Customer Reviews

The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible: A Comprehensive System for Attacking the GMAT Critical Reasoning Questions

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Defenitely deserves the title and what'smore, this book can be a very quick reference, making it very practical and helpful.

Don't be afraid to buy a whole book for this question type. All the other books (Princeton, Kaplan, Official Guide, etc...) do not cover this GMAT speciality topic in depth. This book will clear all your doubts about how to solve and how to think about CR questions. It also provides a quick reference. For example, if you think you need to review how to best think about "Weaken" questions, you can very easily in five minutes read the section summary and be confident again. Tomorrow is my exam and in 1/2
an hour I reviewd the whole book!

This book clearly divides the CR question types into ten and not eight like most of the other question types and believe me knowing the question type is a fundamental that you need to master. Even more, it gives you innovative specific techniques for each question type, example, Fact Test, Variance Test, Assumption Negation Techniques. All these techniques are simplifying techniques that allow you to intelligently tackle CR questions.

The book also discusses why its techniques are different from and better than those of other books. Eg: This book unlike Princeton (I am not Against Princeton, in fact I think it is much better that Kaplan) teachs you and convinces you to read the Argument first and then questin.

By exactly knowing what you should do for eah question type you can become an expert in solving CR questions. The thinking process becomes "automatic" one, that is you don't have to think really hard because the strategies that you learned become natural.

I recommend this book to anyone seriously preparing for the GMAT.

This is the best CR book out there. Though pretty similar to Manhattan GMAT book, it offers more practice questions in the book and has a slightly better overview of the Critical Reasoning questions.

~~~ Strengths: ~~~
1. In-depth overview of the Critical Reasoning strategies and approaches to questions
2. Clearly divides the CR question types and provides specific strategy for each type as well as the pitfalls and common errors. You will also get to know how the CR questions are made.
3. Good quality GMAT-like practice questions
4. Created by the authors of the best LSAT books (LSAT logic section is much harder than CR on the GMAT; there is actually a decent amoount of overlap in this book with the LSAT book). Speaking of which, for extra hardcore (and absolutely not necessary but still), you can get the PowerScore LR book (comes with quite a few LSAT questions)

~~~ Weaknesses: ~~~
1. Could use more practice questions (more than mgmat though); you will need to find another source of CR questions such as GMAT Official guide 12 or the verbal supplement to the Official Guide (though the verbal OG has questions on the easier side)
2. Some explanations are too convoluted
3. No tests or online excercises/additional content


~~~~ My Suggestions ~~~~
- Read explanations to every question. Even if you got a question right, it does not mean, you solved it correctly (that is you used the correct approach or found all the shortcusts). You will be surpised sometimes and will pick up helpful tips even from explanations of questions you answered correctly
- Follow the actual strategies (DUH). This is probably the most common mistake people make - they start inventing their own approaches. Don't do it until you have a high verbal score. If you don't, just follow!
- If you don't have any Manhattan GMAT books, you want to get at least one, as each comes with access to 6 online CAT tests (these tests are worth the purchase). There is not a whole lot of value to get both Powerscore CR and MGMAT CR; the content is by large the same.


Good luck on your GMAT!
BB, Founder of GMAT Club
GMAT 750 (q49, v42)

I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on PowerScore's Critical Reasoning Bible:

===== OVERVIEW =====

The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible (or the CR bible, as you'll see it commonly referenced in online forums) is published by the renowned LSAT-prep gurus, PowerScore. The LSAT and the GMAT have two question types that are somewhat similar: Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning (known as `Logical Reasoning' in the LSAT). This book comes in as an abridged form of the company's massively successful Logical Reasoning Bible. This CR bible has a solid reputation as a comprehensive guide to one of the most puzzling question types on the GMAT.

The CR bible covers the topic of GMAT Critical Reasoning with incredible depth and detail. Questions are neatly organized according to "families" in order for the reader to understand the various logical connections between question types. The book deals with ten types of Critical Reasoning questions, all remarkably well analyzed, in ten separate chapters. The CR bible even addresses many rarely-tested CR question types; although I would love to see a separate chapter for boldface critical reasoning questions in a future edition (boldface critical reasoning questions are considered among the toughest question tested on the GMAT). One could argue that this book will also help in case you're having trouble with Reading Comprehension. I personally found the `Main Point' chapter particularly enlightening and relevant to reading comprehension.

===== PROS =====

* Detailed analysis of Critical Reasoning question types means that you will have a quick reference guide at hand should you ever feel the need to review for one topic or the other

* Practice questions, although few, are the closest I've ever seen to actual GMAT questions (in terms of style). Explanations are also top notch, with great analysis of why a wrong answer is wrong. In my opinion, understanding why an answer is wrong helps you avoid common traps and is almost as useful as understanding why the correct choice is right

* After reading the CR bible, you will be able to see why the GMAT is so popular with business school admissions. The process of "creating" a Critical Reasoning question is carefully explained, a fact which made me realize the amount of talent and effort that goes into making just one GMAT question. The author of the book clearly shows due respect to the GMAT test and its creators, which inspired me

* If pressed for time, the book offers a quick strategy for studying the most important question types

===== CONS =====

* At around 50 practice questions, the CR bible needs to be supplemented with other resources, such as The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition or The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition

* Unlike most prep books, this book does not come with a CD or online access to CATs (computer-adaptive practice tests)

* The book only features two boldface questions (this question type is described in the `Method of Reasoning' chapter)

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

The PowerScore Critical Reasoning Bible is definitely worth the money if you feel you're having trouble with Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. Its strategies and tips, if carefully studied and applied, will surely translate in an increase in your score. I attribute much of my 11-point verbal raw score increase (from 36 to 47) to this book.

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

I took my first GMAT and scored 670 (Q44 V38). After evaluating my performance, I realized that CR was definitely a weak spot, so I browsed [...] and found many recommendations for PowerScore's CR Bible. I purchased the book just two weeks before my GMAT re-take and studied the book religiously. After a basic understanding of the principles (identifying premise and conclusion, etc...), I re-took the GMAT and scored 750 (Q49 V44). As you can see, my verbal score jumped six points - I attribute much of that improvement to the principles I learned in this book.

So, get this book early in your GMAT preparation and understand these fundamentals before tackling the OG problems. Good luck!

Excellent breakdown on each of the different parts of critical reasoning. Good format and it helped me better understand how to attack each critical reasoning question.

I have covered almost all popular books in the market like Official Guide, Kaplan , Barrons ,Princeton ,Kaplan 800 and was looking for more practice questions and decided to buy this book.The questions in the book are really in the tougher category and lots of teasers which u may get wrong unless u r reallyyyy sharp. Explanations are very natural and feels like ur attending a class . looks the author was teaching GMAT prep students since many places he mention that his students got this answer and argued like this etc etc.

I would recommend this book if u have run of popular books and still looking to perfect ur score.

To improve your score across the board in the verbal section, you need to first improve your critical reasoning skills. It not improved my critical reasoning section score but also had a direct impact on my comprehensive reading section score. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to improve the verbal score to beyond the 90th percentile.

I took Powerscore's LSAT prep class 2 years ago. If any of you have taken the LSAT before, you'll know that the LSAT critical reasoning questions are slightly more comprehensive than the GMAT questions. Regardless, I thought that Powerscore's LSAT classroom materials were very well organized and had a straight-forward methodology. Imagine my surprise when I opened this book and found the materials to be very similar, if not the same! (I did find several instances in the book where "LSAT" appeared instead of "GMAT")
If you find the Critical Reasoning questions of the GMAT to be challenging, and you actually want to understand the approach to answering these questions, as opposed to memorizing "short cuts", then I would recommend this book to you. If you belong to the other camp, then you might not want to consider it at all.

This book is great if you want a high score (high 700s) and don't have a ton of time to study. I only had one month to study for the GMAT and wanted books that would really maximize my time studying for my weaker areas. It was easy enough to read and understand so I was able to cover it over a weekend (albeit with not many breaks). I imagine it would be even more effective if you have more time to study. The structure used for types of questions was extremely helpful for me in getting the tougher questions right more often. I used this book along with the Powerscore Sentence Correction Book. A few more practice problems would have been nice. I found the PowerScore questions to be harder than the OG ones. I also bought the Official Guide and the EZ Advanced and EZ Logic and Stats.

I heard about the book from a friend of mine. I gave my GMAT earlier, but did not have decent preparation. Later I ordered this book, and I see that this is a "Must read" book. It will help you appreciate subtleties, which play a major role in the exam.