Customer Reviews

Kaplan GMAT 2005 with CD-ROM (Kaplan GMAT (Book & CD-Rom))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My review refers to an earlier edition of the Kaplan book, but should give you a good idea for what you'll get when you buy this book. The Kaplan GMAT book and the Official Guide for GMAT Review are two books you absolutely must get to be well prepared for the test.

The lessons & tips included in the Kaplan book are a good way to get familiarized with the test. I also like the approach described in the book to attack CR questions in Verbal and the idioms and other tips for SC. The diagonistic test gives the much needed jolt by highlighting areas that you must concentrate on. The real value of this book is in the 4 CAT tests and practice sections included in the CD-ROM. The tests are much harder than the actual GMAT. Your actual GMAT score will likely be up to 100 points higher than your Kaplan score.

My recommendation is to use the OG to practice questions a day before attempting a practice test from Kaplan or the ETS Powerprep tests. You'll be amazed at how your score will actually improve on a test when you do some prep work with the OG the night before.

Here are my scores from various tests:
Kaplan - 670, 620, 640, 610
Powerprep - 770, 720
Princeton Review - 700, 690 (took only 2 tests, the CD was defective)
Actual GMAT - 720/97% (Q49/90%, V39/89%)

The Quant sections of the Kaplan tests are not exactly easy - so it was a good introduction to GMAT Quant. On the Verbal side, I definitely owe my score to OG - the explanations really helped me understand where I was going wrong, and I did not commit those mistakes again. I neglected Quant since this was more of a strength in my case, but I could have obviously done better than 90% in the actual test. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my score.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is to stay calm on test day. A good test center makes a big difference - e.g., my test center gave us complementary noise-canceling headsets that helped immensely during the test.

Good luck!

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.

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!).

I just came back from the GMAT with a good score and could not have done it without this book.

I started my GMAT preparation with the Official Guide. If you're only going to buy one book then get the OG. It has far more practise questions than any other book in the market. The explanations after each section are pretty detailed. Also, in each section the questions get harder towards the end. So be sure to do the last 50 questions in each section (probably the last 100 for Problem Solving).

Try to take the 2 Powerprep tests before you start the OG book though, since they use the same questions. I would recommend taking a Powerprep test before any study at all, so you can get a good idea of your strengths and weaknesses, and focus your study plan accordingly. Unfortunately GMAT has gotten harder over the years but OG/Powerprep do not reflect that.

That's why people looking to get 700+ need something more. And this is where Kaplan enters the picture. The Kaplan tests and practise sections on the CD are harder than the GMAT but make for necessary practise. These tests can be demoralizing when you start (specially if you did real well on Powerprep :-)). Overall, the Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction questions are representative of the test. I wouldn't say the same for the Reading Comprehension passages....some of those are way too long.

In the Math sections, they squeeze in more questions (and lengthier ones), so it is good practise for speed. Finally, I really liked the test taking tips and strategies for the Verbal sections in Kaplan too.

To give you an idea of how close the sample tests are, here is how I scored:

Powerprep 1 - 780
Princeton Review (free online test) - 740
Kaplan 1 - 620 (definitely demoralizing)
Kaplan 2 - 700
Kaplan 2 - 670
Actual GMAT - 750

Good Luck!

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.

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.

Like the previous review I swore to right a review after having taken the test and am doing so just 4 hours later.

This book is definitely worth your time and money. The cd-rom, while still having a riduculous UI, has over three practices for each section (V-CR, V-RC, V-SC, Q-PS, Q-DS) and four CATs.

I found the tips and exercises on the verbal section to be very helpful. I have always scored lower on verbal than quantitative sections on standardized tests, but today I did the opposite and I attirubte that to the Kaplan verbal tips and exercises.

The KAPLAN CATs are hard, don't be discouraged if you score low, but they are crucial for working out your timing.

I also, went through the ETS-POWERPREP practices and exams. Having taken the test, the POWERPREP material was far to easy. The GMAT I took was much more like the KAPLAN exams.

Timeline: I purchased the book one month before my GMAT exam and went through all the KAPLAN and POWERPREP material before my exam.

I used a total of five books in preparing for the GMAT: Barron's 13th edition, Petersons 2003 and 2004 CDs, Kaplan 2005, Nova's GMAT Prep Course 2003, and the Official Guide.

I have taken the GMAT twice. The first time I used the Barron's book and the Petersons CD and scored a 40% on math, 75% on verbal, and a 4.5 on the essay for a total score of 570. This score was unacceptable.

The second time around, I budgeted more time to study a day (around 6 hours) and for a longer time period (a month and a half). For me, I felt I had a strong background knowledge on all the required subjects, but I was not as honed on specific strategies and techniques for answering questions. My thoughts on each book:

Barron's: As a beginner, I enjoyed this book. I read the whole book and did all practice tests. They did not explain probability, sequences, and progressions questions well. In general, the math explanations were a bit sketchy. However, the word problem explanations were the best out of all the books.

Petersons: I just used the CDs and did not look at the book. After taking their adaptive practice tests, one is provided feedback which has questions divided into very difficult, difficult, etc. This is beneficial because you can see the level of difficulty at which you generally test. This is a really helpful addition that other CDs lack.

Kaplan: My least favorite book and CD. The book had very poor explanations for test questions. The book only offered general guidance for taking the test and outline common strategies. The cartoonish CD just became annoying and took more time than it was worth.

Nova: Far and away the best book. After reading reviews on various sites, everyone recommended Kaplan and Princeton Review, but no one mentioned this book. I found it by chance at the local book store. It covered everything on math and had exceptional, comprehensive explanations. Also, the drills after all chapters were very, very, very helpful. After doing all drills in Nova, the commonly considered difficult practice questions in Kaplan were almost a joke. I would recommend to anyone this book.

Official Guide: A must to have for everybody taking GMAT. I did the last third of the questions for each section, which are typically more difficult.

I recommend, in order from best to worst:

Nova, Official Guide, Petersons CDs, Barron's, Kaplan.

I recently took the test again and got a 96% in verbal, 60% in math, and a 690 overall.

The book is alright, but like what many others have said buy the book for the CD. From my perspective the tests on the CD are the hardest around. That is a good thing for it prepares you for the hardest questions on the exams. Here are my results:

-- Before Book/CD:

Real Exam #1 490 (wasted my money)

-- After Book/CD and studding like heck:

Kaplan Test #1 530
Kaplan Test #2 520
Kaplan Test #3 510

Power Prep #1 630
Power Prep #2 620

Real Exam #2 660 (worth buying the book/CD)

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