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Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800) | 
| Author: Kaplan
Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
Category: Book
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 140463
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1419550969
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.0076
EAN: 9781419550966
Publication Date: March 6, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Useful supplement to official GMAT guides August 11, 2007
56 out of 63 found this review helpful
Now that the GMAT has issued a revised 11th edition of the Official Guide for GMAT Review, plus new supplementary official guides for both the verbal and quantitative sections of the test, the case for spending additional hard-earned money and scarce study time on the Kaplan review prep book is not as strong as it used to be. On the other hand, a case can be made. While the questions in the official GMAT books have the advantage of being actual test questions rather than Kaplan attempts to emulate the well vetted questions written by ETS (and recently Pearson Vue), most of the official guides' questions have already appeared in the 10th edition of the official GMAT guide, which means that if you have the previous edition, you won't get much additional questions by buying the newer official GMAT books. Although the new GMAT books offer what the publisher calls "improved" explanations, many of the explanations for the reading passages and analytic reasoning sections are still useless and circular -- like answer D is correct because answer D is, uhm, correct. (I find the math explanations to be adequate, however.) In addition, because the computer administered test is adaptive, offering harder questions as you continue to get right answers, the Official Guide GMAT book questions won't be representative of the actual mix you will get when you actually take the test, particularly if you are likely to be a high scorer, in which case the hardest 20% in the GMAT book will be more likely to represent the actual questions you will be answering.
Kaplan, on the other hand, makes more of an attempt to offer insightful explanations to test questions, even if their answers are at times deficient. Kaplan also offers advice on test strategy with regard to timing, using process of elimination, and ways of coping with particularly difficult questions or reading passages, which GMAT seems to be reluctant to do. In other words, the Kaplan approach is more like true coaching, as opposed to offering just a bunch of practice test questions. In summary, I would say that this is a useful addition to the preparation arsenal, although the main focus should still be on the official GMAT preparation materials.
Fantastic practice and tips August 25, 2007
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
I first bought the regular Kaplan GMAT 2007 study guide and it helped me get a general overview of the GMAT questions, format, and some basic practice. But I found that it lacked the most difficult questions (especially in the Quantitative section), and although I got 96% of those right on the practice exams they were far easier than the ones I faced on the real GMAT. So I ended up with a 630 (78th percentile) and was disappointed. I then went out and bought this GMAT 800 book for more practice and "the toughest questions," and found it really very useful. It does away with the lengthy text about strategies and gets down to the questions themselves, focusing on different types of tricky questions that the GMAT test makers love to pose. I suppose it worked, since I just took the GMAT again (about 6 weeks later, having only used this book to study for about a week) and scored 750 (98th percentile)!! I highly recommend this, although you need to at least skim through the other one (or a similar guide) first to get the hang of the GMAT format and different question types before using this book.
 Honest Review of GMAT Books! January 13, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:
Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.
Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.
Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.
Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.
EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.
Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.
I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.
 Not worth the money November 27, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I recently took the LSAT and began studying for that test using Kaplan materials but quickly noticed how absurd some of Kaplan's advice was, not to mention the fact that their made-up questions were way out in left field. Despite Kaplan's claim that they make-up these ridiculous questions in order to over-prepare the test-taker, in reality Kaplan does this because they are too cheap to pay LSAC to use actual LSAT questions and this is the best they could do. When I saw little improvement in my practice test scores I decided to invest in the Powerscore Bibles since they use actual LSAT questions and I immediately noticed a difference in my practice test scores and ultimately did well on the LSAT.
I've decided to take the GMAT so that I can pursue a dual JD/MBA and, since I didn't learn my lesson last time, I purchased Kaplan's GMAT 800. The only value I got out of this book was where Kaplan would point out the most commonly tested errors of a particular section of the test. It isn't that the questions are difficult, they aren't really, it's that they are poorly constructed and don't really resemble those written by the GMAC.
While going over GMAC's Official Guide 11, I realized that I needed help with the sentence correction questions so I bought Powerscore's Sentence Correction Bible, which was fantastic. Fortunately, I still have Powerscore's Logical Reasoning Bible so I can use that to prepare for the Critical Reasoning section and a math degree that'll come in handy with the quant section.
This test is too important to waste your time and money on Kaplan's GMAT 800. I'm obviously fond of Powerscore but unfortunately they don't offer a comprehensive study guide so it can get expensive...but you get what you pay for.
Excellent Advanced GMAT Preparation material. September 24, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you want a serious preparation, this book is the best in the market. I suggest you buy the Kaplan premier program first, do the practice tests and then feel the need for some advanced material and then look out for this one.
The key is, after going through the initial preparation material say, Kaplan's Premier program for around 2/3 weeks, you will feel that something more is required to take you towards the advanced stage that can give you a boost, an edge, some extra climb in the GMAT score. Then comes this book. It requires 2 weeks of rigorous preparation time. The verbal section of this book (more so for Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction) is simply superb.
However, do not forget that the last 2 weeks of your preparation should be solely focussed with the OG and other OG supplements (e.g. Verbal OG etc).
If I would not have had this book, my score would have been 20-40 points lower than my actual 700.
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