Just finised the Sentence Correction, PS and DS sections on the Kap 800 .. Here is my take :
Quant: It should not be considered anything more than a collection of questions, and should be used as a question supplement to the
Kaplan Premier or
MGMAT quant books (for basic concept development and understanding). As a question source, i seriously doubt that this book is a collection of 700-750 or 750+ level questions. I will go as far as guessing that no more than a fourth of this book includes 700 level questions(at the maximum), and majority of them are in the 650 range. Having said that, i do not think that this is all that disappointing. Any person looking to go from a 600-650 GMAT score to a 700+ score will most likely need to get PAST the HUMP that is -
"The 650 level questions" .. Anyone who gets say a 700-720 will get a lot of 650-700 level questions that he or she would need to get right in order to move to higher questions.. What this book tries to simulate are the tough questions that are tough because the test makers have laid traps in order to trick you towards a particular answer choice. I feel that a lot of the quant questions towards the back end of the
OG problem set do the same thing (questions that could be safely clubbed in the 650+ level), therefore these questions on the Kap 800 do make you better at avoiding common traps especially in word problems. The DS section is a bit disappointing, and i seriously feel that the last 20-25 questions on the OG13 (DS section) are better for practice.
If it is STRICTLY 700+ questions that you are looking for, The
MGMAT Advanced Quant is the book, but i would guess that any one scoring say a 720 on the GMAT would only get around 5-8 of those questions that involve really tough concepts or rarely tested topics (in the quant section, given that it is reasonable to expect 6-10 experimental questions, and the first few are medium diffuculty level questions, only 20-25 questions will be TRULY ADAPTIVE) . The rest would be either 650-700 level questions or 700+ level questions that club multiple much simpler concepts and topics.. From the free Questions attempted it seems that the
GMAT CLUB tests are a couple of notches above the
MGMAT Advanced quant. and therefore, they probably are the best recourse for 750+ level questions on the planet (that are still relevant for the material tested on the GMAT, and are written with similar style).
Sentence Correction: Although some tough questions, i feel that many answer choices are not as clear as those given in the
OG.. yet overall i am satisfied, and do not feel that i have wasted time on mediocre questions especially after having finished the OG13 SC questions and done all in the KAP premier. I also feel that no recourse other than the
OG tests the new emphasis on the SC (as per reports from test takers) ie. long passages which are completely underlined and involve multiple categories (parral., modifiers, pronouns etc) and cannot be split vertically. I strongly believe that practicing Sentence corrections questions beyond a point is not an optimal allocation of time, and that once one has done the
OG problems, and perhaps a 100 or so more problems, it is better to spend 2-3 hours a week reading the primary SC book and going over basic grammar rules. I spend 30 minutes daily on going over ONE particular topic of SC from the
MGMAT SC guide, and then use the grammar resources on the internet to read more about that topic. Doing this for a couple of months, one can cover all the topics and then move onto the CAT's. I am on my third reading of the
MGMAT SC guide and discover something new every time
.
Conclusion: I feel this is a book for someone who gets around 600-620 and wants to touch 700 and maybe go a bit over..Especially for those whose weak area is WORD PROBLEMS and who makes careless mistakes...It will by itself not Guarantee a 700 by any means (as i am learning, now with CAT's) but will help if supplemented with the
OG's and online resources. It will almost never help you achieve 800, nor will it enable a 720-750 level person to get 800. Infact if you are consistantly scoring 700 or above in CAT's i think this book will be a waste of time, and anyone in that situation would find it better to get the
MGMAT Adv. quant or move to the
GMAT club tests for the extra boost (considering that
GMAT club tests are so many in number, and include both quant and verbal) ... So the NAME KAPLAN 800 is only a marketing gimmick and one must look past that. This is a logical supplement for the
Kaplan premier, and those that have started off with the Kap premier (as a huge number does) then this is a couple of notches above that in difficulty. For those that start off with
MGMAT set, and do well in the 400 or so questions that come with that can perhaps skip this book and move on to the
MGMAT Adv quant.(if they are getting a good score on some of the practice CAT's )
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