A must have, but for maths you need to look further than this...February 25, 2006 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Hi, This is a must have. I never had 10th edition so I'm not sure if its any better than 10th edition but its a valuable resource for your GMAT preperation. For Verbal its amazing. For Maths it just scrapes the actual GMAT problems. If you only have money to spend on one book, get this one. Cheers.
thank youFebruary 25, 2006 1 out of 17 found this review helpful
if the shop had let me know the delivery info, I would have been happier...
Powerprep practice exams not reflective of true GMAT scoreFebruary 17, 2006 26 out of 27 found this review helpful
Don't panic if you get low scores on Powerprep practice exam. Check out my scores:
This book is GREAT practice, as the problems are all old GMAT problems. Keep in mind that the HARD problems are in the last 100 questions of each section. The easy ones are in the first couple hundred, and might waste your time.
This book has answer explanations, but NO tips or tricks. Definitely use this book along with the Kaplan and/or Princeton review books. The tips and tricks are what help you solve the tricky problems in the limited time available.
A Must HaveJanuary 29, 2006 1141 out of 1148 found this review helpful
The secret for the GMAT is practice and stamina.
For my own preparation, I used The Princeton Review, Kaplan's Book and ETS' The Official Guide for GMAT Review.
I will go through the advantages and disadvantages of each, and explain why The Official Guide for GMAT Review was the best of the three and why you should give it more time than the others.
Princeton: Plus - Good review sections (both quantitative and verbal) - Practice tests similar to the GMAT - Online tests are easy to review - Provides you with a test strategy on how to crack the questions - Explicitly advises you to practice also with The Official Guide for GMAT Review Disadvantages - Does not explain why a choice is wrong - Not enough practice questions
Kaplan: Plus - Good quantitative review sections (appendix was great) - Interactive software for reviewing the Kaplan GMAT strategies - Practice tests similar to the GMAT - Practice tests and sections are difficult, this creates in you a sense of urgency - Plenty of practice questions Disadvantages - The software interface is old and slow, you are left to work with a little box on the screen - Practice tests and sections' answer choices are not very well explained - The questions are far fetched and do not fall in the spirit of the GMAT, this might lead you the wrong path
The Official Guide for GMAT Review: Plus - More than plenty of practice questions - You might get the same or similar questions on the GMAT (like I did) - The practice questions are organized by level of difficulty, the last ones are the most difficult - Free PowerPrep software that has two practice tests exactly similar to the GMAT in look and feel (free online tests at the mba dot com website http://www.mba.com/mba/TaketheGMAT/Tools/PowerprepSoftware.htm) - The practice questions reveal actual GMAT test patterns Disadvantages - Absence of test taking techniques - The skills review sections are poor - Only the last 200 questions in every practice section will be like the ones you will see on the GMAT (unless you perform poorly)
This Official Guide from GMAC should be the cornerstone of your preparation, simply because the questions are from past tests and are very thoroughly researched. This will allow you to develop insight into the test mentality.
Equally important the correct and the wrong answer choices for each question are explained in detail. You will learn the various ways used to lead you in error and consequently, you will develop the feel to spot and eliminate wrong answers.
The rules of grammar on which the GMAT Sentence Correction questions are based are best outlined in this guide. I had a lot of difficulty with the Verbal section until I read through the explanations here.
Overall, this book shows you all the tricks of the GMAT. I did not have bad surprises when I took the actual test; it seemed that I had seen all the questions before.
Helpful to practice with real GMAT questionsJanuary 1, 2006 11 out of 14 found this review helpful
I found this book very helpful because I knew that the questions were truly representative of the actual test questions. The sample questions are organized by question type (problem solving, sentence correction, etc.) and by hardness (the first is the easiest, the last the hardest). This makes it easy to focus on problem areas and not waste time on questions you find easy.
The downside of the book: besides the sample questions, most of the information is available for free from the GMAC website (mba.com). Some sample questions also appear in the free software (also available at their website), but supposedly this won't be the case after 1/1/06.
