TOEFL prep books: Barrons vs Longman vs The Official guide

[juljul]

Hello, please share your opinions on the following.
The thing is, if you've tried any of this software, you'd have noticed that they differ a LOT. Barrons is SO much more difficult than Longman or the Official guide CD! I mean, Barrons is famous for being quite complex, but still. I'm not sure waht to expect on the actual TOEFL! In the OG and Longman listening the recordings are like for, well, retarded people in comparison to that of Barrons's. The topics are much more complex with a large variety of terms on astronomy etc and so much longer. Not that I complain - I've never learned so much about drainage systems and multinational companies in a few days, but the lectures are REALLY complex.
The point is, what do YOU think? Which softwear is more like the actual test?

[anand18]

i don't have any experience with barron's. i don't have that one. one of my friend cleared toefl very recently. according to her, definately ETS material is far much easier than the real exam. longmann is still better. so can tell you abt these two. SORRY no clue about BARRON'S

[shoka]

Hello! In my opinion, Barron’s reading section is quite simple. Even Kaplan (which is regarded as one of the most complex prep-books) seemed much easier to me than the real test. But other sections are really advantageous and if you manage to do them well, you won’t have any problems. So the best thing is to prepare from various books, rather than depend on just one of them. Begin with longman, continue with Barron's, Kaplan and then the official guide, If you have time for all of them of course.

[juljul]

Thanks for your replies! Frankly, I haven't noticed any significant difference between the reading sections of those guides, they seemed very much the same. My main concern is listening. If I were to put the recordings in an increasing difficulty order, it would look like this: The OG, Longman, Kaplan, Barrons.Well, I guess it depends. To each his own

[shoka]

Well I admit that listening passages in Barron's are complex, especially if you do not have any previous experience, but they are so ineresting, i always enjoyed listening to them
but my advice is not to be so sure about the reading section