Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (w/ CD-ROM) (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom))

If you are totally confident in your abilities, then this book is probably extraneous if you already own the official guide. But if you are not, this book can be a handy supplement to provide some useful test-taking strategies (particularly for data sufficiency) and as a source of extra practice questions.

The CD-ROM and online content is useful in providing an additional source of practice tests and quizzes. The real benefit of these is that they are all timed. I found the practice tests here to be harder than the ones on the official GMAT website, and it appears that wrong answers here exact a greater penalty than the actual test. My practice tests using the CD-ROM ranged from 550-610 even just a few days before I took the test, but I ended up with over 700. This is incredibly discouraging and I would advise that buyers do not put too much store by these.

Apart from the official guide, there isn't much to choose from out there so Kaplan provides a needed resource.


* Questions don't reflect the same degree of difficulty as the real test but at least there is an attempt to present new material as opposed to the "real" questions that you will come across in other resources.

* The coaching style Kaplan adopts in offering advice on strategies is useful. Timing is always an issue so a good tip I would offer is apply the strategies to your weak areas first and test them out.

* Still on timing but from another perspective, whilst everyone is different, Kaplan should recommend a specific prep time and not sit on the fence. Realistically, prepping for the real test requires more than a month - and before you shout you did it in less (!) I'm talking about the least stressful approach.

* Neither the official guide nor Kaplan tackle the complexity of the math tests - I would recommend additional resources if you are weak in this area - possibly EZ.

If you are only just embarking on this path, I suggest that you take your first practice test "cold", i.e. without referring to any guide whatsoever. THEN start your coaching program. You will find the measurable improvement as you continue to take practice tests (and you should take as many as you can)will motivate you and give you the confidence you need to keep going!

In conclusion, could you pass the test without this book - perhaps, but why take a chance? It's not perfect but it's very good. Is there a better one out there? I haven't come across it yet so if someone else has, would be glad to hear of it.

I hope this helps someone out there.

This is a helpful guide to studying for the GMAT, but not an exhaustive one. I recommend using it at the start of your GMAT studies to get a good introduction to the test's mechanics and a general sense of each section. For practice questions and more in-depth, area-specific review, look elsewhere.

The book provides a succinct, easy-to-understand summary of each section and the key takeaways, but if you have any area-specific weaknesses or knowledge gaps, this book will not be enough. For example, there's a great section in the back that provides a review of almost all the basic math knowledge you'll need to have down cold, but the explanations given are short and sometimes represent only one way (and not always the fastest or simplest way) of doing a particular type of problem. Knowing all the basic math is not enough; you have to know how to apply it in many different ways under time-constrained conditions. The Kaplan guide is not going to fill that need for you, and in fact, if you use some of Kaplan's strategies (e.g., plugging in numbers) without a good grasp of the underlying principles, you could be worse off because the GMAT is designed precisely to trip you up on such mental shortcuts.

The practice questions skew toward the difficult side and answer explanations vary from decent to good, but as other reviewers have mentioned, some of the questions are not representative of the actual types of questions you will see on the GMAT. I also noticed a few typos and question errors sprinkled throughout the book and the CD, which seemed sloppy for a guide book to a test where attention to detail is key, and one that has already gone through multiple editions.

In short, if I could do it all over again, this is how I would use the book: at the start of my prepping, read over the strategy sections to get a basic understanding of the GMAT, and later on in my studies, do the practice questions once I've exhausted all Official Guide practice material and have those down cold.

This is my first GMAT guide so far but I have found it very helpful. Every section reviews standard test taking as if you have never taken one before. Also, it goes into deep enough details that you feel comfortable when taking all of the sample tests. This book may not be the only book that one should purchase before taking the GMAT, but it is a helpful tool towards doing well.

I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to prep for the GMAT. I had previously purchased a Kaplan book in prep to take the PCAT- and it was a great preparation for that test, so I had no hesitation in going to Kaplan a second time for GMAT prep. The format for GMAT was unlike any other test I had taken, but this Kaplan book was right on with explaining how to tackle the different types of questions they throw at you.
I didn't have much time to prepare for the test, so I focused mainly on my weak areas (in math!) - and ended up getting a 600 , enough to get into my intended program.