Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE (Graduate Record Exam) Math Workbook, Sixth Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book in an attempt to review high school math concepts that I hadn't used in over a decade. It far exceeded my expectations. There are chapters for basic review of each of the math concepts tested on the GRE--and most helpful, at the end of the book, there are 3 chapters that combine all the concepts into problem solving questions exactly like those that are likely to appear on the test iteself. Furthermore, the explanations are clear and easy to understand. I took the GRE last week and was stunned when I saw my math scores. I have already recommended this book to friends who are long out of high school!

This book didn't really work for me. One of the things that frustrated me most was that the information provided in the chapters (which is really long and which I read all of) didn't prepare me much at all for the practice questions/tests or for the questions I saw on the actual GRE. I spent practically all of my allotted study time reading these long chapters thinking they would fill me in on what I don't know about math (which is a lot), but really they just cover the most basic things in the GRE-impractical order of theme (arithmetic, algebra, geometry), without giving you a clue how to decide what skills to use on the more complex problems of the GRE (fine, I understand how to use FOIL, but I have no idea how to figure out when to use it on the test). Another problem is that the explanations in the answer key are hard to understand (the jump between the difficulty level of the chapter information and the problems/explanations in most of the chapters is so great it seems like they weren't written together at all), and there are also mistakes in the answer key (#7 in the lines and angles test, for example). I also found it annoying that the author of the chapters seems more concerned with providing his/her version of a solid background in basic GRE-level math than with actually preparing us for the test (for example, insisting on using math terms instead of plain English in situations where plain English would work just as well, or including unnecessary information - on page 35, "you'll never actually have to calculate the standard deviation on test day, but here's how it's calculated...," etc.). In retrospect, I really wish I had started with the free GRE Powerprep software and its Math Review, which is a 69-page free pdp file. What I used of Kaplan's Premier Edition book/CD also seemed pretty good. Maybe after all of that, if I'd had months to study, the difficult practice questions in this math workbook could have been handy. Reading it from the beginning like I did, though, was a terrible waste of my time.

I strongly feel that some of the reviews of this book posted here are too harsh. Judging from a few of the comments, it seems that some might expect this to prepare them for the GRE Math Subject Test - which is very different from this book's intention, which is to prepare one for the math section of the General Test. The level of difficulty of the problems is not too hard - if you're looking to score a 800, this may not be the book for you - but it's perfect for those of us struggling to get over the 650 mark. The practice problems, for the most part, realistically resemble what one might encounter on the acutal test, and there are only a few GRE-tested math subjects that don't appear in this book. In just over a week of studying primarily with this book, I went from practice tests in the mid-600's range to a 720 on the actual test, so it definitely seemed to be a good investment.

If you're looking for a book to prep you for the quantitative section of the GRE, this workbook by Kaplan is not a comprehensive prep book. I personally found Barron's to be the best guide in helping me with the Math section of the GRE. I bought this book thinking it would a good practice book, but I found it to be average and the practice questions are much easier than the questions I found on the actual GRE.

I thought this would be a complete math review but it doesn't even go through the probabilities and the questions are way easier than the actual tests. If you have no knowledge of the math part it would work but if you are looking for high math score this is definitely not enough.

Don't waste your time and money buying this book! It wasn't helpful at all! I found that Baaron's Math part is really comprehensive and educative. This book is very easy and has nothing to do with real GRE exam. I would also recommend to subscribe for some internet quiz to do better on actual test. Good luck everyone!

This book is just ok as far as a review of math goes. I haven't touched this kind of math in ages; therefore, I am relearning the material. This book does not go far enough into the explanations of the answers. It just simply gives the answers without explaining how the problem got solved. That is not helpful if you are not getting the correct answers and you feel you are doing everything right. I would not suggest this book to anyone for that reason, unless you have a solid grasp on the material and just need some practice.

I am not a math genius by any means! This book is a great refresher and review of all of that high school math you tried to block out of your mind. Not to mention it provides a rationale to the answers (which is somthing that I most certainly benefit from).

This one is just, excellent, may I say GRE maths for dummies!!!, having trouble with quantitative section...this is for you

The explanations are good as far as they go, but they do not explain some of the harder math that shows up on the GRE like permutations and more advanced algebra. I took the GRE today and, although I scored 800 on both sections, the math definitely felt more difficult than the 'advanced' problems I had looked at in this book last night. I was shocked when I got my score and I guess I was lucky, but if you want to be sure of doing really well, I would look for more challenging practice and in depth review than this book provides.