17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
99th percentile, January 7, 2009
This review is from: Kaplan MAT, 2009-2010 Edition (Paperback)
I followed the recommendations of this book, used the supplied study guides, took the practice tests, and received a score in the 99th percentile when I took the actual test. I suppose that says it all.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Increases your score!, October 7, 2008
This review is from: Kaplan MAT, 2009-2010 Edition (Paperback)
I am so glad that I purchased this book in preparing for the MAT. Going through the book as recommended, not only refreshed and expanded my knowledge base, but the sample tests gave me a timing and ease for the actual MAT test taking. Some of the actual test questions were familiar after studying Kaplan's book.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Practice Test Makes Perfect Test!, January 24, 2010
This review is from: Kaplan MAT, 2009-2010 Edition (Paperback)
The thing about the MAT is that it really is like Jeopardy, you have to mentally reverse words and meanings, and most of all, you have to be able to spit out random useless facts very quickly. You never know what questions you're gonna get, so studying for the MAT might seem impossible, but it really isn't a good idea just to walk into the testing center without totally knowing what you're in for, and this book should give you a good idea.
Bottom line - I'm not sure if the information in this book enabled me to answer more questions correctly (Some of the review stuff came in handy, Greek gods, atomic symbols, historical figures, vocabulary...), but taking the practice tests was great for - well, practice. Before purchasing this book, I had taken that official Pearson practice test (which costs 30 bucks to access, and you can only take it once!), and done well, but had taken twice as long as would be allowed on the actual test. After only a few days of studying/practice, this book gave me the mental exercise I needed in order to spit out those analogies, not just correctly, but quickly. So when the time came for the real thing, I had ten or so minutes left at the end to check my work. This, I attribute to this book.
That said, I should note that I found the practice tests in this book to be considerably HARDER than the official Pearson practice test and the real test itself. I cannot quite say how it was harder, but it was. However, I'd say that this is a good thing - may as well practice on the real brain-stretchers, and it really put me at ease while taking the real test, because it felt easy in comparison.
My only major complaint is the percentile tables featured in the book (that are supposed to help you get a better idea of how well you did on the practice tests, because raw score doesn't tell you much) are confusing. The table is supposed to help you convert your raw score into a percentile, but the raw scores on the table only go up to 100, but there are 120 questions on each test. The book explains that on the real test, 20 of the 120 questions are experimental, and don't count, but the book's practice tests/percentile table doesn't take this into account, so I wasn't sure what percentile I was in. I found this extremely frustrating.
However, all's well that ends well - on the real test, I placed in the 96th percentile.
Further advice general advice: chances are, you have the choice to do the GRE instead. If you are good at doing math in your head, then go for the GRE. But if you're like me, and stink at math and/or have already died on the quantitative section of the GRE, AND just so happen to be pretty good at Jeopardy, then the MAT is probably a good route.
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