Customer Reviews

Kaplan GMAT Premier Program, 2009 (Book & CD-ROM)

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2 star:		(8)
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Re: Kaplan GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition

It's amazing to me that a company of the stature of Kaplan would have so many errors in a book intended to train for a test. It's hard to have confidence in their services.

Here are some of the numerous errors I found in the math section of this book.
The math section is a pathetic study guide. The errors are so numerous, that it's hard to know when it's right. See below - and this is only as far as I got. I will return this poor "study guide" and request my money back.

I contacted Kaplan; they said they would have an errata sheet posted early Sept 2008; it's now mid-Sept, and no errata sheet is posted.

I'll try another publisher.


Page 272, prob 10, error in first line; fist x-intercept missing (3/2)
Page 279, prob 6; 8x-2 should be 8x-3
Page 289, prob 4; units are meters in the sketch and inches in answers
Page 322, prob 7; missing "+" sign in equation
Page 323, prob 4; indicates use of calculator, but GMAT instructions say no calculators are allowed

Page 326, prob 6; solution includes "y" in solution; there is no "y"
Page 328, prob 10; equation has both plus and minus signs, (x-+5)

Page 285, 30-60-90 example shows 1:1:sqrt2; should be 1:2:sqrt3
Page 299, prob 2; Greek letter for pi is "p" in answer E; confusing
Page 300, prob 3; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 300, prob 4; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 301, prob 5; missing info: need to tell me that A in on line OB
Page 305, prob 5; angle CDE and DEC are both 45 deg, but not drawn equal

There are excessive math errors in the book. Several times they use the same figure (ex. Triangle) with the exact same measures (congruent triangles) to show how the two figures are different. How can they be different when the 3 sides and the 3 angles are identical? One time they say find the "equation with and -5". Nothing between the two words.

They tend to introduce new concepts in the practice problems and then don't explain them in the answer explanations.

The english portion was OK.

Ugh, Worst. Study guide. Ever. Here's why...

I've started studying on the Math portion of the book first because I know it'll take me longer to retain it, but there are so many errors in the study guide that it just confuses me and makes me second guess myself. NOT what you want in your study manual!!

So far, I've been through about 40 pages of the math section and have discovered 9 errors. Sometimes it may be them leaving out pertinent information for a question, sometimes the wrong symbol is used (ie: 1/2 x 30(x=32)=870 ,no, really that's straight from page 339), Sometimes the answers won't match the question because the problem was typed out incorrectly, and I'm no math whiz, but I'm pretty sure that they have a wrong answer in the answers section.

Another annoyance is that in their practice questions, they'll ask questions to skills that they've not yet covered in the review. But most of the time they just assume that you still remember formulas from your High school days and (something they could have easily listed in the section) and then they place questions on it in the practice areas. Well, how the smurf are you supposed to figure out that a trapezoids formula for area is 1/2 x height(base1 + base2) if they don't tell you? It makes for a very frustrating study experience.

My intention is to write Kaplan about this, because it was a huge waste of money (especially at full retail, since I didn't buy here on Amazon) and has been a waste of time. How can you trust them to sucessfully take you through the review you need for such a test, if they can't even get simple things like + and = signs in the right places?

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!

The 2009 premier edition kaplan gmat book is absolutely pathetic. Its strong sell point is the cd-rom with 4 additional practice tests. HA!! Just to let you know their software does not work. It states you need to install some sort of MCI drivers and upon questioning their customer support they said it was a microsoft problem, not theirs. Furthermore in the cd-rom disclaimer they give more reason not purchase the book:

"KAPLAN DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERRORFREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. KAPLAN DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL KAPLAN BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMANGES...."

This disclaimer continues, but basically it goes to show you that the stuck a label on a piece of plastic, called a cd-rom, know the thing doesn't work, and say it has 4 additional practice exams on it to hike the price of the book.

Finally, I must have counted over 20 misprints, and outright wrong answers. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!

First, I don't understand all the complaints about errors and typos. I did every problem in this book and understood the solutions when I read the answer explanations of problems I got wrong. I did not encounter errors. (I ultimately scored a 730.) I can't help but wonder if some of the "errors" people found were answers they just didn't understand. (A reviewer of the Official Guide here on Amazon proved that point by bringing up a specific example s/he quoted as the book's mistake, but other users explained why s/he was wrong.)

Now, the problems are not all great, and that is why you need the official guide for most of your additional un-timed practice, but Kaplan was worth it for the computer practice: 4 full length timed practice tests and extra timed problem sections. With just the two free from gmac, I would not have learned to adjust my timing enough. ***Note** DO NOT uninstall or reinstall your Kaplan computer software, or try to install it on another computer, or "reset" your tests. It screws up ALL of the 4 practice tests and you will see repeat questions.****

The Kaplan approach to writing the essays was useful. Most of their "techniques" I think are pretty obvious, but are still helpful reminders to read, such as the "picking numbers" or "working backwards" approaches to certain quant. problems.

I used the Kaplan guide and the official GMAT study guide to prepare for the GMAT. I first went throught the Kaplan guide cover to cover. I found the math review to be very helpful, and some of the test taking tips were useful. However, once I began reviewing the official GMAT study guide it became apparent that the practice questions in the Kaplan quide weren't quite accurate reflections of what the actual questions would look like. Practicing questions is the key to success in taking the GMAT. I've read some reviews in which people say you should only study the harder questions in the official review guide if you are finding the questions too easy, but I disagree. The key to doing well is to understand how the question writers try to trip you up, and you can only get to this point by practicing as many questions as possible. I went through every question in the GMAT study guide and by the end I could really begin to anticipate what the question writers were looking for. I ended up getting a 740. To summarize: the math review and some of the tips in the Kaplan guide are somewhat helpful, but I wouldn't waste much time on their practice questions. The practice questions in the official guide are indespensable - complete every one and review your incorrect answers and you will do well.

The primary reason I bought this guide over the others was for the computer adaptive practice tests included on the cd-rom.

On my first practice GMAT, I found that a few of the explanations of the math problems used information not presented in the questions.

On my second practice GMAT, I found that it was recycling questions from the first practice exam. On the verbal section it gave me too many reading passages. On the math section I kept getting hard questions, depite a streak of several wrong answers.

I also found the editing in the math section to be very sloppy, and thus confusing to read.

This book is okay, but the accompanying software sucks. It's the 2009 version and they haven't made a version that is compatible with Vista. If someone who is employed with Kaplan reads this, please tell your people to get out of the dark ages and if they are going to sell modern versions of their product they need to make sure that they work first. Most people make things so that they work with XP and Vista, quit being penny pinching fools and do the same. As a result I won't buy anymore of your products, at least I won't buy anything that has "Kaplan" stamped on the front. If anybody ever asks me I'll tell them the same.
Thanks for nothing,
-One very unsatisfied customer

I was extremely disappointed in the GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition.
As noted in other reviews there were numerous errors in the Math review section. The content they offer online is almost identical to the questions listed in the book (for the Data Sufficiency problems, 4 of the 5 questions online were the same as in the book). The online syllabus is useless. They include fields for you to monitor your progress, but they fail things as simple as having the chapters numbered correctly.
After practice tests in the book the first piece of advice Kaplan gives if you missed several questions is to buy another Kaplan book.
The CD-ROM is not Mac-compatible.
I've used Kaplan materials in the past for SAT prep and found them incredibly helpful, I'm baffled they would release a study guide as poorly put together as this one.

I've heard that kaplan under calculates your CAT scores by 100 but when I actually did it, I found the practice tests pretty ridiculous. Its not because the questions are harder, but the fact that the scoring algorithm intentionally underestimates your score significantly.
Ex: the official practice test gave me a 660, where as kaplan gave me a 560.

Also the CAT math sections are full of errors. The verbal sections have a real problem it comes to double spacing. Its really annoying when you have spend time to distinguish between when the passage ends and when the actual question begins. I also found a reading passage where the final paragraph was full of wingdings and incomplete sentences. Some Critical reasoning questions are really unsolvable. I remember one question that assumed a higher draft pick always resulted in a better team winning record.

Another problem I have with the test is the horrible explanations. Really really dissapointing, especially on sentence correction.

Comparing Kaplan to Manhattan GMAT, which has really tough questions but also very detailed explanations, Kaplan seems to have been written by some of the most careless people ever. It really takes a lot of guts for a company to publish something that was this full of errors.