Customer Reviews

Cracking the GMAT with DVD, 2010 Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book does a nice job of introducing the format of the GMAT, what it is, etc. If you are completely ignorant about what the GMAT is, then it may be worth your time to drive over to the local bookstore and thumb through the first couple of chapters. Beyond that there is very little useful information to be found in this book. In fact, I think that the strategies outlined for the quantitative section are simply misleading and wrong.

For example, early on the book describes a guy named "Joe Bloggs," who is essentially a complete idiot who did not prepare at all for the exam. Most every math problem explanation shows one or two answer choices that Joe would have selected because either they are intermediate solutions (solutions that are found during necessary, but preliminary steps on the way to the final solution), or they are just "too obvious." That's real cute, and perhaps makes people more comfortable with the test, but let me tell you that it will not help you on test day, and will likely hurt you.

The best thing that you can do in your preparation is learn the basics cold. Do this by frequenting some of the GMAT prep site forums, where a plethora of practice problems with expert solutions can be found. To sum up the quantitative tutorials in this book- "Make sure that you find out what the question is asking, and make sure that you do not stop short of the full solution, as they will tempt you with answer choices that they know you will encounter during your work to solve the problem." Well, that is sound advice, and much harder in practice than it sounds, but hardly worth basing an entire book upon.

If you are somebody who is really struggling with sentence correction, I would actually recommend that section, as I feel it does do a nice job of summing up the ideal approach to those questions.

In closing, I would say that if you are somebody who is simply trying to get to a 550-600 score, then this book may well be right up your alley, as the concepts are introduced in a very friendly and frankly, childish way. However, if you aspire to a 700+ score, this book is beneath you, and you really need to pass this one up. I bought this book on a whim early in my preparation, because I heard good reviews of it, but promptly closed it and set it aside for the duration of my studies and only used it once for the aforementioned reasons, and I scored a 750. I honestly believe that the reason these books sell so well is that reading them is in a way therapeutic, as it makes you feel comfortable with the test. Trust me that that is not a good thing. You have to make a realistic assessment of your weaknesses, and work to improve those, not waste your time practicing some cutesy methods that you won't have time to use on test day.

The DVD is very low budget and does not give very useful information. The DVD is short, with only 2 or 3 example questions from each the verbal and quantitative sections. Not a good effort. This is the first book review I have ever written and I only wrote it because I felt so incredibly ripped off by the DVD. Get the book, but not the DVD.

I bought this book as my first GMAT prep guide because I had heard a lot about Princeton Review series. From the very beginning I felt that writers of this book hate ETS. They kept talking about how ETS doesn't care about real intelligence or capabilities but only about money.
That said, the book was helpful, even though a little inconsistent at times. Here are all the positives and negatives:

Positives:
1) Great Quantitative section. You will learn all high school math quickly and efficiently.
2) The tricks and tips described in this book really work. The POE and Joe Bloggs become part of your problem solving strategy.
3) Covers all aspects of preparation, from the day you buy the book, to the application strategy

Negatives:
1) Seriously flawed AWA section. Everything they said about writing a great essay goes contrary to what ETS suggests. I would rather trust ETS than Princeton.
2) Inconsistencies confuse the reader: Sometimes they talk about moving on as quickly as possible. At other times they advice spending enough time on some questions.
3) Wrong answers: A number of answers provided by them are wrong confusing the reader even further.
4) Illogical explanations are provided for some of the concepts. It seems the writers were in a hurry to finish the book.

CONCLUSION: Worth Buying but you cannot rely upon this one book alone. For top 10 schools, score of 700 is average today. This means you cannot afford to make many errors. Princeton is not sufficient to gaurantee that. You must download the free material provided by ETS at www.mba.com and buy a few other books like Kaplan's.

I wrote my test recently and scored 750. This book is the closest to the real test besides ETS paper tests I used.
I had issues with the software they provided as I had to upload the results to the princeton review website and I couldnt get a final score initally though I could review each question individually.
Hopefully Princeton Review has fixed these issues by now.

I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on Princeton Review's Cracking the GMAT book:

===== OVERVIEW =====

The Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT book is, like the Kaplan GMAT 2010 Premier Live Online book, a general GMAT strategy guide. However, apart from the natural similarities (such as separate chapters for the 5 types of problems you will see on the GMAT plus an essay section), the two books follow markedly different "paths to knowledge".

As advertised from the beginning, The Princeton Review Cracking the GMAT is not a guide that emphasizes building subject-matter skills in the quantitative or verbal fields, but rather focuses on what the authors call "cracking the system" - tips and tricks to help you score higher with an obvious preference for process of elimination (POE) and picking numbers. Personally, I do not fully support such strategies for the GMAT (I consider them more as backup plans). Here's why: POE cannot and will never replace actually knowing the answer to a question, it will just improve your chances of getting it right. Picking numbers is also quite risky: I sometimes see this strategy discussed in online forums; people try to pick numbers, but particularly at an advanced level they pick the wrong set of numbers and everything falls apart.

The book is a pleasant read though, and I personally found the small info boxes on the sides of pages to be quite entertaining and interesting. The authors use "the average test taker" for examples of do's and don'ts. However, I didn't like the authors' tone for describing the GMAT - I felt an overall negative vibe about the test, which was not the case when I read The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible for instance. An example would come from the Reading Comprehension chapter: "No one in her right mind would ever read one of these passages of her own free will. They are almost always boring." I strongly disagree with this view, since I personally enjoyed most texts, particularly those dealing with the social sciences. My advice is to think of the GMAT as a sort of mind game you have to beat, an interesting little challenge. I assure you that feeling positive about the GMAT will make the experience a lot less painful.

===== PROS =====

* A good introduction to the GMAT, an easy read to make you understand what the test is about, how it's scored, and what to expect on test day

* If your quantitative skills are not fresh, definitely give this book a chance. It covers math basics pretty well. Again, the fact that it's an easy read will probably help you reconnect with junior high and high school math

* Questions are structured in "bins" according to difficulty, which means you can focus on your particular level when you practice

* The book comes with a registration code you can use to gain online access to four CATs (computer-adaptive practice tests). However, I felt that these practice tests were a bit easier than the actual GMAT

===== CONS =====

* If you're shooting for a higher score (above 600), this book won't help much. You will need other resources to help you reach your goal

* At just over 280 questions, this book has fewer and easier practice questions as compared to other guides (like Kaplan GMAT 2010 Premier Live Online). Also the explanations could use some more work, particularly in verbal. I personally get really upset if the best explanation for why an answer is wrong is "because it's out of scope"! This will definitely not help a test taker understand where her error in reasoning was!

* The focus on strategies such as POE and number picking means that you'll have some potentially useful tools for G-day, but such strategies might backfire. Cracking the GMAT does not provide an in-depth analysis of question types and their respective approaches

===== BOTTOM LINE =====

After going through The Princeton Review's Cracking the GMAT, all I can truly say is this: the book is good, but only for a certain level (that is, up to mid-600s). As a basic guide, it shines; as a tool for getting into that top 10 MBA, I do not think it delivers. If you do not already know your starting level, I advise you to do the following: go to [...], download the free GMATPrep software, and take practice test #1 (save #2 for the last days of your prep!). If you score significantly below 600, consider investing in this book. If you score higher than 600, you'd best search for a different resource since you'll need a more rigorous program to get to a higher percentile score.

About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at Beat The GMAT - a community serving 100K+ GMAT students/month

I have used books from several different companies to prepare for the GMAT: Kaplan, Princeton Review, ETS, ARCO, and Powerscore. Each has different strenghths and weaknesses, but certainly Princeton Review has been the most frustrating.

Cracking the GMAT has some very useful information. It is a great introduction to the test, and offers insightful methods for each type of question on the test. It is laid out in a very user-friendly format.

However, the practice exams are terrible. While most of the questions are of decent quality (important, since ETS is the only book allowed to use REAL questions), the explanations are lousy. Kaplan has got this part nailed down. In addition, the software that is included with this book is so primitive that you will be lucky if you get anything but frustration. It includes fewer practice features than the other books, and the practice exams do not even mirror those of the actual exam.

If you are only going to use 1 preparation guides, I would highly recommend getting Kaplan's, for its ease of use, quantity of resources, and quality of strategies. If you can get another, get your hands on "The Official Guide for GMAT Review," which is the only book that has Real GMAT questions, and contains little else.

Happy Studying!

Great book if you're looking to learn how to be as efficient as possible on the GMAT. It also teaches you alternative ways to solve problems and attack the verbal section. Extremely helpful book. Once you've learned the technique needed to attack the GMAT, go ahead and buy the OFficial Guide for GMAT Review. The GMAT Review book has actual questions and you'll get a better idea of what kind of questions are asked.

Like many of the other users, I took a test using the enclosed cd. When I had finished sitting for 3 hours, I waited eagerly for my score. Unfortunately retrieving my score pinned my CPU at 100% for about 20 mintues. Multiple attempts at this throughout the day didn't help. I never did receive my score. So I went and bought Kaplan's book which has the answers included on the CD.

I went through the entire book (incl. practice problems) in one week to get myself geared up for the GMAT grind (3.5 weeks total). The quant section provided a pretty thorough review of the different concepts and skills you expect to apply on the GMAT. The verbal section was also useful. The thing I liked most about this guide is how well it was organized. Each section received an adequate amount of attention and the concepts were clear enough to remember/apply. I also found the tips and techniques quite helpful. Although it was a great study guide, their "ETS bashing" starts to get a little tiring after a while. However, it made the book more interesting to read through and, therefore, more effective. I glanced through Kaplan's guide (which I bought solely for their practice tests), but didn't find it to be as well organized or as thorough in the quant department.

As for practice tests, yes, the PR tests are easier than Kaplan's and the actual GMAT. However, they help you build your confidence and ease your way into the grind. I should also add that it is important to practice a lot of easy questions since it helps you to refine the basic skills that you'll need on the more difficult questions. I purchased Kaplan's guide to try some more difficult practice tests. Although your ego may take some abuse, Kaplan's questions reflect some of the most difficult quant questions you'll see on the GMAT. Finally, I suggest using ETS's Powerprep tests to round our your routine. These tests (not surprisingly) most closely represented the level of difficulty I saw on the actual GMAT (by the way, I ended up with a 710). Even though I tried out different tests, I always went back to the PR guide for reference.

Good luck.

The strategies in this book are some of the worst I've ever seen in my life. They make stupid recommendations like, "If you think the question is difficult, you can rule out the obvious answer as being correct." The entire strategy they present is based on second-guessing what the writer of the quesiton was thinking. If you want to play psychologist during your exam this might be right up your alley, but I'd rather spend my time studying to be able to arriving at the correct answers on my own.

The questions in the book are far too easy. If you want practice questions stick to the offical GMAT guide.

As the title of my review indicates, the exams are the saving grace of this book. Why? They let you practice taking a 4 hour long test using software similar to that used for the real test.