What to Look For

If you’ve chosen to study on your own, you must realize that there's a distinction between study and practice. Study is when you learn the methods for tackling GMAT questions. Practice is when you sit down and practice those methods. The best move is to buy one, and only one, commercial test preparation book, complete it, and then practice the methods you’ve learned on former GMAT exams, such as those found in ETS’ Official Guide for GMAT Review, plus practice on practice GMAT CATs (computer adaptive tests).  You'll need to make a decision on which commercial book you pick – but pick one and stick with it.

Don't concern yourself with much with whether or not a book has better methods than the others. Instead, you should be more concerned with how well a book teaches someone who is self-studying. For many people, learning something from a book, without a teacher, can be a difficult experience. If this is true of you, then you may want to seek out a book which guides you through the material well.

What NOT to Do

Buy more than one commercial test prep book. Working through several commercial preparation books won't help more; indeed, it will actually hurt, as you'll spend too much time learning methods and not enough practicing. Pick one book and stick with it. Once you're done, practice heavily on full-length GMAT exams and questions -- paper or computer.

Buy textbooks from someone who took a live GMAT course. This is an enormous waste of money. The books are designed for classroom use, not self-study. As such, you'll be confused and frustrated. Even if the student took copious notes, the text is still not designed for self-study, and, as such, will teach you little. Many students assume that the big companies teach methods in live classes not taught in the retail books. This is not true. The methods in the live classes and the books are usually quite similar.

What To Buy For GMAT Self-Study

1- Commercial Preparation Book. See our GMAT Test Preparation Book Comparison Charts for suggestions.

2- ETS’ Official Guide for GMAT Review.

3- ETS’ PowerPrep Software and any other quality computer tests you can find.

How To Self-Study for the GMAT

Step 1- Complete the commercial prep book. Use the methods, no matter how insignificant those methods may seem.

Step 2- Practice, practice, practice on GMAT exams.