Customer Reviews

The GMAT for Dummies

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The GMAT prep books can be overwhelming, especially for those of us who have been out of college more than 5 years! I tried starting w/ the OG and my moral was crushed! This "dummies" book, like all "dummies" books is very straightforward and simply written. Which is a good thing! If you have the luxury of having at least 2 months to study and therefore have the time to work through this book, invest in it! it is a good book to start with to not only explain the test, but to also give you some basic practice questions, some tips on strategy and some decent solution explanations. Good confidence builder prior to moving onto the OG, Kaplan, Barrons, EZ Solutions. From this book(again assuming you have at least 2 months to study) I would move onto Crackin the Gmat, then onto Kaplan and Official Guide(OG), for extra practice throw in Barrons and for subject specific help, look into EZ Solutions and PowerScore...=)

This book is a good place to start if you are just starting on your GMAT journey. It puts a lot of daunting concepts into simpler terms that are easier to understand and tries to break down the complex nature of the GMAT into bite-sized pieces. I went through this book as my first book before tackling on the Kaplan study guides, Manhattan guides and the official guide.

There are a few mistakes found in this book, which instantly warrants it nothing higher than 2-stars. Why? In my view, a study guide that is supposed to teach you how NOT to make mistakes on a major test shouldn't contain mistakes of its own, let alone a number of them. For example, one of the problems on pg. 150 told me to solve for X and Y provided with these equations: 6x + 4y = 66 and -2x + 2y = 8. The book came to the conclusion that x = 7 and y = 9. Plug in those numbers into the equation and you can clearly see the answer is wrong. After solving it correctly on my own, I had to go back and figure out why the book was telling me otherwise, adding a lot of confusion and wasting precious time. All the editors had to do was double-check that the answers were indeed correct. I started second guessing every problem and solution, and wasted even more time going through its entirety.

There are not a lot of these mistakes (I counted maybe 3 or 4 of them), but they are there. Overall, the book is still somewhat helpful, but only as a beginners guide. It doesn't go too deeply into the harder problems you will encounter if you are reaching for anything even remotely close to a 700 score, but if you don't know where to begin studying for the GMAT, or if a friend has a copy you can borrow, it is a good place to start.

The previous reviews must be about an earlier edition of this book because I thought it was an excellent study aid for the GMAT. There were no typos that I could see, and the material was right on relevant to the way the questions are presented on the GMAT test.

The book was easy to read and actually (gasp!) made studying for the GMAT enjoyable. The practice test seemed to be at the same level as the actual GMAT, not harder and not easier.

This is a great prep tool. Check out this new edition by new authors. You won't be disappointed!

This is an excellent book to start with. Very quick to go through, and once you get the basics/tricks down the problems in the Barron's/Kaplan/Princeton Review books become much easier. There are a few errors in the questions (not more than two or three), but nothing that isn't immediately obvious. Definitely recommended.

Would absolutely recommend for anyone applying to graduate school. Very helpful, easy to read, and great tips for exam day. Kudos!

I read through this whole book and used it as my main study tool. The test taking strategies and verbal and math review were very useful. I like how the book had several sample problems throughout as well as the tests at the end. I do suggest that others use this book as well as a computer program. Even though this book is great, I think that doing practice problems in a book is not the same as doing them on a computer.

For this price, this is a great buy and you can't go wrong with it. Of course, this is not a book that you can completely rely on, but you may end up learning a few new things. You'll definitely need additional help. So, use this book purely as a supplement. For additional help, consider getting the Kaplan or Princeton Review books. If you want more focused and detailed study guides, consider EZ GMAT series and/or Manhattan.

AMAZING BOOK. IT WAS STRAIGHT TO THE POINT. GAVE ALOT OF DETAILS AND STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON TACKLING QUESTIONS.

If you want a book to give you an idea of what to expect this is the one. It's a very easy read, and gives you the basics to start studying for the GMAT. I wouldn't recommend this book to be the only one you look at before taking your GMAT. If you did that, you would be very unprepared. Look into buying The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition, The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition, and The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition if you are serious about taking the GMAT. They are a lot more informative and give you many more test questions to study with.

Thinking about the GMAT makes me sick. I pity anyone who is studying for it that did not excel in math in their prior studies. But, if you are looking for some supplemental practice, this book will get the job done. Good luck!