You gotta buy it, but it alone won't get you to a 700+

books:

	• The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition Graduate Management Admission, 2003 average customer review:based on 40 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

MBA Israel ( www.mba.org.il )

Hello
Good source - the only book with real quesions from the test.

MBA Israel
www.mba.org.il

The Bible--you need this!

This book is great for rote practice...whether you are struggling with math or verbal, this will give you the drill practice you need, and it's the real deal, not made-up questions from Kaplan and PR. Spend the money. It's worth it. There were EXACT questions from this book on my test. Practicing these questionssaved me tons of time on the real exam which helped me get the score I needed to land at a top school.

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WORTH EVERY PENNY

Don't bother spending thousands of dollars on classes...this should be your final step in the prep process. I used books from Kaplan and Princeton Review to get familiar with the material and did pratice problems provided in those books. After feeling good about myself, I tackled this book and ALL 1400+ problems. Every problem I missed, I marked and came back to. The explanations were very helpful in determining what part of my thought process was flawed and where I went wrong on each problem. My result: 710.

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GMAT Books Review

I'd taken a GMAT course, and then I took the exam: Imagine my surprise, when I've discovered that I got only 600 (Quantative: 50, Verbal: 21, AWA: 3.5). I've realized that this preparation was not enough, so I've read any GMAT book I could put my hands on, just to be on the safe side. Here is my ranking of those books, from the most worthy to the least worthwhile:
1. The Official Guide For The GMAT Review, 10th Edition:
Without doubt, if you can allow yourself only one book - this is it. Its questions (and there are A LOT of them) are the ones that reflect the actual exam in the most realistic way, since this book was written by the creators of the tests, and the questions are real GMAT questions from old exams. The verbal section is excellent, and is at the same level of difficulty of the actual test. The quantitive section's questions are a bit easier then in the actual exam, especially for the stronger students, mainly due to the fact that those questions are taken from the pen-and-paper version of the test, so they are at a medium difficulty level, apart from a few exceptions.
This book does not, however, offer you any sort of strategy to solve the questions more quickly or efficiently, since the writers of the book do not want to sabotage their own exam...
Also, while every question has detailed answers, containing all possible mistakes in all of the wrong answers, I did not always understand all of the explanations to the questions in the verbal part - there is an extensive use of the phrase "unidiomatic" in the answers, even when the are plain explanation to be given. This might bother people whose first language isn't English (like me ? )...
Other people who reviewed this book have mentioned that the most difficult questions at this book are at the end. I did not feel any difference, but, hey, this is just my opinion...
Note: There are rumors about a new edition of this book, more expensive and with fewer questions - but from newer exams. If such edition does exist - it is highly recommended - since you want to have questions that reflect the test in the best way, and nobody would do all the questions in this book (A LOT...) anyway...
2. Cracking The GMAT, 2006 Edition\The Princeton Review:
The BEST book for strategies tips and hints to solve questions fast and to eliminate wrong answers correctly. I was especially impressed by the great Critical Reasoning section, attacking each type of question separately, and provides useful ways to "crack the question" - something that was not taught even during the prep course I took.
However, while I didn't use this book for the quantative part, I've reviewed it, and it does contain only about 95% of the material in the actual exam. To prepare properly, you should add 'Math Workout For The GMAT\The Princeton Review', which does cover those remaining 5% (like questions dealing with groups and percent or relay on the 'Official Guide', mentioned before.
3. Kaplan's GMAT 800:
I've noticed that this book got a bad review at this site. I, however, do not concur. This book has a great verbal section - mostly in the sentence correction section: While the "Eight most common mistakes" are the same standard section that you'll also find in Princeton's book, the "Seven more errors" section that follows is unique, and reveal types of error that, while not to be found in any other book, actually do appear in the test (I, for example, had a subordinate SC question at mine).
This book, however, neither represent all the question types in the test, nor does it include all the basic strategies that can be found on the Princeton's or Kaplan's regular books.
4. Kaplan's GMAT, 2005 Edition:
This book is a HUGE letdown: while it does cover some basic strategies, it does achieve neither Princeton's depth (strategy-wise), nor breadth (question-wise). The only reason you should not pass this book is the CD attached to it: The CD contains concise lessons, a lot of practice questions, and 4 really hard tests (much more then the actual one!).
If you can acquire the CD without the book - it's the best deal for you!
Also, the answers to the question that do exist in this book are comprehensive and easy to understand.
5. GMAT CAT Answers to the Real Essay Questions\ARCO:
A good book to improve your essay-writing level: have more then 200 essays to the topics of the official essays poll (published at the ETS web site)!
It also has some good tips on writing a good essay, like essay's template and comprehensive Analysis Of An Argument strategies section.
6. Barrano's How To Prepare For The GMAT, 13th Edition:
The questions in this book are much too easy, and their explanations are not sufficient. The only good thing about it is the fact that it gives you a detailed yet concise review of the most common mistakes in English in the sentence correction section.
I would pass this one.
In conclusion, if you want my advice (and off-course you do, while else are you still reading?), take the Official Guide, Princeton's, and maybe 'Princeton's math workout'. The over-achievers can add 'GMAT 800' and 'GMAT CAT Answers to the Real Essay Questions\ARCO ' to their arsenal.
Couple of last tips for the road:
- Download the PowerPrep (the demo test, available to download for free from the GMAT web site), but notice that the question there are taken from the official guide, so don't be surprised if you get a strong feeling of De-Ja-Vu, while taking those tests...
- Get a GMAT idioms list from the web. I saw a few variations, all of them are of the same list, and it's quite useful.
- Get from the internet a document called "The Unofficial Guide To The Official Guide" - it's an index of the questions in the Official Guide, sorted by topic and difficulty level. This will make your study much easier.
- Whenever you take a test at home, add to it an essay from the actual poll. This way you'll develop your stamina, and improve the chance to get an essay you've already did at home in the actual test (as I did, in the second time...)
- RELAX. It's only a test (easy for me to say - I've already passed it...)

Oh, and by-the-way, the second time I took the exam, I got 740 (Quantative: 50, Verbal: 38, AWA: 4.0) so I guess the books did help a bit...

Have fun, and good luck!

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You gotta buy it, but it alone won't get you to a 700+

There's something to be said for the comfort of working with the "official" book. The review sections are dry and offer nothing in the way of helpful strategy, but the skills you need are there (for tips and tricks, Princeton Review might be the best). My assessment of this resource is that the questions tend to all be in the middle range of difficulty. After a lot of studying, these questions all seemed average and I wanted something more challenging so that I would be ready to do battle with the real test. For that I turned to the Kaplan 800 guide. I felt I had to stray outside this book after awhile because it was dulling my sense of difficulty. It's a good idea to do as much of this as you can - but I recommend paying attention to how you're doing and eventually leaving this book behind for deeper waters when you start to get bored. My recommendation: start with Princeton Review (fun and easy with good tips, but not hardcore enough). Then do any specialized "workout" books you need (I got math workout books from Princeton Review and GMAC). Get this book and get into the dry math review and practice questions. Buy the Barron's book if you really have nothing better to do than waste your time and money (this wasn't totally useless, but mostly so). Then go nuts with Kaplan and scare yourself to death with their overly difficult practice tests - you'll score lower on those by 200 points than on the real thing, if you're like me. Then take the test - the light on the other side of the exam awaits you!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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