Customer Reviews

GMAT 800, 2004-2005 Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Actual rating - 2.5 stars.

The Math Sections -
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The most important piece of information that is excluded from the editorial overview is the fact that most - if not all - the questions included in the math sections appear as part of tests given in the CD-ROM attached to the main preparation book Kaplan offers called "GMAT". In other words, the math part of this book is a printed edition of many questions that are explained exactly in the same way in the CD.

There is no any substantial additional material, except for a forward before some questions, emphasizing their exceptional difficulty, and occasional notes indicating how "an 800 test taker" would deal with the questions.

In all, I wouldn't recommend this book to somebody who wants to improve his math skills if he's already bought Kaplan's excellent "GMAT" with the CD-ROM.

The Verbal sections -
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I can't say here what I said above (about the same questions given in both this book and the CD-ROM of "GMAT") because I haven't completed all the exercises offered in the CD-ROM. As for the material itself, it seems that the writers did very well in here, since there is an in-depth analysis of the hardest types of questions in the critical reasoning, reading comprehension and sentence correction.

To sum up, if your weak link is your performance in the verbal sections - and if you prefer written material to a computer screen - this book can be of help (though you should check out first their outstanding CD-ROM, that offers more material than any other CD I've tried, and decide whether it's enough or not).

This book is meant for the high-scorers. The Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving, and Critical Reasoning sections are very useful. The Sentence Correction section explanations have some problematic explanations, especially on the idioms aspect. The Reading Comprehension section passages are not very GMAT-like, but still useful. If you already own the LSAT 180, be aware that the Critical Reasoning sections are virtually the same.

Simply the best! The hardest, toughest questions all in one book!Use it in addition to the book/CD and reach your maximum score. Kaplan once again offers superior preparation.

The book provides a way to stretch your mind and push your GMAT score even further. The questions on actual test are much easier than in this book (ironically, though, if the questions on the exam seem hard, this is probably because you've read that book, and thus got the very first questions right without any problem, so adaptive GMAT test threw at you tougher questions as a result). The book is well organized and it is easy to find the required sections to practice in. Overall rating - excellent.

I've bought Kaplan 800 after I spent a month with Princeton review. Found useful, math section is good. May be it duplicates regular Kaplan questions, but as I did gone through Kaplan, it was interesting for me.

Overall verbal section is concise and clear. However, sentence correction section is a bit odd for a non-native speaker: comments like "You can pick a wrong idiom as you spoke English throughout your life" sound a bit frustrating. The result, however, has quite good: 700 after one month of preparation with those two books (math 46, verbal 40)

Oleg, Russia