It just allows you to complete the OG problems online, which could be helpful to get used to doing problems from a computer screen.

The biggest drawback is that you can only have like 25 saved sets (which adds the questions back into the pool). So for example, I like to do problems in sets of 5 or 10 and then review. Once you've completed the set, the results are saved and the questions are removed from the pool of questions. Once you get to 25 saved sets, you have to delete a saved set to do any additional problems. Really annoying.

If not for this drawback- I would be a big fan. That said, it can still be helpful I think.

For screenshots- click the link and scroll down to reviews. There are a few customer images which show the interface.
https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Official-Guide-2018-Online/dp/1119387477/

If you’re super short on cash this is great. Add manhattan on scribd.com for $10/month and OG 2020 for $50 if you can. For $80 you can self prep hard.

I would get GMATclub.com’s tests too just because they have such useful error tracking, although you can get around that if your willing to put the time in on an excel spreadsheet. Gmatclub’s explanations of answers includes everything on that free Chinese site.

Top tip: track and attack your errors. Good luck.

that sounds good. Yeah, Magoosh is a really popular suggestion - what are your thoughts on the manhattan complete guide set? It sounds like a lot of people used that too, so I'm wondering if I should be trying to squuze in both or just one or the other.

These are the ones that I'm talking about

Thanks! Here is the version I used:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0972129634
Good luck

No great option for Verbal. The best options are to go through either the MPrep Verbal books (now conveniently all in one book: https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-All-Verbal-definitive-Manhattan-ebook/dp/B07P5GPKD7/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=manhattan+all+verbal&qid=1569590560&s=gateway&sr=8-3) or any combination of the PowerScore books or Aristotle Prep books.

PowerScore CR: https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-GMAT-Critical-Reasoning-Bible/dp/0972129634/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gmat+powerscore&qid=1569590592&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Aristotle SC: https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Sentence-Correction-Grail-3rd/dp/9350872846/ref=sr_1_6?crid=B6HNA0GUGFXA&keywords=sentence+correction+gmat&qid=1569590620&s=gateway&sprefix=sentence+correction%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-6

PM me and I will send a copy of my GMAT-specific grammar guide (https://www.amazon.com/Last-Minute-GMAT-Grammar-Techniques-ebook/dp/B00OZURCRA/)--it's a good enough place to start.

Agreed that idioms are frustrating, but just go through the OGs and write down all the ones that are used. Most are fairly strict as to "what the GMAT wants."

Yes, you might see ones that aren't in the OGs--however, assuming a level that isn't totally stratospheric, the idiom shouldn't be the only thing defining whether the sentence is correct/incorrect. That is, "real grammar" ought to make the answer reasonably clear.

Nice, thanks for the feedback! Does this look like the one that you used?
https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Correction-Manhattan-Strategy-Guides/dp/1941234070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505748545&sr=8-1&keywords=manhattan+sc+gmat+book

The OG prep books from GMAC themselves is going to be your best bang per buck.

I also did Magoosh in the very very beginning, thinking I wanted to start w/ verbal first but I thought the Magoosh content is poorly curated and presented.

I ended up buying another Manhattan set of books and it's a lot more clear and guided... I plan on finishing the verbal books for Manhattan Prep here:

https://www.amazon.com/GMAT-Manhattan-Prep-Strategy-Guides/dp/1506219705/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=manhattan+prep+books&qid=1574392685&sr=8-3

Outside of that, I'm also looking at this thread:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/study-plan-for-verbal-gmat-98342.html

GMAT Club forum has a free math book. Spend a couple of days to see if it suits you. You can also start with this book. It starts with VERY basic stuff such as number system and adding and multiplying:

https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-GMAT-Manhattan-Strategy-Guides-ebook/dp/B017X1K9MC

Khan Academy is another option if you prefer videos over books.

I just ordered the Manhattan Prep books from Amazon (I hope this is the correct set). Now my questions is, how do I self-study this? Is there a study plan included?

750 or above is 99% percentile - it will require months of studying almost daily. If you have the will and dedication for it, it is possible. It's not going to be easy, but if you check success stories on GMATclub or other forums, you will find people who have done it.

1. What is your breakdown for Quant and Verbal?
   
2. Do you know what type of questions you got it wrong on both sections?
   
   For verbal, I suggest:
   

1. Powerscore Critical Reasoning
   https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-GMAT-Critical-Reasoning-Bible-ebook/dp/B00A413J4O
   
2. Manhattan Prep Sentence Correction
   https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Correction-Manhattan-Strategy-Guides/dp/1941234070/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
   
   For Quant:
   
3. Manhattan Number Properties, Word Problems, and Geometry are very useful
   
4. Kaplan Prep Plus helped me a lot with probability and combinatorics.
   
   
   

I bought something like this on Amazon, and there was a code inside the front cover.

Amazon OG 2018

I have maybe a unorthodox suggestion: LSAT prep materials. I took the GMAT on a whim (to apply to a JD-MBA program) a week after taking the LSAT, and the GMAT's RC was cake, comparatively. The passages are shorter, more interesting, more straightforward, and you get way more time per question. You can buy ten-packs of previous LSAT tests on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481700897&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+preptests).

On a related note, The "Logical reasoning" sections also translate well to the critical reasoning on the GMAT, though I though the difficulty was more comparable for this question type.

Selling OG 3 book bundle, complete Manhattan 10 book guide set, and log ins for both (expires January 2020) for $80 shipped. Links below are what I bought exactly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119507723/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1941234100?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Same, I bought the Manhattan Test prep for around $100 with the online codes. I still need to take my baseline test before I study thou. I really dont want to spend 4 hours taking the first test.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1941234100/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1564682108&sr=8-2