Kaplan: GMAT Verbal Workbook, 5th edition

Product Description

Kaplan-exclusive strategies for all question types
Powerful vocabulary-building methods
Hundreds of practice questions
Detailed answer explanations
Complete chapter dedicated to the Analytical Writing Assessment

Customer Reviews

"5 stars" - Outstanding, outstanding, outstanding / By Richard Stokes

Having taken a couple of practice GMATs, I had the math down cold but needed some help on the verbal. I hadn't written an essay in about 7 years (since college). I bought this book and it paid off. I ended up acing the GMAT. To practice for the verbal, I ...

1) mercilessly drilled idioms
2) learned every verb tense and the proper use (from an English as a Second Language website)
3) did every problem in this book. drill, drill, drill.

I studied for about 40 hours, at least, but it was worth it. 760 total and a 5.0 on the AWA.

Good luck on GMAT!

"5 stars" - Only if you need additional practice for the verbal sections / By Manny Hernandez "Author of Ning For Dummies"

This book is very helpful as long as what you're needing is additional practice to build up your performance and confidence for the verbal sections of the GMAT (note that it covers the Analytical Writing section as well, however it does not do so as well as it covers the other verbal sections). It takes you through each of the three types of verbal sections (Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction), with strategies on how to excel at each. But the basics you need for each can be found in the GMAT with CD-ROM book by Kaplan. Get this book only if you really need to improve in any of the three verbal sections, as you will be able to take a set of practice questions and three additional practice sets for each of them, followed by a comprehensive verbal section that should bring you up to speed even if your idioms and your grammar is a little rusty. Rounding up the book are precisely a Gramma Reference, a Guide to GMAT's most common idioms and a Guide to Usage and Style.

"4 stars" - Throw a rock at me if you know a better verbal guide / by GMAT Club

I would give 4.5 out of 5
Not 5 because it could use a few more reading passages for additional practice. The book is very good. Even though it has a few questions from the Kaplan CD (not more than 5), it makes a good practice. Here are the main strengths:
1. Good strategy Guide and source of questions; it is very well written and pleasant to read
2. Reading and Critical Reasoning are explained in more depth than in the Kaplan GMAT Guide with CD. I would recommend to get this book in addition to the Kaplan's Guide if you are having troubles with verbal (who doesn't you may ask). I improved RC only after i got this book.
3. However, probably the most helpful part of this book is the Idiom section. It is indispensable for International Students; I think this is the only guide that has so many USEFUL idioms, about 70 with explanations and examples. It is not crammed with all sorts of useless expressions as many idiom dictionaries are and it is not limited to top 5 either. I like the ballance.

The book does not come with any software but has many questions and one verbal section of a practice test. And, yes, the questions are hard. It is Kaplan :)

"4 stars" - Comprehensive review with tough questions / By Paul Gokin

Pros (in the order of personal preference):
- #1 by far is the questions: tough as nails, at least as difficult as the ones in the GMAT 800 book (also by Kaplan);
- Idiom reference and their GMAT-specific usage (i.e.: "consider to be" will never be correct on the GMAT, but "consider" will be);
- More comprehensive discussion of strategies for all of the questions types. In fact I would skip the verbal section of Kaplan's general GMAT guide (the one with the CD) in favor of this workbook.

Con:
- A couple of questions on the sample verbal section test appear in the other Kaplan guides.

Overall, the best guide to the verbal section of the GMAT I have seen. Highly recommended.

"5 stars" - A Must Have / By "jkrosewood"

This book is absolutely worth every penny that it cost. Considering how much you can get out of a quality MBA program, it pays to invest into getting into the best possible school.

This book is great for anyone who did well on the math sections of the SATs/GREs, but needed improvement on the verbal section because this book focuses specifically on that. While it provides great and practical good tips for the average test-taker to score higher, it is not a miracle worker. It isn't a quick fix, and will not double your score.

Having said that, I still consider this book a must have. You will be thankful that you used it. I was.

Good luck on your GMATs.

"4 stars"- Very good book to improve your verbal score /By A Customer

This is a no nonsense workbook that gives good strategies for many verbal sub section(critical reasoning, reading comprehension, senetence correction and yes the dreaded AWA) in GMAT. Explanations are given with very good examples. Practice tests are so far the best I have seen in many GMAT guides.
It has a good deal of reference material on grammar and idioms. Though the atrategies given for writing the essays are good, I didn't find them very clear initially. It took some time to digest that part.
Before going through it I had a sort of phobia for GMAT (and had actually postponed appearing GMAT for several years). No more. For me the benefits have been beyond just the GMAT. Now I am actually applying the techniques in my everyday reading at work.

"5 stars" - BEST verbal prep out there / By J. Wilson "powerpuffjenn"

The book was great. verbal is hard to prep for, you've been speaking english your whole life and reading it almost as long, so it's a bit foreign to test on it like they want you to.

granted, my verbal skills far exceed my math skills, but i just went through this book once, took a low stress approach, just to brush up and the strategy they suggest and the hints and tips are invaluable! i scored in the 90th percentile and i know it's due to this book. my friend used it upon my recommendation and english is his 2nd or 3rd language and he said it really helped him too. good luck on the gmat, i hope you do well:)

BUY THIS BOOK AND USE IT!

"1 star" - Excellent book, but could be a waste of your money!!! / By Kumar Yajamanam "ylnk"

This is an excellent book ... by itself. The quality of the lessons, appendices and the rest of the material is great. The section on usage is very good, too.

However, if you have already purchased Kaplan's GMAT CAT with CD-Rom, then all the practice questions - 3 sets each for sentence correction, reading comprehension and critical reasoning - from this book (with explanations )are available on the CD-Rom. I, felt, sort of, cheated of my $$$.

In summary, buy this book only if you do not have the Kaplan GMAT CD-ROM. Save yourself some money. Don't spend your money twice for the same material!!