GMAT Club Veritas Book Review

The review for veritas was in my To-Do list, and I apologize to break in between your review. But after reading your solid reviews for first two books, I must say nothing left from my side. You have reduced my work.

Thanks Mohater

Great reviews mohater..waiting for veritas probability,sets and ds book reviews.....i have heard these parts are gr8 and worth value....

Book Review: Veritas Geometry Guide

book-review-veritas-geometry-guide-100377.html

Overview of the book:

Each section in this book starts with review of basic properties relating to figures followed by the application of more difficult concepts with questions. A limited number of topics are tested on GMAT and all the tested topics are covered in this book.

Total questions in the book = 84 (including 5 drill questions)

Pros:

1. Book covers all the topics tested on GMAT like Lines and Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygons, Circles, Volumes and other 3D figures, Coordinate Geometry and many more.

2. Almost all the problems are near to the real GMAT problems discussed in OGs. One must practice from this book if one is not confident after attempting OG problems.

3. Many problems discuss, tests more than one concept, which is the best thing to train your mind.

4. Solution to the problems with diagrams. One can easily understand complex problem with diagram.

5. Important facts and formulas are listed in the book and in case one forgets formula on the test methods to drive those formulas is also in the book.

Cons:

1. More emphasis is given on PS questions; there are very few DS question. I think, there should be more DS questions are many of the test takers fear DS.

2. Only one problem is discussed on one page, I think Veritas should think on how to save trees! Go Green!

2 Mistakes in the book:

There are 2 mistakes I noticed in the book; though both mistakes are printing mistakes I should mention those mistakes here.

1. In the “Lesson Solution” section (on page no. 119-120) figure explaining question no. 26 is given in the solution of question no. 27.

2. Point P is not mentioned in the answer of question no. 65 (page no. 133)

One formula worth mentioning here is,

Central Angle/360 = Area of Sector/Area of Circle

I think this formula should have be added to book as few questions are based on this formula. Though another formula for calculating the Length of Arc (Central Angle/360 = Length of Arc/Circumference) is given in the book, the above formula should also be added for easy reference.

Final note:

When 4-6 questions of GMAT are going to come from Geometry, who wants to take any chance? One must buy this book, if one is facing any problem with Geometry section. Ok, if you believe in marking the book? I will mark this book as 4.5/5 (-0.5 for wasting so many pages!)

Good detailed info!! +1



Dont agree with this comment, though!!

Veritas Guide – 0 (Math Essentials)

Few days back, I started my journey with Veritas guide – 0 (Math Essentials). The book provides in-depth coverage of the mathematical fundamentals one will see on the GMAT. Everything mentioned in the book is essential to perform strong on GMAT and book is designed to helps you to absorb further tough concepts tested on GMAT.

The book starts with the “Math Essentials Diagnostic Test” that consists of 48 questions and covers almost all the topics. The book is designed to build strong fundamentals of mathematics.

Total questions: 200+ (include examples, drills and many more!)

The Good:

1. Each chapter in the book starts with giving explanation on the specific question types, then in each chapter there are examples making life easy for test takers and finally chapter ends up with about 10 (sometimes more than 10) questions in drill. I think this is the best way to make things easy and Veritas knows this very well.

2. Book covers all the topics, such as, Divisibility, Fractions, Decimals, Percentages, Algebra, Solving Equations, Inequalities, Exponents, Roots, Quadratic Equations, FOIL & Factoring, Conversions, Word Problems, Lines and Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Circles, Coordinate Geometry and many more topics those are tested one GMAT. Book builds strong foundation for higher score!

3. Book not only gives concepts but also provides general information on the test i.e. how one should tackle this beast – GMAT. “Facts and formulas”, “How your mind works”, “Lazy genius” and “GMAT Insider” on the side-note make book worth going through.

4. Book gives some interesting information, which I think one won’t get in any other book e.g. “in inequalities why the sign must be flipped when dividing or multiplying by negative number”? The book gives answer to this tricky question in simple word. We know that 2 > 1, when we multiply by -1 (minus 1) it results in -2 > -1, but we know this result is wrong as -2 is farther from 0 than -1. So, we need to flip the sign whenever we are multiplying or dividing by negative number. (I confess that I have never thought over this ever!!)

The Bad:

1. Results of Math Essentials Diagnostic Test” should have given some performance level of one, some analysis of results or something like if one has score above 40 out of 48, one is at 600 level etc.

2. More explanations should have been given to the drills. The book has skipped explanations on various drills. I think adding explanations to all the drill questions would have added more value to the book.

3. There are few printing mistakes in the book. On page number 80, in topic “multiplication”, there is a misprint and instead of writing a1 x a2 = a1+2 = a3 , a1 + 2 is written. Also, on page number 124, in question number 9, I don’t think we can arrive at term R = 4/360 in any case (am I missing something?).

The Final Note:

In this book, I can’t complain about the wastage of papers on book as book is packed with information, problems and more problems! Book gives superb introduction for the Quant section and makes one ready for tougher problems. The book is definitely building block of success on Quant section. I’ll give this book 4.5 out of 5.

Veritas Guide – 1 (Arguments)

Veritas guide – 1 (Arguments) provides in-depth coverage of the fundamentals one will see on the GMAT. Everything mentioned in the book is essential to perform strong on GMAT and book is designed in such a manner that it will help you to absorb further tough concepts tested on GMAT.

Total questions in the book: 50+ (including examples, drills and practice questions)

Points worth mentioning:

1. The book starts with the introduction to the GMAT structure, how GMAT works, number of questions, timing, score charts etc same as Official guides explains.

2. As the name suggests – Arguments – whole book covers application of Arguments in CR, SC, RC and even in PS and DS. Book details about the types of Argument and how it applies on GMAT. Nothing on GMAT is without purpose!

3. Book not only gives concepts but also provides general information on the test i.e. how one should tackle this beast – GMAT. “Facts and formulas”, “How your mind works”, “Lazy genius” and “GMAT Insider” on the side-note make book worth going through.

4. The book is very much concise (of about 50 pages only) and gives good introduction to GMAT and various logics tested on GMAT.

The only bad point about the book is its price. Book is priced at $30, about 1400 Indian rupee, which is bit on the higher side according to me. Overall book is good and one can go through this book to understand basics and can be good supplement to official guide’s general information section.

I'll give this book 4 out of 5.

Mohater has already given the review of the two books u mentioning.. try with other parts if possible so that we can have review for all the 14 books....

Have you checked these links ? gmat-club-veritas-book-review-98640.html#p775491

book-review-veritas-geometry-guide-100377.html

I'm speaking my views over the book and Mohater spoke his own views. Okay! Now, you can also give your reviews over Veritas guides after reading our reviews!!!

I'll review all the Veritas guides one by one starting from 0 to 14.

Veritas Guide – II (Arithmetic)

Within last 3-4 days, I have finished Veritas guide – II (Arithmetic). Here are the my views on this book.

The books gives insights about the type of arithmetic question can be asked on the test day and are followed by the application of more difficult concepts with questions.

Total questions in the book: 110+ (including examples and practice questions)

The Good:

1. Each chapter in the book starts with giving explanation on the specific question types, and then in each chapter there are examples making life easy for test takers. Further, some questions are discussed as easy, medium and difficult level questions. After that there are sufficient challenging problems to practice on each question type.

2. Book not only gives concepts but also provides general information on the test i.e. how one should tackle this beast – GMAT. “Facts and formulas”, “How your mind works”, “Lazy genius” and “GMAT Insider” on the side-note make book worth going through.

3. Book covers all the topics, such as, Operations with real numbers, fractions, factors and multiples, ratios, percents, quotient/remainder, rate/distance and work/rate, venn diagram and many more concepts.

4. Book gives insight on the common pitfalls and how to avoid them on test day.

5. I’ve never ever understood and have always confused the difference between LCM and GCF. The book really helped me to distinguish between these two and I hope I will never forget.

The Bad:

1. More emphasis is given on PS questions; there are very few DS question. (Remember! There is separate Veritas guide for DS question. I will review that very soon.)

2. In the “Lesson Solution” section there are few misprints (check out solution of question no. 42 and 72 etc) also I think explanations can be made better.

Final Note:

Those who have read Veritas guide – 0 (Math Essentials) this Arithmetic guide reinforce the fundamentals and give strategies to attack the tougher problems. A must go through guide and I will mark this guide 4/5.

waste of money, I got the books today and don't think can be compared to Manhattan Strategy Guides, for Sentence correction GMAT club and SC Grail. Only plus extra questions but don't worth $300.

Just finished the Advanced word problem book, i think it is a tailor made book for those who are consistently breaking the 40-42 barrier but want to push towards 45 and beyond. However it is essentially a collection of questions and solutions. Veritas Prep as come out with an updated set of 12 books (instead of the older set of 15 books) therefore one can pick a used copy of most of their older books for under 10 dollars a pop or buy a brand new one for 22$ and get 5 free CAT's. It is a great transition book from Strategy guides (MGMAT or VP) to MGMAT Adv quant / GMAT club tests..Their Data suff. book is also filled with some tips and strategy and a good collection of questions (i am yet to do the questions).

What is unique with their NEW SET is that they have come out with an ADVANCED VERBAL book , which sounds good (I have ordered it but have not received it yet). Will write a review of that book once i finish it.

Is Math Essentials comparable to MGMAT Foundations of GMAT Math?