Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800)

After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:

Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.

Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.

Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.

Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.

EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.

Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.

I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.

Well this book has by far got the difficult most questions you'll ever come across..However dont start off your GMAT preperation with this book, otherwise you would completely feel completely de-motivated..
All in all good questions!!

I recently took the LSAT and began studying for that test using Kaplan materials but quickly noticed how absurd some of Kaplan's advice was, not to mention the fact that their made-up questions were way out in left field. Despite Kaplan's claim that they make-up these ridiculous questions in order to over-prepare the test-taker, in reality Kaplan does this because they are too cheap to pay LSAC to use actual LSAT questions and this is the best they could do. When I saw little improvement in my practice test scores I decided to invest in the Powerscore Bibles since they use actual LSAT questions and I immediately noticed a difference in my practice test scores and ultimately did well on the LSAT.

I've decided to take the GMAT so that I can pursue a dual JD/MBA and, since I didn't learn my lesson last time, I purchased Kaplan's GMAT 800. The only value I got out of this book was where Kaplan would point out the most commonly tested errors of a particular section of the test. It isn't that the questions are difficult, they aren't really, it's that they are poorly constructed and don't really resemble those written by the GMAC.

While going over GMAC's Official Guide 11, I realized that I needed help with the sentence correction questions so I bought Powerscore's Sentence Correction Bible, which was fantastic. Fortunately, I still have Powerscore's Logical Reasoning Bible so I can use that to prepare for the Critical Reasoning section and a math degree that'll come in handy with the quant section.

This test is too important to waste your time and money on Kaplan's GMAT 800. I'm obviously fond of Powerscore but unfortunately they don't offer a comprehensive study guide so it can get expensive...but you get what you pay for.

While a good bank of hard questions, the explanations of the book do little to help you develop the skills needed to actually get an 800.

These reviews sound so bogus, as if they were staged by the company to get people to consider purchasing the book. Awful p/r! You guys should let the consumers rate your products and never try to fake them out with some bogus, overly descriptive sales pitch about the product.

So disappointed, I will actually be purchasing from the company that most of the reviews kept referencing.

Nice try, but no reward!