Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE 1999-2000 with CD-ROM

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

 

 

The Kaplan book/CD-ROM helped me increase my GRE score by 300+ points. I was pretty impressed. The CD-ROM comes with tutorials (that teach you the strategies in the book) and a multitude of tests. A couple of things that I didn't like about the CD-ROM include: 1) The tutorials try too hard to be cute and cool rather than making the most of your time; and 2) The section tests (verbal, quantitative, analytical) don't give tangible feedback after you're finished (i.e. you don't know what your GRE score would have been for that section). But, hey, my scores are up by a significant chunk of change so I can't complain.

The Kaplan GRE 1999-2000 with CD-ROM is a great product and is very much worth buying. The GRE is not an easy exam and, no matter what materials you buy or how much you spend on them, preparation is going to take TIME. Obviously, if you start preparing the day before the test, you're going to get scr*wed. Maybe negative reviews come from people who weren't willing to spend any time with the exercises or got too impatient once they got started and saw how far they still had to go. Give it a few weeks and it does work. It increased my score by about 300 points (avg 100/section). And no, I don't work for Kaplan.

The presentation and layout are creatively done and both the book and the software are full of useful info and exercises. The work is divided up into small pieces so you can go at your own pace. They tell you tips and tricks so you can outsmart the questions, and they review basic concepts like math and vocabulary. There is a limited number of possible types of questions they can put on these tests, so once you know the types, you've seen anything they can throw at you.

In preparing for the GRE, I used both this book and the ETS book "GRE: Practicing to Take the General Test," and both were helpful in different ways. The Kaplan questions can be a little more difficult than the ETS questions, which is good because it gets you ready for some of the toughest material the real thing can offer.

No matter which book(s) you end up buying, my advice is just to take as many practice tests as you can. After having taken a whole lot of GREs, when I got to the real thing I wasn't at all nervous (which really felt weird, because I usually am). Half the benefit comes in being able to get really fast at answering the questions, which only repetition can do. Your confidence will increase with experience, as well as your score. If I'm sounding like a commercial, maybe it's because with the help of books like this one, I got a perfect score on one section of the real thing, so I really believe in it.

So why am I saying all this? Well, the GRE is a b*tch to have to take, but we all have to do it if we want to get to grad school, and I think we need all the help we can get. This book helps, and it's a lot cheaper than the full course Kaplan offers (though I've heard it's good if you can afford it).

After reviewing the material in "Cracking the GRE 2000" by Princeton Review, I felt slightly ill at ease about my upcoming exam. I bought the "Kaplan GRE 1999-2000", and found it to be more thorough and better organized than the Princeton Review book. If you're going to buy only one book, I'd suggest that you buy this one.

I especially like how the vocabulary is grouped by category, instead of one big list. I found it much easier to learn the words in a little group than in a large, unorganized list.

I bought this book with the CD-ROM, and my score did increase. If you take the time to read and do the exercises, it works. I found the CD-ROM to be particularly helpful, as I think it pays off to practice taking the test on a computer a few times. It is a slightly different experience than paper tests. The CD-ROM program also manages to tutor you by saving and analyzing your practice scores to help you with parts of the test that consistently give you trouble (thus, it is helpful to be able to use the CD on the same computer every time). Without the CD, the book is still useful and does include a full practice test on paper, but I think the CD is what makes this worth the money. In comparison, I also read portions of the latest ARCO GRE-prep book, and that was helpful too. (I wouldn't buy the CD-ROM versions of both books though; one CD is plenty.) Overall in the past, I have found Kaplan to be a reliable choice for test prep, and they delivered again here.

It has been a while since I have had to take a standardized test, much less use some of the "useless" knowledge they drill into you from school. This test prep guide helped to brush me up on the basics and gave me tips on how to eliminate wrong answers quickly and effectively if I didn't have a clue about the technical way to get to an answer. In addition, it has a lot of useful "shortcuts" for the exam to make the test taking process easier and quicker. It also provides a three step process to attacking the GRE as opposed to simply study, study, study. I also found the CD-ROM very useful. It was easy to install and un-install (provided you have the necessary computing capabilities to run the program). I highly reccommend using this book and the CD-ROM enclosed to achieve a higher score.

The "Kaplan System" of study for the GRE is comparable to the purchase of the Brooklyn Bridge. Rather than provide one with a synopsis of rules for grammar and arithmetic (which one might use to refresh one's memory from classes long since past) they provide a system by which one can hope to, virtually, guess correctly. This book may have been useful if the practice tests had been functional, but their use of Neolithic programs forces one with a "up-to-date" computer system to reconfigure it. Having viewed the material in the book, this would only continue to fuel my disappointment in their attempt to provide any useful information. I'm not sure what any of the other "help manuals" provide, but it certainly cannot be any worse.

I found that this book was a real help. I bought two books and this one covered everything in great detail. The software mimicked the actual test rather well. All in all, I found that this book was the best one I used. If you're taking the GRE, I suggest this book over Princeton Review's or Barron's.

I bought this book and CD-ROM on the basis of its reviews onAmazon.

I found the CD-ROM extremely helpful. The tutorials areuseful, but I found the strategy hints and, in particular, the practice tests and explanations, were what really made it worth the money. I was primarily used the CD-ROM, but looked at the book itself for useful vocabulary listings for the verbal section.

The CD-ROM is not perfect. There are some typos and spelling mistakes that might throw you a bit, but this does not detract from the overall value. I scored well on the GRE and I think this book can take some credit.

The book is mostly about test taking strategies. It also provides some practice tests along with list of vocabulary, which are not indicated whether they are adjective, noun, verb, etc(!). Additionally it gives info about self-confidence, calmness, etc in exam. Do not expect to learn many new things here. It mostly helps you do the best out of what you know already.
And the CDROM, dam% cdrom. i installed it twice and its sound has defects.. i do not understand it.. it is like a broken record.. secondly, it gives you the feeling that software will crash any moment..
hope it is helpful!

The reviewer from Oregon should learn to post reviews. This is the Kaplan GRE, he/she posted for the Kaplan SAT/PSAT. Notice to all colleges: do not admit this half-wit.