Kaplan GMAT/GRE/LSAT 2005 Platinum

Rating:
Summary: If you want help DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT
Review: I was looking forward to using this product to study for the GRE. Installation of the product went fairly smoothly, by the way if you do decide to buy this product, make sure you choose Internet Explorer as your browser to use, it would appear even though you are given the option to use Netscape it won't work. It wasn't until I tried to use the product that the nightmare began. The program takes a long time to load; it appears to start quickly but none of the menus work. Wait a few minutes and the program will start asking you questions and guiding you around the program in a manner it sees fit, not what you might like to do. I should mention that I do not feel the slow performance of this product has anything to do with my computer. I have a workstation class computer system that far exceeds the system requirements for this software.

Some other things worth noting about this product is you may find you have to restart your computer after running the program. I found that after running the program my desktop and window preferences had changed, for example instead of my desktop color, a neutral gray, the desktop was black. There are only 3 full length and 18 section GRE tests. As for the portable flash cards, forget it. Don't think of them so much as flash cards, as a list of words on a sheet of paper with the definition next to the word. Oh and if you want Math flash cards just forget it as you can't print them. When I say you can't print them I don't mean my printer failed to print I mean the button to print flash cards disappears for the math flash cards but appears for the vocabulary cards. The last major grievance I have with this product is the interface. I don't know who designed this product but they must have been designing kindergarten software before this. The interface for a graduate admissions test prep program is a brightly colored animated cartoon, with occasional video of people talking superimposed on top. If you are like me, wishing to enter grad school, cartoons don't interest you anymore, you just want to be able to use the program, print flash cards, learn lessons and practice test without all the cartoons and bubbly brightly colored interface.

My recommendation is obviously not to buy this product, I would have really liked to give this product negative stars, and from what I have seen of other Kaplan products I would stay away from them as well. I wish I knew a no non-sense software program, I could recommend to help with preparing for the GRE. I have found the Princeton Review books helpful, but their CD's are not without problems as well, but far less than Kaplan's.

Rating:
Summary: Great test prep software
Review: This is one of the best test prep software packages I have ever used. The lessons and practice tests were especially helpful for me. It's just like having a personal instructor with you as you study for the exam (except it costs a whole lot less).