Customer Reviews

McGraw-Hill's ASVAB with CD-Rom (McGraw-Hill's ASVAB (W/CD))

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

 

 

This is definitely a good study guide. I used this before taking the ASVAB and scored an 87, which is pretty damn good. Worth every penny. Good luck to all who use this!

This is an awful product. I have completed most of the tests on this book in preparation for the ASVAB and concluded without a doubt after the third test that:

1)As another reviewer mentioned, several answers from each test have been transposed so that where you answered A, you'll get in wrong, only to read the explanation and discover you are correct. Or, worse yet, not realize you were right and memorize the wrong answer.

2)The test got the Volume of a Sphere wrong EVERY time. Every time, every test, it claims 4/3piRsquared again and again. A sphere formula must be cubed... as it's, you know, three dimensional. Fortunately, all of it's other formulas were correct... though, I still feel quite ashamed for the test writer for this book.

3)There are MANY more mathematical mistakes where, after testing and re-trying the problem several times, the correct answer is clearly not present.

4)The additional CD that comes with this product is simply a re-arrangement of the problems in the book. I've yet to run into any problems unique to the CD after attempting three tests, save for some algebra variations on constants in the math sections.

5)I decided I would be helpful and send some of the errors I had cataloged to McGraw-Hill, only to find that the website that they have in the book does not have any customer service, the link that you're supposed to use to report errors is broken, and all of the phone numbers don't work. So, save for writing them a letter, I think I've tried hard enough to fix stupid. By the way, you can't fix stupid. This book is a lost cause.

So, the only useful portion of this book was the Word Knowledge. I'm skeptical about the electrical, auto & shop, and mechanical portions because I'm worried that I've even been reading the right answers for just about everything except perhaps Ohm's Law.

Avoid this product and purchase something you can trust.

Do not buy. This book contradicts itself many times. In the lessons and on the tests. Be careful if you decide to buy this book anyway despite my review. On the tests you may answer the question (by choosing "a", "b", etc.) and flip to the answer page to find that you answered "c" and it says the correct answer is "a". But if you also look at the full answer description you'll find that the answer truly was "c". This will be very confusing as the answer key and answer explanation page are two different things. Always double check or you'll end up more confused then when you started.

This is a horrible review item...many of the problem types (especially math) were not ever tested on the ASVAB. Never did I answer a question about "Which gears will be rotating in the same direction" yet every practice test contains 2-4 questions of this type. The real ASVAB is much more difficult, and this book prepares you for an average score at best.
Another example is the section on assembling objects. It tells you the types of questions the ASVAB tests you on, and then gives you completly different types of problems.
I'm giving this book two stars (instead of one) because the CD-Rom was nice to use, but really didn't ask good questions. Another reason for two stars instead of one is that I took the CAT-ASVAB, and who knows, maybe the paper and pencil version of the test is similar to practice tests in this book.