Cracking the TOEFL iBT with CD, 2011 Edition (Test Preparation)

I bought Cracking the TOEFL IBT with Audio CD, 2009 Edition (College Test Prep)( Princeton Review) and Kaplan TOEFL iBT with CD-ROM 2008-2009 (Kaplan Toefl Ibt) .i read both of them for one month and passed the ibt by 97. This is what I think about these two books on all four part of ibt:
Princeton Review
Reading 3 out of 5: good strategies but the readings are simpler than the real exam
Writing 5 out of 5: great strategies and samples with good drills
Speaking 4 out of 5: good strategies and drills but difficult to use on exam
Listening 4 out of 5: good strategies and sample but limited number
Overall 4 out of 5: the most important negative point is that it comes only with audio cd and you can not experience the real exam condition.
Kaplan
Reading 5 out of 5: great strategies and samples
Writing 2 out of 5: some useful techniques but not so helpful
Speaking 2 out of 5: some useful techniques but too general...Read more

I highly recommend this book for intermediate users who are already familiar with English usage but are looking for a quick review to familiarize themselves with the test format. Every test has its own strategy and so does iBT, which is very different from the PBT or CBT.

This book delivers the best 'strategies' to crack each part of TOEFL iBT. The strategies are very easy to understand and are very practical. I spent two days studying this book (and only this book), and received a satisfying score of 110 (out of 120). However, this book will NOT teach you so much about the basic knowledge for English grammar, structural writings, vocabs, etc. So if you need help in these fields, I'd recommend buying other books to complement your study. Good luck for the test!

Actually, I bought the book because of its highest rating at Amazon. It seems that there is no good book on TOEFL strategy at all. This one mostly describes the test, it gives some hints, but the proposed strategy doesn't appeal to me. Even having learned it, you still have to guess answers if you do not know a correct one. What they call a strategy can not be compared on real strategy proposed in textbooks for the IELTS. In "Cracking" they have exercises, what is good, but for speaking they propose as an exercise to WRITE your answers, which is stupid because when you speak and write you use different skills (and different areas of the brain, I guess). Very few exercises on speaking. They have one practice test. However, the CD is just an audio CD with audio tracks. So you have to take a paper-based test for training. And you have to manage your time and to record your speaking answers (and you have to do it while speaking). This ain't fittin. Besides, there are mistakes, typos and...Read more