Customer Reviews

Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM

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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!

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).

I'm a GMAT tutor with 15+ years of successful students behind me. 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!

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.

I am rather suprised at the low overall customer-review rating of this book. I used a combination of online sample tests, the Kaplan book, the Princeton Review and ETS study guides. Of these resources, I feel the Kaplan more closely replicated the questions on the actual GMAT. My score from taking the Kaplan book's exams were consistently within 10 points of my actual score, proving there is incredible similarity between Kaplan's questions and ETS'. The Princeton Review book has reasonable sample questions as well, but explanation as how to arrive at an answer simply don't make a lot of sense. The study CD ETS mails out once you signed up for the test is just incredibly too easy. I steadily scored 700+ every time I took an ETS sample test... my actual was nearly 100 points less. :(

The GMAT test knowledge you've built over the years; in reality there's little you can do to significantly increase your score, but you do stand a better chance of feeling prepared by using using these guides. In the end, the Kaplan book was the highest-quality study material on the market.

I am writing to echo the comments by earlier readers. I recently studied for the GMAT, and used Princeton Review (GMAT and Verbal workout), Kaplan, and the ETS official guide book (plus PowerPrep CD). Here is how I did:

- studied Princeton Review and Kaplan books. Midway through, tried 1st Kaplan prep test: got 640. Not good.
- finished PR and Kaplan, tried 1st PowerPrep test: 720. Felt better.
- studied ETS Guide, half way through, tried 2st PowerPrep: 760. Much better. But ran into many of same questions as in ETS book
- finished ETS guide, done studying (and sick of it), tried 2nd Kaplan test: still 640... Threw the CD in the garbage can.

- Actual exam, 2 months into studying: 740.

I recommend that you finish all exercises in the ETS book, the last math exercises are hard and resemble more what you get on the actual test. Also, practice speed reading, because you'll need it during actual Verbal test.
Use Kaplan book to prepare for exam, their CD is useless and discouraging.

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

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 !!

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!

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!!