Customer Reviews

The Official Guide for GMAT Review (10th Edition)

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I purchased several books and software programs (Kaplan software, Princeton Review Prep book, Barrons, Kaplan, etc) when studying for my GMAT and by far this book was the most useful in preparing for the test. This book doesn't contain much instruction, it mainly contains old GMAT questions. I studied quite a bit and got through most of the questions by the time I took the GMAT. Couple of hints:

1. Don't start with this book. Pick up a book on test strategies from the Princeton Review or Kaplan and work through the material in those first. They will teach you test strategies and the formulas/tricks that you need to know. For example, you should memorize a list of idioms before tackling too much of the verbal..This will help you to realize why certain answers are right... The answers at the back of the book will sometimes simply say "unidiomatic".. If you don't understand what that means and what many of the common idioms are that won't mean much.

2. When you sign up for the GMAT they will send you a CD with two sample tests on it. Those sample tests contain questions that are found in this book! That can result in a slightly skewed diagnostic test score so keep that in mind. You aren't going to run into questions on the actual test that are in this book! (except for the essays - see below)

3. The essays in the back of the book appear to be the same ones that are asked on the actual test! I don't know if this is a 100% guarentee but I've heard from several people that the essay questions that they were asked on the test could be found in the back of the book. Now there are hundreds listed - but it still is valuable to spend a few hours going through them and make sure you can come up with an approach to them.

3. This book has tons of problems, so you may start to forget what you've done and what you haven't. When working through the problems I marked problems that I got wrong the first time around. About a month later I went back through the book and re-did those problems to see if I could do them. Trust me - you won't remember most of the problems the second time around if you're studying for the test over a several month time period like I did.

Have fun preparing! If you have any questions about other books or the GMAT itself feel free to email.. I feel like I've been through an exhaustive process (GMAT and application process) and would be happy to help anyone who needs it. I did pretty well on my GMAT too.

You won't find it in most book stores, but this book, combined with the Power Prep software and the Kaplan review, helped me score in the 99th percentile on my first try. Here are my thoughts and observations:
(1) Kaplan offers great test taking strategies. Go straight to the CD and take the diagnostic and devise a study plan. (If you get less than 600, consider going through the review sessions in the book first). Hone your basic math and verbal skills but concentrate on developing your internal clock.
(2) Some of Kaplan's toughest questions are designed to confuse you. Some questions have more than one "good" answers. Do not delve too deeply into Kaplan's test psyche.
(3) Midway through your Kaplan study program, take your first Power prep exam. In general, your score will be higher than your Kaplan scores so far. Note the discrepancy.
(4) Begin working through the Official Guide. Clock yourself and try to do a few more questions per session than required on the CAT. Keep an error log and review it often. Read the official explanations for questions you guessed on or missed.
(5) Take the second Power prep exam half way through the official guide. You may encounter questions that you have encountered during practice. So keep in mind that your score may be skewed. This should be your ideal score.
(6) Devote the last week to your weakest links. Review your error log frequently. Take the rest of the Kaplan exams. Try to complete all questions before time expires. Expect to make incremental improvement but don't worry if these scores remain lower than your power prep results.
(7) Rest. Visit your test center in advance.
Good luck. Let me know whether you find these thoughts helpful.

Getting ready to take the GMAT? This book will give you a good idea of what to expect on the test. First, if you are unfamiliar with the test, the GMAT consists of three sections: one verbal section, one math section, and the essays. In the verbal section, you'll have 41 questions consisting of approximately equal parts of reading, grammar, and something GMAT calls `critical reasoning.' You will see three or four reading passages (like those on most standardized tests), some grammar questions (which require you to figure out what is the best way to put a sentence in English), and some critical reasoning questions, which are basically logic questions.

On the math section, you'll see 37 questions. You only need to know algebra and geometry to answer these questions, but some of them are pretty tricky. There is no trigonometry or calculus on the GMAT. Some of the questions that you will have to answer are `data sufficiency' questions. These questions present you with some information, and you have to decide whether a math problem can be solved with this information.

Finally, the GMAT requires you to write two essays; one of them is a standard essay, and the other one requires you to analyze the reasoning of an argument (most schools pay more attention to your verbal and math scores than they do to your essay scores, though). All in all, the test will take you at least three and a half hours to finish, pretty long for most of us!!

Now, about this book. BEFORE you buy a test prep book, BEFORE you take a test prep class, BEFORE you buy other books, you need this book. This is simply the best book on the market, and the only one that contains official questions. (An important note: If you want to save some money, and don't mind the inconvenience of reading the questions in the software, you can actually download the official GMAT software for free from the official web site; all the questions that appear in this book also appear in the free software. The main difference is that you don't have the same easy access to the questions that you have when you buy the book).

I have been using this book, and its predecessor the 9th edition, for several years and can offer these comments:
FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT: The questions in this book are generally EASIER than the questions you'll see on the real test, especially the math questions. In the last year or so, GMAT has started including more probability and permutations questions on the real GMAT, especially for people who are scoring pretty high in math, and you won't find too many of these types of questions in this book. If you are really good at math, the questions in this book will most likely seem too easy for you. For harder math questions, I highly recommend the Kaplan book with the CD-ROM (make sure you get the book with the CD-ROM--the hard questions are contained on the CD-ROM, not in the book).

One of the best things about this book is simply that it doesn't contain typos, or at least very few (I haven't found any yet, but there might be one or two; there was at least one obvious one in the previous edition). This may seem a minor point, but imagine that you are studying hard, you are confused, and you go to check your answer, and the answer is listed incorrectly. You may not realize it, but many of the books from Kaplan, Princeton Review, Barron's, Peterson's, etc., are FULL of typos, especially in the answers listed in the backs of the books.

Whew! That's a lot of info, huh? I hope it's helped. Good luck on your test, and trust me--this is the first book you should buy!!

This is the only GMAT book you need, especially if you are new to GMAT, short on time and need to score on your GMAT.

The GMAT tests you on mathematical, logical, comprehension, grammatical and reasoning skills which you would have acquired over a long period. Most of the GMAT questions are multiple-choice ones. There is also a section on analysis writing where your analytical writing skills are tested in 2 types of essays - one on an analysis of an issue and the other, an analysis of an argument.

The GMAT doesn't test you on any specific knowledge. You can't cram for the GMAT. This also means that you are not likely to tremendously improve your potential GMAT score over a short period of time spent practising GMAT questions. The Graduate Management Admission Council (the body that conducts the GMAT) advises that retaking the GMAT is not likely to improve your score by any significant margin, unless there are exceptional external circumstances which resulted in you scoring lower than normal.

This book is nevertheless useful, as by attempting the questions, you become familiar with the different types of GMAT questions. And familiarity is essential to scoring well in the GMAT.

I must add a caveat. Practising the GMAT questions in the book does not simulate the actual conditions under which the GMAT is conducted. The GMAT is conducted using a computer and is adaptive-based. This book can be supplemented by hands-on computer-based practice. I would like to share some lessons I learnt.

Firstly, reading questions off the book is a vastly different experience from reading it off the computer screen, especially when it comes to long comprehension passages where you would have to scroll up and down. Reading it off the computer screen takes a longer time. Further, you can't utilise time-saving techniques such as highlighting important key-words or passages in the questions.

Secondly, the questions are flashed one at a time. Depending on whether you answer the question correctly or not, a more difficult or an easier question is next flashed. If you answer correctly, a more difficult question is next flashed, and vice-versa. This means that you can't utilise time-saving techniques such as attempting the easier questions first before returning to the tougher ones.

I would therefore recommend that you use this book plus download the GMAT computer-simulated practice test from the GMAT website or request a CD-ROM of the same test program, and practise the real thing. You can't go wrong.

I don't have much to add to all the great reviews for this book, but the one thing that's important to realize is that if you want to use the ETS PowerPreps as diagnostic tools, you should take both tests before you really get into the guide. I took the second Powerprep after I was done with the guide, and scored a nice ole 800. Of course the fact that I had seen about half of the questions tested in the guide made the accomplishment a slight bit less extraordinary.

Another thing - for the math section, even though all the questions in the guide are good practice, only the last 100 or so in each of the math sections look like anything you'll see on the test.

I started preparing for the GMAT test approximately 8 weeks ago using the Offical Guide for GMAT Review, practicing roughly 40 questions per day. Since the Official Guide doesn't have much in the way of test taking techniques, I also used the Kaplan and the PR Verbal Workout. Aside from these books & the PowerPrep tests, there wasn't much else I used.

I took the test today and scored a 720, which closely matched my scores on the PowerPrep tests (720 and 740). On the Kaplan tests, I scored 630, 620, 680 (don't trust the Kaplan scores). In my assessment, the Official Guide practice questions are crucial for maximizing your score - you'll probably want to use the other test prep materials to learn some useful techniques, but the Official Guide MUST be used. Since the math in the Official Guide comes from the old paper-based test and has changed somewhat since then, I found the quantitative questions on the actual test to be slightly harder. I'd suggest supplementing with questions from the Kaplan for the math. For this reason, I gave the Official Guide 4-stars. Seems the Verbal questions haven't changed though - I found them to be quite similar to what I encountered in the Official Guide.

Practice as many questions as possible from the Official Guide and you'll be good to go!

I just took the GMAT for the first time today, and when I got my scores back I was spellbound-- 760! The reason that I was so shocked is that I am honestly NOT a stellar test taker. However, today I finished each section in about 60 minutes and the questions seemed easy. Since the test was computer adaptive, I had assumed that I was getting the questions wrong and receiving easier ones, but apparently not. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised come the end of the test.

So, after overcoming the initial shock from my scores, I was tempted to begin constructing a shrine for the book. In addition to a Kaplan GMAT book (which I referenced ever so infrequently), "The Official Guide for GMAT Review" was my only study guide. About two weeks ago, I started studying diligently, trying to pore through 10% of the problems each day, and then analyzing my errors. This intense preparation must have done the trick for me. I am especially pleased that I refrained from enrolling in the tempting but pricey Kaplan class. I doubt it would have prepared me any better than this little book.

Thus, my succinct advice is that if you are planning to take the GMAT, buy this book and use it.

I have studied for about 6 weeks for Gmat. Before I got this book, I got through several other books for Gmat(such as Kaplan,Princeton Review,Arco,Barron etc.) and all of those books were imperfect in the sense that they could not even match the quality of problems in this book.(Some in Kaplan were mere copies of the real questions) Since I had a very solid background in mathematics I concentrated mostly on verbal. However,when I did the two sample exams in Powerprep, I realized that my verbal percetile was around 70.I got a score around 700 in both exams.Finally, I acquired this book fortunately just a week before the exam, and decided to cram the verbal part. I finished the verbal part in 4 days. I read all the explanations in reasoning and sentence correction questions. I am sure that doing so will let you too get the 'feel' for the best answer. In the actual exam I scored in 97th. and 93th. percentiles, quantitative and verbal respectively. I left the test center with a score of 740. I claim that this book might be your only guide in preparing for Gmat given that you can already score high in quantitative.

Getting ready to take the GMAT? This book will give you a good idea of what to expect on the test. First, if you are unfamiliar with the test, the GMAT consists of three sections: one verbal section, one math section, and the essays. In the verbal section, youll have 41 questions consisting of approximately equal parts of reading, grammar, and something GMAT calls critical reasoning. You will see three or four reading passages (like those on most standardized tests), some grammar questions (which require you to figure out what is the best way to put a sentence in English), and some critical reasoning questions, which are basically logic questions.

On the math section, youll see 37 questions. You only need to know algebra and geometry to answer these questions, but some of them are pretty tricky. There is no trigonometry or calculus on the GMAT. Some of the questions that you will have to answer are data sufficiency questions. These questions present you with some information, and you have to decide whether a math problem can be solved with this information.

Finally, the GMAT requires you to write two essays; one of them is a standard essay, and the other one requires you to analyze the reasoning of an argument (most schools pay more attention to your verbal and math scores than they do to your essay scores, though). All in all, the test will take you at least three and a half hours to finish, pretty long for most of us!!

Now, about this book. BEFORE you buy a test prep book, BEFORE you take a test prep class, BEFORE you buy other books, you need this book. This is simply the best book on the market, and the only one that contains official questions. (An important note: If you want to save some money, and don't mind the inconvenience of reading the questions in the software, you can actually download the official GMAT software for free from the official web site; all the questions that appear in this book also appear in the free software. The main difference is that you don't have the same easy access to the questions that you have when you buy the book).

I have been using this book, and its predecessor the 9th edition, for several years and can offer these comments:

FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT: The questions in this book are generally EASIER than the questions you'll see on the real test, especially the math questions. In the last year or so, GMAT has started including more probability and permutations questions on the real GMAT, especially for people who are scoring pretty high in math, and you wont find too many of these types of questions in this book. If you are really good at math, the questions in this book will most likely seem too easy for you. For harder math questions, I highly recommend the Kaplan book with the CD-ROM (make sure you get the book with the CD-ROM--the hard questions are contained on the CD-ROM, not in the book).

One of the best things about this book is simply that it doesnt contain typos, or at least very few (I havent found any yet, but there might be one or two; there was at least one obvious one in the previous edition). This may seem a minor point, but imagine that you are studying hard, you are confused, and you go to check your answer, and the answer is listed incorrectly. You may not realize it, but many of the books from Kaplan, Princeton Review, Barrons, Petersons, etc., are FULL of typos, especially in the answers listed in the backs of the books.

Whew! Thats a lot of info, huh? I hope its helped. Good luck on your test, and trust me--this is the first book you should buy!!

This book is simply a collection of questions from old GMATs. I found all questions were representative of the real thing (including the math sections). The best way to prep for the test (for me) was to practice problems over and over which made this book ideal.

The main disadvantage is that you don't want to spend *too* much time doing problems out of the book and should definitely get some practice doing timed problems off of the computer screen. The problem is that the questions from ETS's Powerprep practice tests are the same ones that appear in the book. In practice this actually didn't affect me too much since there were *so many* questions in the book but if you do plan on going through the entire book you should take the Powerprep tests first.

As this book simply contains old questions, I recommend you use another book for test taking pointers (I use Princeton Review) in conjunction. This book, a tip book (princeton, kaplan etc) and ETS's Powerprep software are the only things you need to prep for the GMAT.