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Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM

Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM

List Price: $37.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The CD was great, but the adaptive tests were very hard...
Review: I bought this book, the Arco Master the Gmat Cat 2004 book, the Offical GMAT Review book, and the Princeton review book (ok, I went a little crazy on the book buying). To be honest, I didn't even crack open the book and just used the CD. The CD was great, it has tutorials on anything and will create a custom study plan based on your diagnostic test. The CD tutorials are probably slower than using the book, but they provide a good overview and have the benefit of preventing you from missing some things that you might ignore in the book. Additionally, they perhaps make the process of studying a little more fun.

You can view this as a negative or a positive, but I found the adaptive practice tests on the CD much harder than the PowerPrep tests provided by GMAT or those provided by the other books. On the quantitative section I found myself really pressed for time. Since so much of the GMAT is pacing, the difficulty of these tests can help you learn to work faster, on the downside, they might make you think you have to work faster than you actually do on the real test. My best score on a practice test using this CD was 680. My best score was 770 using the PowerPrep GMAT software, 720 using the Princeton software, and 750 on the actual GMAT.

So, as long as you realize that you'll probably do a little better than the Kaplan tests indicate and you at least try the free PowerPrep tests to get a better feel for actual pacing, I think this book is a good bet.

If you were only going to buy one book, I'd recommend the official GMAT review book, then the Kaplan, then the Princeton, and then the ARCO.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointing!!
Review: I found this book highly disappointing. The review sections are over simplified. To find an answer to the multiple choice questions - you must read through 2 paragraphs of comments and you still are unable to determine what the author is saying is the correct answer. The CD-Rom is a bigger joke - a games section which completely makes no sense and the multiple choice questions never provide you with an answer.

I have studied for the CPA exam using self study guides, which allowed me to pass all 4 sections in one sitting. Using Kaplan's review for the GMAT - I think I would definitely come up short.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The worst CD imaginable
Review: I got this book solely for the 4 CAT tests as I knew that Princeton and the Official Guide are the best for theory, strategies, and exercises.

The CD was horrible. On 2 of the tests it gave me 30 minutes for one of the sections instead of 75 (it starts with 75 and then on question 6 you are left with 20 minutes having worked for 5-10 minutes!

One of the tests ran OK but it didn't save my answers, so I couldn't come back and review it!

Finally when I started the 4th test, a message appeared saying that the test bank is exhausted so there may be repetitions and the score will probably be biased.

AS of the content, the theory is simply bad, the Math Section is difficult (which is OK) but the verbal is as far from the real GMAT questions as you can get (vague texts, unnecessarily long sentences and stupid questions). My test scores ranged from 560-700, obviously because I had so little time on 2 of them!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the cheesy toddler-level presentations of the CD with stupid music and pictures!

I am done with Kaplan! I don't recommend it, unless you just want to try everything on the market.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good introduction to the GMAT, but unrealistic!
Review: I had no idea what the GMAT covered, so this book was a good introduction to each section with basic tips to approaching specific question types. The CD-rom was helpful and contains a lot of additional practice material.

Don't let your performance on the CD CAT exams discourage you. I only gave this book three stars because the practice questions are so ridiculously hard that you consider signing up for their $1250 class. My Kaplan practice test results were as follows (in chronological order):

- Paper 600
- Diagnostic 590
- CAT 1 550
- CAT 2 550 (I was ready to give up at this point.)

My scores from the ETS CD:
- CAT 1 610
- CAT 2 720

My actual score was a 700. Do as many practice questions as you can, from this book and the ETS Official Guide to the GMAT. Good luck!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The CD is worth it
Review: I just took my GMAT and would like to share my experiences with the study aids that I had used. I had bought the usual ETS guide, the Kaplan 2004 with CD Rom, ARCO GMAT 2005 with CD Rom and, to try out something different, Ace the GMAT by Brandon Royal. I'll discuss two of the books I used.

1) The Kaplan CD (the irritating toddler level presentation of the CD apart) has the toughest CAT exams. The tests are tough and designed to discourage you.
I got 640,580, 600 and 620 in the 4 CAT's, but thanks to previous reviewers of the CD, I didn't lose heart since I knew that my score would be better on the real GMAT.
I got a reasonable 710 on the real test.
But do practice with these CAT's...the real GMAT is not easy. Practicing with tough questions will really help you think faster over time and not freak out when you see a particularly weird question on the real test.
Also, the mini tests and the diagnostics do not give you enough time to finish them..but they are still some of the best questions to practice on.
The book however, is not as good as the CD. ARCO does a better job of explaining the strategies and answers.

2) Ace the GMAT, by Brandon Royal : This book is great for verbal practice as it breaks down Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning into "problem types' and is very very comprehensive. When I started preparing for the GMAT two months before I was due to take the test, I had no idea about the verbal content.
My native language is not English and I had never really learned english grammar at school. I can say that it's this book which put my fears to rest and showed me step by step, that even tricky grammar can be mastered in a short while....at least enough to do well on the GMAT. I got a 96th percentile on verbal and I attribute this score to this book.
The other great feature about this book is the Analytical Writing portion.
The essay structures are simple and can be easily reproduced and make scoring a 5.0 or better easy on the real test.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth your time !!
Review: I just took the GMAT and want to share my experience. Hopefully my advice can be helpful to those of you out there who need to prepare for the GMAT.

I'm not a native speaker of English and have never taken a standardized test before in my life; yet I scored a 770 on the GMAT in my first try. I owe quite a bit of that score to the Kaplan book - although I never followed their course (or anyone elses for that matter).

The Kaplan book is good, but it's the CD rom that's really worth your time. If you follow the quizzes and test exams on the CD rom you'll be in great shape for the actual GMAT.

I started out with Arco's 24-hour course. Arco's book is great, and it has quite a bit more stuff on the math and verbal part than Kaplan has. On the other hand, it's still only a book - I didn't get any CD with it.

Then I went on to tackle the official guide from ETS. Anyone who wants to prepare for the GMAT should work some of the problems in this book. I did them all, but I don't really think that's neccesary -- just do the final third in each section and you'll be fine.

Finally I read the Kaplan book. There was not much in the book that I didn't already know. In fact, Kaplan has much less material than Arco. However, when you start working with Kaplan's CD rom you realize how much info is packed on that disk. There's 18 quizzes with 9 math and 9 verbal and they're all great practice. They actually force you to work *faster* than you'll need for the real test. Also, there are very few errors in the Kaplan material, and their problems come very close to the real ones.

I took the four GMAT CATs on the CD rom and got 700, 780, 660 and 700. There's no question that Kaplan artificially lower your score so you're guaranteed to score higher on the real test, but that's cool as long as it doesn't discourage you. Just know that's the way it is.

I also took the PowerPrep tests, just for practice... but I had already done the problems in the ETS book ! However you should definitely work with PowerPrep to get a sense of the problems and the way they're presented.

Hope this helps. Good luck !!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like Training at Altitude
Review: I'm a GMAT tutor with 10+ years of successful students. Here's what I suggest for the GMAT:

1. Use the Kaplan CD (as cheesy as the presentation is, the tests are very good). I've read the complaints below that the prep tests from Kaplan are too hard, and I have to disagree with the point being made by these students. The only way, on a computer-adaptive test, to increase your score is to test using HARDER, not easier problems. I may kick ass at medium level questions, but unless I want a medium level score, practicing at a lower level hurts rather than helps.

2. Ignore the Kaplan book. Use The Princeton Review books (either Cracking the GMAT or GMAT Workouts for Math and Verbal) for tricks and psychology. Try the Official Guide for extra problems and basic review issues (but use as much of the Princeton psychology as you can -- the official guide encourages you to do the problems straight, and that's a huge waste of time).

3. Take as many practice tests as you can. That means Kaplan, Princeton Review, PowerPrep. Barrons, Petersons, and Dummies are all awful. Don't bother with their instruction or their tests.

4. Check out your local library. Many public libraries have crazy collections of old, out of print Official Guides, chock full o paper-and-pencil tests going back a good 20 years. By all means, use these -- they're a goldmine of practice questions.

Good luck!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pick and choose what you use of the book and CD-ROM
Review: I'm bothering to write this review because I'm frustrated. This CDROM (to be fair I barely opened the book) should be great. I found the lessons to be well written and useful, despite the annoying and childish graphics and animations. I also found the mechanics of the test function to be great, with the computer keeping track of both how you changed your answers and which questions you spent your time on. The problem is the questions themselves.

The practice tests are a key element, and the questions are poorly written. Some questions have typographical errors and misspellings, others have logic errors. I got one of the math questions wrong because I hadn't considered the possibility that variable x was irrational, despite the fact that the official GMAT instructions clearly state that all numbers are real.

I found the free downloadable PowerPrep software from ETS to have much more useful sample tests. The PowerPrep software includes real GMAT questions. I certainly didn't get every question right when I took the tests, but to my relief I agreed with their logic in explaining why my answers were wrong. This was in marked contrast to Kaplan.

I still give Kaplan 3 stars out of 5 for the useful lessons. I believe that working through this material probably increased my score by 50 points. But if I were to do it again I would consider skipping Kaplan's tests altogether.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best overall guide
Review: In my personal mission to suceede on the GMAT I feel very comfortable with all of the books, and their high and low points. Honestly for me, this book was the best. The Princeston Review is a little too easy, and not quite as though as it should be. The Barron's is a little too difficult and does not seem to focus on what is really at hand.

Kaplan book is written in an almost conversational style that will help guide and direct you in the areas that you need to study in. A thorough pretest is given, so you can know where you fall behind. From here you can then practice on the areas that you need.

The book gives specific review information in for Reading comprehension, Math Review, Critical Reasoning, and Data Sufficency. The book gives tips, tricks, and ideas for mastering these questions that are easy to remember. The book also gives you some small lists that you should flat out memorize.

This book comes with the best CD. The CD alone is well worth the price of the book. The CD comes with a pretest, and once you take the pretest, it comes out with several plans for you: long time to study, cram mode. The CD is interactive with video, games, and much more. Definately worthwhile on this basis alone.

Out of all of the prep guides, this is the one you should pick up, best written book, and with the adaptive computer tests, and study guides on the CD you can't go wrong with this test.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best deal on the market.
Review: Kaplan's "GMAT" book is good for getting into the right state of mind needed to succeed in the test and learning the powerful strategies for solving the hard questions. The strategies are similar (if not identical) to the strategies given in the Princeton Review book, though the latter explains some of the techniques better (and there lies the strength of the Princeton Review).

The CD-ROM is the heart of the bargain.

Packed with hundreds of questions and explanations, this CD provides countless hours of invaluable practice. In fact, the CDs of other companies I checked out don't begin to compare to Kaplan's.

Nevertheless, there are two things you need to know in advance so that you won't be disheartened once you start working on the CD:

The first is Kaplan's motto - "no pain no gain". Once you begin solving tests you'll discover that they are painfully difficult. The level of the tests' questions sometimes rises above the level of the real GMAT questions, but only sometimes. Bear in mind that the actual test is very hard and is made to challenge everyone, therefore it's mandatory not to be intimidated and to experience as many hard questions as possible.

The second important thing is to remember that the test scores they supply are no way near the actual results you will eventually get on test day, probably because they use a different score calculating method from the one ETS uses. The reason for this might be rooted in the book and CD makers' possible goal - though not state out loud - to draw you to enroll in one of their preparation courses. Take my word for it, after seeing results for your first scored test - you WILL want to sign in immediately. Remember to take it in perspective.

To sum it all up, keep in mind that as long as you make progress and keep on getting better results in adaptive tests from different sources you're on the road to success.


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