Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE & GMAT Exams Math Workbook: Fourth Edition (Kaplan GMAT Math Workbook)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got 99th percentile on my GMAT 750(49, 42) and i used 3 books: this one, Kaplan's book with CD and Verbal Workbook. I had access to PR book and PP, but I did only tests from those. I found Kaplan's materials of quality and difficulty. Some whine that Kaplan is too hard, but that's good - if you can handle Kaplan, you can handle old good GMAT.

My favorite things about this book:
- Very short and condensed math reviews - straight to the point
- No smart-aleck advice about some stupid tricks - only math review - exactly what I needed
- Fabulous problems that illustrate a lot of traps and multiple ways of solving them
- Starts with the basics - arithmetic, integers, primes, etc - the stuff that anybody can uses a review of. A lot of applicants underestimate how much they forgot the basics and skim/skip them. I would not do that, and that book does not either.
- Finally, the number of questions and quizzes in this book is impressive. I am giving a short summary of some of the sections of the book and number of quizzes and test questions. Quiz questions are math only; Test questions are GMAT-type questions.

Arithmetic
-Number operations (15 quiz questoins and 15 test questions)
-Number properties (15, 19)
-Averages (10, 19)
-Ratios (10, 24)
-Percents (25, 25)
-Powers and Roots (12, 17)

Algebra
-Level One (20, 26)
-Level Two (15, 15)

Word Problems
-Level One (10, 26)
-Level Two (37)
-Test (40)

Geometry
-Lines (6, 14)
-Triangles (16, 21)

-Quadrilaterals (15, 19)
-Circles (19, 13)
-Multiple Figures (4, 15)
-Solids (6, 8)

Data Sufficiency
-Test 1 (25)
-Test 2 (25)

CONS:
- I went through this book at least 3 times (helping others) and I found that solutions don't include some of the most genius ways to handle the problems. I think the authors of the questions went beyond themselves.
- No probability or combinations review, which would be very helpful. Get something. I bombed my probability question on the GMAT.

Kaplan's Math Workbook clearly explains most of the math skills tested by the GRE and includes a large number of practice exercises in all areas and at all difficulty levels. What's more, it guides you incrementally from the easy to the hard, so even the math-phobic will find it approachable. It's main flaw --inexplicable, inexcusable and potentially dire--is it's lack of probability and coordinate geometry review. Both of these concepts will be on your GRE exam and if you don't review them from another source source, you will be underprepared. Overall, though, it's an excellent book.

Before buying the book I got in the 10 percentile on my first crack at the actual exam, after buying this book and using the Kaplan CD tests I got in the 65 percentile on my second attempt. Consequentially I would say this book is good for people that are not strong in math. It will give you the basics you need for an average score. If you're looking to get into the top 80 - 90th percentiles in the quantitative sections this book will be of little use to you.

With no review and almost 20 years since I last looked at algebra and geometry I got 360 on the GRE math section. With 4 weeks of review using this book I got 570! Imagine what you could do with longer! I highly recommend this workbook. Its easy to follow, the methods are very clear and detailed. It teaches you a few tricks of the trade that are simple and effective. Well worth the money.

I went through this book for the GREs and did better than I ever have on a standardized math test. So it is useful if you just need to review basic formulas. One thing that bothered me, though, as an indication of shoddy publishing/editing, was that I'm pretty sure they gave the wrong number for an answer in one of the early chapters. I also found several typos in the book. I hate Kaplan and the ETS for making so much money off students with their false promises of "invest thousands of dollars on this stupid, irrelevant test, and you will score better, even though the test is not a true measure of intelligence". So you'd think that as an educational guide they'd at least make sure all their answers were right and all their words spelled correctly, so they could at least pretend their product was worth buying. I'm glad I only spent 7 bucks on it.

This book provides a solid preparation for all the concepts tested on the GRE quantitative section either if you don't know them or just want to recall them.
I used the book for 3 weeks and my score improved from a 710 (on my previous GRE official test) to a 790 (in the latest test). The only thing that will need worknig out is timing. The book can't actually help you in that part, and that is your ultimate enemy once the concepts are mastered. The book lacks a cd with some CAT timed test in order to give the full preparation for the real GRE test.

Although I found this book to be fairly easy to follow, I felt that it was too simplistic. I am not sure how the GMAT exam is in terms of how the questions are asked but I did not find this to be aligned with the GRE. Topically, perhaps. But I found many of the questions to be far easier than those on the GRE and not even presented the same way as the GRE questions.

I will give this book credit for providing explanations for basic things. If you find that you are in need of a beginner's explanation of things, down to different terms you may see for multiplication, this may be a good starter book. Otherwise, look to other resources to practice the quantitative section of the GRE.

I hadn't taken a math course since my freshman year of college and never being strong in math, even when I was doing these concepts in high school, I think this workbook helped me out a lot. When I first started doing GRE practice tests, I was making around 480 on the quantitative (math) section, but after studying with the Kaplan workbook, my Princeton Review general GRE book, and the GRE 10th Edition, I ended up scoring almost a 600 on my math portion.

I am purchased this book about four- five weeks ago. This book has been easy to follow with well explained examples. Each chapter has questions divided into easy, moderate, and advanced difficulty. I am pleased that i could answer the majority of the questions with ease. i do however feel that the actual test will be much more difficult, and I am going to purchase another book to get a comparative source. i do believe this is a good starter book for those who might be fearful of Math, but that it would not be wise to take the test after only reviewing this book. Again, this book was excellent, but I would reccommend purchasing several other sources to use as well.

I studied for the GMAT for 3 months and scored a 680 -- 90th percentile. My quantitative score was a 41 (64%) and my verbal was a 42 (96%). I decided to pound math for another five weeks, retake the GMAT and try to close the gap between my verbal and quant scores. After using this book and studying nothing but math for another month, I scored a 710 (94%). Quant was a 42 (66%) and verbal was a 46 (99%). I actually increased the gap by one percentile point! Doh!

Feel free to draw your own conclusions from this. Math has never been a strength of mine, but I expected a better quant score after studying the quant side of the exam exclusively for five weeks.

I think this is probably a fine book for teaching the very basics, but I needed help with probability and permutation problems and others that this book doesn't even touch. I was kind of disappointed that it didn't go deeper. If you purchase it, definitely pick up another text that will give you a more rounded idea of the types of problems the GMAT asks. The Official Guide is invaluable and I learned some great test-taking strategies from the Princton Review's "Cracking the GMAT" book. Overall I'm very happy with my score, but still a little frustrated about the math. I'm sure you'll do better. :-) Good luck!!