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46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The MOST important GMAT book to buy!!, December 26, 2001
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!!
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