Best Verbal GMAT Books 2012 : Verbal Questions

bb · 2011-09-07T21:38:21-07:00

Best Verbal GMAT Prep Books Previously you could get a general GMAT Book and then more specialized GMAT books to go deeper into each section. Today, there is a shift towards just getting a number of specialized GMAT books such as the 8 Manhattan GMAT Guides and 15 Veritas Prep Guides . Whichever GMAT Book you decide to use, remember to also get the Official Guide for GMAT Review – it is the only source of the real GMAT questions. My Other GMAT Book Reviews Best GMAT Books Best GMAT Math Prep Books Fiction Books for RC Common Book Bundles Need to figure out your weaknesses? Take a GMATPrep test or one of the other many free GMAT tests available. Looking for a verbal study plan? General GMAT study plan | Verbal GMAT study plan Need to start with basics? (recommended for international applicants) - start with MGMAT Verbal Foundations OK with verbal but need some help in a short period of time? Try the Kaplan Verbal Workbook Need highest score and have time: MGMAT Guides + MGMAT Verbal Foundations (esp for RC) Need specific question practice? use gmat club tags Need help with Grammar? Try Ultimate GMAT Grammar book by GMAT Club Books and Study Plans at a Glance Standard/Quick Advanced/Thorough Specialized General Strategy Books Explain how GMAT works, provide general principles and strategies, give an idea about weaknesses, provide practice tests Official Guide 12 + comes with 900 official questions Kaplan Premier + comes with 6 CAT's Official Guide 12 + comes with 900 official questions 8 MGMAT Guides + come with 6 online tests or 15 Veritas Prep Guides + come with 5 online tests Kaplan GMAT 800 - Poor guidebook, more of a question collection Quant Books Refresh math principles, fill gaps, and learn patterns Kaplan Math Workbook - missing probability and combinations OG Quant 2 - somewhat easy MGMAT Math Foundations MGMAT Advanced Quant Total GMAT Math Verbal Books Refresh grammar rules, aquire CR and RC strategies Kaplan Verbal Workbook OG Verbal 2 MGMAT Verbal Foundations PowerScore CR Aristotle SC Ultimate GMAT Grammar LSAT Books – goes beyond the scope GMAT Practice Tests Tests included with books or recommended practice 6 Kaplan Practice Tests + come with Kaplan Premier + Take 1 free 6 MGMAT Practice Tests + come with MGMAT books + Take 1 free 15 Veritas Prep CAT tests + come with Veritas books if purchased at VeritasPrep + Take 1 Free GMAT Club Tests + Take 2 Free Other GMAT Tests 1. General Verbal Review Materials verbal og2.gif Official guide for GMAT Verbal Review 2nd Edition Excellent for additional verbal practice questions, but don't expect to find any grammar rules or verbal strategies here. Strengths: 1. 300 real GMAT questions 2. Real GMAT questions retired from past tests 3. The practice questions are organized by level of difficulty 4. The practice questions follow actual GMAT test patterns - great to have one's ear trained. Weaknesses: 1. The book does not contain any strategies 2. It does have a few short review sections but they are very weak 3. Mostly low and medium difficulty questions. Not very helpful to a person aiming to get above 700. yellow/0976570912 Note: See detailed comparison between First and Second Editions here: the-official-gmat-verbal-review-1st-edition-vs-2nd-edition-83882.html?view-post=628557#p628557 kaplan_verbal.jpg Kaplan GMAT Verbal Workbook Good Verbal review but only 650-700 level. Specialized books recommended for a higher score. Strengths: 1. Realistic strategies for every part of Verbal section 2. Useful Idioms and Vocabulary list 3. Good paper and publishing quality Weaknesses: 1. Few hard verbal questions 2. Some questions (CR) are not very representative of the "authentic" questions Other notes: All the practice questions from this book are available on CD-ROM that comes with Kaplan Premier Program yellow/1419553054 2. Critical Reasoning powerscore_critical_reasoning.jpg The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible Considered the best GMAT book for Critical Reasoning questions. Strengths: 1. Clearly divides the CR question types and provides with specific strategy solutions for each type 2. Gets the results - this is the most recommended book on GMAT Club for CR 3. Well laid out, making learning easy and quick Weaknesses: 1. Though more questions are available than in the MGMAT book/online quiz bank, it could still use more practice questions Note: This book is very similar in terms of strategies or tips to the MGMAT CR book; there is no value in owning both For chapter by chapter book notes, see this post: summary-of-the-powerscore-cr-book-82539.html yellow/0972129634 mgmat_cr.jpg Manhattan GMAT Critical Reasoning Second best - comes with access to MGMAT's 4 online CAT tests yet refers to the OG for practice questions Strengths: 1. Strategies that work 2. Explanations to the OG questions are very clear 3. Comes with access to 6 online CAT tests (all Manhattan GMAT books have this feature) Weaknesses: 1. Requires purchase of OG 11 or Verbal OG. No practice questions in the book - instead it provides reference to questions in the Official Guide 2. Online question bank is comparatively small Note: This book is very similar in terms of strategies or tips to the PowerScore CR book; there is no value in owning both yellow/0981853307 3. Sentence Correction mgmat_sc.jpg Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Highly recommended. Considered the best book for SC. Strengths: 1. Thorough coverage of GMAT grammar concepts 2. Convenient layout 3. Access to 6 Online MGMAT CAT's Weaknesses: 1. Practice question are not provided but refer to the 11th edition of the Official Guide and the Official Guide Supplements Other notes: One of the most referenced books for SC on GMAT Club forum. yellow/0981853366 scgrail.gif Aristotle SC Grail Pretty good and would make an excellent supplement to MGMAT SC Strengths: 1. Concise 2. The content is organized in a very effective manner 3. The Idioms List! 4. Overall, the organization is crisp and concise Weaknesses 1. It is a PDF. 2. There are no practice problems or associated content (there is a separate question bank available now) 3. It doesn't go into too much detail. yellow/104794 gmat-grammar.gif GMAT Club's Ultimate GMAT Grammar Ultimate Grammar Book for the SC section of the GMAT. Strengths: 1. All SC areas covered and explained in detail 2. 500+ exercises and 500+ GMAT-like SC questions 3. GMAT idioms with explanations and examples, tables, usage, problematic words, etc 4. Optional section on punctuation and also section on articles and other often ignored subjects/topics that international students struggle with Weaknesses 1. Not yet - maybe a tad too long - 294 pages. yellow/102387 4. Reading Comprehension mgmat_rc.jpg Manhattan GMAT Reading Comprehension One of the first RC books on the market - could be better. Strengths: 1. The first and most used GMAT book fully dedicated to RC (contains 69 questions) 2. Comes with RC passages and questions unlike the other MGMAT materials that only refer to OG Weaknesses: 1. Too few practice questions to deliver a significant score improvement 2. Needs more strategies. I felt the MGMAT Verbal Foundations had a lot more RC basic skill development tools and strategies yellow/0981853358 veritas_rc.jpg Veritas Prep Reading Comprehension Good overall strategy and provides useful insider tips Strengths: 1. Plenty of practice - 96 Reading Comprehension questions in 23 passages 2. Good passages in terms of difficulty and quality 3. 30 pages of strategies and RC skill-development Weaknesses: 1. None yellow/1936240076 5. Free Books gmatpill.gif GMAT Pill eBook: How to Ace the GMAT A 120 page EBook covering SC/CR/RC/PS/DS split into 2 pieces with questions and tips on how to ace the GMAT. yellow/112282 6. Exotic Books powerscore_lsat.jpg PowerScore LSAT Reading Comprehension Bible For hardcore RC practice only! Usually not necessary and only to be used by 700+ applicants. It is a level higher than GMAT. See a review of this book by bmillan01 review-of-powerscore-s-rc-bible-86718.html yellow/0980178223 ps_lsat.gif LSAT Critical Reasoning If you need to turbocharge or nuke your Critical Reasoning this may be a book to consider. Note - not a pure GMAT book and does contain significant amount of irrelevant information. With that said, a good source of 700+ questions. Discussion of LSAT materials for use on GMAT yellow/0980178207

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14 Oct 2012, 11:43

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harshvinayak

Got any intuition on these? :shock:

https://www.aristotleprep.com/products/# ... t=15531382
https://www.aristotleprep.com/products/# ... t=15531384

I pre-ordered their SC Grail 3rd edition . But definitely not the CR. Nothing beats power score for it . Infact i am struggling with SC and i have completely got mgmat sc out of my prep schedule instead after some probing and requesting help on the forums , I am using sc grail , veritas prep sc and some ron videos for my sc preparation.

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14 Oct 2012, 15:12

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Yep. Thats pretty much what Im planning to do too and I've pre ordered both the grails. For CR, even though MGMAT was spot on, the note-taking method puts me off track for some reason (maybe its just me). So am going by a hunch here to wrap things up with Veritas CR and the CR Grail.

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15 Oct 2012, 22:08

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I had pre-ordered the SC Grail 3rd edition too but haven't received it yet. Seems like in India it will release later than the US.

Have any of you received it ? Have ordered CR Grail too though I have Manhattan CR. I don't like Manhattan CR's approach- the book is just full of diagrams and I don't want to follow that approach. I know I can just focus on the concepts in the books but they invariably insert those signs and symbols which ain't for me I guess because I don't remember the last time I made a diagram for CR. For the time being, I'm really excited about getting the SC Grail 3rd ed but it'll still be a couple of days wait for me

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27 Dec 2012, 10:34

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The PowerScore books are lengthy and difficult but truly worth it.

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16 Mar 2013, 07:53

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Add ets papers to the list...they are awesome

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06 Jul 2013, 03:02

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Apart from the most common books that an aspirant chooses to prepare from , i came across 2 very useful books especially for the non-natives
1. SC bible
2. Aristotle SC Grail

these 2 books explores the depth of the language which is needed for poeple to attack 700+ questions. But i would suggest these books only to those who has the lavishness of time , say 4 months prep plan. not for students wit 60-80 days plan.

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s

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09 Jul 2013, 11:55

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hi All,

During my course of preparation i am going through several SC books..namely,
1. MGMAT SC
2. SC bible
3. GMAT Prep Book
4. Veritas materials
5. Kaplan Material
of all these , i would say, MGMAT & SC bible are the two books those take a step ahead of others. being a non-native i didn't many small intricasies in the language which was pointed out in those books. To all aspirant, i would suggest get hold of both these books together, as it compliments wach other the best.
Thanks,
s

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09 Jul 2013, 11:56

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of course there is one more book , whose mention i have not seen almost anywhere. it is Aristotle SC Grail. Very Useful

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09 Jul 2013, 11:57

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Please buy original books and stop piracy.

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10 Jul 2013, 00:55

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Guys, I am in two minds to purchase Aristotle SC Grail (3rd edition) to practice 700+ level Q's. Could anyone comment on the difficulty level of the Q's in this book, especially toward the higher level for a non-native. I got the feedback that it has good number of meaning based Q's.

PS: OG/OG Verbal Review/Gmat Question Pack/Useful pdfs from Gmatclub forum - Done

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10 Jul 2013, 03:20

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Gian,

Since u mentioned you are a non-native, may I ask your intial mock test verbal score? That way it would be easy for me suggest.
I am a student preparing for GMAT and struggling very hard to improve my verbal score.
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10 Jul 2013, 03:58

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Currently,my mock test scores are averaging between 32 and 35. You can compare the book's 700+ Q's with MGMAT 700+ level Q's, else may be take some reference pt.

Thanks.

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10 Jul 2013, 04:37

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32-35 is a good variant during the initial phase. I would say get the LSAT Book for sentence correction/reading comprehension and Critical Reasoning. You would get around 800+ level questions. Aristotle SC is good but it is more popular for the concepts it has shared in their books.

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Can u suggest some books for verbal so that my score improves to 40+ in verbal. Currently, it is around 34-35. I need practice with advanced content. Have finished the manhattan guides(English) and the kaplan 800. From the test evaluation, I have problems in the 700-800 level questions.

I have a month to go for my GMAT test.. Please help..

Thanks in advance..

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12 Aug 2013, 02:08

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Why don't u try picking up new questions from the GMATPrep software and also buy SP1. IT might help. No test prep company can achieve the elegance and finesse in terms of quality as the GMAC have. SO I would suggest stick more to the official questions and analyze the errors you have made. Try OG Archer by manhattan to track your errors.

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13 Aug 2013, 01:24

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Thanks for appreciating my help. Hope the idea really helps you

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05 Sep 2013, 09:39

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Great resources and I have used all of them. That said, one pitfall of Veritas RC book is that the actual passages are on the shorter side as compared to the actual GMAT (usually 30-35 lines, GMAT passages can go to 40+)

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