Kaplan GRE Exam 2005 With CD-ROM [Paperback]

Kaplan Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 2004

Are you ready for the GRE Exam? You will be.

Kaplan's GRE with CD-ROM 2005 Edition comes complete with a comprehensive review of all the material on the exam, plus Kaplan's proven test-taking strategies to help maximize your score. This powerful combination is a highly effective way for you to score higher on the GRE and make yourself competitive for graduate school admissions.

Succeed on the computer-adaptive GRE with Kaplan's exclusive computer test-taking strategies.

Prepare with hundreds of practice questions to build your skills in the critical content areas of the GRE.

Practice with our challenging, full-length GRE, complete with a detailed explanation for every answer.

Score Higher with effective strategies and advice from Kaplan's expert instructors.

Even more practice online!

Special CD-ROM Features Include:
• 3 computer-adaptive practice tests
• 12 section-length practice tests
• In-depth review of GRE math concepts
• Personalized study plan
• More than 700 flash cards
• 7 question-type tutorials

For Windows®: Windows® 98, 98SE, NT 4.0, 2000, ME, XP, Pentium® 266 MHz, 15 MB hard disk space, 640 x 480 thousands of colors (millions recommended), 4x CD-ROM. Note: An Internet connection is required for the Web features of the program.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (June 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743251709
• ISBN-13: 978-0743251709
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,064,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

240 of 242 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use it, but not exclusively., November 19, 2004

By 

R. Ayyagari - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kaplan GRE Exam 2005 With CD-ROM (Paperback)

This is part review of Kaplan's book, part hints on what else is out there.

I wrote the GRE recently. I used both Barron's Book and Kaplan's to prepare. Barron's book was extremely useful. Kaplan's CD-ROM is quite useful. Kaplan's book itself contained only a little useful stuff. Kaplan's CD-ROM contains useful practice and helps you get accustomed to computer-based testing.

If you have a lot of time (3-4 months), solve every question or problem and memorize every meaning of all 3000+ words in Barron's book and CD-ROM. Solve everything Kaplan has in the book and CD-ROM. If you're a native English speaker, only about 1000-2000 are likely to be words you've never come across before. Get a program that randomly displays words (download a "flash cards" program). To be certain of a high score on the GRE, it is necessary to know the exact meanings of ALL these words in context. Solve Barron's CAT, all of Kaplan's CATs, and both PowerPrep CATs in the last 2-3 weeks. Write 3-4 issue topics and 3-4 argument topics every week of the last month.

If you have very little time (2-3 weeks), here's what might work for you (it worked for me). Buy both Barron and Kaplan. There are several GRE-centric flash card programs available online; you can download one. Learn Barron's 333 word list. Learn another 400 words that you don't know, picked at random from all the words in Barron's list. Practice about 20-30 sets of math exercises and as many reading comprehensions as you can (at least 50 sets). During the last week and a half, do Barron's CAT, all 3 of Kaplan's CATs and the 2 PowerPrep CATs. Don't forget to write at least 10 issue topics and 10 argument topics in all.

Sungwoo Park's free GRE word lists, available for download online, might prove very useful. A lot of free downloadable word-tutoring programs are based on these word lists; you might find them useful too.

While using Kaplan's material, watch out for the following.

1. Kaplan's math tests give you too much time. The same is true for Barron's math tests. Time is much tighter on the actual GRE exam. To get an idea of how much tighter, do Kaplan's CAT and then do the PowerPrep CAT. The PowerPrep CAT Quant section takes more time. Even if you finish each quant section with around 5-10 minutes to spare on Kaplan's CAT, you'll probably run out of time with 2-4 questions remaining on the PowerPrep CAT. Barron's math prep is pretty thorough, but it too overestimates the time you have on the GRE. I've found that "Peterson's Insider's Guide to the GRE CAT" approximates the GRE math time pressure very well. This book may be available at your local library.


2. Kaplan advocates learning words in families and indicates that the GRE tests whether you know the approximate meaning of each word. Learning in families is good, but to score really high you need to know the exact meaning of each word (or all of its meanings) in context. Just knowing which family each word belongs to is helpful, but it's not enough. Use Kaplan's word families, but also memorize Barron's word list.

3. Learning all the word lists in Kaplan's book or CD-ROM thoroughly will NOT prepare you for the GRE. Acing Kaplan's practice verbal sections means you're good enough to score around 600-700 on the GRE. The GRE demands knowledge of many more words than Kaplan has. Use Barron's word list.

4. Don't be misled by the increase of your score from Kaplan's diagnostic test to Kaplan's CAT. I did both on the same day. I did no studying in between. Yet my score improved considerably, probably because Kaplan's CAT gives you higher scores. Scoring higher on the CAT does NOT necessarily mean you've improved.

5. If you can, try practicing several reading comprehensions horizontally squished (if they're online, you could maybe cut and paste them into an editor, then resize the editor window into a narrow vertical bar). It is a fact that the GRE comprehensions are tough passages. But the fact that they're arranged in a narrow column makes them ridiculously hard to read.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of three books I used, January 18, 2005

By 

L. Nein "Neiner" (Eastern MidWest, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kaplan GRE Exam 2005 With CD-ROM (Paperback)

I recently took the GREs, and used the Kaplan, Barrons, and Princeton Reveiw books to study, as well as a math study aid. I found that the Kaplans CD Rom was the best study guide; not only did it have a diagnostic test, it also set up an entire study schedule that I had control over, as well as supplementary games and information about Grad School.

The lessons were well-focused, gave practice questions to make sure you were following along, and moved quickly. I was able to determine quickly where my weaknesses were, and tackle those directly.

The several practice tests, both on the CD and online, were really the critical element to my success. I took every practice test on the CD, online, and from the other books that were available. I got a great score, and I think it was primarily because Kaplan really pushes you to understand the mechanics of the test, then practice them over and over again.

My general advice to those taking the tests: set aside the time to take at least 5 priactice tests on the computer. Make sure you have a book that emphasizes how the test works. Take a day (or two) off before the exam.

The other books were fine; I felt that Kaplan really addressed the issues best. Highly recommended.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent CD, book could be better, September 2, 2005

By 

Silurian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kaplan GRE Exam 2005 With CD-ROM (Paperback)

Kaplan's GRE book, as many other reviewers have noted, is considerably more annoying and less comprehensive in its coverage than Barron's "How to prepare for the GRE test". Although the book is an impressive 352 pages long, much of the space on those pages is blank or taken up by facile "tips" such as "Your opinion of the test doesn't matter. Your score does." (No, really?)

Despite announcing at the beginning of of chapter 1 that it will cover "practically everything that's ever on the GRE", both the verbal and maths sections are weak compared to other GRE prep books and software on the market, with fewer examples that tend to be on the easy side. There are some notable exceptions - Kaplan's verbal tests on the CD threw some words at me that were way more obscure than anything that came up on the actual GRE, and there were a few quite difficult reading comp questions. Having said that, those who are already getting verbal scores in the 600s and are aiming higher will find Kaplan's word lists inadequate and should not be mislead by the book's assertion that knowing the general sense of a word is okay - for the harder questions on the GRE you need to know the exact meaning.

However, if you're after a top score and money is not an issue, this book is probably worth buying solely for the CD. The CD has 3 full length tests (including analytical writing) which are a pretty good simulation of the real thing, as well as 6 additional verbal and quantitative tests. Having recently taken the GRE, I can say that doing these tests was extremely helpful, partly for the content (all the answers for the non-CAT tests are worked so that you can see where you went wrong), but mostly because the tests are both computer based and punishingly timed. For me, one of the biggest challenges was learning when to keep working at a question and when to guess and move on before I ran out of time. I also found the CD's verbal and math lessons quite useful. While they are thinner on concrete content than Barron's book, the tutorials are often quite funny and include genuinely useful strategies and ways of thinking about problems that I found helpful on the actual test. There is also less posturing and shameless Kaplan-self-promotion on the CD than in the book.

Despite the fact that the book's tone got on my nerves, the CD formed an integral part of my GRE prep program, along with Barron's book and the ETS issued powerprep software. I ended up getting 800 verbal and 770 quantitative - there's no such thing as too many practice tests!