The Official Guide for GMAT Review

I'd taken a GMAT course, and then I took the exam: Imagine my surprise, when I've discovered that I got only 600 (Quantative: 50, Verbal: 21, AWA: 3.5). I've realized that this preparation was not enough, so I've read any GMAT book I could put my hands on, just to be on the safe side. Here is my ranking of those books, from the most worthy to the least worthwhile: 1. The Official Guide For The GMAT Review, 10th Edition: Without doubt, if you can allow yourself only one book - this is it. Its questions (and there are A LOT of them) are the ones that reflect the actual exam in the most realistic way, since this book was written by the creators of the tests, and the questions are real GMAT questions from old exams. The verbal section is excellent, and is at the same level of difficulty of the actual test. The quantitive section's questions are a bit easier then in the actual exam, especially for the stronger students, mainly due to the fact that those questions are taken from the pen-and-paper version of the test, so they are at a medium difficulty level, apart from a few exceptions. This book does not, however, offer you any sort of strategy to solve the questions more quickly or efficiently, since the writers of the book do not want to sabotage their own exam... Also, while every question has detailed answers, containing all possible mistakes in all of the wrong answers, I did not always understand all of the explanations to the questions in the verbal part - there is an extensive use of the phrase "unidiomatic" in the answers, even when the are plain explanation to be given. This might bother people whose first language isn't English (like me ? )... Other people who reviewed this book have mentioned that the most difficult questions at this book are at the end. I did not feel any difference, but, hey, this is just my opinion... Note: There are rumors about a new edition of this book, more expensive and with fewer questions - but from newer exams. If such edition does exist - it is highly recommended - since you want to have questions that reflect the test in the best way, and nobody would do all the questions in this book (A LOT...) anyway... 2. Cracking The GMAT, 2006 Edition\The Princeton Review: The BEST book for strategies tips and hints to solve questions fast and to eliminate wrong answers correctly. I was especially impressed by the great Critical Reasoning section, attacking each type of question separately, and provides useful ways to "crack the question" - something that was not taught even during the prep course I took. However, while I didn't use this book for the quantative part, I've reviewed it, and it does contain only about 95% of the material in the actual exam. To prepare properly, you should add 'Math Workout For The GMAT\The Princeton Review', which does cover those remaining 5% (like questions dealing with groups and percent or relay on the 'Official Guide', mentioned before. 3. Kaplan's GMAT 800: I've noticed that this

I used a total of five books in preparing for the GMAT: Barron's 13th edition, Petersons 2003 and 2004 CDs, Kaplan 2005, Nova's GMAT Prep Course 2003, and the Official Guide. I have taken the GMAT twice. The first time I used the Barron's book and the Petersons CD and scored a 40% on math, 75% on verbal, and a 4.5 on the essay for a total score of 570. This score was unacceptable. The second time around, I budgeted more time to study a day (around 6 hours) and for a longer time period (a month and a half). For me, I felt I had a strong background knowledge on all the required subjects, but I was not as honed on specific strategies and techniques for answering questions. My thoughts on each book: Barron's: As a beginner, I enjoyed this book. I read the whole book and did all practice tests. They did not explain probability, sequences, and progressions questions well. In general, the math explanations were a bit sketchy. However, the word problem explanations were the best out of all the books. Petersons: I just used the CDs and did not look at the book. After taking their adaptive practice tests, one is provided feedback which has questions divided into very difficult, difficult, etc. This is beneficial because you can see the level of difficulty at which you generally test. This is a really helpful addition that other CDs lack. Kaplan: My least favorite book and CD. The book had very poor explanations for test questions. The book only offered general guidance for taking the test and outline common strategies. The cartoonish CD just became annoying and took more time than it was worth. Nova: Far and away the best book. After reading reviews on various sites, everyone recommended Kaplan and Princeton Review, but no one mentioned this book. I found it by chance at the local book store. It covered everything on math and had exceptional, comprehensive explanations. Also, the drills after all chapters were very, very, very helpful. After doing all drills in Nova, the commonly considered difficult practice questions in Kaplan were almost a joke. I would recommend to anyone this book. Official Guide: A must to have for everybody taking GMAT. I did the last third of the questions for each section, which are typically more difficult. I recommend, in order from best to worst: Nova, Official Guide, Petersons CDs, Barron's, Kaplan. I recently took the test again and got a 96% in verbal, 60% in math, and a 690 overall.

Background - I am 13 years out of college. My test taking and math skills were pretty rusty. I want to get into a top 20 MBA program to make it worth the investment. Consequently a great score was very important. I was shooting for 700.I bought the Princeton book / CD, the Kaplan book / CD, and the Official Guide from ETS. I also downloaded the PowerPrep software from ETS for free. I completely exhausted the Princeton and Kaplan material - test strategies, exercises, practice tests. I did all the practice tests in PowerPrep. Moreover, I did the last third of the questions from the Official Guide (the harder questions are in the back). I did not take a training class. I took a Kaplan class 14 years ago for the LSAT and was not happy with the investment. Better would be to find a study partner in your area.My assessment: 1. The Princeton book by far has the better explanations of test taking strategies, as compared to Kaplan.2. The Princeton questions are much more similar in structure to the real GMAT questions, as compared to Kaplan. 3. The verbal sections of Princeton practice tests are pretty similar in terms of difficulty to the real GMAT verbal section, as compared to Kaplan.4. The quantitative section of the real GMAT is far more difficult than Princeton practice tests.5. The Kaplan practice tests are much harder than the real GMAT. 6. The free online tests that come with the Princeton book / CD are a great added bonus.7. The PowerPrep software is identical in look and feel to the real GMAT, but the quant questions are definitely easier.8. The Princeton book has the best approach to the writing sections, but do review the Kaplan material as well.9. The Official Guide's questions are great and the explanations are exceptional. This is a must have resource.If you want a top score then my advice is to get all three books and download PowerPrep. You also need a lot of time to prepare, particularly if you're working full time or if you've been out of college for a while. I studied and practiced for about 8 weeks. You also need to be comfortable with taking the test on a computer. It is more difficult than on paper - harder to read on the screen, harder to take notes, etc.First, start with the Princeton book - this will give you a solid foundation. Next, exhaust the PowerPrep software. This will give you a good baseline of where you are and where you need to focus. (I scored 730 and 740 w/ the PowerPrep software.)Next tackle the Kaplan book, but only focus on sections where you are having trouble. Then exhaust the Princeton Software. (I scored 720 and 730 on the practice tests on Princeton's CD.)Then do the Kaplan CD practice exercises and practice tests. The tests are very hard, more difficult than the GMAT . . . particularly the verbal. You will score lower on these tests. The practice exercises don't give you enough time to answer all of the questions. Nevertheless, try not to become too frustrated. Keep in min

If I were only going to buy one book in order to prepare for the GMAT, this would be it. The 1,400 practice problems taken from real tests were far closer to what I encountered on the actual GMAT than those of competing books. Having said that, I think many of the tips found in the other books I purchased (Kaplan, Princeton, and Arco) were very useful. For best results, I would purchase this book and the Kaplan or Princeton book to compliment it. This book shows you "GMAT math", but the other books give you tips on how to do less math. If I just used GMAT math, I would never have finished the quantitative section.It would have been nice if the practice problems could have been provided on a CD (it's a pain to create answer sheets, etc) or were rated by difficulty, but overall I don't have any complaints.This book does duplicate many of the PowerPrep software (downloadable from the GMAT site) questions. I recommend using the two in conjunction.I took the first PowerPrep CAT test about a month before my GMAT in order to give me a baseline score. I got a 680. I then studied for the month using the Arco, Kaplan, Princeton and the Official guide (I basically went through one a week). I believe the key to doing well is practice and of the four books, the official guide provides the most practice problems.The night before my GMAT, I took the final PowerPrep CAT test. I got a 770! My score on the actual GMAT was a 750, so the PowerPrep software was the most acurate at measuring my score (My best score on tests I took during the month of study were 680 using Kaplan and 720 on Princeton). A question very similar to one of the difficult quantitative questions on the PowerPrep test appeared on the actual GMAT. I was running out of time and if I hadn't seen the similar problem the night before, I likely would have gotten it wrong.

This is the single book that helped me nail the GMAT. The sheer volume of realistic practice questions helps with getting in the right frame of mind for the test. My experience with other GMAT guides, particularly Kaplan and Arco, has been that the questions are not realistic. Kaplan's questions and explanations seem particularly egregious and way off the mark, after reading the official explanations in this guide. Kaplan's guide is a blatant attempt to make the test seem harder and more complicated than it actually is, in order to lure prospective candidates into its classroom course (for which Kaplan charges over $1000.) Quite often the explanations for the correct answers are inconsistent in these other guides and the questions are not well researched.This Official Guide from GMAC outshines all others, simply because the questions are chosen from actual past tests and are very thoroughly researched. Equally important the answer choices for each question are also well thought out and both the correct and the incorrect choices reflect actual test patterns. (All other guides fail in this essential regard; even if their questions and the correct answer are realistic, their incorrect answer choices are often far-fetched or muddled.) The explanations for the answers in the Official Guide are crystal clear and very insightful.The rules of grammar on which the GMAT Sentence Correction questions are based are best outlined in this guide. The section on Arguments is simply outstanding. I had a lot of difficulty with the Verbal section until I read through the explanations here. I scored in the 99th percentile in both sections and owe my success mostly to this guide (and the Princeton Review guide to a lesser extent.)The absolute best part of the guide is that it not only explains clearly why an answer choice is correct, but also explains why the other choices are wrong. This is most useful since it shows you the patterns and tricks used on the actual test to lead you astray from the correct answer. Once you see the patterns, you can quickly identify and rule out the incorrect answers and pick out the best choice.