How to Prepare for the GMAT w/CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Loaded with Errors!
Review: As stated in the previous reviews, this book is loaded with errors. The CD-ROM isn't exempt from these either. I found 2 significant errors in their online exams within the first hour of using them; one a math problem, the other a sentence correction problem. No subject is safe! So far, I've found 6 errors between the book and the CD, and I bought it less then 24 hours ago. Stay away from this set!

Rating:
Summary: Errors and Frustration Abound
Review: I bought the Barron's GMAT book because I succesfully used their SAT book when I was in high school. I am about 170 pages into it and have found and documented 6 instances where the book is flat out wrong. For example, pg 163 in a table giving decimal equivalents of fractions the book says 1/100 = 0.1. Wrong!!! The errors have caused me great frustration and if my test wasn't 2 weeks away, I would burn this book and get another one. Don't they edit these things? I can't speak for any of the other manuals but I would advise steering clear of the Barron's book. If authors Jaffe (MBA, PhD) or Hilbert (Phd), or anyone from Barron's would like my error list, I'd be glad to provide it...for a refund of course.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Money
Review: I bought this book to freshen up on the test as I took it a couple of months ago, and wanted to use their practice tests. The questions are very unlike the actual tests, the format is completely different, and they don't even put the test sections in the correct order. DO NOT BUY!! It is a complete waste of money.

Rating:
Summary: Not recommended.
Review: I used a total of five books in preparing for the GMAT: Barron's 13th edition, Petersons 2003 and 2004 CDs, Kaplan 2005, Nova's GMAT Prep Course 2003, and the Official Guide.

I have taken the GMAT twice. The first time I used the Barron's book and the Petersons CD and scored a 40% on math, 75% on verbal, and a 4.5 on the essay for a total score of 570. This score was unacceptable.

The second time around, I budgeted more time to study a day (around 6 hours) and for a longer time period (a month and a half). For me, I felt I had a strong background knowledge on all the required subjects, but I was not as honed on specific strategies and techniques for answering questions. My thoughts on each book:

Barron's: As a beginner, I enjoyed this book. I read the whole book and did all practice tests. They did not explain probability, sequences, and progressions questions well. In general, the math explanations were a bit sketchy. However, the word problem explanations were the best out of all the books.

Petersons: I just used the CDs and did not look at the book. After taking their adaptive practice tests, one is provided feedback which has questions divided into very difficult, difficult, etc. This is beneficial because you can see the level of difficulty at which you generally test. This is a really helpful addition that other CDs lack.

Kaplan: My least favorite book and CD. The book had very poor explanations for test questions. The book only offered general guidance for taking the test and outline common strategies. The cartoonish CD just became annoying and took more time than it was worth.

Nova: Far and away the best book. After reading reviews on various sites, everyone recommended Kaplan and Princeton Review, but no one mentioned this book. I found it by chance at the local book store. It covered everything on math and had exceptional, comprehensive explanations. Also, the drills after all chapters were very, very, very helpful. After doing all drills in Nova, the commonly considered difficult practice questions in Kaplan were almost a joke. I would recommend to anyone this book.

Official Guide: A must to have for everybody taking GMAT. I did the last third of the questions for each section, which are typically more difficult.

I recommend, in order from best to worst:

Nova, Official Guide, Petersons CDs, Barron's, Kaplan.

I recently took the test again and got a 96% in verbal, 60% in math, and a 690 overall.


Rating:
Summary: Barron's publishings
Review: In regard to the comment that this edition of Barron's family has mistakes; I couldn't agree more! I had Barron's GRE book and guess what? that one had mistakes in it as well, most of them were in math section. God, that made me mad! Imagine, you are studying for a test, and then boom! they tell you 2+2=5 (just a comparison), and I am like - huh?! I think Barron should publish a free book that would show corrections to all of their publications!