The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition [Paperback]

Editor (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Graduate Management Admission; 10 edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886852404
• ISBN-13: 978-0886852405
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

620 of 625 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable, March 4, 2004

By 

"scsweeney" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition (Paperback)

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 mind that you are building stamina and you are improving by seeing new, challenging quant questions. (I scored 640 on the diagnostic, and 680, 580, 650, 600 on the Kaplan CD practice tests, much lower than Princeton and PowerPrep.)

When you're finished w/ the Kaplan CD, start doing the last 1/3 or so of each section in the Official Guide, 20 questions at a time. These are ACTUAL GMAT questions. The explanations are EXCELLENT, far better than either Kaplan or Princeton. Unfortunately some Official Guide questions are repeated from the PowerPrep software.

Meanwhile, mix in online practice tests from Princeton; again you'll have seen some questions before. Don't sweat the recycled material. You won't remember the answers to many of them and you'll have to rework the quant questions anyway. At this point it is more important to understand why you are missing certain types of questions repeatedly and to improve how you attack specific question types. (I scored 750, 710, 690, 730 on the Princeton online practice tests. However, these scores are suspect due to the recycled questions.)

My advice is to take NO tests the day before the GMAT. Clear your head some. Spend time getting comfortable with a template for the writing section. Review specific questions that you've missed in the past - the Official Guide is ideal for this - understanding the correct approach. Relax if you can and get a good night's sleep.

Last piece of advice, bring a snack and use ALL of BOTH breaks. Stand up, stretch, whiz, drink something, eat something. The test is exhausting and you need to use the breaks to clear your head and refocus.

If you do all this you should get a great score. The real GMAT was VERY difficult, even after all of my preparation. I even guessed on a few quant questions that I had no idea how to attack. The whole test went by in a blur. Stamina and timing, however, were not an issue with so much full-length practice.

I ended up with a 760, far better than I targeted and expected, even better than on any practice test I took. This was a pleasant surprise, given how difficult the test was as compared to much of the practice material. However, by using all of the practice material effectively I am now able to look at top 10 programs instead of top 20! Yeah!

211 of 214 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best., September 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition (Paperback)

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.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best, but essential, May 5, 2004

By 

www.gmatclub.com "GMAT Club" (Malibu, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition (Paperback)

The Official Guide for GMAT Review is probably one of the most useful guides for your GMAT Prep. It contains about 1400 retired questions from old gmat tests with full explanations. It is extremely helpful to get yourself familiar with GMAT logic, grammar, and reading. The main value of this book is that it is the ONLY book that has REAL GMAT questions. Some of the questions from OG are used in the PowerPrep (PP) which is the most accurate measurement of your official GMAT Score. So, if you go through this book and then take PP, you score is much higher than it would have otherwise been because you have worked through the questions already, and one thing is for sure, after you saw a question, you don't forget it for a long time.

Pros

1. Good introduction to the test
2. Concepts are clearly explained.
3. Good explanations to most of the problems.

Cons

1. Explanations , especially in SC, could have been much better.
2. Most of the questions may not reflect the difficulty level in the actual GMAT. If you are aiming for a 680+, the last 50 or so questions in each section might be worth taking a second look.

Overall, good reference and a great buy.