I've heard that kaplan under calculates your CAT scores by 100 but when I actually did it, I found the practice tests pretty ridiculous. Its not because the questions are harder, but the fact that the scoring algorithm intentionally underestimates your score significantly.
Ex: the official practice test gave me a 660, where as kaplan gave me a 560.

Also the CAT math sections are full of errors. The verbal sections have a real problem it comes to double spacing. Its really annoying when you have spend time to distinguish between when the passage ends and when the actual question begins. I also found a reading passage where the final paragraph was full of wingdings and incomplete sentences. Some Critical reasoning questions are really unsolvable. I remember one question that assumed a higher draft pick always resulted in a better team winning record.

Another problem I have with the test is the horrible explanations. Really really dissapointing, especially on sentence correction.

Comparing Kaplan to Manhattan GMAT, which has really tough questions but also very detailed explanations, Kaplan seems to have been written by some of the most careless people ever. It really takes a lot of guts for a company to publish something that was this full of errors.

First, I don't understand all the complaints about errors and typos. I did every problem in this book and understood the solutions when I read the answer explanations of problems I got wrong. I did not encounter errors. (I ultimately scored a 730.) I can't help but wonder if some of the "errors" people found were answers they just didn't understand. (A reviewer of the Official Guide here on Amazon proved that point by bringing up a specific example s/he quoted as the book's mistake, but other users explained why s/he was wrong.)

Now, the problems are not all great, and that is why you need the official guide for most of your additional un-timed practice, but Kaplan was worth it for the computer practice: 4 full length timed practice tests and extra timed problem sections. With just the two free from gmac, I would not have learned to adjust my timing enough. ***Note** DO NOT uninstall or reinstall your Kaplan computer software, or try to install it on another computer, or "reset" your tests. It screws up ALL of the 4 practice tests and you will see repeat questions.****

The Kaplan approach to writing the essays was useful. Most of their "techniques" I think are pretty obvious, but are still helpful reminders to read, such as the "picking numbers" or "working backwards" approaches to certain quant. problems.

I used the Kaplan guide and the official GMAT study guide to prepare for the GMAT. I first went throught the Kaplan guide cover to cover. I found the math review to be very helpful, and some of the test taking tips were useful. However, once I began reviewing the official GMAT study guide it became apparent that the practice questions in the Kaplan quide weren't quite accurate reflections of what the actual questions would look like. Practicing questions is the key to success in taking the GMAT. I've read some reviews in which people say you should only study the harder questions in the official review guide if you are finding the questions too easy, but I disagree. The key to doing well is to understand how the question writers try to trip you up, and you can only get to this point by practicing as many questions as possible. I went through every question in the GMAT study guide and by the end I could really begin to anticipate what the question writers were looking for. I ended up getting a 740. To summarize: the math review and some of the tips in the Kaplan guide are somewhat helpful, but I wouldn't waste much time on their practice questions. The practice questions in the official guide are indespensable - complete every one and review your incorrect answers and you will do well.

This is my first GMAT study guide, and the first standardized test study guide I've used in over a decade. The Verbal section was pretty good. It had a few frustrating errors but none that kept me from learning the material. The Math section, however, is awful. As others have mentioned elsewhere, why would the Kaplan folks ask you to check your answers using a calculator when it clearly says elsewhere in the book that you CANNOT use any kind of electronic device (including calculators) during the actual GMAT test?

Math errors in the answer sections, test sections and even explanations abound. As I'm weaker in Math, such incompetence doesn't help me at all, and it's especially galling when you consider how much you pay for this book. The explanations also tend to be far more complicated than they should be, throwing in terms that are introduced LATER in the book. My husband provided me with far simpler and more understandable explanations to some of the terms and concepts.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book. I'm going to slog through the rest of this and then pick up the Princeton Review as well as the book the GMAT folks themselves publish. I MIGHT try the Kaplan 800 series, but if their quality is anything like that of this one, I just might pass.

I have to say that I am disappointed in this book. I've found NUMEROUS typos and errors...this is supposed to be a review guide. Simple things like getting PEMDAS correct (it is referenced as PEDMAS on page 224). On page 263 there is an error in the associative law example...that 3Y should be 3X...people have enough problems with math itself than to have to read a study guide that throws erroneous problems at them. It's a waste of time and honestly I have no faith in continuing to review from it. Now I see even more errors found by other owners and it's truly disappointing.

I'd like to underscore the comments of others regarding the numerous typos and overall sloppy editing of both the book and CD. It's one thing to have some typos, but it's another thing to have information missing from graphs and completely garbled reading comprehension passages. That some of this information was intended to be there is usually made obvious by the explanations. This will prove frustrating if you're trying to get an accurate gauge of where you stand, especially with the computer based testing. (i.e. If you get wrong answers because information was missing or mistyped, you are still wrong and get different questions than you would have otherwise.)

Given the above disclaimer, I did find the test taking strategies and advice useful. Moreover, the explanations for the answers are helpful when you legitimately got the questions wrong.

Truth be told, the strategy and explanations make this guide useful, but that's only because of the dearth of better products. So, while shoddily executed, the book is a useful, if frustrating, second source.

This book guides you to pass the GMAT exam with several exercises to help you to be familiar with the exam.

The book is quite helpful in giving little tips when taking/studying the GMAT exam. It does also provide some insight into what the test is looking for, but it definitely is not the end of all for GMAT prep books.

I bought this book for GMAT when I was done with Official guide but in retrospect, I think that if you are a new-bie in the world of GMAT and especially looking for crucial strategies to attempt different sections of GMAT, this book will be really helpful.

I found it really cool for strategies regarding RC and CR sections of GMAT verbal.

You can refer to this book and side by side you can solve the questions from Official Guide of GMAC (OG 11).

Besides that, this book has lots of sectional questions which are good (although not exactly like GMAT). Plus it comes with a CD which has 4 full GMAT mocks and sectional tests for all the sections of GMAT Quant and Verbal.

Best of luck!

Re: Kaplan GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition

It's amazing to me that a company of the stature of Kaplan would have so many errors in a book intended to train for a test. It's hard to have confidence in their services.

Here are some of the numerous errors I found in the math section of this book.
The math section is a pathetic study guide. The errors are so numerous, that it's hard to know when it's right. See below - and this is only as far as I got. I will return this poor "study guide" and request my money back.

I contacted Kaplan; they said they would have an errata sheet posted early Sept 2008; it's now mid-Sept, and no errata sheet is posted.

I'll try another publisher.


Page 272, prob 10, error in first line; fist x-intercept missing (3/2)
Page 279, prob 6; 8x-2 should be 8x-3
Page 289, prob 4; units are meters in the sketch and inches in answers
Page 322, prob 7; missing "+" sign in equation
Page 323, prob 4; indicates use of calculator, but GMAT instructions say no calculators are allowed

Page 326, prob 6; solution includes "y" in solution; there is no "y"
Page 328, prob 10; equation has both plus and minus signs, (x-+5)

Page 285, 30-60-90 example shows 1:1:sqrt2; should be 1:2:sqrt3
Page 299, prob 2; Greek letter for pi is "p" in answer E; confusing
Page 300, prob 3; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 300, prob 4; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 301, prob 5; missing info: need to tell me that A in on line OB
Page 305, prob 5; angle CDE and DEC are both 45 deg, but not drawn equal

I have not yet taken the GMAT, so I may have different views after I have, but right now my feelings about the 2009 Kaplan GMAT prep book are definitely mixed. In general, the book seems well organized. It has fairly extensive math review material, and I like that there are practice questions for each math topic. I also think the web site access that comes with the book is a nice bonus. However, I have found NUMEROUS typos and errors throughout the book; mistakes include missing numbers or wrong signs in questions and answers, and also some wrong information in the content sections. I have enough trouble with arithmetic without my study book confusing me further with errors. Another gripe: why hasn't Kaplan gotten with the program and made the CD-ROM compatible with the Mac? It's ridiculous (of course, the official GMAT practice tests that you can download/get online are also PC-only).

Very handy with the hints and tips and study notes, but there are a few typos and mistakes in the book, which can get really annoying when you think you have gotten a question right, you look at the answer and it says it is wrong because Kaplan made a mistake.

Also why do some of the answers tell you to use a calculator? or check with a calculator, the whole point of the book is to learn with out the use of a calculator

But i would recommend buying the book, because it is a great layout, plan and the questions in the study notes are so helpful.

After working my way through this book I feel much more confident going into the GMAT. I now know what types of questions to expect and what format those questions will be in. I am certainly better prepared than I would have been otherwise. I can honestly recommend this to anyone who is planning to sit for the exam.

Awesome transaction. Good packing, fast shipping, and excellent condition. Exactly as described. THANKS!!

The reviews are good as long as you don't need to learn the math from scratch. They do need a better probability section. My main complaint is that it is FULL of typos. Its as if it were a rough draft. Literally, they are the type of errors that if anyone bothered to give the math section a cursory glance would have spotted them.

If you are interested in extra problems and some additional ideas on how to solve some of the problems on the GMAT this book will give that to you. I would prefer Kaplan's GMAT math review book over this one. If you are really in need of a math review you could look at the Ez-Solutions set of nine.

The primary reason I bought this guide over the others was for the computer adaptive practice tests included on the cd-rom.

On my first practice GMAT, I found that a few of the explanations of the math problems used information not presented in the questions.

On my second practice GMAT, I found that it was recycling questions from the first practice exam. On the verbal section it gave me too many reading passages. On the math section I kept getting hard questions, depite a streak of several wrong answers.

I also found the editing in the math section to be very sloppy, and thus confusing to read.

So what exactly is adaptive about Kaplan's version of the CAT GMAT? Kaplan gave me one impossibly hard math question after the next despite my pervious wrong answers. I have taken the GMAT CAT on MBA.com and did just fine - not the case with Kaplan version. On the mba.com version the questions were reasonable yet the Kaplan test seems to give one 800 level question after the next. I completely ran out of time trying to answer these over-complicated questions. Anyone else find this to the be the case?

Also I think Kaplan's examples of "good" analytical writing are terrible. They are full of assumptions and poor/undesirable grammar (e.g. contractions and excessive uses of semicolons).

Excessive is an understatement. After using this book for review I can safely say avoid at all costs for math content review. There are many omissions, = where - should be, p in place of [pi] randomly in questions and answers, faulty assumptions in the answers that were not provided in questions.

I would rejoice for Kaplan when I made it through a single page turn without finding a SERIOUS error.

Not only do they need a new editor, they need a content creator with better than 25% accuracy.

This guide is just as described, the information is extremely helpful in studying for the GMAT, in addition to other resources that comes from the CD-ROM.

There are excessive math errors in the book. Several times they use the same figure (ex. Triangle) with the exact same measures (congruent triangles) to show how the two figures are different. How can they be different when the 3 sides and the 3 angles are identical? One time they say find the equation with and -5. With and is correct. Nothing between the two words.

They tend to introduce new concepts in the practice problems and then don't explain them in the answer explanations.

The english portion was OK.

After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:

Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.

Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.

Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.

Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.

EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.

Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.

I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.

The book is good, but you need a lot of time to completely understand and use the practice methods. I suggest using it for months, don't try to do anything short term with it, you won't be able to do it all. You also can't forget about the online access you get with the CD.