Customer Reviews

Princeton Review: Cracking the GMAT CAT with Sample Tests on CD-ROM, 2000 Edition (Cracking the Gmat With Sample Tests on DVD)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have a business preparing people for the GMAT and I *never* use this book. Most of our students need much more than this book has to offer. Basically, Princeton Review does not give you all the information they have because they want you to take their course. As they say, people sign up for the course just to get the books!

This book will show you what to expect on the GMAT, but it won't clear up any of the serious problems you may have. For example, if you are scoring pretty high in the math, like 80% or so, you will need to focus on more difficult questions and this book does not have enough of them.

All of their sentence correction problems also neatly fall into their categories, but, alas, these are not the questions that most people have problems with, it is the tricky questions that people have a hard time with.

The software is so-so. It's better than the Peterson's (almost everything is), but not as good as the Kaplan. The best, of course, is the official PowerPrep software. I have had many problems with students getting over 600 on the Princeton Review software, but getting 100 or 200 points less on the real test!

In short, you should buy a good test prep book to use along with the official GMAT review. There is no one book that will give you everything you need.

I found that the Princeton Review guide along with the ETS PowerPrep and the Official Guide to the GMAT to be very representative of the actual test. I took one of the Princeton Review CAD test the morning of my actual GMAT test and made the exact same score on both. I also used Kaplan but found my test results much lower than what I actually scored.

I was using the Kaplan and Cambridge books and consistently getting 580s on the practice tests. I got the Princeton Review on the Friday before my Wednesday test and cracked down. This book teaches you WHAT you need to know, not some general knowledge review like other study guides. The only downside is that the math sample tests seemed a bit easer than the real thing. I finished all of the practice tests in plenty of time, but on the real GMAT I had to guess on the last 12 math problems during the last two minutes. Final result 660!

Good Luck

Brought my score up 110 points. Helps to quickly diagnose your weakest points and helps you bring them up to par. I spent a week with this book and quickly brought my score up to where it should have been.

Tests given on the CD are roughly the same as those on the real GMAT as far as difficulty level, etc. I highly recommend this book. I would also supplement my test preparation with the Powerprep software/book from ETS.

I used this book in conjunction with the "Official Guide for GMAT Review" by ETS. This book teaches great techniques for the GMAT. The "Official Guide" is really only good for the practice problems.

Using both of them really helped. I scored a 760!

The only book I purchased and the only one I needed. The CD-Rom worked perfectly and the practice tests were nearly identical to the actual GMAT - my score was exactly what I got on the last practice test. If you do not have a lot of time to study before you take the test, I highly recommend this book!

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL OF YOU FOR INTRICATELY PUTTING TOGETHER ONE OF THE FINEST STUDY GUIDES AVAILABLE. LARGELY DUE TO YOUR STUDY GUIDE I SCORED A 630 ON THE GMAT, AND I CANNOT THANK YOU MORE!!!

What can you do for me? It is more like "What can I do for you?"!! Thanks to your review books, I just scored a 730 on the GMAT. Thanks, Princeton Review, for helping me out so much. Your study aids and test methods were outstanding.

This book offers some valuable tips and suggestions especially for cracking math. But overall it focuses more on the "Joe Blogg" tips and tricks approach, which may work for some people and not for others. I still believe knowing sincerely how to solve problems will get you far. But the PR book makes for an interesting read, gives you some excellent strategies (e.g., about the essay sections etc) and does the best job of introducing the concept of "difficulty level bins" -- which is how the CAT works. For those about to take the GMAT, some tips:

1. Definitely get yourself the 'Official Guide' (published by ETS) -- that is indespensable. You should aim to complete it from cover to cover - it gives you a really good idea of the test questions though the math is a liitle easier than what I saw on the test. It even has a comprehensive, complete list of essay topics. I worked with the 10th edition, the latest possible edition would be a good buy lest you should miss out on some novel nuances.

2. Practice tests -- my scores in Powerprep : 780,770; Kaplan : 670,650,690; Princeton : 750,720. So I'd venture to recommend this book to get a decent estimation of where you really stand, and therefore u must take the included tests seriously -- i.e., emulating the real testing conditions -- in order to get an accurate idea of your potential. Kaplan is really tough - I haven't seen too many folks scoring above 700 in thier tests - infact when i gave the first test straight after a 780 in powerprep and got a 650 I was pretty turned off - but later found out that it wasn't really a big deal. Get Kaplan for practice, but the PR and the official guide should be enough.

3. PREP MATERIAL: Well other than the Official guide, I used PR and Kaplan. I found the math tips in Kaplan (50 of them) quite impressive but the practice tests in PR give you a very good idea of difficulty levels of math/analytic because it lays out the test in "bins" (easy bin, medium bin, and the tough bin). I found this to be a very unique and useful feature.

All in all, this is a handy book for its purpose and complements the ETS OG fabulously. Recommended, if you are looking for more than one book.

The review provided by this book and CD are adequate, but notoutstanding. A lot of time is spent teaching test-taking tricks,which is time and paper that could have been better spent withadditional examples.

I studied on and off from this book for about 4 days, and completed 2 test sub-sections and 2 other complete tests from the CD that comes with the book. On each of the complete tests, my score was exactly the same -- 730. I just sat for the actual GMAT exam this morning and scored a 660. I took the GMAT (paper version) a little over 5 years ago (and about 1 yr out of undergrad) and scored a 690 with little more than a day or two preparation.

Did this prep material really do anything for me? You make the call.