I used this guide exclusively to prepare for the MAT and I placed in the 99th percentile!! As a previous reveiwer stated, there isn't much evidence that I'm a genius and I haven't been a college student in many years so I have to credit this guide. I took each of the practice tests in the book and found that the questions on my MAT were very similar...no surprises, no curveballs. Don't forget to brush up on simple geometry, roman numerals, gods and godesses, negative exponents, and famous historical philosophers, scientists, etc. Good luck!

The book does provide information to prepare you for the MAT. Although the MAT I took had a lot more "definition" of words than the tests in this book, but I guess that depends on the MAT you get. Teo important parts to review in this book are the vocabulary and similar words.

Readers should note that this book is geared for a 100 question, 50 minute exam, whereas the MAT is now 120 questions and takes an hour. Apparently this is has changed since this book was last printed. Having said that, this is an excellent guide to the MAT and a good preparation for those also taking the GRE. True, there's no substitute for a broad-based education, but by dusting off old history lessons and getting into the "mode" of MAT analogies you will undoubtedly do better than if you'd taken the test cold. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED BY YOUR PRE-TEST SCORE: YOU WILL GET BETTER! I only scored a 66 on my pre-test but by the end of the book I was getting around 90% of the questions right on the first pass. The MAT itself will probably seem easier than the questions in this book. I'm assuming adrenalin has something to do with this, but I can't discount the idea that this book helped as well. As always, a first-rate Barron's product.

Great prep, make sure you know the word lists inside out, do all the practice tests. The test is difficult, do not panic, pace yourself, the results will probably be better than you expected. All the easy questions are not necessarily at the beginning. Get the REA book written by Budd to fill in the U.S. history gaps.

This book provides a good overview of the MAT, how it is structured and what to expect in the way of questions. True, this same information can be downloaded for free from the MAT home site, but this book offers 10 complete practice tests -- more than I could find in any other MAT prep book. Sitting down and taking a practice test properly (100 questions in 50 minutes; no distractions; no cheating) every other day or so in the weeks leading up to the real MAT is the best way to prepare for the test and feel comfortable with the format.