 "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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 "Waste of Time and Money" | 2008-03-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2VH64DJ8J483J |
| After going through the verbal workout and comparing it with Kaplan, the verbal book is a complete waste of time and money. The book spends too much time on how to "game" the test instead of teaching you the basic building blocks and strategies to solve the questions. The practice questions hardly resemble what GMAT verbal questions are. In many cases, the explanations confused me more. The only bright side is that the book has an extensive list of logic phrases and grammar which might be helpful if you don't them. |
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 "Not useful if targeting a 700+ score" | 2007-10-12 |
| - Reviewed By vineetj |
I recently, completed reading this book.
This book's decent reviews attracted me as I required some extra practice.
But after reading the book I am surprised why people have given good reviews to the book.
Here is my take:
Positive:
1. The book is OK for beginners who need guidance on very basics.
2. I can't think of anything else good about this book.
Negatives:
1. The book has very few sample questions
2. The introduction to each section is useful for very beginners. Anyone who has read kaplan or OG would not find the theory interesting.
3. The most important: The answer choices in critical reasoning/reading comprehension not similar to actual test. Some of the explanations are actually silly and it's hard to agree with the book at several places.
I would not recommend this book to anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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 "great verbal review" | 2007-07-23 |
| - Reviewed By megalin |
| This is a great review for someone who needs extra practice for the verbal section of the GMAT. It is set up with some review instructions for each section (sentence correction, argument, and reading comprehension) with a set of practice questions afterwards. At the end, there is an entire practice verbal section. |
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| "Great book that will improve your verbal score...!" | 2007-06-22 |
| - Reviewed By mat123 |
| This book is filled with step by step instructions for improving your verbal scores on the GMAT. It looks at each type of verbal question in depth and not only teaches you all the rules you'll need to know, but also has lots of examples. After I took the GMAT, my verbal scores were WAY up there -- I attribute much of that to this book. This book is a must for the GMAT. |
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| "Very Good book" | 2007-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By soumyamahakul |
| It' really a good book.Starts with little bit basic and covers everything reqiured for GMAT |
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| "The only book you'll need for verbal section" | 2007-02-06 |
| - Reviewed By baby_qmh |
| I got this book because English is not my first language. This book really helped me on the GMAT. I scored 90th percentile on the verbal section and 700 total. The book is very well structured and fun to follow. I think the sentence correction section is the best! My math is strong, so I didn't buy any math review books. I think for those like me, the official guild and this princeton review should be enough. Good luck! |
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| "Useful to Practice" | 2007-01-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A27T0P8M35K052 |
| I used this book to practice for the verbal part of the GMAT Test. My specific problems for the GMAT test lies on Critical reasoning and reading, because english is not my first language. The book improved my skills on it. Of course, it works only for the verbal part but I think is useful for a complementary course. |
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| "Solid strategy for the verbal section" | 2006-09-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A43VO1LH5HY3S |
I have been a GMAT tutor to ESL test takers for over 6 years and I have to say that the PR strategies are by far the most useful for students who don't speak English as their first language and need to focus their efforts on the score raising essentials. IMHO the main weakness of this book is its lack of isolated concept drills to drive home each strategy.
Howard Spencer-EES Executive English Solutions Chile
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| "Verbal Workout for the GMAT, 2nd Edition (Graduate Test Prep)" | 2005-10-13 |
| - Reviewed By wells_j |
| Excellent preparation for the GMAT verbal section. Provides a general english usage refresher, how to select the correct answers to tricky questions and how to spot common tricks used by the test creators fool the test taker into answering incorrectly. |
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