Customer Reviews

The Official Guide for Gmat Review

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the book is no help in brushing up on math, and the questions on the archaic floppies are the same as those in the book, if you want a better score, get this. While Princeton Review and Kaplan are great for re-learning your math, they can only approximate the questions on the GMAT, and they can be confusing.

This course is excellent because it ggives you real questions. This prepares you mentally for the GMAT, and is an excellent tool for your last week of studying. Also, becuase the format is the same as the real GMAT, you won't stress about anything on test day.

Some warnings: do the test on the disks (it's the same as the book, and gives you valuable practice on taking the computer test); don't try to learn the math from the meager review; and do one essay question (the software is so primitive, you have to get used to it!).

Also, this course accurately predicts your GMAT score (it hit mine on the nose).

In a word, this is a great book!

We use this book as the basis for our GMAT preparation--we require all of our students to do all of the exercises in this book before they take the test.

This book has LOTS of practice authentic practice questions. There is no substitute for official GMAT questions--the questions in the practice books are just not the same. Many of the practice books have mistakes and address topics that are not really related to what you will see on the GMAT. It is very easy to doubt these questions and to find fault with them. However, official GMAT questions are not like that--you will almost never be able to find fault with them.

However, this book has MANY problems--it is not a perfect solution for GMAT preparation. Some of the questions are too easy, especially the math questions--many of our students have said that the questions on the real test are much harder than the ones in the book. Many TestMagic students can get over 90%ile on the math section and they think the math in this book is too easy.

Moreover, the explanations are hard to understand--they are written for college professors! It doesn't make sense--obviously, if the questions were difficult for you, you need explanations that are easy to understand. These explanations are written in the same style as the reading passages--not very helpful for many people!

In fact, many of our students quickly finish this book and need more. Unfortunately, there are no other good materials available. This book is not enough.

Finally, some of the reading passages are shorter than the ones on the real test. We actually called ETS to complain about this and we were told, and this is a quote, "Well, we were just trying to give people an idea of what the test was like." In other words, the reading will be about as hard as the hardest passages in this book--prepare yourself!

In my opinion the content of the book only partly lives up to the title. I bought this book as preparation for the GMAT test, as I was convinced that the questions would be very similar to those in the actual test. Having made the test I believe that the verbal section of the book does represent the actual test level. However, the diffulty level of the quantitative section is significantly lower than the level in the real test. The mathematics review which is included in the book is quite good and straightforward, although it doesn't teach you the 'quick' tricks.

All in all, I believe the level of mathematics is misrepresented in the book. The powerprep software doesn't help either, as these sample tests are straight copies from the book. What it does teach, is working under time constraints. I got a high score, but I believe this was more related to my highschool and university prep. work than to the book. I suggest to either buy Barron's or the Princeton review to make up for the quant. section.

I scored over 750 and one of my main sources of practice questions was the official ETS book. This book has hundereds of practice questions. However, it does NOT have any actual tests. It does NOT have any method of rating one's level (as did past editions of the ETS book). I would definitely buy it again as a supplement to my regular study; however, the math section is definitely much easier in the book than on the actual test (assuming, of course, that one answers the first five questions correctly). Try the ETS software and the Unofficial Guide to the GMAT software for excellent test practice that gives an actual score.

This book is only good for the practice problems it provides. It doesn't teach you any techniques at all. If you want a good book for techniques, use "Cracking the GMAT CAT" by the Princeton Review.

I run a course preparing people to take the GMAT and this book is *required* material.

There is absolutely *no* substitute for official GMAT questions, and this book has them. You will get a pretty good sampling of the kinds of questions that ETS has prepared for you to take the GMAT.

The big problem, however, is that this book is now getting old and ETS spends a lot of money updating their tests almost every day. In other words, this text is becoming outdated.

I talked to a higher-up at ETS and complained to him that the real GMAT reading passages were longer than the ones in this book. What did he say? He said, "Well, we just wanted to give people an *idea* of what would be on the test."

In other words, if you feel confident after acing this book, be careful--you might get something harder!

Unfortunately, there is *no* harder material available on the market right now. We should all pressure ETS to release more official questions so we can be better prepared for the GMAT.

Good luck on your test!

I ordered this book just two weeks before I took the exam. Because of the short amount of time, I was not able to read the book from cover to cover, however, I found the math review section to be very helpful. I have not had algegra or geometry for 10 years before taking the exam, and found the examples in the book to be easy to understand. There are practice questions, followed by an answer key, and then a review section that explains how to figure out each of the questions. This format gives you a chance to check your answers as you go, or to use it like a practice exam, and then review how well you did after you complete all the practice questions. The only thing that could improve this approach would be to include a CD-Rom practice test with the book. The information provided at the beginning of the book was exactly what you see when you sit down at the computer to take the GMAT. I did have a little trouble with some of the algebra examples because the example would in some cases combine 2 steps, and I really needed to see the problem worked out step by step, but that is my only complaint. Definitely worth the $22.

The math sections (and data sufficiency) are too easy. Expect much harder problems in the real exam. The verbal sections are okay. Look at the AWA section, it has "real" essay questions in there!!

This book is indispensable for anyone desiring to take the GMAT. The questions have all appeared on previous exams; the AWA questions listed are those likely to appear on an actual exam; and the Math review subtly lists the topics that the exam is likely to cover.

Unfortunately, the answers given to questions tend to be abstract and test-taking short cuts skills are not mentioned. Moreover, the book does not include any practice tests. But this is the closest one can get to real questions, other than having access to ETS's databanks. One great way to use this book is to look at the wrong answers. Generating a question is easy, but ETS's art, if you will, is devising wrong answers, answers that look correct. So often a question is designed with multiple steps that the many test-takers forget to take; sure enough, the wrong answer generated by this failure is usually waiting to be chosen. Eliminating wrong answers is half the battle on the GMAT.

I do hope the GMAC and ETS come out with a new edition soon as the current one has been around for more than 3 years. It would be nice to get some fresh questions from their vast pool.

This book works well when combined with a good test-prep program like Kaplan and Princeton Review.

I'm giving it three stars on account of its necessity. Apart from that, it's not particularly interesting.

Your study plan should include a test strategy guide like Kaplan's (esp. with a CAT-mimicking CD-ROM) and this book for your math and verbal drills. While this book won't really help you with the unique feel of the adaptive test, it's critical to help you drill down your math and verbal test skills. Highly recommended!