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Osirus@VeritasPrep
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 1578
- Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 8:02 am
- Thanked: 128 times
- Followed by:34 members
- GMAT Score:760
I decided to review the materials I have used and I hope one of the mods will sticky this and others can add reviews.
Kaplan Premier
Ideal For: Someone Targeting a score around 600
Pros: It provides a good overview of the test. It has good strategies for reading comprehension, and decent strategies for everything else. I think the passages are a bit more awkward than the actual reading comp passages that one can expect to encounter on the GMAT, so this allows for good practice on harder passages in my opinion.
Cons: The book has typos throughout, but it is usually not hard to understand what the text meant to convey. The math review isn't sufficient to answer all of the questions in the GMAT Official Guide.
How to use this book:
I recommend using this book as your first GMAT book. It is great to get a good understanding of the test and it provides a good overview. What you will learn from this book will give you a good indication of what areas you need to focus on and target.
Princeton Review GMAT 2010
Ideal For: Someone targeting a 600
Pros: The book provides a good overview for the test. I think PR has the best guessing strategies out of all of the major test prep companies.
Cons: I think the questions are easier than they should be. Most of the questions are 300-600 level, with a handful of advanced questions sprinkled in. I think its clear that they only have questions that fit neatly into how they suggest to tackle the material, instead of providing questions that will resemble those you are likely to encounter on your actual test day.
How to use this book:
Same as Kaplan Premier. I recommend using this book as your first GMAT book. It is great to get a good understanding of the test and it provides a good overview. What you will learn from this book will give you a good indication of what areas you need to focus on and target.
Kaplan 800
Pros: Good practice questions to really challenge you. I found it was great in helping me to determine not only the subject I was answering incorrectly, but also the specific sub category of the subject that I was getting wrong.
Cons: It doesn't really teach anything, so you shouldn't go through it until you have gone through other materials.
How to use this book:
Use this book as you get closer to your test date. In my opinion it asks math questions awkwardly at times, so that can be a good or bad thing depending on whether you get frustrated easily. If you don't get frustrated easily it will provide you with questions from a different angle and increase your confidence in being prepared for the exam.
Kaplan Premier
Ideal For: Someone Targeting a score around 600
Pros: It provides a good overview of the test. It has good strategies for reading comprehension, and decent strategies for everything else. I think the passages are a bit more awkward than the actual reading comp passages that one can expect to encounter on the GMAT, so this allows for good practice on harder passages in my opinion.
Cons: The book has typos throughout, but it is usually not hard to understand what the text meant to convey. The math review isn't sufficient to answer all of the questions in the GMAT Official Guide.
How to use this book:
I recommend using this book as your first GMAT book. It is great to get a good understanding of the test and it provides a good overview. What you will learn from this book will give you a good indication of what areas you need to focus on and target.
Princeton Review GMAT 2010
Ideal For: Someone targeting a 600
Pros: The book provides a good overview for the test. I think PR has the best guessing strategies out of all of the major test prep companies.
Cons: I think the questions are easier than they should be. Most of the questions are 300-600 level, with a handful of advanced questions sprinkled in. I think its clear that they only have questions that fit neatly into how they suggest to tackle the material, instead of providing questions that will resemble those you are likely to encounter on your actual test day.
How to use this book:
Same as Kaplan Premier. I recommend using this book as your first GMAT book. It is great to get a good understanding of the test and it provides a good overview. What you will learn from this book will give you a good indication of what areas you need to focus on and target.
Kaplan 800
Pros: Good practice questions to really challenge you. I found it was great in helping me to determine not only the subject I was answering incorrectly, but also the specific sub category of the subject that I was getting wrong.
Cons: It doesn't really teach anything, so you shouldn't go through it until you have gone through other materials.
How to use this book:
Use this book as you get closer to your test date. In my opinion it asks math questions awkwardly at times, so that can be a good or bad thing depending on whether you get frustrated easily. If you don't get frustrated easily it will provide you with questions from a different angle and increase your confidence in being prepared for the exam.
Last edited by Osirus@VeritasPrep on Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
