 "Best preparation" | 2007-12-22 |
| - Reviewed By User: AJLJIQA1IWBSB |
When preparing for the GMAT, I purchased 4 books. Kaplan's was by far the best as it did the best to challenge me and prepare me for the real thing. Some have complained that the scoring is not accurate. While this is undoubtedly true, the tests are actually harder than the real tests anyway. If you want to prepare yourself for a hard test, there is no better way than to challenge yourself with hard tests. Kaplan was best of the various books in several ways:
- Its sections gave the best advice for test taking
- More practice questions (except for the official prep)
- Harder questions to really challenge your thinking
I would recommend this book to anyone preparing for the GMAT. I would avoid Barron's or the Official GMAT book. Princeton Review's is good. |
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 "Good appendices, general overview" | 2007-08-26 |
| - Reviewed By nick_in_nashvegas |
| Got this book a while back and finally got around to working through it as I studied for the GMAT. I found the text easy to read, quick to move through the practice problems and explanations. The book gives a very good overview of the GMAT format, question types and general strategies for answering each type of question. The AWA writing/essay section is fantastic - read the strategies, example essays and tips on how the computer grades your essays, all you need to get a 6.0/6.0 on the writing. The appendix for math (Quantitative) is worth the price of the entire book. Great quick reference while practicing and in the final week before taking the test, to help remind you of the formulas you'll need to memorize for the actual GMAT. BE VERY WARY, though, that even if you answer almost all of the practice questions correctly, you will not get anywhere near an 800 score on the GMAT. The practice tests simply are not hard enough, bottom line. I thought I would breeze through the Quant section seeing as how I answered 96% of the questions correctly on the practice Quant exam. However, I got to the real exam and the most difficult 10-20% of the practice test was the easiest 10-20% of the real test. So I scored 630 overall (78th percentile), mostly due to a low Quant score. So I was pretty disappointed. I bought the Kaplan GMAT 800 (see my separate review there) and it really gives you great practice questions, explanations and the toughest questions. I took the GMAT again 6 weeks later, after having used the other book as my sole study guide and only for a week or so, and scored 750 (98th percentile)!!! I'd still recommend this book or one of the similar guides (everyone seems to like the Official Guide to the GMAT published by the test writers themselves) to get you started, but don't stop there if you're serious about a 700+ score. The only other comment I'll make, is that I used the online companion to take a practice quiz and that was ok - never did the full online practice exam. Didn't use the CD because it won't work on a Mac, and gave me some error on my Windows laptop about not having the right video player so I gave up on the CD. I found the GMAT 800 book far more valuable than either the CD or online companion. |
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| "good book" | 2007-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By iamkilaru |
| Tips given in all sections are very useful. Match appendix is very useful. Got 780 in real exam today. Big draw back is that its tests are not even close to real GMAT. scoring is not similar. |
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 "Only Ideal for Anxiety Attacks..." | 2007-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By rahul83_99 |
| I purchased this last year with the assumption that the Kaplan name means quality test preparation...boy, I was wrong! For one thing, the sample question sections are terribly skimpy that you can fly through them in no time. The only "content" worth looking at are the math review concepts. Nothing else is useful. As for the CD, not terribly user-friendly but comes with a passable amount of sample sections. Of course, that brings us to the best part of this 'product'...that it serves to crack all your self-confidence. The questions are unrealistic and the concepts behind many of them in no way related to anything on the GMAT. Actually kept me from signing up for the GMAT because of my poor scores. Do yourself a favor and get the official GMAT guide - tons of sample questions that are a realistic idea of the GMAT and won't kill your confidence...I really regret buying this book... |
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 "Don't waste your money" | 2007-06-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2PD5DN4IWD473 |
This book is by far the worst I've ever seen in terms of editing. The book is filled with paragraph duplications and missing information. With errors like these, how can they expect you to trust their advice on how to achieve a good score?!
The sample questions are confusing, and the answer explainations left me scratching my head even more. They're vague at best, and sometimes down-right WRONG!
This book is a real confidence buster. It really freaked me out to see how poorly I did on the sample tests. I know I'm not half the idiot they made me out to be!
What a waste of time and money! I don't recommend this book to anyone. The Princeton Review book and the Official GMAT study book are by far superior to this one. |
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| "Prefer the Princeton Review" | 2007-06-08 |
| - Reviewed By sgitahi3 |
| Delivery of book was on time as always with Amazon...could have made a better choice in Review book...Princeton Review is more user friendly...Official GMAT review is what it is OFFICIAL |
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| "Great study help, poor introductory editing" | 2007-05-12 |
| - Reviewed By robi0304 |
I have used the GMAT stand-alone helper cdrom's offered by Kaplan and they aren't awful (although quite tacky and a bit outdated), but the book and it's helpful tips were what really drove me to excel on the actual test. If you focus on their methods for study and try to adhere to how they suggest going about the study/test-taking process, I found that my score ended up being outstanding! I took the initial online tests to start with and came in the low-to-mid-500's. After about a month going through the entire book, I took the actual test and came in at 660. I was dumbstruck at the difference.
There are so many great tips on how to aproach what the test is looking for in their answers as well as how to prepare for the essay portion. I was extremely glad that I did not rely on the software alone.
I actually did not use the CD-rom included within the book, so I have no take on that. I had previously purchased the Kaplan Higher Score on the GMAT software and stuck with that.
Regarding the 4 stars versus 5, I was greatly disuaded by the poor editing in the first chapter. It was extremely annoying and something that should not have been overlooked after publishing this book yearly for so many years. Kaplan, you loose a star for a lack of a polished showing. You keep the remaining four stars for good content and tips.
One added note: if you can find the Kaplan GMAT software relatively cheaply (and it doesn't seem to matter which year), it's a worth-while addition to the book considering the cost and that it has some somewhat-helpful features. |
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| "GMAT" | 2007-05-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2QSVJ74EDP7L0 |
The GMAT review is good...especially if you follow the proposed syllabus and has an advantage that it allows you to study on your own rythm...
A disadvantage is that in some chapters, especially in the beginning, there were dome duplucated pages and paragrahs replacing the original pages and thus overwriting the original script...I had to contact Kaplan to get these missing paragraphs; so when you receive a copy make sure there are no typing/duplication mistakes...
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 "Great book for GMAT preparation" | 2007-05-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2KAK579ZXDNUA |
I started preparing for GMAT with Barron's guide. Then I came to know about Kaplan from my friends and bought it in Amazon. Its an excellent material to start with GMAT preparation. The way every type of question is explained is very clear and brief, without ant lengthy annoying explanations. There are lot of tips and suggestions which you cant get in other books. I strongly suggest to start preparation with this book. However, practice questions are not sufficient in this book. You can buy "GMAT Official Review" book for practice.
Pro's :
1. Clear and precise explanations
2. You can prepare in book,CD companion and online too.(Combined package)
3. Easy to review
Con's:
1. Insufficieent practice questions
2. The online version will expire after 6 months of regsitration |
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| "Don't waste your money... here's why" | 2007-04-18 |
| - Reviewed By joe_greer |
This book is one of the most poorly edited books I've ever read. The online study material is of equally poor value.
For a book that is supposed to instill excellence in it's customers, it sets a low bar.
Let me give you some examples:
Poor editing:
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Text at the top of Page 5 is a duplicate of text at the bottom of page 4. Page 8 is duplicate of page 7. This goes on and on in the book. I couldn't believe just how sloppy this book was put together. This is found in several places in the book.
Online tests with typos and errors:
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I found several errors (typos, and incorrect answer rationale) in the online "diagnostic" quiz. Someone needs to run their own diagnostic on the book. The entire first section of the quiz used the word "along" instead of "alone" in answer A text. I guess they figured spell-checker was good enough.
The rationale of another question stated "(E) was the obvious correct answer, (A) and (E) were out of scope and shouldn't have been selected". Uh... okay... Is it or isn't it (E)?
Once you finish the test, you only get a percentage, you don't really get a break-down of strengths and weaknesses. You have to figure that out on your own.
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My girlfriend recently studied for the EPPP and I saw her online testing tools and they were far superior to anything this book has to offer.
Additionally, I would recommend buying past test material as a couple friends were able to get +700 scores by using these, but they are hard to come by. |
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