The GMAT Official Guide and official prep

Free from GMAC

GMAC doesn’t sell a “diagnostic test” by that name. Practice Exam 1 does that job: take it early, under real timing. It gives you a score on the 205 to 805 scale and shows which section needs the most work.

• GMAT Official Starter Kit: a sampler of 70 real questions, guided study, and Practice Exams 1 and 2.
• A free 6-week study planner from GMAC.
• Sample questions and section guides on mba.com.

The Official Guide 2026-2027

The Official Guide is a book of real retired GMAT questions, with explanations, covering all three sections. Each book comes with access to an online question bank, so you can build timed practice sets.

There are also separate Quantitative Review, Verbal Review and Data Insights Review books, sold alone or as a bundle with the main guide. Start with the main guide and only add a review book for the section you find hardest.

More official practice

GMAC sells more full-length practice exams, for six in total with the two free ones. They use the same scoring and timing as the real test. Save them for the last few weeks, when you want a realistic read on your score.

Watch out for old books

Older Official Guides and many second-hand prep books cover the previous GMAT, with Sentence Correction, geometry, Integrated Reasoning and an essay. That includes books sold as the GMAT “10th edition” guides. Make sure your materials cover the current three-section exam.