The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition: Book Review
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The following book review was written by Dana Jinaru. Dana is currently a finance student in Europe and also serves as a moderator for Beat The GMAT. On May 13, 2009 she scored a 770 on the GMAT.
Here is Dana’s analysis of the Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition.
Overview
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review is the quant supplement for the Official Guide series published by GMAC, the creators of the GMAT. As is the case with the Official Guide for GMAT Review and the Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, this book contains retired GMAT questions and as such is a great source of practice problems.
However, the concepts section of the quant supplement is not worth your time. It is virtually a copy-paste of the equivalent section in the Official Guide for GMAT Review, in itself undoubtedly insufficient for anyone looking to get a high score in quant. Although “the math skills tested [typo in the supplement – the authors wrote “test” instead of “tested”] on the GMAT test are quite basic” as the book suggests in one of its “Myth vs. Fact” information boxes, basic math can and will be tricky on the GMAT. The book contains:
- 176 Problem Solving
- 124 Data Sufficiency
Pros
- Retired GMAT questions will familiarize the test taker with commonly-tested question patterns on the GMAT. Unofficial questions sometimes lack the structure of actual questions; this is because test prep companies have not succeeded in replicating the GMAT official “style” in their own practice problems
- At a little over $10 on Amazon.com, it’s great value for your money – particularly useful for GMAT hopefuls having trouble with Data Sufficiency, since 124 extra practice questions of this GMAT-specific type of problem will be valuable
- Questions are ordered in increasing level of difficulty, so if you are interested in a particular level (say advanced), you can just focus on the corresponding part of the book
Cons
- Does not provide many advanced practice problems, so if you feel you have a solid quant background, it’s sufficient to go through the regular Official Guide for GMAT Review book
- Tips/strategies section is below average, so expect to spend some money on a guidebook or two that provides better GMAT concept overview
- Explanations are not as high quality as those found on the Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review. You might notice that there are easier or faster ways to solve some of the problems presented
Bottom Line
The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review is a great resource for practicing easy/medium difficulty questions, but not much else. If you’re shooting for a high score and/or have little time to prepare, this is not the book for you; you will be better off investing some time in other material or the primary Official Guide for GMAT Review book. However, if you’ve been out of school for a few years and believe that you need to practice the basic stuff, go for a general strategy guide or a quant specific guide and then use this quant supplement as a practice question resource.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The second edition of the Quantitative Review was released in the summer of 2009, but there are few significant differences between this book and its older version: only 74 new questions, or close to a quarter of total. The only notable difference between the two editions is a greater emphasis on geometry in Problem Solving and word problems in Data Sufficiency. Do not fret if you have the first edition already! It’s just as good and costs much less. A complete list of new problems:
- Problem Solving: 1, 2, 7, 13, 41, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 76, 78, 80, 81, 83, 86, 102, 103, 108, 112, 117, 131, 135, 142, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 162, 173
- Data Sufficiency: 1, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 24, 33, 43, 48, 51, 66, 70, 73, 79, 82, 85, 96, 102, 104, 107, 111, 116, 117, 122
If you’re interested in purchasing the Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition, click here
Read other reviews for the Official Guide series:
- The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 12th Edition
- The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review, 2nd Edition
- The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition
Read more book reviews in the Beat The GMAT Book Recommendations section.
10 comments
Alex on November 10th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hi Dana,
Thank you for the concise review of this book. As you've indicated in the article, the OG guides only provide up to medium level questions. What are some good resources for practicing hard questions?
Thanks!
Alex
DanaJ on November 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Well, it really depends on your weaknesses. If you ask me, some Kaplan material (like questions in the Math Workbook) and the problems you'll see in Manhattan GMAT tests can be quite challenging. However, I've yet to see a book that treats permo&combo, statistics and probabilities from the advanced learner's point of view.
J on November 11th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Can you clarify whether this book contains completely different questions than the big OG12 Book? Or is it basically just the math portion pulled out from the OG12 book and all the Q's are the same?
Thanks!
DanaJ on November 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
There is no overlap between the two books - the Official Guide 12th and the second edition of the verbal supplement. Hope this helps!
Alex on November 12th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Hi Dana,
Thank you for your earlier response. I came across this new book from Kaplan called GMAT Advanced http://store.kaptest.com/catalog/templates/product.jhtml?PRODID=kprod9781419552557&rcid=T00050000 and was wondering if you used it or would recommend it?
Thanks!
Alex
DanaJ on November 12th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Actually, the "new" Kaplan Advanced is just a re-branding of the "old" Kaplan 800. In my opinion, the book does not deliver, primarily because it's more of a collection of questions with scattered tips than a proper (advanced) math review. I personally rated the Kaplan Math Workbook much higher than the book you mention, because it contains generous practice and a very good review of concepts.
Arjun Sekhar on June 9th, 2010 at 2:56 am
Hi Dana,
Firstly thanks a lot for the book recommendations. I have been working through the Manhattan guides and had a query. Towards the end of each guide there are normally a couple of chapters connecting questions from the OG & Quantitative review to the topics just learnt. What i have noticed is that the questions from the QR dont seem connected to the topics just learnt. E.g i was working through the fractions guide and in the questions suggested from the QR found questions on Geometry, Probability etc. I think the questions numbers written in the Manhattan guides seem to be wrong. Do you know anything about this? If not do you know any Manhattan expert i could ask?
DanaJ on June 9th, 2010 at 6:02 am
Hmm, that's highly suspicious... Well I can honestly say I have not checked this for all the guides, but here's a thought: what if the problem tests more than just one concept (i.e. it's mainly about geometry, but solving it involves dealing with some fractions)? I think this may be a possible explanation for why you get this feeling...
j on October 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am
please make a folder and upload the new problems of review 2nd edition. pleaaase
DanaJ on October 9th, 2010 at 11:15 am
If you're looking for the list of new practice questions, you can check it out here: http://www.manhattangmat.com/ogs2-quant.cfm