Kaplan GRE Exam 2009: Premier Program (Kaplan GRE Premier Program

By Kaplan Inc. and Kaplan Test Prep

The Education Testing Service continues to make gradual changes to the content of the GRE. But with this unique multi-format preparation program,?students will receive the most accurate, timely... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1419552066
• ISBN13: 9781419552069
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
• Length: 410 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.4" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

I didn't expect this thing to really help .... glad I was wrong.

Like the title says, I really wasn't expecting from this book. Most of the SAT books I read back in high school didn't do much but reinforce things I already knew. Kaplan's book stands above the rest because it doesn't focus on testing test materials. Instead the book focuses on test strategies, which I found to be VERY helpful.

Great book!

While I should have began to review for the GRE a little earlier than I did, this book was still really helpful. There is a sort of cribb's notes section in the back for the math section that I went through the night before the exam (not necessarily recommended). It went through every possible type of math problem you could encounter on the GRE. My verbal score didn't turn out so well (I'm an engineer, so go figure), but my math score was a perfect 800. I definitely recommend this book and all future editions.

Very good review book

I reviewed for the GRE with this book and with Princeton Review. Some of the techniques in Princeton I liked better than Kaplan, esp the analogies strategy. But this book had very good practice exams. Note: This is a VERY BORING test for which to study. No study guide can make it fun. But this was a very useful study aid. Results: I scored 1460/1600 Verbal 700/800 97th percentile Quant 760/800 86th percentile I was hoping for a 780 or 800 on the Quant portion, but I applied to, and was accepted by, Columbia for an MS in Operations Research so I guess the Quant score was ok.

The best foundation for GRE prep

My biggest worry about this product was that perhaps the practice tests would be contrived and undiagnostic of actual GRE performance. However, I took the actual GRE this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that my scores were roughly the same as the scores that I had achieved on the practice tests provided with this guide--I'm impressed! I would recommend this product as the foundation for any GRE test prep. Not all of the tips they provide are brilliant; you'll be able to pick and choose which ones you find helpful and which ones you find needlessly cumbersome. However, it provides a good overview of the typical GRE vocab and math problems and, if you're like me, you'll be grateful (and a little embarrassed) when they point out blatantly obvious tips that you hadn't previously thought of (e.g., creating a verbal bridge to join analogy terms). Of course, I recommend using other products to supplement the material in this guide. The free GRE Powerprep math review is a good reinroduction to basic math concepts if you're rusty (I went through it prior to starting on this book). I also used Kaplan's "GRE Exam Vocabulary in a Box", as well as the vocabulary hit list from The Princeton Review's "Cracking the GRE". Using these products, I was able to obtain an extremely high verbal score and a decent quantitative score. If you want a perfect quantitative score, you may want to go a bit deeper than I did. However, the products that I've mentioned should be enough to get you a verbal score in the high 90s.

Highly recommended

This book gives an excellent overview of what the GRE will be like, and has lots of super tips as to how to best approach the different question types. When I got to the math section I was a little overwhelmed, especially since I have never had geometry, only algebra. But the authors say that it is not a math test at all and go on to explain how to approach each type of math question. I am so relieved. Despite my history of usually doing well with English questions, the resources in the back of the book are invaluable. It is filled with commonly used GRE words to memorize and lists of like-meaning words. Now I know what the test will be like and have the tools to play the game, which is how Kaplan says the GRE should be approached. Thanks for the confidence booster, Kaplan.