The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 11th Edition

I think this was a great first book to look at if you're planning to do the GMAT, though I wish there was a little more explanation with the statistical answers. Otherwise it's an easy guide.

As a primary resource for preparing for the GMAT this book is invaluable. The questions are organized from easy to difficult and separated in to topics to help you find weaknesses. That said, there are a few minor mistakes in the book that can lead to hours of confusion. Those mistakes can be found at

http://www.gmatix.com/blogging/index.php?x=25

Other than that the book suffers from to few questions. This is not a good comprehensive study plan, just the best first step.

Unless you are one of the lucky few who don't need formal instruction to prepare for standardized tests, you can not use this GMAT book as your only resource. But, if you are using other instruction or practice materials the Official Guide is great for testing the accuracy of the strategies you've learned.

It's true that this guide will not tell you how to test better, but some people have left reviews saying there aren't any explanations. I don't understand why they're saying that though, because I thought one of the best features of the GMAT Review is that it explains every single answer in both the quant and verbal sections very clearly. There are some typos, but it's not like you can't figure what they meant to say. Some people have also said that random questions they tried from the book were too easy. I wonder what sections they tried, because at least in the quant portion the questions become increasingly difficult. So the first 50 questions are pretty easy, but the last 25 are much harder.

Just as a side note, I took the 7 week Veritas GMAT prep course and scored a 630 on the test right when I finished the class. But afterward I spent the next month testing the strategies in this Offical Guide and improved my score to a 700. So I would definitely say it's helpful.

I've been working with this book for about a month, and I'm very pleased with the progress I've made thus far. Reviewing questions in order of difficulty has allowed me to slowly build my skill level- I'm feeling much more confident than I once was about taking the GMAT. The only thing this book is missing is extended explanations of some of the concepts commonly used in questions.

It is ofcourse a must buy because it comes from the makers of the test.
But then this is not exhaustive. Atleast it doesn't look exhaustive to me. Moreover, the level for Problem Solving looks really low to me in this book.