Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE Biology

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

 

 

I just took the GRE Bio Subject test in November. I used Kaplan, the test booklet produced by ETS, Princeton Review Cracking the GRE and my Campbell's Biology from freshman Biology in college. Of all books, I found the Campbells Biology the most helpful. Second was Kaplan. Check out my review for P. Review book, because the vocab list at the back was very helpful, and so was the practice test, but the rest of that book was worse than terrible. I am not sure of my score yet, but I know that many things I studied were on this test, it was a typical rehash of all that nit picky stuff like the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic flagella to the intricate details of sarcomeres.

Oh, and the structure of the test, I didn't know it until I took some practice tests -- either it's not explicit in any of these books or I just passed over it. It's 110 multi choice questions first, then 30 or so of questions that you have to choose the correct word for each statement, then 50ish questions on several charts and experiments. The last section takes the longest, the choose-word questions go very fast and the multi choice is where you can really gain time if you study these darn books for tricky questions regarding the mesophyll of plants etc that would otherwise take up time trying to eliminate and choose the best answer. If you can know the multiple choice quickly and solid, you'll have plenty of time for the charts etc.

I don't know what this gentleman from Ann Arbor is talking about. Mr. Monk, however, has hit the nail right on the head. This was an excellent buy and helped me increase my score considerably. There are no significant typos throughout the entire book. Each topic is covered from every angle, providing extensive information that I found invaluably helpful. The review test at the end of the exam was really the kicker; there were questions on my exam that were nearly identical to those found in the book. Kaplan has done it again.

Definitely useful, especially to familiarize you with what exactly to expect from the test. The practice test definitely taught me a lot (such as "I know nothing about plants"), and the review material was great.

My only gripe is that there was only one test in the back of the book. Combined with the free practice test you can get off the GRE website, this gives you 2 practices. While that helps, I'd've liked (and would have gladly paid extra for) more, even just one more.

I was dreading taking the GRE in the month of April. It was already February and I had not yet begun to prepare. A friend suggested this book to me. The questions were helpful, the material was easy to understand, and I received a 760 on the exam. Thank you Kaplan and author!

I found that Kaplan's bio GRE review book accurately represented the contents of the test. It gives a good review of the material covered on the GRE (although with a few minor errors) and the practice test was very similar in content, structure, and difficulty to the real one.
Update: I just got my scores back, and I stand by my review :) an excellent buy, it was definitely worth it.

The book came quickly and is in great condition.

So far the book has been very informative and seems like it will really help with the test.

Overall, it was a good book and a very good dealer to buy it from.

I liked this book because it was a great review for this exam. The topics were quite easy to interpret and learn from. It's very complete and excellent for reviewing for this test. I liked how animal structure and function was explained--one of my favorite topics. I also found quite useful was:
The Ultimate Study Guide for Biology: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations by Patrick Leonardi
Volume 1, Volume 2 & Volume 3. These books had great review questions that geared me in the right direction on what to study.

I loved this guide to review biology for the GRE. I also used my basic biology book. These two, with intense studying, made for a good experience and great scores.

I used the second edition of this book to study for the biology GRE.
The book is ok if you want a general perspective. However, when you go into detail, the book simplifies to much and some things in the book are wrong.
Also, I purchased it mainly for the practice test, which I found was poorly constructed because the graphs were messy and the questions were ambiguous and some had the wrong answer marked as correct. The booklets from ETS are a better practice for the real thing.
I used a general biology book to study as well as this one, and the general biology book was much better.

This books helped tremendously but the test requires A LOT of knowledge. So I think it's best viewed as one source to look at. That being said if you don't have much time, read this in it's entirety and you'll be fine.