First, you might note the 5 stars and assume I'm trying to inflate Kaplan's reputation, or even work for Kaplan.

Let me start by saying I think Kaplan's operation is more or less a scam, preying on those who lack the confidence and guidance to study on their own. I nearly fell into the trap, and cancelled my approximately $1000 Kaplan course the last second.

That decision led me to get 90th percentiles in both Math and Verbal, w/a combined score of 1360.

This review is written for those who want to know how to do that, and aren't standardized test wizzes. Although I made my position clear on Kaplan's overpriced course, make no mistake: the Kaplan Book + CDROM is *very good* -- I could NOT have achieved my score without it. My prep schedule includes:

-the Kaplan GRE Book (Quantitative and Verbal Sections). I wanted to get a feel for the test and not dive into problems. Kaplan does an excellent job showing you math techniques that work again and again, such as "doing the same thing to both sides" and backsolving (plugging in). This technique works for half the problems on the real thing.

-I proceeded to the Kaplan practice tests (in the booklet). After this, I got a pretty good feel for the types of questions.

-I moved onto the CD, which has 6 full practice tests (both Quantitative AND Verbal), and 3 full adaptive CATs. The CATs predicted me at a little BELOW what I got on the real GRE, so don't fret if you're seeing 400's, especially on the verbal (got a 610 on the real verbal, which is 90th+ percentile).

-After exhausting the Kaplan book and CD, an equally high-quality and INDISPENSIBLE prep tool was ETS's PowerPrep software (www.gre.org). Like Kaplan's CD, it has a practice section full of exercises, plus two additional CATs. Also like Kaplan, it UNDERESTIMATED my scores, putting my quantitative at 720 and verbal at 550 -- on the real one, Q was 750 and V was 610.

-After these two materials, I felt mentally prepared for the test. Whether you want to fish around for more materials is personal preference. I personally am not the greatest standardized test taker, so I used (lightly) other sources like princetonreview.com, California's Berkeley GRE Prep (do a google search), and the prep materials on GRE's own website.

If you follow these steps, you WILL see results. To gauge for error, here's a little background about me:

I'm a 4th year Computer Science student -- being in engineering, I've had extensive math, but that does NOT mean I would automatically do well on quantitative. GRE Quantitative is VERY different from "school math" and it takes practice, practice, practice.

For the verbal, I practiced all the question types using the sources above, as well as Kaplan's word list on the CD-ROM and book. It definitely helped, but what unfortunately ended up helping more was growing up in the U.S. and simply speaking English -- which I think is unfair for foreign test takers. Again, practice practice practice.

BOTTOM LINE: if you're in a comparable position as me, i.e. in school or not out of school for too long, the above strategy is golden. However, I know a lot of you are "coming back after 30 years" and the like -- a different preparation strategy is necessary to refresh math concepts and test taking skills. GRE.org has an excellent math review for that.

Good luck in tackling these mindless tests that us academics must endure. Remember, you're better prepared than most.

Andy

I was really impressed by the software (3 cat tests, 1 diagnostic test, many excercises, advices and so on).
So, if you want a sofware for your training, which is not a bad idea since the GRE is computer based, go for it.
However, the textbok is not good: you can read it in no time because there is not much to read; the math review is rather brief and simple; and if you need a good verbal training, you should buy Kaplan GRE Verbal Workbook...
Therefore, if you need a textbook (not software preparation kit), you should go with Barron's.

I used the Barrons and Kaplan study guides to prepare for the GRE. Of the two I greatly preferred the Barrons. I felt the Kaplan questions, practice tests and overall quality of the material was inferior to Barrons. However, one could do much worse than use the Kaplan's guide, as I went through quite a few of the GRE books that are available at the library and bookstore, and in comparison to many others, Kaplans appears to be decent. Being in engineering, I stressed the math section and essay section and did not really take advantage of the verbal portions of the study guides, so I really cannot comment on if Barrons or Kaplans is better for that portion of the test. For the math section, it felt weaker than the Barron's, and the questions and practice exams seemed easier. For the essay, Kaplan's was ok with the sample essays, however a lot of example essays are also available through the downloadable sample test software off of the GRE website, and I thought those were better.

This book was incredibly helpful, and by studying out of this book for about two months, I was able to get a perfect score on the GRE's without taking any classes or buying any other books or study materials.

I memorized all of the word lists that they gave, and they also have a handy appendix in the back of the book with little math tricks for math that you might have forgotten or don't know the shortcuts for.

I also found the CD-ROM extremely helpful because of all of the practice tests and extra problems, in addition to the lessons. Although the interactive format was very cheesy at times, it still kept me more focused than if I were just reading through black and white pages of text in the book.

Definitely a great buy if you don't want to spend the money to take any of the expensive (thousands of dollars!) courses, but still want to get an amazing score!

Overall I was very pleased. I'm a computer programmer so I was looking for Quantitative help and the Kaplan GRE did help. It was especially good with tricks that helped solute the problems more quickly.

I did think the math portion was a little lacking, but with the Kaplan GRE and the PowerPrep software from GRE organization (freeware). I did much better on the test.

If you plan on taking the GRE, you owe it to yourself to get this book and download the PowerPrep. It will make a difference.