Cracking the GMAT [With CDROM]

by Geoff Martz

The Princeton Review doesn't try to teach you everything there is to know about math and English -- only the techniques you'll need to score higher on the GMAT. There's a big difference. In Cracking... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375756248
• ISBN13: 9780375756245
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Princeton Review
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.3" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

Will help most people

Unless you are already on your way to a 700, this book should improve your score. I took the GMAT without reading it (just used the powerprep software. BAD IDEA) and did not do as well as I should have and will need to take it again to get the score I need. My wife bought the book a few months later and used it for her test. She was impressed so I took a look at it. a read a few chapters and picked out several items that would have improved my score. I imagine that once I have time to sit down and study through the entire book, I should be able to get the score I need.

An excellent book, perfectly complements the official guide

This book offers some valuable tips and suggestions especially for cracking math. But overall it focuses more on the "Joe Blogg" tips and tricks approach, which may work for some people and not for others. I still believe knowing sincerely how to solve problems will get you far. But the PR book makes for an interesting read, gives you some excellent strategies (e.g., about the essay sections etc) and does the best job of introducing the concept of "difficulty level bins" -- which is how the CAT works. I, much to my surprise I admit, ended up with a 780 and for those about to take the GMAT, some tips: 1. Definitely get yourself the 'Official Guide' (published by ETS) -- that is indespensable. You should aim to complete it from cover to cover - it gives you a really good idea of the test questions though the math is a liitle easier than what I saw on the test. It even has a comprehensive, complete list of essay topics. 2. Practice tests -- my scores in Powerprep : 780,770; Kaplan : 670,650,690; Princeton : 750,720. So I'd venture to recommend this book to get a decent estimation of where you really stand, and therefore u must take the included tests seriously -- i.e., emulating the real testing conditions -- in order to get an accurate idea of your potential. Kaplan is really tough - I haven't seen too many folks scoring above 700 in thier tests - infact when i gave the first test straight after a 780 in powerprep and got a 650 I was pretty turned off - but later found out that it wasn't really a big deal. Get Kaplan for practice, but the PR and the official guide should be enough. 3. PREP BOOKS: Well other than the Official guide, I used PR and Kaplan. I found the math tips in Kaplan (50 of them) quite impressive but the practice tests in PR give you a very good idea of difficulty levels of math/analytic. This book lays out the test in "bins" (easy bin, medium bin, and the tough bin). I found this to be a very unique and useful feature. All in all, this particular book is superb for its purpose and complements the ETS OG fabulously. Highly recommended!

Decent book that does the job

Princeton Review's Cracking the GMAT 2002 teaches you the GMAT test writer's thinking through Mr. Joe Bloggs. While there are several Joe Bloggs out there who would fall into the test makers' traps, a careful study of the tricks will lead you away from those GMAT landmines.All the areas are covered adequately. What is not covered, though, is an in-depth study of math or grammar. The book itself is pretty sparse on the practice questions - often asking that practice for each type of question be supplemented by the Official GMAT Guide. However, if you have the CD-Rom version of the book, which I highly recommend, then you are not short of practice. The questions are very representative of GMAT, varying in difficulty, although, there are really few questions that fall into the "really tough" bracket. What is contained in the CD-Rom is a huge set of practice questions along with 4 full-length CATs. The most IMPRESSIVE feature, that is not provided in any other CD-ROMs (such as from Kaplan), is the fact that the entire question pool from which the CATs are generated becomes available after you attempt all four CATs. This gives you access to well over 300+ sentence correction questions, 450+ data sufficiency questions, 650+ problem solving questions, 200+ critical reasoning questions and 200+ reading comprehension questions. Now that is what I call practice!!!

BUY THIS BOOK if you're taking the GMAT

Thank God for this book. I also bought the Kaplan book (without the CD-rom) and thought it was pretty fair. But then I went through the Princeton Review book and I realized how poor the Kaplan book actually was. The Princeton Review book gives you great test-taking tips/strategies and made me feel MUCH better prepared than the Kaplan book made me feel. Also, the 5 tests that Princeton Review gives you on the CD were very helpful. The tests analyze how well you do for each question type and lets you know on average how long you were spending on each question. Since timing is key for the GMAT, this information was extremely helpful in pacing during the actual test.If you're only going to get one book, get this book NOW! I wouldn't waste your time getting the Kaplan book. Also make sure you take the practice tests that GMAC gives out for free (they will send you a free CD-rom when you register for the GMAT, or you can download the PowerPrep software at their website for free). You should definitely take the real thing since as good as the Princeton Review software was, these are NOT the real questions. Some of the Princeton Review questions were easier than the real questions and vice versa (some of the real GMAT questions were easier than the Princeton Review ones).... They had great math review on the site (also do a search on Google for "Gmat" - this turned up a lot of good sites that offer free diagnostic tests online). It is critical that you take as many computer tests before taking the real thing. I had never taken a computer-based test and it was very different from the paper tests I've done before. Good luck!

Since I had to take the test, thank God I had this book

The GMAT was hard, but I can't imagine how hard it would have been without this book. I looked at all the other books and this one was the best by far - it helped me learn how to take the test so that it was OK even if I didn't know all the information. Plus, the practice tests in this one were much better than the ones in the other books I looked at. I think this is definitely the best book to use if you're preparing for the GMAT - I highly recommend it.