Question: is it really worth buying GMAT Review 12th edition for preparing for gmat?

GMAT is not an easy test and one you must prepare for. It has been echoed to study in print and practice online and I tend to agree. The only book I used was actually the official GMAT review books which can be found in almost any bookstore (or as someone said the library) and I supplement it with online materials. Real quick some online materials to consider. http://www.mba.com/mba is the official site and it has some practice tests you can take. I recommend taking a practice test right away to get use to the test and to get a starting point. http://www.bellcurves.com is a good site with more prep materials, questions, quizzes tests etc with feature to find you weaknesses. Also they have a good study guide for the GMAT. http://gmat.bellcurves.com/free-gmat-prep Finally I went to http://www.beatthegmat.com a lot when I was preping. It is a great GMAT community where you can get more tips and advice. Hope this helps and best of luck.