How to Prepare for the GMAT with CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Excellent start
Review: I highly recommend this book simply because of the following:
1.I am not sure if the test drills are 100% those of the ETS, however, I can assure you that they are doable.
2.The author starts out with nice introduction in plain language of what the exam with example.
3.The ordering is excellent.
4.After you go in details of the exam, not extreme, but enough to get your started, you will get your first diagnostic exam and after the exam, there is something that is called the review that goes in great detail of all of your errors and how to improve better in the next 4 tests.
5.Not to mention that every test has detailed explanation of the answer choices.

I recommend it simply because it does what it suppose to. It is your job to sit down and work as hard as you can and you can buy the previous exams from ETS and work out on your weakness.
This is book is not for lazy people, but for those who want to get something back for their $18 and I highly recommend it and if you have both time and money, take a prep course at your school or surrounding areas, stay away from the top companies because they teach you drills and charge you a lot of money which, you can spend else where.
That is my honest review of what I think of the book and trust me, you cannot go wrong.
Best wishes,

Sean

Rating:
Summary: Out of date - You Can Buy Better
Review: I've used Barron's, Kaplan, Princeton Review & the ETS books, and I have to say that either Kaplan or Princeton Review are far more helpful. Not only was this Barron's book out of date (the tests aren't structured like the CATs are!), but it's explanations often lacked depth. In addition, either Kaplan or PR books give you far more helpful tips. In the Quant section of this Barron's, they don't even touch on Probability and Statistics, two areas now far more common since the tests have been getting harder (in response to the huge increase of people taking the GMATs). Get the ETS, Kaplan or PR for more up to date sample tests. This one isn't worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Get it for extra practice.
Review: Most customers will neglect this rather old and outdated book that has no attached CD-ROM. However, as you can see, the price of a used copy is low and you'll probably be able to get it in the local library.

Why bother getting it? Because in order to succeed in the test - you'd want to cover as much ground as you can.

This book has a few interesting features:

The verbal section is thorough and has an interesting part that covers fallacies, even though they are quite rare on the test. You will learn what are ad hominem attack, tu quoque, post hoc ergo hoc, guilt by association, equivocation and more.

The math section has a unique feature that is not to be found in any other book I know of - a scale that ranks the difficulty level of each question. It helps saving precious time by ignoring easy questions and concentrating on the hard ones. There is a wide variety of tests you can solve only for the hardest questions you can immediately identify. Each question comes with a comprehensive solution.