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Title: Verbal Workout for the GMAT (The Princeton Review) by Douglas French ISBN: 0-375-75417-2 Publisher: Princeton Review Pub. Date: 23 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (18 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Where's the workout?
Comment: I bought both the Kaplan Verbal book along with this one to study together. One, to be able to compare the strategies from the 2 companies; second, to get a really good "workout" to improve my score on the verbal section. What I found was that while the strategies between the two are similar, the Kaplan book gave more questions to practice with than the PR book did. However, the PR book definitely gives a more comprehensive grammar lesson than Kaplan does, and it also gives examples of "ETS tendencies" which is very helpful. All in all, if you're looking for a good english lesson review, this is a great book. But if you're looking for a "workout", go with the Official Guide or the Kaplan book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Mediocre material on cheap paper
Comment: 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: 4
Summary: Only if you only need Verbal work
Comment: 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!
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Title: The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition ISBN: 0886852404 Publisher: RSVP Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Cracking the GMAT with Sample Tests on CD-ROM, 2004 Edition by Princeton Review ISBN: 0375763244 Publisher: Princeton Review Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.95 |
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Title: Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM by Kaplan ISBN: 0743241401 Publisher: Kaplan Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $37.00 |
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Title: GMAT Math Workout (Princeton Review Series) by Jack Schieffer ISBN: 0679783733 Publisher: Princeton Review Pub. Date: 29 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook, Second Edition by Kaplan ISBN: 0743250990 Publisher: Kaplan Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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