Kaplan GMAT Premier Program, 2009 (Book & CD-ROM)

I purchased this book at the book store about a month ago. I made my decision after paging through many of the GMAT options and deciding this appeared the most comprehensive. My perception at the time that Kaplan was a high quality company also factored into my choosing it. After all, when I was in high school, Kaplan had the best reputation of all the test preparation companies. I was shocked by how bad this book is once I began working through it. The book is littered with typos, conceptual errors (no joke!), and conflicting statements. This book has caused me confusion, wasted time, and considerable frustration (both with the book and Kaplan itself). I have used a lot of different test prep books in the past and this was by far the worst.

Another bad part is that when I asked for my money back they refused to give it because I don't have the receipt. I explained that I didn't keep the receipt because I knew I'd be writing in it and highlighting, etc; and there is no way that I could anticipate that a reputable company would put out a book of such low quality. This did not help. They explained that even if I still had the receipt there would have been a process for me to try to get any money back, that I would not be able to get all of my money back, and that I would additionally have to pay shipping and handling to send it to them.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK - it is the worst test prep book I have ever used, and I've used over 10 for various tests over the years. What Kaplan has done by selling this book and continuing to sell it is borderline theft (considering that people like me have reported the countless errors, inconsistencies, miss-statements, etc). Kaplan continues to market and sell what it knows is a terrible and flawed product to unknowing and unassuming students. The only people who could have possibly given this book a 4 or 5 star review are either working for Kaplan or did not read the book carefully (especially the math section - which is almost half the book).

I've heard that kaplan under calculates your CAT scores by 100 but when I actually did it, I found the practice tests pretty ridiculous. Its not because the questions are harder, but the fact that the scoring algorithm intentionally underestimates your score significantly.
Ex: the official practice test gave me a 660, where as kaplan gave me a 560.

Also the CAT math sections are full of errors. The verbal sections have a real problem it comes to double spacing. Its really annoying when you have spend time to distinguish between when the passage ends and when the actual question begins. I also found a reading passage where the final paragraph was full of wingdings and incomplete sentences. Some Critical reasoning questions are really unsolvable. I remember one question that assumed a higher draft pick always resulted in a better team winning record.

Another problem I have with the test is the horrible explanations. Really really dissapointing, especially on sentence correction.

Comparing Kaplan to Manhattan GMAT, which has really tough questions but also very detailed explanations, Kaplan seems to have been written by some of the most careless people ever. It really takes a lot of guts for a company to publish something that was this full of errors.

First, I don't understand all the complaints about errors and typos. I did every problem in this book and understood the solutions when I read the answer explanations of problems I got wrong. I did not encounter errors. (I ultimately scored a 730.) I can't help but wonder if some of the "errors" people found were answers they just didn't understand. (A reviewer of the Official Guide here on Amazon proved that point by bringing up a specific example s/he quoted as the book's mistake, but other users explained why s/he was wrong.)

Now, the problems are not all great, and that is why you need the official guide for most of your additional un-timed practice, but Kaplan was worth it for the computer practice: 4 full length timed practice tests and extra timed problem sections. With just the two free from gmac, I would not have learned to adjust my timing enough. ***Note** DO NOT uninstall or reinstall your Kaplan computer software, or try to install it on another computer, or "reset" your tests. It screws up ALL of the 4 practice tests and you will see repeat questions.****

The Kaplan approach to writing the essays was useful. Most of their "techniques" I think are pretty obvious, but are still helpful reminders to read, such as the "picking numbers" or "working backwards" approaches to certain quant. problems.

I used the Kaplan guide and the official GMAT study guide to prepare for the GMAT. I first went throught the Kaplan guide cover to cover. I found the math review to be very helpful, and some of the test taking tips were useful. However, once I began reviewing the official GMAT study guide it became apparent that the practice questions in the Kaplan quide weren't quite accurate reflections of what the actual questions would look like. Practicing questions is the key to success in taking the GMAT. I've read some reviews in which people say you should only study the harder questions in the official review guide if you are finding the questions too easy, but I disagree. The key to doing well is to understand how the question writers try to trip you up, and you can only get to this point by practicing as many questions as possible. I went through every question in the GMAT study guide and by the end I could really begin to anticipate what the question writers were looking for. I ended up getting a 740. To summarize: the math review and some of the tips in the Kaplan guide are somewhat helpful, but I wouldn't waste much time on their practice questions. The practice questions in the official guide are indespensable - complete every one and review your incorrect answers and you will do well.

This is my first GMAT study guide, and the first standardized test study guide I've used in over a decade. The Verbal section was pretty good. It had a few frustrating errors but none that kept me from learning the material. The Math section, however, is awful. As others have mentioned elsewhere, why would the Kaplan folks ask you to check your answers using a calculator when it clearly says elsewhere in the book that you CANNOT use any kind of electronic device (including calculators) during the actual GMAT test?

Math errors in the answer sections, test sections and even explanations abound. As I'm weaker in Math, such incompetence doesn't help me at all, and it's especially galling when you consider how much you pay for this book. The explanations also tend to be far more complicated than they should be, throwing in terms that are introduced LATER in the book. My husband provided me with far simpler and more understandable explanations to some of the terms and concepts.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book. I'm going to slog through the rest of this and then pick up the Princeton Review as well as the book the GMAT folks themselves publish. I MIGHT try the Kaplan 800 series, but if their quality is anything like that of this one, I just might pass.