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!

This book is a great place to start for reviewing for the verbal sections of the GMAT. The strategies covered are very helpful and the examples are first rate. After getting through it, I was able to get a better score on the GMAT and felt more confident going into the test. If it's been a while since you looked at grammar in detail, get a copy of Warriner's "English Composition and Grammar." Not that Kaplan's book was lacking, but I found using it in conjunction with Warriner's book helped to fill in any gaps in grammar that Kaplan did not fully explore. In short the best verbal workbook I found for the GMAT.

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 :)

This book provides great exercises to practice your verbal skills. It has practice questions at the end of each section as well as THREE practice tests for each of the three different types of verbal questions. Finally, it gives you one full-length GMAT Verbal section test. Lessons are written very clearly, with good tips and examples.

BUT, if you have the other Kaplan book that comes with CD-ROM (math + verbal), DO NOT BUY this one as it repeats some of the same questions (quite a lot!).

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.