Rating: 
Summary: Good For Tips
Review: I skimmed this book for only a few hours. I know that my high score in the verbal section was a result of following the tips that I picked up from the book. I don't know if the book would be helpful for someone looking to improve on the knowledge of English grammar. However, I find the tips to test taking very helpful because I didn't know those things, such as ETS tendencies, until I read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Good For Tips
Review: I skimmed this book for only a few hours. I know that my high score in the verbal section was a result of following the tips that I picked up from the book. I don't know if the book would be helpful for someone looking to improve on the knowledge of English grammar. However, I find the tips to test taking very helpful because I didn't know those things, such as ETS tendencies, until I read the book.
Rating:
Summary: Must have.... worth every penny
Review: I think this book is worth every penny that it costs. Considering how much you can get out of a quality MBA program, it pays to invest into getting into the best school you can.This book is great for anyone who is like me. I did well on the math sections of the SATs and the GREs, but need improvement on my verbal section. This book focuses specifically on that. While it gives good tips for the average test-taker to score higher, it is not a miracle worker. It isn't a quick fix, and will not double your score. Having said that, I still consider this book a must have. You will be thankful that you did! Good luck on your GMATs!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Verbal Help for GMAT
Review: I was having difficulty getting the verbal parts down tight. This book lets me DRILL, which is the way I learn best. If you need to increase your verbal score on the GMAT, and you're still below the 85 percentile, this book can probably help you move your score up. It's sure helped me
Rating:
Summary: Only if you only need Verbal work
Review: I'm a GMAT tutor with 10+ years of successful students. Here's what I suggest for the GMAT: 1. Use the Kaplan CD (as cheesy as the presentation is, the tests are very good). I've heard complaints that the prep tests from Kaplan are too hard, and I have to disagree with the point being made by these students. The only way, on a computer-adaptive test, to increase your score is to test using HARDER, not easier problems. I may kick ass at medium level questions, but unless I want a medium level score, practicing at a lower level hurts rather than helps. The Princeton Review Verbal Workout does not come with a CD. 2. Ignore the Kaplan book. Use The Princeton Review books (either Cracking the GMAT or GMAT Workouts for Math and Verbal) for tricks and psychology. Try the Official Guide for extra problems and basic review issues (but use as much of the Princeton psychology as you can -- the Official Guide encourages you to do the problems straight, and that's a huge waste of time). The Princeton tests are buggy for sure (Hello! Princeton Review! Fix this!) but are still fairly accurate. 3. Take as many practice tests as you can. That means Kaplan, Princeton Review, PowerPrep. Arco, Barrons, Petersons, and Dummies are all awful. Don't bother with their instruction or their tests. On Princeton Review and PowerPrep, knock 30 points off your score, just to be safe. 4. Check out your local library. Many public libraries have crazy collections of old, out of print Official Guides, chock full o paper-and-pencil tests going back a good 20 years. By all means, use these -- they're a goldmine of practice questions. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Only if you only need Verbal work
Review: I'm a GMAT tutor with 10+ years of successful students. Here's what I suggest for the GMAT: 1. Use the Kaplan CD (as cheesy as the presentation is, the tests are very good). I've heard complaints that the prep tests from Kaplan are too hard, and I have to disagree with the point being made by these students. The only way, on a computer-adaptive test, to increase your score is to test using HARDER, not easier problems. I may kick ass at medium level questions, but unless I want a medium level score, practicing at a lower level hurts rather than helps. The Princeton Review Verbal Workout does not come with a CD. 2. Ignore the Kaplan book. Use The Princeton Review books (either Cracking the GMAT or GMAT Workouts for Math and Verbal) for tricks and psychology. Try the Official Guide for extra problems and basic review issues (but use as much of the Princeton psychology as you can -- the Official Guide encourages you to do the problems straight, and that's a huge waste of time). The Princeton tests are buggy for sure (Hello! Princeton Review! Fix this!) but are still fairly accurate. 3. Take as many practice tests as you can. That means Kaplan, Princeton Review, PowerPrep. Arco, Barrons, Petersons, and Dummies are all awful. Don't bother with their instruction or their tests. On Princeton Review and PowerPrep, knock 30 points off your score, just to be safe. 4. Check out your local library. Many public libraries have crazy collections of old, out of print Official Guides, chock full o paper-and-pencil tests going back a good 20 years. By all means, use these -- they're a goldmine of practice questions. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre material on cheap paper
Review: If you are picking between PR's and Kaplan's workbooks, go for Kaplan. You can read my review on Kaplan's workbook (just click on my nickname and you'll see that review along with others), so I won't comment much on that book in this review. Issues with PR's Verbal Wrorkbout:
1. Question quality - I have seen a lot of GMAT materials and sometimes questions are not very close to the authentic gmat questions. This time, they are quite far. The greatest difference comes in Critical Reasoning. Very often the logic is quite off and confusing. The explanations are helpful, but for a person who is very familiar with OG and PP, the difference will be obvious immediately. 2. Question Difficulty - PR is known for easy questions; this book is not entirely easy, but the hard questions are unreasonable; GMAT logic is very limited - it does not go more than 2 two speps. PR on the other hand makes questions either too easy or too complicated, and neither is good. Reading overall, is fairly easy. 3. Tricks the magic tricks. Yeah, right. PR is famous for its "magic tricks" that don't really work on the real test but work flawlessly in the practice books. Many of the questions are tailored to fit the special rules PR makes up. Some tricks are legitimate (such as GMAT never puts minorities or women in poor light); others are common sense (don't go for extreme answer choices), but a lot overemphasise tricks over understanding the grammar, logic, and reading methods. 4. This book has fewer questions than does Kaplan's Verbal Workbook. 5. It spends a lot more on blah, blah, blah, which really does not stay in the memory; could be more condensed. 6. Paper quality is poor; it is printed on the really cheap recycled paper and does not help studying. Good things:
It has a bigger section on grammar than Kaplan, however, both books are not enough if you are an international student. The grammar covered in both books emphasizes mostly style (parallel constructions, etc) and does not go through the basics of subject verb agreement, adjective rules, modals, or subjunctive. If you are non-native English speaker, get a grammar book - many of the TOEFL books have fabulous grammar sections. I can recommend one, but it is out of print (1995 edition of Cliff's; the 2000 edition is not good, however). Good Luck on the GMAT!
Rating:
Summary: Must buy for verbal
Review: The book has some amazing tips to master the verbal scetion of the GMAT especially CR and RC. Very useful for people whose 1st language is not English.
Rating: 
Summary: It's okay
Review: The book is okay, but I wouldn't say it's helpful. I liked the sample questions the book provides. However, I didn't find the test taking strategy part useful.
Rating:
Summary: likely to improve your score
Review: This book really covers the types of questions to look out for and the answer choices to avoid. I find the book to be very adept at improving the average student's Verbal score. However, this book is not a Verbal cure-all. Do not expect to study it thoroughly and suddenly start acing the Verbal section. The best it can do by itself is improve your score, whether marginally or substantially. But for me, it has been a substantial improvement. There are some parts of the book that really yearn for more, such as the Reading Comprehension. There is a great mutual feeling among virtually all standardized test takers that RC is the most challenging section, and therefore should require the most thorough and in-depth review. Sadly, this is just not the case in Doug French's book. The RC review is approximately the same length as the other sections. It really needs to edited, updated and improved. Otherwise, the remaining sections of the book prove to be very formidable. If you keep in mind that this book is not a cure-all, then you should find the book to be very appealing.
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