Kaplan GRE Exam Math Workbook

Comment: First of all, I think that this book is awesome. I paid a little over 1,000 dollars to take a princeton review course, and what I received from there did not even compare to what I received from doing this Math workbook. My overall opinion of taking the princeton review course, is that it allows you to get about a 1000 on the GRE if you really need help (e.g., did not have the best educational foundation, etc.).

After the course was over, I was still not satisfied with the scores that I would get on my practice tests. My goal is to get into a ph.d. program, and the princeton review course just didn't cut it. So, I bought both the verbal and the math workbook from Kaplan, and it raised my scores instantaneously. In addition, it made me feel more confident and comfortable with various types of verbal and quantitative problems--which I think is important. I pretty much spent one in a half weeks to complete the math workbook, and one week to complete the verbal. I think that it may take a little bit longer for a person who was not already studying for the GRE, and had a relatively good grasp on the basic foundations of what's tested on the GRE.

To be more specific, I think I raised my score by at least fifty points on the quantitative section because of the math workbook. In addition, from my overall impression of Kaplan vs. Princeton Review, I think that Kaplan and Princeton have two extremely different strategies as how to approach the GRE. Princeton review emphasizes "tricks" to approaching the GRE problems, wich an extreme lack in grounding you on knowing how to do the actual problems. Kaplan review provides much more practice problems (practice makes perfect), very detailed explanations as how to do the problems, and tips and strategies that are talked about in Princeton Review courses and books too. I also think that Kaplan is better for people who need to have a full understanding of the basics and then work there way into the more difficult concepts within the GRE problems.

Hope my opinions/comments help. Good luck on your GRE's!

Comment: This book is pretty good. It takes you through every math concept that you will need to know on the GRE. At the end of each chapter are practice tests. The only bad thing about this book is it does not teach you about permutations and combinations or anything statistic related. Also, the book could be a little big longer, including more practice problems. Overall, I would strongly recommend this to someone who wants to brush up on their math skills before they take the GRE.

Comment: The point of this book is to provide the buyer with a hands-on crash course knowledge in GRE applicable math topics. Unfortunately this book fails to do that because the explanations of each section only cover HALF of the information you are quizzed about in each practice test! How does that make sense to test someone on something you completely failed to explain in the beginning of the section? Thankfully, I don't take my GRE for another 2 months so I will be buying a supplemental book to this piece of s*%$ offered by Kaplan. I'm pretty sure they made this book so terrible just so people would HAVE to spend thousands of dollars taking their GRE classes. Screw you, Kaplan.

Comment: I'm shocked that not more people are commenting on this problem, but immediately, upon doing the problems, I found errors everywhere. I am surprised that they let this book run when it has been improperly edited for mistakes. The geometry section and QC were essentially the only 2 sections in the book that didn't have substantial errors on them. I almost gave up going through this book because there were typos everywhere, and what's the point in using the book when it is just filled with mistakes!

I am horrified that they would actually let people buy this book; they really should give everyone a refund. If you buy this book, you will be disappointed that you just wasted your money.

Comment: The information may be great, but I can't comment on that because the formulas are so small that they are nearly impossible to see. Increasing the font size doesn't help because they're not standard text. It's also difficult to navigate around, which you will want to do a lot because the problems are one place, and the answers answers and explanations are elsewhere. The GRE math exercises do not lend themselves to the Kindle, unfortunately. Don't spend your money on this product!