Customer Reviews

The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition

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I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on the Official Guide Quant book:

===== OVERVIEW =====

The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review is the math supplement for the Official Guide series published by GMAC, the creators of the GMAT. As is the case with The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition and The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, this book contains retired GMAT questions and as such is a great source of practice problems.

However, the concepts section of the quant supplement is not worth your time. It is virtually a copy-paste of the equivalent section in The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition, in itself undoubtedly insufficient for anyone looking to get a high score in quant. Although "the math skills tested [typo in the supplement - the authors wrote "test" instead of "tested"] on the GMAT test are quite basic" as the book suggests in one of its "Myth vs. Fact" information boxes, basic math can and will be tricky on the GMAT. The book contains:

* 176 Problem Solving
* 124 Data Sufficiency

===== PROS =====

* Retired GMAT questions will familiarize the test taker with commonly-tested question patterns on the GMAT. Unofficial questions sometimes lack the structure of actual questions; this is because test prep companies have not succeeded in replicating the GMAT official "style" in their own practice problems

* At a little over $10 on amazon.com, it's great value for your money - particularly useful for GMAT hopefuls having trouble with Data Sufficiency, since 124 extra practice questions of this GMAT-specific type of problem will be valuable

* Questions are ordered in increasing level of difficulty, so if you are interested in a particular level (say advanced), you can just focus on the corresponding part of the book

===== CONS =====

* Does not provide many advanced practice problems, so if you feel you have a solid quant background, it's sufficient to go through the regular Official Guide for GMAT Review book

* Tips/strategies section is below average, so expect to spend some money on a guidebook or two that provides better GMAT concept overview

* Explanations are not as high quality as those found on The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition. You might notice that there are easier or faster ways to solve some of the problems presented

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

The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review is a great resource for practicing easy/medium difficulty questions, but not much else. If you're shooting for a high score and/or have little time to prepare, this is not the book for you; you will be better off investing some time in other material or the primary Official Guide for GMAT Review book. However, if you've been out of school for a few years and believe that you need to practice the basic stuff, go for a general strategy guide or a quant specific guide and then use this quant supplement as a practice question resource.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The second edition of the Quantitative Review was released in the summer of 2009, but there are few significant differences between this book and its older version: only 74 new questions, or close to a quarter of total. The only notable difference between the two editions is a greater emphasis on geometry in Problem Solving and word problems in Data Sufficiency. Do not fret if you have the first edition already! It's just as good and costs mush less. A complete list of new problems:

* Problem Solving: 1, 2, 7, 13, 41, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 76, 78, 80, 81, 83, 86, 102, 103, 108, 112, 117, 131, 135, 142, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 162, 173

* Data Sufficiency: 1, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 24, 33, 43, 48, 51, 66, 70, 73, 79, 82, 85, 96, 102, 104, 107, 111, 116, 117, 122

Good luck on your GMAT prep!

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

The GMAT OG Quantitative book should be an essential book for anyone preparing for the GMAT.

The Good:
You'll get hands on experience with real GMAT quant questions that have been previously administered on actual tests, but have now been retired. Since the questions in this book were once part of the actual test, you'll know exactly what type of questions to expect when you take your test.

How to Turn the Good to Work:
To make the best use of this book, use it after you undergo a thorough review of all the math concepts. The best source for doing so would be the Kaplan book if you need a quick refresher, or the EZ Solutions GMAT series if you need a thorough review of each and every math concept imaginable.

The Bad:
Although this book has real test questions, the level of difficulty doesn't go too high. If you are specifically aiming for 700+ score, you ought to do a lot more practice question than what you can find in this book. The answer explanations are not that great because of two main reasons. First, the explanations are not clear. Second, sometimes you can find an easier/shorter way to reach the answer. Moreover, don't expect to get any review of any math content in this book.

How to Overcome the Bad:
Like mentioned above, use the EZ Solutions GMAT series for in-depth math review and practicing problems of all level, from basic to advanced. Another great resource would be the Kaplan math workbook to get some additional practice problems.

The Bottom Line:
In spite of the "bad's," the "good's" makes this book a must-have for all GMAT takers. For under $15, you'll get to see real math questions published by the test makers. Before you turn to any other book for practice, this should be your first choice. Of course, like I mentioned earlier, you'll need to seek additional sources for reviewing math concepts and practicing math question.

Final Note:
Whatever your case may be, do not skip this book. I can't stress enough, but if you are preparing for the GMAT, get this book, along with the main Official Guide.

In my opinion, the above is exactly what you will get from this book, not an inch more, not an inch less. I hope my review would help at least a few of you, if not everyone. Thanks for reading. Good luck.

I just took the Gmat. As in 30 minutes ago. I already wrote a review on the verbal gmat review and now came over to review the quantitative. The exam was much harder than this book. There were questions on the GMAT that are far more complex and difficult than are contained in this review or the official GMAT review. This book is ok for giving you the basic layout and ideas, but it just didn't come close to what I just went through. I know it sounds like I'm griping because I did poorly on the quantitative section. But take it as a warning. I know I studied well and had other books to go along with this review guide. I studied the principles and problems contained within this book, but when it came to the actual test, there were questions I simply didn't recognize. The practice tests on MBA.com didn't do me much good either apparently. Where I excelled at the verbal, I fell far short on my expectations on the quantitative. On average of the practice scores compared to my actual score, I dropped 24 percentile points!!! THAT'S 24 PERCENTILE POINTS!!! This book and the practice tests aren't difficult enough. They aren't in depth enough. My +17 points on the verbal, netted me at a percentile ranking 10 percentile points below what the practice test told me. Basically, 30 points lower than I averaged on the practice tests and 60 points lower than I wanted to score on the actual test. Needless to say, I am more than disappointed by this book.

It will help to get you started. But don't trust that this is the level to be expected. You have to find harder problems!!

There are 44 new Problem Solving and 31 new Data Sufficiency Questions (a total of 75 new questions out of 300).

--- List of Changes:---
Problem Solving (PS)
- 4 new easy questions
- 21 new medium questions
- 19 new hard questions
Data Sufficiency
- 13 new easy questions
- 8 new medium questions
- 9 new hard questions

The main issue with the first edition was low question difficulty. This edition addresses the issue slightly, but as you can see, not by much. One issue that was fixed is the total number of questions. The first edition claimed (just like this one) to have 300 questions, but only had 294 - how can you make that mistake in the Official Guide for Quantitative Review? The question split is 176 for PS and 124 for DS.

As to content, changes, it is interesting to see many of the tables and data-interpretation questions go and addition of sequence questions. Also, DS lost many of its arithmetic questions, which were replaced by Word Problems.

Overall - pretty much the same book - would have loved to see more new questions, but $12 for 28 new hard and 29 medium REAL questions is not bad. By the way, the first edition is on sale right now The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review for $6.78!

Here is the full list of new questions for reference:
PS: 1, 2, 7, 41, 56, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 102, 103, 108, 112, 117, 131, 135, 142, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 162, 173

DS: 1, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 24, 31, 33, 43, 48, 51, 66, 70, 73, 79, 82, 85, 96, 102, 104, 106, 107, 111, 116, 117, 122

Good Luck on your GMAT!
BB - GMAT 750 - Founder of GMAT Club

All you have to know about the GMAT. Esp for those who learned math in other language than English, this book gives you basic terminologies that you must know to sit a GMAT.

Pro's of this book:

- All the questions in this book are OFFICIAL GMAT questions, written by the GMAC company. This is the greatest advantage of this book: It allows you to get used to GMAC's specific style and topics covered. Note that books such as Princeton Review, Kaplan, Manhattan, etc, are definitely helpful, but do not always perfectly replicate GMAC's style.

- Lots of practice questions: More than 300 problems, about half of which are problem-solving and half of which are data sufficiency. Great for quant practice.

- Explanations are decent. Maybe not sufficiently simplified and detailed if you are just starting out and have forgotten how to, say, multiply fractions and do basic algebra. But after having reviewed math basics (using MGMAT, Veritas, or other), the explanations are generally sufficient to understand where you went wrong.

- The questions are relatively easy, so its great for the first 1-2 months of studying for the GMAT and building a strong quantitative foundation.

- The paper is good (Unlike Princeton Review!)

- The layout is perfect. You can choose whether to work in the section without explanations (for ex: if you are timing yourself on a batch of questions at a time), or to work in the "explanation" section, so you immediately have the explanations in front of you. Note that the "explanation" section also lists the original problems, so no need to keep flipping back and forth between problem and explanation!

- Its not expensive

Con's of this book:

- The "math review" at the beginning is NO WHERE NEAR SUFFICIENT to cover all the tested topics. Thus you will NEED to supplement with additional quantitative strategy guides from other companies if you are aiming for a high score and/or have a weak quantitative skill level. I would recommend the 5 MGMAT quant series.

- The book lacks challenge questions. Its great for practice in the first 1-2 months of studying and building a strong quant foundation. HOWEVER, if you are aiming for a high score (+Q40), this book alone will not get you there.

Overall, A MUST HAVE for (1) weak quant scorers (2) building a strong quant foundation in the first 1-2 months of study and (3) getting used to GMAC's style. However, before using this book, you should review math basics using strategy guides such as MGMAT, in order to feel more comfortable with the explanations. Also, to get a high score, you will need to find another source for more challenging problems.

I have the 1st edition and the 2nd has the same quality!
I would have liked to see a better variety of exercises. I mean if you get the Official Guide and this, you're gonna see a lot of the same exercises! :/

I feel it is a necessity to buy this book along with the other GMAT books. It seems overwhelming at first but after lots of practice it helps. However, this is NOT a starting point for the GMAT. Great product.

This is the OFFICIAL GMAT quantitative review as advertised on mba.com . This book is an excellent choice if you want to prepare for the GMAT exam. I recommend purchasing this book at least a month in advance so that you can take advantage of all this book has to offer.

When i searched about GMAT from internet after i decided to take this exam, many says that people should stick with the official guide blah blah blah. I did not follow that rule until recently. After purchasing and reviewing the book, i thought, man! i should have done that earlier.
Here i am again telling you ... stick with the official guide book which is far better organized and explained.
I mean, there are several subjects (in math) that is not covered on my previous unofficial gmat books. Plus when correct answer is explained, it always include the original question itself, which was helpful (i dont have to turn pages again and again searching what was the question like etc.)
Overall great book, i am happy with my purchase and i got my books just in a few days.