 "Honest Review of GMAT Books!" | 2008-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1C8A2EO0HYPIY |
After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:
Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.
Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.
Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.
Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.
EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.
Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.
I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.
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 "Princeton Math Workboog For Gmat 2nd edition" | 2008-08-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1MPU3MSRSL2QZ |
Good book for preparing GMAT , Quant Section.
Must buy at any cost |
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 "Don't Make This Your Only Book" | 2008-04-01 |
| - Reviewed By john@pcs-online.com |
This book is a decent supplement, but don't make it the only book you use to prepare for the Quantitative section of the GMAT.
I bought this after going through the full Princeton and GMAT guides (the ones that cover all test topics). I found that my math skills still needed a lot of exercise, so I ordered Princeton's Math Workout.
On the plus side, I've found that it has some helpful tips that weren't in the full Princeton book. However, its explanations of most topics are quite weak. The author will dedicate a couple of paragraphs to the basics of a subject, then present you with sample questions to solve. Too many times, the sample questions are quite a bit more complex than what he covered in his explanations.
If you're good at math, this won't be much of a problem for you. But then again, if you're good at math, you probably don't need this book. I'm NOT good at math, and need a guide that covers the topics in-depth rather than just giving me the basics and expecting me to extrapolate more advanced concepts from that.
I've also found a couple of typos in the book, which is particularly disturbing when you consider that it has a 2005 copyright. After three years, Princeton couldn't see fit to release a revised edition? The book also says you get six sheets of scratch paper stapled together when you take the GMAT. However, the big Princeton book says you get 10 sheets of laminated graph paper and an erasable marker. A minor thing, somewhat, but two guides from the same publisher shouldn't contradict one another. |
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 "This book contains several errors" | 2007-07-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KJUQAKU1E9XF |
| I decided to use this book as a supplement to a prep class I took. I was extremely disappointed to find that the book contains content errors. I am halfway through the book and I have already found 2 errors. If I had not already studied for the GMAT I would have gotten these problem types wrong on the GMAT. This book is also does not show you how to shorten your computations. I think this book is only good for a refresher and should be accompanied by a more thorough guide. |
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| "Helpful but watch for typos" | 2006-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A16ANPL42OC1IH |
| The book was very helpful for advice on handling data sufficiency questions. However, it also states that Positive*Positive=Negative in the box at the bottom of pg 46. It then has an example of how untrue this is next to the writing. Seeing this significant of an typo decreased my confidence in the rest of the basic math explanations in the book. |
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| "Good techniques, nice practice, but just a supplement" | 2006-03-22 |
| - Reviewed By coady20 |
| There's no way around it, the Princeton Review does have some helpful tips. For example, I really like their technique of "A/D" or "B/C/E" for data sufficiency (Kaplan never really gets around to making its advice in this area so concrete). It's a good idea to go through the Princeton Review resources early in order to put yourself in a good mindset for doing well. However, I do find the books light on REAL math - the math you'll need to get a breakthrough score. Definitely recommend this book for practice and tips, but not sufficient if you want to go more deeply into math concepts to break the 700 barrier. |
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| "Math Workout for the GMAT, 2nd Edition (Graduate Test Prep)" | 2005-10-13 |
| - Reviewed By wells_j |
| Excellent preparation for the GMAT Math section. Provides simple ways of answering math/word problems without having to use time consuming complex math formulas. Shows ways of solving different types of problems along with a general math refresher. |
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