Kaplan GMAT Advanced 2009-2010 Edition: Intensive Prep for Top Students,   ISBN:9781419552557

Customer Rating: 

I self studied and scored a 770 on the GMAT. Here are my thoughts on the Kaplan GMAT Advanced book:

===== OVERVIEW =====

Kaplan GMAT Advanced 2009-2010 Edition is one of the few GMAT books on the market specifically designed to appeal to the high scorer. The previous edition of the book was called Kaplan 800. There are no significant differences between the two editions. At times it seems Kaplan just replaced "800" with "Advanced" in the tips boxes and in the section forewords (example: at the very beginning of the book, Kaplan claims you can get an "Advanced on the GMAT!" I think this originally read "800 on the GMAT!"), so buying the newest edition is not really worth it if you already have an older one.

The extent to which the problems presented by the Kaplan book are advanced is... debatable. This is because there is no clear cut way of assigning such a subjective characteristic to scores: does "advanced" mean over 600 (66th percentile)? Or does it mean over 760 (99th percentile)? If you consider a test taker with a 700 (90th percentile) an advanced one, than this book does not deliver, particularly in the quantitative portion. Questions you'll find in Kaplan Advanced:

* 42 Critical Reasoning
* 31 Reading Comprehension
* 112 Sentence Correction
* 98 Problem Solving
* 37 Data Sufficiency

===== PROS =====

* Generous math word problems section, with 56 Problem Solving and 18 Data Sufficiency questions. On my test day, math word problems required the most effort for me, so I would advise any GMAT hopeful to allot proper attention to these kinds of problems

* Kaplan Advanced lives up to the reputation of the Live Online program and provides a substantial list of practice problems - no less than 320, which means you'll get a pretty decent amount of practice material for a good price

===== CONS =====

* The strategy in this book is scattered, in my opinion. There are no condensed reviews at the beginning of each chapter and tips sort of just "pop up" in answer explanations. There's no clear structure to learning, just practice. This book could have been a good quick reference for some tough strategy, but unfortunately this is not the case

* Although marketed as an advanced guide, the book does not live up to my personal perception of intensive prep. This is particularly obvious if you evaluate the overall quantitative portion of the book, since topics such as permutations, combinations, probabilities, and statistics are not covered sufficiently. These math topics are the ones that scare even well-prepared students, so I would have expected Kaplan to devote entire chapters to them

* As is the case with Kaplan GMAT 2010 Premier Live Online, I didn't think the practice questions mimicked the actual GMAT very well. I thought this was particularly the case for Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. The quality of the questions does not match that of the The Official Guide for GMAT Review series.

* The book is not balanced, since there are huge differences in the numbers of problems. Also, since Data Sufficiency is a type of problem unique to the GMAT, it should have been covered more thoroughly - only 37 questions is too little as compared to the 98 questions in the Problem Solving section

===== BOTTOM LINE =====

Kaplan Advanced gets only one star out of five mainly because I think it lacks structure. If you ask me what matters most in preparing for the GMAT, concepts or practice, and I'll tell you that it's concepts. The fact that the book is almost 100% concerned with practice without proper (advanced) content review means that there will be no solid conceptual framework for drills. Additionally, the questions themselves do not meet my standards of advanced prep. However, if you're looking for a resource of math word problems and sentence correction questions, this book is definitely worth a look.

About me: Dana Jinaru, 770 GMAT scorer, expert at Beat The GMAT - a community serving 100K+ GMAT students/month

Customer Rating: 

I agree with one of the reviewers here. This book just serves to outline the dificult questions. This is not a guide or does not explain any strategies.
I would definitely not recommend this to anyone.

Customer Rating: 

I bought this book because I figured it would provide extra questions. I already had the 2004 GMAT 800 book.

I was very disappointed to see that every single page is IDENTICAL with the two books.

You would think that Kaplan would be able to come up with new questions in 5 years.

Do yourself a favour - buy a used older edition and save some money!

Customer Rating: 

I am not blasting this book - I am giving you a rating based on the expectation that the description of this book sets. It does not live up and you are bound to be disappointed. However, it is actually a valuable book but you need to be aware of what you are buying and probably how to use it best when you buy it:

As a pure guidebook - 1 star
As a question collection - 3.5 stars

What You Will Find Inside:
28 Critical reasoning questions
31 Reading comprehension questions
110 Sentence correction questions
107 Problem solving questions (only 7 of which cover combinations and probability)
37 Data Sufficiency questions

Issues that I had with this book:

* No review of math principles or grammar rules. This book assumes that you have gone through the Kaplan's main GMAT book. If you need help with basics look into getting the Math or Verbal Workbooks before getting this one.

* Illogical structure. Instead of the typical approach of providing a rule and then questions to practice that rule on, this book just lists questions in each of the sections. All of the valuable information and tips are scattered around the explanations section. The book assumes you will read/review explanations for every question. In defense, the main point is often emphasized, so they are not too hard to find.

* Question difficulty. Fewer than 50 people per year score 800 on the GMAT, and most of the lucky guys get past 700. To appeal to a broad audience, Kaplan designed this book at a 650/700-level

* Math section is fairly easy and lacks meaningful practice in advanced subjects such as probability, combinations, or coordinate geometry, statistics. If these are your weak areas, you should look elsewhere


Items I found valuable:

* The book does what it was supposed to do - provide advanced selection of questions, giving the necessary practice with relevant questions. Though Kaplan's questions are not one-for-one official GMAT questions, I found them fairly close overall. I also liked the explanations - they were very detailed

* Good verbal section with valuable RC practice; huge selection of SC's

* Good quality publishing and paper; good layout

* Price - I thought it was worth every penny :)


FYI: This book is the re-branded edition of a book previously called Kaplan GMAT 800.
One reason Kaplan changed the name of this book is that it did not live up to expectations - it was not a book for those aiming for 750+ but rather for those seeking 650+.