I haven't used those books and the people who I knew where using those books were people who had lived in Japan for over 10 years without learning Japanese so I don't have a good impression of them. I have an impression they go way too slow.
My first exposure to Japanese study was from [Learning Japanese through Manga] and a website I used to pay 15 dollars a month for but barely used. I could barely use Japanese after those.
When I got serious (after getting rivals), I used Japanese books with explanations and examples in Japanese and a English/Chinese/Korean translation of word or sentence fragments included. If I knew Chinese or Korean, those books would have helped a lot more but my other language is French. That only helped me out when learning how to pronounce Japanese syllables
I started out using books at 3級 (which is now equivalent to N4) and I found the アスク (ask) books to pretty good. Each theme has a picture with labels for vocabulary, the kanji book had a supplement explaining the origins of the kanji and the grammar book was pretty good.
I didn't like the 2級 (covered what is in N3 and N2) books so much because they had to cram so much information into the book and it was overwhelming. I found reading stuff online, in games (with an electronic dictionary or rikaichan) and talking to other people in Japanese more useful for that level.
Having just taken the JPLT again this December, let me warn you that practice tests are a lot easier than the actual test. The practice tests will use words and language you will frequently encounter whereas the actual test seems to be hell bent on testing you on less used expressions and words.