Product Description
The MAT covers areas as diverse as history, mathematics, science, anagrams, and literature. We don’t try to teach you everything there is to know about these subjects–only what you’ll need to know to score higher on the MAT. There’s a big difference. In Cracking the MAT, 3rd Edition, we’ll teach you how to think like the test makers and
·Use Process of Elimination and our three-pass system to attach test questions
·Improve your score by focusing on the material most likely to appear on the test
·Build your knowledge with study lists for each area tested
·Practice your test taking skills on our comprehensive sample tests
This book includes 7 full-length practice MAT exams. All of our practice test questions are just like the ones you’ll see on the actual MAT, and we fully explain every solution.
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Cracking the MAT, 3rd Edition (Graduate Test Prep)
- Paperback: 224 pages (2002-09-10)
- Publisher: Princeton Review; 2002-09-10
- Label: Princeton Review
- Studio: Princeton Review
- ISBN: 0375762647
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 6 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #352275
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I aced the MAT with this one! 2008-03-01
Comment: A great guide. Gives you an idea of how the test's creators think, along with a strategy for identifying and solving different types of analogies.
I used this guide along with the practice tests in Kaplan's an hour or so each day for a week preceding the exam and got a scaled score of 461 - 99th percentile in my field and overall. Highly recommend.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: All errors have been fixed, really helped me out 2005-08-16
Comment: I bought this book in 8/05 (3rd edition) and all the errors indicated in the other reviews were fixed. I really think amazon.com should remove them. I scared me after I had bought it, and paid 20$ for it, that it would be riddled with mistakes.
It was divided up really well and had great time management solutions. The MAT is 60 mins with 20 "test" questions that do not count, of course you do not know which those are. The guides on culture and geography helped me the most! DO not be scared to buy this guide, it was worth it...
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment with MAT Study Guide 2002-03-24
Comment: Like most college students, one tries to get the best prices they can when purchasing study guides. I went with the Princeton Review name on this book and I was extrememly disappointed. I found errors in the practice tests such as numbering errors. I was very disappointed when after reading the book from the front to the back and back to the front none of the material the author told me to study was on the exam! Not one question relating to the information in the MAT Study Guide was relevant to the exam itself. I would never buy a Princeton Review Guide by this author or company again!
100 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Clear, Concise and Replete with Errors 1999-10-21
Comment: The strengths of this book include clear and succinct reviews of test-taking strategies specific to the MAT and of many domains of general information (e.g. art, music, literature, mythology) tapped by the test. Quizzes that accompany each section have helped me to reinforce the material covered.Unfortunately, the book is so replete with erroneous information, that I've starting to question the credibility of the company that published it. Just a few examples: P. 85 "Alexander Hamilton: First head of the U.S. Treasury, his face is on the twenty dollar bill." [If you believe that, I'll give you a Hamilton for every Jackson you give me.] P. 97 "Veins: The tubes that carry blood to the heart, the most major of which is the jugular vein, in your neck." [Good thing you're not taking the MCAT. In actuality, the internal jugular veins, of which there are two, join the subclavian veins to form the brachiocephalic veins, and the two brachiocephalic veins join to form the superior portion of the vena cava, which is the "most major" vein, bringing blood directly to the right atrium of the heart.] P. 107 "Richter Scale: A logarithmic scale, from 0 to 8, that measures the magnitude of tremors, earthquakes ..." [Perhaps the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska was not really 8.4 on the Richter Scale, as reported, but of too great a magnitude to be measured.] The analogies included in the practice tests are also of very poor quality, and in a number of cases the analogy clearly has more than one answer. For example: P. 109-110 Analogy: 7 : 5 :: 17 : (a. 16, b. 15, c. 14, d. 13) Answer: "(b) Seven plus 10 is 17, and 5 plus 10 is 15." [And here I thought 7, 5, 17 and 13 might all be prime numbers] P. 118-119 Analogy: (a. pans, b. plants, c. grows, d. trats) : START :: POTS : STOP Answer: "(d) Stop is pots reversed, and the same is true of start and trats. Pans are not the opposite of pots if that's the one you chose; think about it---they are the same things, just variations" [I did think about it. I thought that pots were deep containers and pans were shallow containers of earthenware, metal, etc, used for domestic purposes. Each of the dictionaries that I consulted corroborated my bold supposition. On further thought, I realized that anyone preparing to take the MAT who believes that "variation" is synonymous with "same," as implied by the author, may be in for a rude awakening when their score report arrives. After all, the MAT is an analogy test. This is why I decided to write a review.] Regarding preparation for the MAT, there is a Latin expression that may be important to know: Caveat Emptor!! (let the buyer beware)
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good study guides, but there are errors in the answer keys! 1998-03-02
Comment: This book consists of sections where they tell you how to figure out the questions and how to "out think" the test writers. This part was informative, but if you've ever taken any kind of standardized test before, this is all second nature. The part I found the most useful was the actual "study guides". They had a vocab section with words and definitions, a science where they went over the major information on the MAT, a culture section, where they reviewed famous authors, artists, etc (the most useful to me, since I didn't know any of that stuff!!). I took a practice test before I did the little review sections, and the tests after I studied the review sections showed huge improvements in my score. However, **BE CAREFUL WITH THE ANSWER KEY! THERE ARE ERRORS!** I've found several so far, am I'm not done with the book yet!!! However, they're fairly easy to spot, if you use common sense. If you sincerely doubt an answer's validity, look it up. I found the correct answers elsewhere in the book.
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Cracking the MAT, 3rd Edition (Graduate Test Prep)
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