Rating: 
Summary: I Agree!!
Review: Like a couple of others who have reviewed this book, I promised that I would write in once I had completed the GMAT. Kaplan is frustrating and misleading.While the tutorials on the CD may have some useful information, they are childish and annoying in the way they are presented. I don't need a cartoon of a pussycat to explain computer adaptive testing to me. I think I'm motivated by a little more than cute graphics. Turning the soundtrack off was definitely a good idea. The main problem with the GMAT itself is that it is oriented towards the US education system. Subsequently, explanations of 'correct idiomatic language' are little more than facile lists that one should commit to memory. I'm a native English speaker from the southern hemisphere and I would never use many of the phraseologies dictated as 'correct'. Neither of the two books I used (Kaplan and the Official Review) sought to compensate for this, but I found Kaplan's answers particularly annoying. The quantative section in Kaplan is also devised to make you learn by rote rather than first principles. The disadvantage is that you don't learn to derive the answers yourself but apply patterns. And yes, it means more rote learning. The Kaplan questions were harder than those in the test and time allowed for the practice tests less than that allowed in the actual GMAT. Everything was geared up to give the impression that the test was harder than it actually was. The verbal questions in Kaplan were also misleading. Many of the 'correct' answers were difficult to justify and some illogical. It was clear that some of the questions were produced on a Friday afternoon and weren't checked well. The main problem was that the distinctions between answers was often very slight and the 'correct' answer asked you to make either a giant assumption or crawl inside the question writer's head to know what they're thinking. The section on the AWA is fairly rudimentary and the help available on this is limited. However, I've yet to find anything better on this other than paying for the computerised assessment on www.mba.com. On the real test I had the common experience of scoring 100 points above the scores I got on the Kaplan CD. Overall, I'd get the official review. If that doesn't have enough practice for you - you have too much time on your hands!!! I think confidence counts for more on the day than anything else.
Rating: 
Summary: The best I used for my GMAT prep...
Review: Personally, I think it is the best book out there today. Loved the 2001 edition: it had nice paper - white and thick, very nice for side notes. The book was very well organized and quite condenced - 350 pages. At the end it has a powerful Math review with the most useful formulae; that was one of my favorite sections. The Software is also the best of what I have seen: it is easy to use, helpful, interactive, and funny, which was very helpful to me in those cold winter nights as I was crunching math and verbal. There are about 4 tests on the CD, but you can really take them 6 or 8 times and still see new questions. (maybe my memory is bad?). NOTE: The Tests that are on the CD are not scored the same way as the Official GMAT; you will be about 100 points off (below) from your final GMAT score, so do not let this fact distress you. CD includes 4 full length practice tests, 9 verbal practice tests, 15 math review lessons, 9 math practice tests, quizes, a games, and a great fun interface. Book Score: 5/5
Test Simulator: 4/5 (not representative, but tough is good). --Bogdan
Rating: 
Summary: Princeton book is much better
Review: The 2004 Princeton review book has MUCH better tips and tricks for taking the GMAT. Their review is more in-depth and straightforward than the Kaplan book. I went through the Kaplan book first and often found it confusing or not going far enough with their explanations. Then, I went through the Princeton book and was surprised at how everything seemed much more useful. The CD in the Kaplan book is nice because it helps you to get your timing on questions down, but overall, the Princeton book is much better.
Rating:
Summary: dont worry about the scores
Review: The material of the book is of a tough level and should be only done for practice. I scored 620, 630, 640 and 700 on the Kaplan tests and 740 on the real test. The good thing about Kaplan is that the questions are real tough and one has to master these tough questions to get a high score. The bad part is that the low scores a person gets can lower ones confidence. Good thing that I had read reviews after taking few of the tests and that had made me feel better... Overall the ETS book is the closest to the real GMAT although the tests in ETS are somewhat simpler....I had taken those tests too long back and had scored 690, 710 so dont really bother....another piece of advise - on the real day take the questions one by one no matter how u think u r performing....i had thought i had screwed my exam big time and was expecting a 660-670 when i actually saw 740...there are a lot of experimental questions and the better u r doing the more the chances that the experimental questions would be having ambigous answers...All the best!!
Rating:
Summary: Good program, misleading practice tests
Review: The most important thing to know about this book is that the practice tests are MUCH HARDER than the actual GMAT. I initially took the diagnostic on the software and got a 680. Encouraged, I went through the software program for a couple of weeks and then decided to take a practice test. Got a 550 and it really freaked me out. I'd like to go to a top school, and a 550 isn't even in the ballpark. I really don't know if Kaplan makes their tests so hard on purpose to scare people into registering for a course, but it almost worked on me. Instead though, I purchased several other books. Without a doubt, the best one for prep is the "Official Guide". The tests that you get when you register (or from MBA.com) are the best indicators of what you'll actually score. The Princeton review tests seemed much easier than the Kaplan tests (though they proved much more accurate), and the material in that book isn't that great - with the key exception of the writing part. They basically tell you exactly what to do to get a good score - follow their advice, it works. I also got the Kaplan GMAT 800 book. Not great, but not bad. There aren't enough practice problems in this book. You'll do better just practicing the Official Guide problems at the BACK of each section. Make sure that you do the last 100 problems in each section, which are much harder than those at the beginning of each section. Overall this is how I scored on the practice tests, and on the GMAT (so that you can get an idea of how the practice tests compare) Kaplan: 550, 610, 680
Princeton: 720, 740
2 downloadable tests: 720, 760
Actual GMAT: 740 In conclusion, while the Kaplan tests report low scores that do not reflect your likely performance on the GMAT, they also serve as good practice. Buy this book, the Official Guide, and the Princeton Review Verbal Workout (for the writing section).
Rating: 
Summary: good source of practical knowledge
Review: The verbal section was thorough, thoughtfull, and very well organized. It really helped me to tackle corresponding questions on actual GMAT test. I'd especially recommend reading verbal section of the book to not native English speakers. The review of math was not regorous but good. I'd say that in order to answer math section, you need to have fundamental knowledge and some creativity, and the book seemed to address math in a straightforward manner. However, I'd strongly suggest those students who once passed Powerprep test and relaxed to review Kaplan math section. Both Kaplan and actual GMAT maths are much harder than that on Powerprep test. CD was very helpful. I'd recommend to pass all practice tests and simulations on it. Don't get frustrated by annoying introes and interface - just click Escape several times and get to real practice. One thing with the book is that instructions and some explanations are written in such childish and conspiratorial language as the one, I remember, my grand-mother was using when she had told me tales at night :) I believe the authors should address this issue in the next edition. Overall impression of the book and CD - good.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title. Virtually identical to 2003 edition
Review: This book's keyword "2004" is very misleading. I bought the 2003 edition in May and bought the 2004 edition in July, with the intention to do more practice problems. To my surprise, it is virtually identical to the 2003 version. Actually, as far as I can tell, only the cover page is different. I am extremely disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: My experience with Kaplan
Review: This is the first (and probably only) time I will review a book on Amazon. But I promised myself I would do a review after taking my GMAT because the advice of others who have posted their reviews before me were very helpful to me and I wanted to add my experience so it would hopefully help others. My experience with the Kaplan book is a familiar one if you read other reviews on this site (either reviews on this 2004 Kaplan book or on previous GMAT Kaplan books from 2003, etc.). I mainly focused on using the CD-ROM. The CD may seem a little juvenile at times in its presentation but the lessons and the strategies it gives you are helpful. The book mainly gives you the same stuff you'll get on the CD so I mainly skimmed through the book. However, I did like the book's advice on how to ready yourself for the GMAT in the final week. The best piece of advice I can give anybody is when you take the practice tests on the Kaplan CD, DO NOT get discouraged if your scores are lower than you would like. As others have stated, the Kaplan tests are clearly harder than the actual GMAT. If I had not read the reviews of this book on Amazon, I may have never taken the actual test because I was very discouraged by my Kaplan test scores. I understand Kaplan probably wants to make it more difficult so you study harder (and then they can in some fashion take credit for preparing you) but I think they should say something that allows the reader to know that they are getting questions that are generally more difficult than most questions on the actual test. I don't recall exactly what scores I received on Kaplan's CD-ROM tests but I do recall that my highest score on any of them was a 550. To show you how incorrect of a predictor the Kaplan tests are, I scored well over 100 points HIGHER than 550 on my actual GMAT test (I took the actual test on Nov. 21st). Though I think Kaplan is a helpful supplement to use in preparing for the GMAT, I would highly recommend downloading the two free practice tests through MBA.com to get an accurate idea of where you stand. Maybe take one of the two tests right away and see where you are at before you get down to studying. Then maybe save the other practice test for the final week or so before your real GMAT exam. The two downloadable tests are by far the best at honing in on what your actual test score may look like. I would also recommend using the ETS official guide book that you can buy through MBA.com because it has loads of good practice questions (just a warning, some of the questions in the official guide book are repeated in the two downloadable tests). In summary, Kaplan helped me but I got a lot more out of the resources from MBA.com. As long as you don't let Kaplan discourage you, you should be fine. The actual GMAT test is not as bad as you may think and you can do well with some quality study time and doing practice problems. I did MUCH better than Kaplan would predict and I am very happy about it. Good luck on your test and try to pass on your experience to help others once you are done!
Rating:
Summary: Poor help, if you're looking for new material
Review: Unfourtunetely, I was expecting Kaplan's book to help me and develop my scores at GMAT. But this book didn't help me at all. The diagnostic test is the same as the year's 2000 edition. So if you are lucky and find it in some used bookstore don't even hesitate. All the extras added to this revision are usless. The online help that they promote in the cover are the same examples as in teh CD ROM.
Added to this, I write a complain to the client service department, and three month later I'm still waiting for a response. Please consider t buy an older version of this book, it will save you money. If I have to highlight one advantage of this book will be the additional GMAT CAT TEST 4. But be aware if you do the paper based test first. You will find that most of the questions are going to be asked to you again in the CD ROM so one point less to KAPLAN 2004 edition.
Rating:
Summary: Unrepresentative, ambiguous and frustrating
Review: Went through the practice sessions, skipped the diagnostic and went for the first Computer test. Got 670 ... wasn't happy but wasn't very disappointed either. Found a bunch of questions ambiguous too. Week later tried computer test 2 ... 600!!Panicked. But then remebered that the same kinda thing happened to me with GRE before (used Barrons that time). So I came to this site and found some solace in that other people found this test unrepresentative. Week later, tried powerprep test 1, got 750 and felt happy and vindicated. Secure in the knowledge that I was better than I thought I was, I decided to keep trying Kaplan tests. Week later... tried diagnostic paper test (was running out of tests by this time)... got 670. Tried Kaplan comp test 3 - 700 (this one has a question that refers to a nonexistent table!!!). Comp test 4 - 640. A week before the real thing tried powerprep test 2 - 770. Felt real good, but thought it would be presumptuous to trash Kaplan before taking the real thing. Today I wrote the real thing - got 760. So... here's what I think about this Kaplan thingie... Questions, especially in the verbal section, are ambiguous and almost always will leave you with two competing alternatives. I dont think that can be characterized as "difficult", frustrating definitely. Real GMAT questions make you "feel" much better about the questions. Also, I flat out disagreed with some of the Kaplan answers and explanations. Others left me simmering unsurely. In hindsight I fully endorse the strategy I adopted. Take a powerprep test early on, and if you get a good score on that, you can continue taking Kaplan tests (to keep the momentum going) secure in the knowledge that your real GMAT scoring capability is better. Let the second powerprep test be the last mock test you take. However, I am not sure what advice to give you if your first powerprep test bombed. You probably have some areas to improve on, and if those areas happen to be in the verbal section then for sure Kaplan will not help you. Try getting retired GMAT paper tests (GMAC sells them on their website) but beware... these questions are known to be repeated in other powerprep tests, by GMAC's own admission upto 50% of retired test material is repeated in powerprep. Or you could try other vendors like Princeton review etc (dont know how good they are though).
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