The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition

The first copy I got of this book had a lot of typos in it. For example, one of the values in a math problem read "28" instead of "2^8".

There was another math example where they printed "=" instead of "-", which made the explanation incoherent.

I was feed up when they misprinted the Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b^2 = c^2 instead of a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

I thought to myself, if I'm catching all these typos, I wonder which ones am I missing. Luckily, I was able to exchange my copy for a typo free copy. There were 6 copies of this book on the shelf at my local Barnes & Nobles, 5 of them contained typos like my first copy. So beware...

Great service! Recieved the book faster than expected. Great communication and service!! Will buy from again.

This book is even better than I supposed. And it was delivered even earlier, that is nice :)

For a more detailed review please refer to user Youssef J. Habbouche's review. I'm only going to include what I he hasn't.

I'm actually giving this book 3.5/5 stars. Reason is because as the official prep book by GMAC, I think the number of typos and errors are unacceptable. For example #20 of the Problem Solving section:

20. Of the five coordinates associated with points A, B, C, D, E on the number line above (diagram included in text), which has the greatest absolute value?


(A) A = -2
(B) B = -1
(C) C = 0
(D) D = 1
(E) E = 2
Quick glance at the options and you know there are 2 possible answers A and E. Answer according to text is A. There are other errors and typos like this scattered across the pages of this book. If you have a keen eye they shouldn't be too hard to pick out. Although it can be quite frustrating since the last thing one needs while preping for a test like this is to start second guessing one's ability.

Overall it's a very good prep material especially because some of the questions in the book did show up on the actual test. If the errors and typos are a minor thing to you, this book is the way to go. Using other books as supplement might also help. Good luck!

2008-06-16

This is some fantastic prep material. There are a few typos and there's some overlap between this book and the GMATPrep software. However, neither are showstoppers and I believe this is the only prep book with actual questions from previous tests so it doesn't get any more real than this.

Here's what I did to study for the test:

1. I took the first practice test from the GMATPrep software without any studying and got a 580.
2. I put much dedication into finishing this book and thoroughly understanding the answers. This took about two weeks (a couple of hours after work everyday and all weekend afternoons).
3. I had almost two weeks to go before the test so I took a week off from studying so I could get in a couple of days' work with the EZ Solutions Advanced Math book right before the test.
4. I took the second GMATPrep test a couple of days ago and scored a 700.
5. I took the real test today and got a 740.

In hindsight, I'm not sure the EZ book helped that much beyond getting my brain going again after the break but I am 100% sure that this OG plus the GMATPrep were mainly responsible for the jump from 580 to 740. Good luck!