Kaplan GMAT 800, 2005-2006 (Paperback)

by Kaplan (Author) "Do you like to point out the assumptions in others' arguments?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Critical Reasoning, Data Sufficiency, Soviet Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Students who want to get into a top business school need top scores on the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). KAPLAN GMAT 800, 2005-2006 EDITION offers high-achieving students extra practise on the most difficult test questions. Rather than practise tests or review material, KAPLAN GMAT 800, 2005-2006 EDITION contains hundreds of the toughest practise questions and strongest strategies to help students prepare for the exam. Kaplan, the only test prep publisher to offer a higher score guarantee, has incorporated the strategies and techniques developed in its leading GMAT prep course into this guide, featuring: * Hundreds of the toughest practice questions with strategic answer explanations, plus tips and techniques for answering them quickly and accurately * Powerful strategies for every question type on the GMAT * Focused approaches to the hardest math concepts on the GMAT Filled with expert strategies and the most challenging practise questions, KAPLAN GMAT 800, 2005-2006 EDITION is the ideal study companion for achieving success on this crucial exam.

About the Author
Kaplan

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Education (February 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743265289
• ISBN-13: 978-0743265287
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #193,209 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, Excellent verbal practice, July 6, 2005

By	PlonyAlmoni (Israel) - See all my reviews

I am finally over with the GMAT... what a nice feeling :)
I decided to try and save some money and study on my own using all the books I could find. I used:

* Kaplan 800 (2005-2006)
* Kaplan 2005
* Princeton 2003
* The Official Guide
* Barron 2000
* Kaplan and Princeton CD-ROMs.

I found the GMAT 800 very useful, especially in the verbal section. While doing the drills I was getting about half of them wrong, which allowed me to improve by learning from my mistakes. The Reading Comprehension passages are simply the ugliest one can imagine - Very good preparation for the exam.
The critical reasoning questions also had some nice edges to them and confusing answers to choose from (Reading the explanations removed the confusion and helped me understand the reasoning behind the answers)
Oh, and the Sentence Correction... These were a joy! Some very tough ones in that section and they touch all the types of questions that can be found in the exam.

The math section was o.k. It has the toughest math questions from all the books, but still not close enough to the real exam, and here I really felt there were too few question.

If had to choose two books to study with, I would choose this book and the official guide (and the CD-ROMs)

Overall this is an excellent book, either as a first book to introduce the different types of questions, or as a review of hard questions a week before the exam.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sample problems, September 21, 2005

By	Jordan Michel (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kaplan's GMAT 800 offers the most challenging sample problems for students who want a top score.

I raised my score 60 points from 650 on my first Powerprep run to 710 on the actual test with only three weeks of prep. Using both Kaplan and Princeton Review books offers the perfect well-rounded preparation. Princeton Review offers advice on how to read the questions and eliminate answers. ButKaplan has the advantage in sample problems (challenging and, for the most part, well-explained).

In my mind, Princeton Review seems to have less respect for the test. They want you to beat it by understanding its design amd seeing through its tricks. Kaplan, on the other hand, wants to help you do well through thorough review of the material. Both are important appraoches, and they complement each other well.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for the Potential High Scorer, November 5, 2005

By	Po Wing Hong Ronald "Capstone Prep" (Asia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Kaplan GMAT 800 book is a great study guide in tandem with the 11th Edition (or 10th) Official GMAT Guide. DO NOT RELY SOLELY on this book. The GMAT 800 book does indeed do what it promises to - offer more difficult level questions. However, don't be mistaken into thinking that practicing and getting all hard level questions right automatically means getting a 700+ on the real GMAT. The GMAT format is ADAPTIVE, which means that you start out with medium (and easy) level questions which progress if you continue to improve.

Although working on GMAT 800 questions trains your brain to work through more challenging questions on the real GMAT, students might start to miss the short cuts that are available to many answers near the beginning of the real GMAT. Additionally, students who have an issue with consistency will face great problems if they only work with hard questions. Hard questions force you to double-check, easy questions is a killer for many test-takers because they forget to double-check the most simplest of questions (which causes them to get questions wrong in the beginning of the test - subsequently, they won't even get to the more difficult questions no matter how much they prepared for them).


This book should be for students who consistently get 80-90% above accuracy in the Official Guide. The Official Guide is definitely easier than the real test for 600+ scorers. So if you practice the Official book for accuracy and timing, and the GMAT 800 book for challenge sets, you will be in a good position to do well on the test. Additionally, if you are self-preparing (which I assume many of the readers here are), you want to get one of the more "normal" level guides from either Kaplan or Princeton Review to lay the foundation for the basic strategy.

Full Disclaimer:
I oversee a test preparation center located in Hong Kong (Capstone Prep), and part of our job is to make sure our courses are updated and presented to the best and most stringet of standards. To that effect, I filter through nearly all test prep books in the market (for the SAT, GMAT, LSAT, GRE and TOEFL). We have on affiliations with Kaplan or Princeton Review, in fact, they are our competitors here. However, their guides are great resources for those that wish to go at the exams alone.