Kaplan GMAT 2004 with CD-ROM (ISBN 0743241401)

dont worry about the scores:
The material of the book is of a tough level and should be only done for practice. I scored 620, 630, 640 and 700 on the Kaplan tests and 740 on the real test. The good thing about Kaplan is that the questions are real tough and one has to master these tough questions to get a high score. The bad part is that the low scores a person gets can lower ones confidence. Good thing that I had read reviews after taking few of the tests and that had made me feel better... Overall the ETS book is the closest to the real GMAT although the tests in ETS are somewhat simpler....I had taken those tests too long back and had scored 690, 710 so dont really bother....another piece of advise - on the real day take the questions one by one no matter how u think u r performing....i had thought i had screwed my exam big time and was expecting a 660-670 when i actually saw 740...there are a lot of experimental questions and the better u r doing the more the chances that the experimental questions would be having ambigous answers...All the best!!

The CD is worth it:
I just took my GMAT and would like to share my experiences with the study aids that I had used. I had bought the usual ETS guide, the Kaplan 2004 with CD Rom, ARCO GMAT 2005 with CD Rom and, to try out something different, Ace the GMAT by Brandon Royal. I'll discuss two of the books I used. 1) The Kaplan CD (the irritating toddler level presentation of the CD apart) has the toughest CAT exams. The tests are tough and designed to discourage you. I got 640,580, 600 and 620 in the 4 CAT's, but thanks to previous reviewers of the CD, I didn't lose heart since I knew that my score would be better on the real GMAT. I got a reasonable 710 on the real test. But do practice with these CAT's...the real GMAT is not easy. Practicing with tough questions will really help you think faster over time and not freak out when you see a particularly weird question on the real test. Also, the mini tests and the diagnostics do not give you enough time to finish them..but they are still some of the best questions to practice on. The book however, is not as good as the CD. ARCO does a better job of explaining the strategies and answers. 2) Ace the GMAT, by Brandon Royal : This book is great for verbal practice as it breaks down Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning into "problem types' and is very very comprehensive. When I started preparing for the GMAT two months before I was due to take the test, I had no idea about the verbal content. My native language is not English and I had never really learned english grammar at school. I can say that it's this book which put my fears to rest and showed me step by step, that even tricky grammar can be mastered in a short while....at least enough to do well on the GMAT. I got a 96th percentile on verbal and I attribute this score to this book. The other great feature about this book is the Analytical Writing portion. The essay structures are simple and can be easily reproduced and make scoring a 5.0 or better easy on the real test.

Princeton book is much better:
The 2004 Princeton review book has MUCH better tips and tricks for taking the GMAT. Their review is more in-depth and straightforward than the Kaplan book. I went through the Kaplan book first and often found it confusing or not going far enough with their explanations. Then, I went through the Princeton book and was surprised at how everything seemed much more useful. The CD in the Kaplan book is nice because it helps you to get your timing on questions down, but overall, the Princeton book is much better.

Dissapointing CD, mediocre book:
This book really adds very little to the information already dispened in the official GMAT guide. The CD is particularly bad. The animation is cheesy, slow and annoying and the content is quite removed from the content on actual exams. In the answers to many of the CAT exams presented on the CD, the author will advise you that your time is better spent "going back and reviewing the answers you provided to previous question" which is quite contrary to the nature of GMAT CAT exams where you are not able to go back to a question once a final answer is confirmed. There are some useful tricks and shortcuts on the CD, so definitely go ahead and purchase it, but this should only be used as supplemental material and not as your main study guide.

Another CD Fan:
After being out of school for over 20 years, I decided to take the advice offered on this page in order to focus my preparation. I only used two study aids -- PowerPrep & this book. Like the other reviewers, I found the most value from the CD with its practice tests and explanations of correct answers. The CD lessons and book were marginal. Over the course of three weeks, I tried to take a balanced approach by taking only two mini (category-based) tests an evening. On the weekends, I would take a simulated GMAT. As noted in the other reviews, these tests are far more challenging than the PowerPrep test. I had to keep reminding myself of that in order not to get too discouraged. I took the test today and the extra effort was rewarded with a 710.