Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE Subject Test: Psychology, 2009-2010 Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am perfectly happy that I bought this book, because it did exactly what I had hoped it would do - help me score in the 99th percentile (830) on the psych GRE. But it is not enough by itself! If you rely on this book as your primary means of test preparation, you probably won't get a stellar score.

This book was only ONE PART of my overall preparation strategy. More important to my preparation was reading a Psych 101 textbook. Specifically, I bought a cheap used copy of Gleitman's introductory psych book (Psychology - 6th (Sixth) Edition) and read it section by section. When I completed a section of the textbook (e.g. Sensation and Perception), I would go the Kaplan book and read the corresponding chapter there. That way I covered the material twice. After reading both the textbook and the Kaplan chapter, I would then go to the website for the Gleitman textbook where you can find online quizzes and vocabulary reviews. After taking the quizzes online, I knew if there were any areas I didn't understand and/or needed to review further. Fortunately, there are lots of resources on the web for studying any areas you need to work on.

And of course I made flashcards of vocabulary, theories, and important psychologists. And I took practice tests. And I re-reviewed everything. A lot. Basically what I'm saying is that it takes a good amount of time and effort. The Kaplan review book isn't going to work miracles by itself.

While the Kaplan review book was helpful in my preparation, in my opinion it has two deficiencies. 1.) The methodology and statistics section of the book is not thorough enough. Do what I did and go to internet to get bit more information on things like ANOVAs and factorial design. 2.) The practice tests are almost worthless. They are incredibly poorly written (as far as diagnostic tests go), and in no way do they approximate the real Psych GRE tests. I took the first one, but I didn't bother with the second. Do yourself a favor and find the real ones.

It has been 10 years since I graduated with my bachelor's in psych, so I had forgotten a fair amount of stuff. Despite that, using the Kaplan book as an important part of my preparation, I managed to score very well on the test. If you devote a few months to your preparation and take it seriously, you should be able to do the same. If you don't, I'm not sure how much this book is going to help you.

This book is full of typos, spelling errors, and errors in formatting. Also, there is at least one incomplete sentence in the section about REM- I had to look up the topic in other books to figure out what they were trying to say. I have very little confidence in the book, so I've been studying it along with textbooks on each topic. It makes me think that if they spent so little time editing maybe they didn't spend adequate time fact checking either. I'm about to go out and buy a different company's prep book.

This book was by-far the best study tool I had for preparing to take the Psych GRE. The information is laid out in a way that makes studying easier. My favorite part overall are the two practice tests that are included in the book. I took these tests after finishing all of the material and scored a 710 both times. This is also the score I got when I took the practice test that ETS sends you. I just got my scores back from the Nov. 2008 test date and I got a 710!! These practice exams were extremely reliable indicators of how I did on the the test. I highly recommend this book!

Not a bad prep book, but every word of every page is the same as earlier editions. Only the cover is different. Get an earlier edition.

I bought both the princeton review book and this kaplan one, and I barely looked at the princeton book. This book is packed full of information presented in a way that was very easy to understand. I actually was able to understand concepts that I couldn't comprehend in class. It does an excellent job reviewing subjects that are most likely to appear on the pscyhology subject exam, and focuses on some big names that always apppear.

Now for the bad. This book was full of information, but it helped immensely that I had already taken almost all the classes the test was testing, with the exception of social psych, so the basic concepts were a review. I just recently took the test, and I found it was A LOT more specific than the material covered in this kaplan book. The practice exam I received from ETS was a much better predictor of what the test would be like, how specific and tricky some of the questions can get. I mean, I know Milgram's experiment in and out, and I still got a question on the test that I had to think about. In order to do well, you cannot just study this book.

Specifically, the physiological psychology and sensation and perception portions of the real test asked much more in depth questions than were even mentioned in the kaplan book. I really wish I had spent more time studying other materials in conjunction with this book. That said, this book is incredibly good for brushing up the basics in a short amount of time, and a lot of important key concepts are included that are necessary to know for the test.

I have both Kaplan and The Princeton Review. I have studied from both. The latter is unprofessional in ways I would not expect from such a large company. Kaplan in comparison is actually quite good. It is detailed and has some reasonable explanations. If I had to pick one it would most definitely be Kaplan's.

I just took my GRE subject test a few days ago. And I only studied Kaplan's book for my exam. It was extremely helpful. I enjoyed reading it, and most of the questions on the test were covered in the book. However, there were some terms and names that the book did not cover(e.g. didactic behavioral therapy, relational aggression, ...)

Overall, not a bad study guide. There are three main problems:

1) Poor editing. "Tryon" and "Tyron" are both used, alternating within the same paragraph. "Erickson" and "Erikson" is another example, and there are countless others. There are also nonsense sentences. P34 states:

"Milgram commented that measure obtained at institution, rather than another, are irrelevant in terms of interpreting the findings in many areas of psychology."

I'm sure he commented no such thing. You could insert a few words to make it grammatically correct, but it's still pretty poor wording.

Even worse is a definition on p132: "The term for evolutionary development in humans is phelogeny [sic] (there's a good chance it will appear on the test)." They spell "phylogeny" wrong AND define it wrong (it's not specific to humans), while promising us it will be on the test!

2) Some concepts seem to have been invented just for this book, because they don't turn up on the internet. "Errors of growth" and "overregulation" are used to describe a concept more precise than the words let on, and I can't corroborate them with other sources.

3) I don't know how detailed my knowledge must be in certain subjects. There's no way I'm memorizing Erikson's 8 stages of psychosocial development, with all their nooks and crannies... unless I really have to. Beats me if I do!

Overall, it's helpful, but I doubt it can be used alone. Like others, I'm supplementing with the Princeton Review guide.

EDIT: I almost want to give it an extra star for an incredibly amusing mnemonic device suggested. Upon implicating the anterior hypothalamus in sexual behavior, they recommend remembering a list for the four activities of the hypothalamus as a whole: "...think of 'the four Fs': feeding, fighting, fleeing, and sexual functioning."

Although this book had some formatting errors, it certainly provided a decent review for the psychology subject GRE. I used this book with the Princeton Review text (there was lots of overlap, but the books differed on a few content areas). I ended up in the 99th percentile (which is similar to what I got on their practice test after studying).

While this is a pretty good outline of the material, it is full of typos and blatantly wrong information. Did they not bother to edit it? I was actually so frustrated with having to consult other texts in order to gather correct information that I wrote Kaplan an email, but never heard back. This book was extremely disappointing, considering that it is published by such a well-known, supposedly well-respected company. It is unlikely that I will ever use Kaplan products again.