Product Description

• NEW! Essential math basics review section with practice drills
• Full-length practice test
• Diagnostic test to target areas for score improvement
• Proven score-raising strategies
• Hundreds of additional practice questions 
• Detailed answer explanations

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55975 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

Customer Reviews

Kaplan GMAT 2009
Re: Kaplan GMAT Premier Program 2009 Edition

It's amazing to me that a company of the stature of Kaplan would have so many errors in a book intended to train for a test. It's hard to have confidence in their services.

Here are some of the numerous errors I found in the math section of this book.
The math section is a pathetic study guide. The errors are so numerous, that it's hard to know when it's right. See below - and this is only as far as I got. I will return this poor "study guide" and request my money back.

I contacted Kaplan; they said they would have an errata sheet posted early Sept 2008; it's now mid-Sept, and no errata sheet is posted.

I'll try another publisher.


Page 272, prob 10, error in first line; fist x-intercept missing (3/2)
Page 279, prob 6; 8x-2 should be 8x-3
Page 289, prob 4; units are meters in the sketch and inches in answers
Page 322, prob 7; missing "+" sign in equation
Page 323, prob 4; indicates use of calculator, but GMAT instructions say no calculators are allowed

Page 326, prob 6; solution includes "y" in solution; there is no "y"
Page 328, prob 10; equation has both plus and minus signs, (x-+5)

Page 285, 30-60-90 example shows 1:1:sqrt2; should be 1:2:sqrt3
Page 299, prob 2; Greek letter for pi is "p" in answer E; confusing
Page 300, prob 3; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 300, prob 4; Greek letter for pi is called "p"; confusing
Page 301, prob 5; missing info: need to tell me that A in on line OB
Page 305, prob 5; angle CDE and DEC are both 45 deg, but not drawn equal

Better math editor needed
There are excessive math errors in the book. Several times they use the same figure (ex. Triangle) with the exact same measures (congruent triangles) to show how the two figures are different. How can they be different when the 3 sides and the 3 angles are identical? One time they say find the "equation with and -5". Nothing between the two words.

They tend to introduce new concepts in the practice problems and then don't explain them in the answer explanations.

The english portion was OK.

Fine if you don't really want to get into that Business program of your dreams
Ugh, Worst. Study guide. Ever. Here's why...

I've started studying on the Math portion of the book first because I know it'll take me longer to retain it, but there are so many errors in the study guide that it just confuses me and makes me second guess myself. NOT what you want in your study manual!!

So far, I've been through about 40 pages of the math section and have discovered 9 errors. Sometimes it may be them leaving out pertinent information for a question, sometimes the wrong symbol is used (ie: 1/2 x 30(x=32)=870 ,no, really that's straight from page 339), Sometimes the answers won't match the question because the problem was typed out incorrectly, and I'm no math whiz, but I'm pretty sure that they have a wrong answer in the answers section.

Another annoyance is that in their practice questions, they'll ask questions to skills that they've not yet covered in the review. But most of the time they just assume that you still remember formulas from your High school days and (something they could have easily listed in the section) and then they place questions on it in the practice areas. Well, how the smurf are you supposed to figure out that a trapezoids formula for area is 1/2 x height(base1 + base2) if they don't tell you? It makes for a very frustrating study experience.

My intention is to write Kaplan about this, because it was a huge waste of money (especially at full retail, since I didn't buy here on Amazon) and has been a waste of time. How can you trust them to sucessfully take you through the review you need for such a test, if they can't even get simple things like + and = signs in the right places?

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!