Rating: 
Summary: Kaplan GMAT
Review: Before deciding whether or not to sign up for one of the $1K prep classes, I read the previous reviews for GMAT prep products. These tests were described as the most difficult available so I decided to try to save the thousand bucks and buy this book instead.
I prepped for about 2 weeks with Kaplan (for an hour each week night) and took the full length CAT tests on the weekends in between. The final week took the two PowerPrep tests since they were rumored to be more reflective of the tester's score on the actual GMAT (and they were). Below are my scores in order.
660 (Princeton Review -cold turkey before deciding if I wanted to apply to business school)
600 (Kaplan CAT 1)
600 (Kaplan CAT 2)
640 (Kaplan CAT 3)
720 (PowerPrep 1)
720 (PowerPrep 2 -I never previewed any of the PowerPrep material since the same questions are used on the tests so -you'll probably score falsely high if you do)
720 (Actual GMAT)
I was skeptical (and a little apprehensive) that the Kaplan tests were actually that much harder than the real GMAT tests as the reviews have suggested, but it looks as if they really are. I would recommend this book as long as your ego can take the scores you'll get on the Kaplan CATs. I'm glad I spent $25 and not $1,000.
Rating:
Summary: Hardest Tests on the Market!
Review: Great CD-ROM! The Tests are the hardest on the Market and will guarantee to kick your butt! I personally like the PR strategies, but if I could only buy two books, I would get the 10th edition and Kaplan.
Here is my strategy:
1) Use Princeton Review to study the basic strategies.
2) Apply those strategies to the 10th edition.
3) Take the Kaplan Test for the hardest tests on the market.
4) Enjoy your 750, 99 percentile score. =)
Rating: 
Summary: Very helpful
Review: I found this book to be very helpful in my preparation, but the cd that was included was more helpful than the book. I used all of the exams on the cd, and I went into the exam ready to do well. It worked too.
I didn't take as much time studying as I should have, a couple weeks taking practice exams helped.
Good luck competition
Rating:
Summary: Amazing prep with hard tests
Review: I just got back from my GMAT with a score 740 (q42v51) and I have to give a lot of credit to the Kaplan book and CD ROM. I only used Kaplan and the free PowerPrep software to prepare for the exam, and I felt very confident (and rightfully so).
While my verbal didn't require much work to begin with, Kaplan's book offered effective strategies to navigate the nit-picky and weird world of GMAT verbal. If your verbal needs a lot of work, I would recommend purchasing a supplementary book, but if you're fairly strong to begin with, Kaplan does an amazing job of teaching you all the strategies you need to blow the verbal out of the water.
This book offers great math strategies as well, but if your math skills are shakey from years of neglect like mine were, I would recommend purchasing another book just to review the basics. I used this book's math prep in combination with Kaplan's math specific book, and improved my scaled score from 32 to 42. The math specific book alone was only really helpful in reviewing concepts, not in training for the GMAT, so the Kaplan 2005 book is essential for improving your strategy.
The best part of this book has to be the CD-ROM. The graphic design and interface is godawful, but the tests and lessons are tremendously helpful for practice. I completed all of the CATs and most of the subject quizes. The tests are very hard, but the quizes give a better indication of the real GMAT difficulty level. Both are good for practicing speed. The pace of the GMAT felt much more relaxed than anything on the CD-ROM. Taking the tests on the computer made me feel much more relaxed when I took the real exam, and helped me quickly identify what the objective of the question was so I could devote much more time to problem solving.
My Kaplan CAT tests were 560, 560, 590, 580, and my diagnositic and paper tests were 660. While it seems from other accounts of this book and the real GMAT (on this site and elsewhere) that the rule of thumb is 100 points higher than your average practice CAT test, I've heard horror stories of the GMAT score being lower, and cases like mine where I added 150 points to my best CAT score :-)
Anyway, I highly recommend Kaplan's test prep strategies and the CD-ROM's content (but seriously, they NEED to redesign it, at least pick a common theme, or not use clashing clip art...). If you need to do a lot of review in math or verbal, I would recommend using this book and CD-ROM in conjunction with a subject specific skills review. Great book, great CD-ROM, 4 stars because they could have hired a graphic designer for the CD... Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: CD is of value, but tests waaaaaaaaay too hard
Review: I've never written one of these before, but since the ones posted were so helpful for me, I felt that I must throw my two cents in.
I purchased three guides before the GMAT: 1) Kaplan 2005, 2) Princeton Review 2005, and 3) The Official GMAT Guide. Here are my thoughts on each:
1) Kaplan: Buy it for the CD, especially the quant. The book itself has some useful test-taking techniques (like backsolving or plugging numbers) and the 100 most tested math topics is nice, but for the most part, there's nothing ground-breaking.
The CD is where the value is. Overall, the tests are extremely difficult. The first CD test I took I scored a 570 - not nearly where I wanted to be (around 700). However, after reading other people's difficulties with the CD test on Amazon, I worried less. Still, it's great practice, especially for tough quant questions. The GMAT is a tough test, and the quant part is particularly tricky, especially with the tight time limit. Learning the pace of the test through Kaplan will safely get you through the GMAT. The verbal section is less useful - the reading comp passages are confusing and explainations of answers are useless.
2) PR - Again, book has some useful test techniques, but buy it for the CD. PR is the opposite of Kaplan - Quant is way too easy and not very useful, unless you are still getting up to speed on math basics. The verbal part is close to the actual GMAT and is very helpful.
3) OG - BUY IT! 1400 real GMAT questions! However, don't crack the book open until you exhaust the Powerprep software, since the software takes all of its questions from the book. You want to simulate the test as closely as possible, and the last thing you want to do is start with questions you already know the answer to.
Some notes about the actual GMAT -
1) Quant section is tough, probably just a bit easier than Kaplan quant. Powerprep does not adequately prepare you for the difficult questions you face on the GMAT. On Powerprep, you may see a few hard ones spread through the test. On the GMAT, they come one right after the other. That's why Kaplan can be so valuable.
2) Your verbal score appears to have a greater influence over your composite score. I'm not entirely sure why, but it does. Your overall percentile score will be much more aligned to you verbal than math score. That doesn't mean ignore the math, but keep it in mind.
3) Take all of your breaks. In fact, I even took breaks during the test if I finished a section early (e.g. finished the first essay in 20 minutes, left the room for 10). It helps you get your mind straight and can reduce fatigue.
My scoring progression:
Kaplan: 570, 610 (only took the quant portion of the last two tests, so no overall score)
PR: 700, 740
Powerprep: 640, 730
Actual: 720 (much better than I expected)
Good luck to everyone out there. The process sucks, I know, but just get through it. And remember, this isn't college, where the SAT can make or break you. Work experience, essays, and recommendations come way in first, then GMAT (HBS didn't require the GMAT for admission until the late 90s which shows just how critical it views the test!).
Rating:
Summary: Better than the $1,000 course
Review: Kaplan is a brand that I have trusted for a long time; I took their course for the SATs and it was amazing. Our teacher was incredible, and the eventual national merit scholarship more than paid for the course. In 2001, with high expectations, I signed up for a Kaplan GMAT course, and found that the vast majority of the other folks in the class were very slow & that the teacher was awful. Accordingly, the class was tedious and eventually I dropped out -- partially because I decided not to go to grad school that year.
I purchased the Kaplan GMAT 2005 with cd-rom 1 1/2 months before taking the test, and it worked wonders. Everything you learn from the cd & book is derived from the class they give, except that the cd features high caliber teachers which you won't necessarily get from a class. I found no tricks or strategies that were missing as compared to the actual class!
After taking a diagnostic, it provided a custom study plan, which was well thought out. I was struggling on reading comprehension, so right off the bat it set me up for practice on it early, and then a follow up test right around the end. Eventually, I went from 30th percentile to 95th percentile in that category -- the tricks they teach you are invaluable.
In short, this cd held more value than the $1k course I signed up for, despite the fact that it was about $975 less.
My one criticism, is that they make the tests you take inordinately hard, so as to guarantee you "improve" your score on the regular GMAT. I consistently scored in the 570-610 range on the kaplan tests, but then received a 720 on the real GMAT. The practice tests lowered my expectations to the point that I crossed schools off my list that I would have otherwise considered -- so learn from my mistake and take your test scores with a grain of salt.
I highly recommend this study aid.
Rating:
Summary: The best I used for my GMAT prep..
Review: Personally, I think it is the best book out there today. Loved an earlier 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.
I also used the Math and Verbal workbooks along with this guide. Though very condensed and helpful, to go beyond 700's you will need to get a Math and Verbal workbooks from Kaplan. Each around $13 and very well worth the money. The math workbook has no tests, but has a ton of exercises while Verbal Workbook has very helpful list of idioms and very good rules for RC and CR - I have used them religiously and got 42 on my Verbal, which is 96% and pretty good for a non-native speaker. My overall score was 750, using nothing but 3 Kaplan books.
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: Really a review of the 2004 book, but...
Review: Preparing for this test has been the bane of my existence for the past two weeks, and I promised myself that I would post a review of the 2004 book after taking the GMAT. However, given the likelihood that the 2005 edition doesn't differ much from the 2004, and the fact that there are so many reviews already for the 2004, thought my review would be more useful here.In short, this is a decent buy primarily for the CD-ROM. The usual complaints (ridiculously hard, some wrong answers, typos, annoying UI) are all valid (and may have even been corrected in the 2005 edition), but the bottom line is that there are a lot of good, hard questions on the CD-ROM that you will need to practice with to do well on the actual GMAT. The more questions and practice tests you do, the more prepared you will be for the actual test. It really is as simple as that. So get this book along with the ETS official guide and lock yourself in a cave for a few weeks.
Rating:
Summary: INDISPENSABLE
Review: Say what you may about the poor graphic design of the CD, an occasional error here and there, this book is a MUST for any person who wants to get a decent GMAT scores. Kaplan GMAT 2005 covers all you need to know in both verbal and math sections of the exam. Their math is tough, but again, if you are a high scorer, it's imperative to get ready to face all the difficult questions dealing with probability, permutations, cobinations and other nightmares. One other advantage is that Kaplan approach is to actually solve most of the problems and understand what you are doing instead of taking shortcuts to guessing - on the real test date it will greatly increase your chances to get a good score.
The CD is good for getting your timing right, as well as buildign up stamina and endurance for the real thing. Although the music and the stupid graphic design is really annoying, I could live with it as long as the questions were of high quality.
I got 720-97% (Q48 -87%, V41-94%, AWA 6.0-97%) - and used KAPLAN book, GMAT Official Guide and a bit of Princeton Review (great for verbal and AWA).
Good luck with your tests.
hala
Rating:
Summary: OK Book
Review: The Kaplan questions in this book, on the accompanying CD, and in the Kaplan 800 book are quite different from the questions on the real GMAT.
The ETS Official GMAT guide has old GMAT questions that are very similar to the questions on the real GMAT. However the real GMAT questions are harder.
Nonetheless, I took the GMAT today and my GMAT score was 90 points lower than my lowest Princeton Review CAT score from the 04 edition of cracking the GMAT.
I made a 770 on both Powerprep tests (however my scores were highly inflated since I answer all of the questions in the ETS Guide before taking the Powerprep tests) and a 720 and 740 on the Princeton Review CATS.
I made a 610 (on diagnostic), 540, 570, 550 on the Kaplan CATs from the 05 edition.
I scored a 640 (46 math 31 verbal) and a 610 (41 math and 32 verbal) respectively on the Peterson CATs. I did not read the Peterson book.
Most importantly, my Peterson CAT scores were almost idential to my real GMAT score.
According to my unofficial GMAT score, I scored a 630: 46 on Math at 79% and 31 on verbal at 62% with an overall 79% ranking (or I scored higher than 79% of all the test takers).
Now if you want to know where you are at presently, take a couple of the Peterson's CATs.
However, I have more work to do if I want to get accepted into a top 10 MBA program for the Fall 2006 semester.
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