Customer Reviews

Cracking the GMAT with Sample Tests on CD-ROM, 2004 Edition (Graduate Test Prep)

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Background - I am 13 years out of college. My test taking and math skills were pretty rusty. I want to get into a top 20 MBA program to make it worth the investment. Consequently a great score was very important. I was shooting for 700.

I bought the Princeton book / CD, the Kaplan book / CD, and the Official Guide from ETS. I also downloaded the PowerPrep software from ETS for free. I completely exhausted the Princeton and Kaplan material - test strategies, exercises, practice tests. I did all the practice tests in PowerPrep. Moreover, I did the last third of the questions from the Official Guide (the harder questions are in the back).

I did not take a training class. I took a Kaplan class 14 years ago for the LSAT and was not happy with the investment. Better would be to find a study partner in your area.

My assessment:
1. The Princeton book by far has the better explanations of test taking strategies, as compared to Kaplan.
2. The Princeton questions are much more similar in structure to the real GMAT questions, as compared to Kaplan.
3. The verbal sections of Princeton practice tests are pretty similar in terms of difficulty to the real GMAT verbal section, as compared to Kaplan.
4. The quantitative section of the real GMAT is far more difficult than Princeton practice tests.
5. The Kaplan practice tests are much harder than the real GMAT.
6. The free online tests that come with the Princeton book / CD are a great added bonus.
7. The PowerPrep software is identical in look and feel to the real GMAT, but the quant questions are definitely easier.
8. The Princeton book has the best approach to the writing sections, but do review the Kaplan material as well.

If you want a top score then my advice is to get all three books and download PowerPrep. You also need a lot of time to prepare, particularly if you're working full time or if you've been out of college for a while. I studied and practiced for about 8 weeks. You also need to be comfortable with taking the test on a computer. It is more difficult than on paper - harder to read on the screen, harder to take notes, etc.

First, start with the Princeton book - this will give you a solid foundation. Next, exhaust the PowerPrep software. This will give you a good baseline of where you are and where you need to focus. (I scored 730 and 740 w/ the PowerPrep software.)

Next tackle the Kaplan book, but only focus on sections where you are having trouble. Then exhaust the Princeton Software. (I scored 720 and 730 on the practice tests on Princeton's CD.)

Then do the Kaplan CD practice exercises and practice tests. The tests are very hard, more difficult than the GMAT . . . particularly the verbal. You will score lower on these tests. The practice exercises don't give you enough time to answer all of the questions. Nevertheless, try not to become too frustrated. Keep in mind that you are building stamina and you are improving by seeing new, challenging quant questions. (I scored 640 on the diagnostic, and 680, 580, 650, 600 on the Kaplan CD practice tests, much lower than Princeton and PowerPrep.)

When you're finished w/ the Kaplan CD, start doing the last 1/3 or so of each section in the Official Guide, 20 questions at a time. These are ACTUAL GMAT questions. The explanations are EXCELLENT, far better than either Kaplan or Princeton. Unfortunately some Official Guide questions are repeated from the PowerPrep software.

Meanwhile, mix in online practice tests from Princeton; again you'll have seen some questions before. Don't sweat the recycled material. You won't remember the answers to many of them and you'll have to rework the quant questions anyway. At this point it is more important to understand why you are missing certain types of questions repeatedly and to improve how you attack specific question types. (I scored 750, 710, 690, 730 on the Princeton online practice tests. However, these scores are suspect due to the recycled questions.)

My advice is to take NO tests the day before the GMAT. Clear your head some. Spend time getting comfortable with a template for the writing section. Review specific questions that you've missed in the past - the Official Guide is ideal for this - understanding the correct approach. Relax if you can and get a good night's sleep.

Last piece of advice, bring a snack and use ALL of BOTH breaks. Stand up, stretch, whiz, drink something, eat something. The test is exhausting and you need to use the breaks to clear your head and refocus.

If you do all this you should get a great score. The real GMAT was VERY difficult, even after all of my preparation. I even guessed on a few quant questions that I had no idea how to attack. The whole test went by in a blur. Stamina and timing, however, were not an issue with so much full-length practice.

I ended up with a 760, far better than I targeted and expected, even better than on any practice test I took. This was a pleasant surprise, given how difficult the test was as compared to much of the practice material. However, by using all of the practice material effectively I am now able to look at top 10 programs instead of top 20! Yeah!

I'm a GMAT tutor with 15+ years working with 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 heard complaints 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 or Kaplan 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). The Princeton tests are buggy for sure (Hello! Princeton Review! Fix this!) but are still fairly accurate.

3. Take as many practice tests as you can. That means Kaplan, Princeton Review, PowerPrep. Arco, Barrons, Petersons, and Dummies are all awful. Don't bother with their instruction or their tests. On Princeton Review and PowerPrep, knock 30 points off your score, just to be safe.

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!

My first comment about this book is that it isn't the actual book prepared by the ETS, the company that prepares the actual book. You may want to get this book in addition to the other one. With that being said, I feel this book is still quite good.
This book has a theory that the GMAT score, and score takers can be broken down into three buckets, low, medium, and high. Therefore specific preparation is broken down into three buckets.

This book starts out as a basic guideline of what is tested, some theory behind the test, and some basic things you may need to review you upon. Each type of question is examined, and has many practice examples. Next, you will get a pretest, and it will show you in which bucket of questions you may fall into.

The english and the math are then broken down into sections that have easy, medium, and then the most difficult questions. This way you concentrate in the level where you have the most success. Since the breakdown is done this way, if your on the high end of the scoring range, this book may not be the best match for you. Otherwise this book might be exactly what you are looking for.

I really liked that there was specific coaching done on each type of questions, the pretest, and then the brakedown of questions into easy, medium, and hard. This way you could study and see the progression of how well you are/were doing.

Why you should not purchase this book:
(1) The CD is FULL of bugs.
(2) The SAME question on the CD may have a different answer. (For example, for question 3, sometimes the answer is (a) othertimes (b)!)
(3) The answers are not explained on the CD (So, if you don't understand why something is wrong, you never will)
(4) My sample GMAT scores are: 420, 780, 570, and 675. Consistancy?!?!?
(5) The book itself is alright, but I wish I bought the Kapalan book. I used Kapalan when I studied for the GRE and raised my score signifigantly.

I would STRONGLY advise against anyone purchasing this book. I feel it's a complete waste of $$.

Contrary to Peterson's "GMAT CAT Success" (which I also reviewed), the strength of this bargain lies in its book and NOT in the tests provided on the CD-ROM and in the Internet site (read on to find out why). There's a solution for this problem ? Princeton offers the same book without the CD. That way you'll be able to avoid the extra money that they charge for the lousy CD.

The Book :
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The math sections -

First and foremost, the book will try helping you to create the state of mind needed to succeed in the GMAT. It goes down hard on ETS - your opponents - whenever it can. It makes you realize and accept the fact that their main goal is to make you fail in the test. It's a war of minds - your mind against the test makers' minds.

Second, it introduces a few powerful techniques such as process of elimination, plugging numbers to the cosmic problems and working backwards, that serve as invaluable source for cracking the hard questions and saving precious time. The examples that follow are very good and help to master these techniques.
Third, the theoretical math material given is extensive but not sufficient. You'll still need to check out other sources such as the free software of ETS to get a complete picture.

The verbal section -

The writers have done a good job in categorizing not only the kinds of questions you're going to meet, but also the kinds of mistakes that are common in this section. Nevertheless, the key for cracking this part is to do as many examples as one can - and that's why other sources are required.

The writing assessment section -

There are 26 pages of a comprehensive guide for this section in the test. It seems that the authors have invested a considerable amount of energy in this section that is overlooked in some books, probably because it doesn't't contribute to the general score in the test.

If you want to focus on this area I recommend buying a book that concentrate on the verbal section to get even more material.

The Internet Extra Help :
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This option gives you access to 4 online tests and a GMAT discussion board. The tests are relatively easy; they will not represent your performance on test day, nor will they let you access explanations of mistakes you might have. On the other hand, the discussion board might be of genuine help, as people that have taken the test come over there and share their experience and interest free advices.

The CD-ROM :
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The CD is the weakest link; Once installed, you'll find warm up questions and 4 tests that don't begin to compare to the level of the actual GMAT. Pay attention that in order to find the answers to the (rather easy) questions you will have to click on the anwer themselves.

To improve their merchandise I would urge Princeton's staff to start thinking of thought-provoking questions. Unless the CD substance changes drastically - this deal is not recommended.

All that you need to be a success on the GMAT is the Princeton Review's book, and the disk that comes with it. However, you must also study the 10th Edition ETS book before utilizing the Princeton Review. This will allow you to get "warmed up" and get the cob webs out of you quantitative ability, and it will also allow you to start getting down a system for attacking GMAT problems. I did every problem in the book at least once. The thing I like about the Princeton Review is that it teaches you how to guess wisely. My score improved by 100 points using the Princeton Review's materials and concepts. This has allowed me to focus on the top ten schools. I will put it to you this way..my neighbor studied using only the Princeton Review, and he attends NYU's Stern School of Business, my good friend used only the Princeton Review and he is starting Stanford this fall! I received the exact same score from the Princeton Review's practice GMATs that I recieved on the actual test. Infact, some of the problems were exactly like the ones I reviewed minutes before I took the actual GMAT! I believe the Princeton Review is a must have if you are serious about doing well on the GMAT!!!!

I bought this book, the Arco Master the Gmat Cat 2004 book, the Offical GMAT Review book, and the Kaplan review book (ok, I went a little crazy on the book buying). The tips covered in this book are similar to those in the Kaplan and Arco books, however, I found the tips in this book to be more helpful to me (this may only have been because I read this book last).

The CD was just ok. On the plus side, the score indicated from my practice test (720) was close to my actual score (750). On the negative side, the CD does not allow you to practice timed versions of just the quantitative or verbal. It GIVES YOU THE OPTION, but when you actually try to complete the verbal or quantitative section it only gives you 25 MINUTES as opposed to the 75 on the real test. The workaround I used, was to do the sections untimed and just use a clock to gauge my progress. I also found one problem that had the correct answer incorrectly marked on the answer review (but was correctly scored, go figure).

If you were only going to buy one book, I'd recommend the official GMAT review book. The Princeton review book and the Kaplan book are similar. Between the two, I would give the nod to the Kaplan book because of the better CD, but this is open to personal preference.

I bought the book primarily because it comes with the CD sample tests. Well, the problems on the CD are also in the book so you only get to use one or the other to test your skills. In addition to that, the CD tests don't run correctly, don't show the underlines on the sentence correction problems, and score some of the math questions incorrectly. The highest score I got using the CD was 590 but got 730 on the actual test. The CD has no relevence to the GMAT. I e-mailed Princeton Review to explain this. I already know the CDs don't work but continue to sell them. They also were uninterested to know which problems were scored incorrectly. They did send me a new CD they said would work but it arrived 6 days AFTER I took the test. Do not support these guys. They are knowingly selling a broken product.
Saving grace was the book. It was actually OK.

The book is OK and teaches similar techniques to taking the GMAT. I, like most, selected this for the tests on CD. As many have said before, the tests on the CD are awful. My primary complains are:

1. There aren't enough questions stored to allow you to take mutually exclusive tests. You'll regularly get the same questions on full test simulations and section specific programs. I actually think that there are only 3 reading comprehension paragraphs on the whole disk, meaning that they are repeated in each test.

2. The questions sometimes have the wrong answers. I wish I could insert a screen shot here of the questions I recorded as wrong. When reviewing a test (which is possible, contrary to one of the other reviewers statements), the software shows you how they came up with their answer. For example, the test scored a question as the wrong answer, but the explanation showed the answer I picked as correct. Another example, a math question specifically says X and Y are positive integers. In the explanation of the answer, Princeton eliminates a possible answer by substititing -1 for x and -2 for y. So if the test can say I got a question wrong when I got it right, I'm sure it can work the other way. After working with this program, I have no confidence that Princeton's program actually scores the test appropriately.

3. The timer - the 45 minute clock on my laptop takes about 36 minutes, and about 27 minutes on my desktop. Maybe time moves differently at Princeton, but I like 45 minutes to = 45 minutes.

So, if you like princeton, buy the book without the CD rom and save the money.

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.