Quoting the book list and evaluation from an English-speaking tester.-->pumpkin转

First of all, you have to realize that the GMAT is a computer adaptive test that was made to challenge everyone; the score-range is between 200 and 800. At the beginning, the computer considers you as an average test taker. It therefore temporarily gives you an average score (500) and a medium-difficulty question. If your answer is correct, your score goes up, the next question will be harder, and vice versa. If you're good at it, you'll start seeing hard questions pretty fast and you'll have to deal with them in order to achieve a high score.

What do most of the preparation kits include?
Most of them include a book packed with material-related theories, solving techniques, examples, a few written tests and a CD-ROM with more examples and, more importantly, simulations of adaptive tests. A few also give access to an internet-site with additional material.

How are they going to help you?
Most of the books will help you (using their techniques) develop skills that will help you to solve hard questions in less time, and in general, to get into the right state of mind needed to succeed in the test. Some of the CD-ROMs offer additional preparation material and worthy CATs (computer adaptive tests).

I'm here to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

Let's start with the cream of the crop, 'Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM'.
The CD attached to this kit is the most comprehensive I could find and is a treasure of knowledge and practice. Keep in mind that it contains not only very difficult tests, but also suspicious method of calculating scores that tends diminish the scores considerably. The book is good for learning solving-techniques and dealing with the pressure.

The next is 'The Official Guide for GMAT Review, 10th Edition'. This is the official book of the test-maker (ETS). Its CD will be sent to you upon registration for the test, and can also be downloaded from the company's site. They're definitely not satisfactory; as a whole, the theoretical material is not complete, the number of hard questions is not enough and they rarely offers test and question solving strategies. In addition, the CATs won't represent your actual score in case you've solved the entire book.

'Gmat Cat Success 2004 (Peterson's Gmat Cat Success)' stands out with its 6 CATs that give a good estimation about your actual score on test day. The book, however, is of average quality and is one of the worst I've read.

The Princeton review with their 'Cracking the GMAT, 2004 Edition (Cracking the Gmat)' offer a well-written book with useful theory and test taking techniques (similar to those of Kaplan). On the other hand, their other deal, 'Cracking the GMAT with Sample Tests on CD-ROM, 2004 Edition (Cracking the Gmat With Sample Tests on CD-Rom)', that includes a CD is not useful and should be avoided as it contains easy CATs that won't represent your real score and will give you a misleading good feeling.

Kaplan's 'GMAT 800, 2004-2005 Edition' is a book I was looking forward to - only to be disappointed, as most of the math material already exists on the CD-ROM of their first kit. If the test section you need to polish is the verbal, you may find the book worthwhile, because it's evident that they have invested energy analyzing and explaining its material.

Finally comes Barron's 'How to Prepare for the GMAT', a book I used as an extra material for additional practice. You'll be able to find some hard questions inside if you come to use it.

定下复习材料了， 还是少而精为秒。