The Official Guide for GMAT Review

by GMAC

Trust the worldwide bestselling study guide to help you prepare for the GMAT! The Official Guide for GMAT Review - 12th Edition Here's what you'll find inside the only book on the market written by the creators of the exam. Also

Genres: Business, Reference, Textbooks, Education, Nonfiction, School

840 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must have if you plan on taking the GMAT.

Make sure that you buy the Princeton Review or Kaplan Review as well. This book alone will not get the job done. Primarily, I used this book as reference material. In other words, it's only use for me were the practice questions - which are taken from old tests.

The answer explanations - while correct - are not helpful. The GMAT is a timed test and if you try and solve every math problem the way the book describes you WILL run out of time. The same is true for the Verbal section. This is why the Princeton and Kaplan books are a must have. The Princeton/Kaplan books provide you with tips and tricks to successfully navigate the test and give you a fighting chance. The material is not that difficult but the questions can be counter-intuitive. On average you'll only have approximately 2 minutes or less to solve each problem on the GMAT.

[Jenn Raley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most important way to prepare for any standardized test is to practice, practice, practice.

This book contains a tremendous number of practice questions for all the various types of questions found on the GMAT.

The GMAT Review includes a very straightforward explanation of each type of question, as well as some general suggestions on how to approach each type of question.

I also used the Kaplan GMAT Premier to study, and found that book to have better explanations of the practice question answers. That book also had better test-taking "tips" - it was more prescriptive in its suggestions than the GMAT Review. Whereas the GMAT Review repeatedly says things like, "Use the best technique for you," the Kaplan book makes stronger suggestions as to what will work in a test-taking situation.

Overall, I recommend this book - if only for the impressively large number of practice questions.

NOTE: You do not need to buy this book in order to download the GMAT Prep Software from mba.com.

[Undrakh · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. GMAT is not a exam you can be ready for taking it just by casually preparing. My efforts were not enough; I was aware of it before sitting for official test.So, no complaint.
2. Official guide of GMAT was sweet. We had a great time. I thought it liked me, but I was wrong :P ! Surprisingly, I enjoyed working on GMAT problems both quantitative and verbal, particularly critical reasoning.

I need at least another 6 months preparation for getting a good score.

[Allisonperkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

the standard - tons of questions and very little else. Very much worth it.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The review sections covered everything necessary for the test and explained things pretty well before they gave you a quiz over it. The book definitely prepared me well and I would buy it again

[Sahifa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one "go-to" book for all the Gmat preparations one needs. I solved this book and few others by the same publishers and was really impressed by it.This book contains all five sections.There are other books also with specific categorization but this edition covers almost the entire syllabus.There are almost no mistakes and the solutions are explained clearly and comprehensively. Overall a great effort by the GMAT council to facilitate and smoothen the struggles and efforts of a GMAT aspirant.

[ریچارد · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you need more questions to practice that are different from later versions, this one will definitely do

[Matheus · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book has reminded me how much I hate studying.

At least it is helpful

[Kimbo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Haven't taken the GMAT yet, but I have to review this book because it kind of sucks and it's frustrating. I have found more than several misprints, and just some weird information in there that just isn't right. I bought this because I wanted at least a feel for what I am going to be up against when I take the actual GMAT, but I can't believe how there are misprints and inaccuracies in this book. How will people be truly prepared, if that's the case?!

The math review is helpful, but there is little to no advice when it comes to the sections regarding data sufficiency and sentence correction. One of the tips for sentence correction just tells you to read! Books, newspaper, whatever, because they generally use correct grammar. What?! Seriously, GMAC?

I use the problems in this book for drill, in tandem with the Princeton Review books for strategies. I think that's the best way to go. I sure hope the 12th edition has improved on the misprints and whatnot... buyer beware!

[Abdurrahman AlQahtani · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great "practice" guide, with lots and lots of questions and their answers, explained, which are very similar to those you get in the real exam. It also lists briefly some good strategies for each of the GMAT sections. On the other hand, I don't believe this can be a great "study" or "prep" guide simply because it lacks tools and techniques on how to improve your score and learn how to do better.
For serious GMAT takers, I recommend this book only after getting another source on GMAT preparation - whether in the form of books or online websites and courses. For those who are fine with a low to moderate GMAT score, this guide is more than enough.

[Haneen Alshujairy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to give up on this one, go out and buy the 13th edition.
It has basic explanations and lots of practice questions which is exactly what I want but since they keep renewing the GMAT exam a couple of weeks later I found out that there is a new section called "integrated reasoning" that was added to the exam, so now it's one essay question, one integrated reasoning instead of two essay questions.
It doesn't change a lot but I'd have to recommend buying the newer version since the old one only mentions the essays part. Also, the older version has a couple of errors and typos which I'm hoping I won't find in the newer one.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has testing, but I ended up skipping the "study" section. It's explanations were the equivalent of
What is 2+2
4 - Because 2 + 2 is 4.

Not the best example, but the point is they just basically restated the correct answer as the explanation.

But, I think this book is a necessary study material because its written by the test makers

[Lowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased Kaplan 2010-2011 GMAT Premier to study GMAT concepts (EXCELLENT resource for techniques and application), then the GMAT Review 12th Edition (with 800 actual test questions) to practice the Kaplan concepts.

Result: I did better on the GMAT than I could have ever imagined. I highly recommend using Kaplan for the concepts, and the GMAT Review for practice.

[Ahmad Shuhait · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is really awesome, it moved me to another world, learned a lot about the different way of thinking and judging the subjects.

thanks for all team members involved in writing this book

kind regards,
Ahmad

[Radhika Puthiyetath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used the book for my GRE preparation. The verbal section is easier as compared to what you see in GRE exams, so I started with this book to make myself comfortable with the arcane passages coming in for the exams.

[Amiruddin Nagri · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best MBA book written to date, I will be preparing for GMAT and this is a must and top of the list to read

[Colin]

stay away from this book. it makes you feel dumb.

[Dan Schiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many amazing practice questions! Data sufficiency still sucks though.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a book of prior GMAT questions to study and review. Good to use in conjunction with the Princeton Review book.

[يوسف زهدى · Rating 4 out of 5]

A structured approach to study GMAT with small chapter to study then many long chapters of questions on various sections with answers detailed to the extent of why each wrong answer is wrong!

[Kyle Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

With few new questions and none for the new section, it's a weak upgrade

[Sam Hyde]

Reading it right now. Pretty exciting stuff. ;)

[Camille Whiting · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most helpful book of all! This book did more for me than any other resource!

[Frezewd]

I need to read it first.