2010-09-05 very disappointing (1 of 5)
the software on the CD did not work as it should
1) It did not give me a score on an 800 scale at the end of the test
2) On some questions it did not allow me to change my answer even though I hadn't yet confirmed my response (i.e I hadn't yet moved on to the next question, I had merely clicked on a response)
3) Worst of all were the reading comprehension questions. In the actual GMAT the tester is presented in with a passage and all questions related to the passage are listed together. Not so on the Barron's CD - the software presents questions related to reading comprehension in random order across the test. So you could get reading comprehension passage # 1, followed by one question related to passage #1; then some sentence correction questions then a reading comprehension passage #2, followed by 1 question related to passage #2; then another question related to passage # 1.
4) there were numerous typos

2009-11-21 THE WORST POSSIBLE CD YOU COULD IMAGINE (1 of 5)
ALL THIS CD HAS IS BUGS. NICE PRODUCT TESTING BARRONS...I'LL BE SURE TO SING YOUR PRAISES AS I RECEIVE A 500 ON MY GMATS. This product is an absolute joke. I'm on the second to last question of a practice exam on the CD and it once again froze. I have no way of knowing if my answers were correct from the previous 2+ hours of work I did. I hate this product, and if you even consider buying this product you should already quit on the GMAT exam now. There were numerous times where it would give me a reading comprehension question, only they didn't give the corresponding article, so you just get to sit there and guess at a correct answer.

IF YOU BUY THIS PRODUCT YOU ARE AS UNINTELLIGENT AS THOSE WHO CREATED IT.

2009-08-13 Terrible business (1 of 5)
took 2 weeks for book to arrive and when it got here it was damaged due to horrible packaging. the CD was shattered into a 100 pieces and when i returned the book i requested a full refund but i didn't and was still charged for shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-10 Not great. (2 of 5)
As a review guide, this book is fairly decent. Unfortunately, that's about where it ends. There are very few practice questions, and several of them are incorrect. Additionally, the CD that comes with this version - which nearly doubles the price - is almost completely worthless. The first question of one of the CAT tests had an error which made it unsolvable. On top of that, you can't save your progress if you don't want to do the entire exam.

If you see this at a garage sale, by all means, pick it up. But the "Pass Key" version of this book (which retains most of the review material and omits most examples) is a better buy, supplemented with the GMAC books or Kaplan. But if you're looking for a top-to-bottom study guide, I'd skip this.

2009-04-28 Don't waste your money (1 of 5)
Where to start... First off, don't even put the CD in your computer! It's absolutely useless.
Take example 1: the questions for reading comp passages are not like in the GMAT, a series of 3-4 questions for an article at a time; instead, they randomly pop up articles during the test, which is particulary annoying, since you have to re-read the damn thing so many times.
Example 2: there is no scoring at the end of the test. They didn't even bother to try to guess the official scoring algorithm, they just tell you that if you get 0-10 questions wrong you did excellent or smth like that. That's no proper way of evaluating a CAT!
Example 3: most of the verbal question explanations are just plain stupid. "It's right because I say it's right", would be the best way to describe the author's attitude. You just need to take his word for it.
Example 4: Plenty of wrong problems! And I mean blatanly wrong, like a data sufficiency question coupled with problem solving answer options.

About the book: I have serious issues with books that cover tests but don't offer enough practice questions. This is probably the worst thing about this book: about 10-15 examples per verbal category, out of which only a handfull have decent explanations. The explanations/tips generally subpar and they really didn't make an effort to make the whole learning experience more pleasant!

IMHO: buy the OG for practice questions and Kaplan for some decent strategies (they also offer smth like 50 practice questions per verbal section, which I thought was very useful). Also I've only heard positive reviews about the Manhattan books.