Admissions Books

The Greenes have written numerous college guides. I have read a couple of them. And, based on my firsthand experience they are excellent. They typically address a specific topic. Thus, they avoid or go beyond the bland generalities conveyed by other not so good college guides.

In this book, the Greenes focus on what they call the Hidden Ivies, or 30 schools that they consider meet the educational standards of the actual Ivies. These are mainly top-notch small liberal arts colleges often located on the East Coast. Within this list of 30 schools there are not any surprises. These are very well established renowned institutions, which are often nearly as selective as the Ivy League themselves. In other words, the Hidden Ivies are not so hidden. Indeed, try getting in Amherst, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, or Middlebury. If you can, one could argue you may as well apply to Yale, Princeton, and Harvard.

The Greenes make a good case that the Hidden Ivies offer a superior education that even the actual Ivies can't match. This superior education is a liberal arts curriculum offered on small residential campuses where the institution is often dedicated solely to undergraduate students. This is in contrast to the more prestigious Ivies where a significant amount of resources is diverted towards graduate programs and research. The Greenes further advance their case by sharing the superior record that some of the smaller Hidden Ivies have in the % of their graduates they send on to complete PhDs.

This book is filled with very useful information, including: a) main tips for parents with a child going through the admission process at a Hidden Ivy, b) tips for students, c) tips on what it takes to get in, and d) indication for parents that the actual college choice was a success.

Also, the 30 school profiles are very extensive. Each school is described in detail over 6 pages. It is the result of an extensive survey of the faculty, the administration, and the students. You get many direct quotes from students on how they like (or not) various aspects of their respective schools. By reading these school profiles you will get an excellent idea if a specific school is the right fit for you (or your child). And, for the Greenes, the proper school fit between student and college is far more important than the actual name recognition of the college. In other words, a happy and successful student at Emory will have a far better start in his academic and professional life than his counterpart who may feel isolated and over pressured at Princeton. Thus, the proper match is the key.

The authors style is very lively and makes this book easy to read. If you are considering one of these schools, this book is a must read.

The book gives useful information about these colleges, but misleads students into thinking that if they don't gain admission to an Ivy, they should consider one of these schools. None of these schools are "hidden," as Greene claims. Grinnell, Oberlin, Pomona, Carleton...are all very prestigious and well known institutions, that only accept top students. Some of the schools Greene mentions are, indeed, more selective than their Ive League peers. Amherst, Williams, and Swarthmore are certainly tougher to get into than Cornell, and they are probably more selective than Penn as well. Despite his misleading title, Greene's underlying assertion remains feasible. It won't matter whether you choose a top liberal arts college or an Ivy League school when it comes to applying for job or to graduate schools.

I did not find this book particularly useful. The college descriptions are more like advertorials written by the colleges themselves rathen than objective and independent analysis with pros and cons. Furthermore the book provides little help with putting together an application for each of these schools - something the author could have done given his claim to know these institutions so well.

I graduated from one of the schools described in this book, and I was horrified to see it listed on the cover. Throughout my time there, I was surrounded by people who couldn't care less about the name on their diploma, and couldn't care more about the quality of their education. Anyone who would be interested in a book titled "Hidden Ivies" does not have the sort of personality suited to my school - the name is nothing, the labels are nothing. The professors and fellow students are everything. These are excellent schools, but they should be considered in spite of what the Greenes title them, not because of it.

There is undoubtedly useful information in The Hidden Ivies. Most of it, however, is contained on the front cover. Other than naming the thirty colleges, "Of excellence," the book does little to differentiate between the schools. In fact, the descriptions of six schools that I am considering (all contained in Greene's book) sound practically identical! Overall, this guide is useful for listing thirty colleges named on its cover. If you're looking for more information than that, look somewhere else.

This book is likely to be unhelpful to a lot of people...
The logical reasoning sections are fragmented in an unhelpful manner and moreover, the structure of the questions is nowhere near as succinct as the real questions on the LSAT.Admittedly, this book has some good logic game problems and decent solutions for them. If you want a decent lsat book with a variety of problems, then buy this used/barely used here for $10-12 but realize beforehand that you will not be getting one of the better books on the market.

LSAT 180 is interesting in that it is supposed to be more difficult than regular LSAT questions but is also intended to help improve your LSAT taking-skills. The questions are difficult but all they aren't perfect.

The Logic Games seem reasonably similar to LSAT games, the main difference being the amount of space they take up on the page. The Logical Reasoning questions felt pretty far afield from real test questions. Finally Reading Comprehension was more similar to a real RC section than the LR questions but not quite as close as the games. Games are the real winner in this book.

I wouldn't recommend this book for regular LSAT studying but it's not a bad idea if you run out of regular LSAT material.

LSAT 180 is an alright book. It is certainly helpful in preparation for the LSAT; however, there is a dozen of mistakes in the book. Even though the majority of them are simply typos, there are 4-5 mistakes that interfere with the understanding of explanations. Since I'm not sure if there are LSAT books free of typos, I would recommend to consider Kaplan LSAT 180 anyway.

As one of the other reviewers pointed out, the questions used for prep in this book are very different from the actual LSAT questions that you'll be tested on. Not only are the style of writing and the format of the questions different in LSAT 180 than on an actual LSAT exam, but also, an equally persuasive case could be made for more than one of the answer choices in some of LSAT 180's Kaplan-created questions. The same isn't true on an actual LSAT exam (or is very rarely true) because once the subtleties of actual PrepTest questions are mastered, there is almost always a clearly superior answer. On LSAT 180, I found myself unconvinced in several instances by Kaplan's explanations as to why their preferred answer choice was superior to one of the other answer choices available. This never happens on a real LSAT PrepTest once you have grasped the stimulus and the question stem, with all their subtleties.

I bought this book with the "Big Fat Genius Guide to LSAT Logic Games." I found the latter to be indispensable, but this book was not as helpful as I hoped. I think the practice questions they give are useful, once you know everything that you need to about how to work the problems, but they don't give enough information on how to approach these difficult problems. I recommend this book for the practice questions alone, since getting all the answers in some of the logic games gives you a huge confidence boost and, as another reviewer pointed out, make the questions on other practice exams seem easy.

Do not buy this book alone. Purchase some other study guide to use in conjunction, especially if this is your first time studying for the LSAT. You must understand basic and intermediate level logic before you can use this book, since it is geared specifically for advanced students. Also, be sure to buy one of the "Actual LSAT" test books. This allows you to get comfortable with timed tests and helps you recognize the verbiage and style that the LSAT test writers are so famous for.

I rated this book three stars only because I think the practice questions make it a worthwhile purchase.

(Just in case you are wondering what book will help you with your logic games... see my review for "Big Fat Genius Guide to Logic Games." Five Stars.)

This book was good, however in terms of improving my score on the GRE it really didn't help at all. It is difficult to study something like vocab anyway, so I wouldn't waste too much money on books like this to do so.

The words are very basic even for the SAT. Words included are things like "sever" and "enhance". I am studying for the GRE and am finding the Barron's GRE prep book much better for the vocabulary work.

The technique of giving a brief description and sample sentence is good but can be found in other places as well.
The other good point is the words are not in alphabetically order so you don't end up just learning words that start with "A" but never get to "V".

I found this book pretty useless. All it is is a series of 16 multiple choice tests in which you choose the answer that most closely approximates the word given. Sample question: amorphous means a) shapeless b) passionate c) property transfer d) vase-like e) parallel. Each test is preceded by very short definitions of the words plus each one used in a context sentence. It would be okay, I guess, as a superficial refresher, but I didn't find it challenging, and there was no discussion of strategy for the GMAT verbal/vocab section, which is more what I was hoping for.

The book takes a different approach on vocabulary building. Unlike the other test prepration of books I have seen, this book does not present you with list of words to memorize.

The best feature of this book is that it makes you work on each new word. I agree with the authors on the fact that this is an effective approach. However, the words listed in this book are not quite the standard of GRE/GMAT. This book would be helpful to those who might be writing the SATs or are just beginning their GMAT/GRE preparation with a very limited vocabulary.

I don't regret buying this book at all, since it isn't very expensive and also i can use the "strategy" of this book with more complex words.

This book was amazing!

It is very simple and very straight-forward with the sole purpose of helping your improve your vocabulary...and it works. I got through the book in 8 days, completing two chapters a day. It took me approximately two or three hours of work per day to work with this book. It gives you the tools to really understand a word and remember it. Don't try to save time by not looking up the words and not finding antonyms and synonyms for the words. It will not work. You have to get down to the nitty-gritty and then you will see results. Words that would not stick, I wrote down on flashcards and reviewed them along with the 300 word list from Barron's Passkey to the GRE book.

Say the words out loud, repeatedly do the exercises at the end of each chapter and it will pay off on the GRE exam. I promise! By the way, it is a one-time use book....you will scribble on every page and no one else will be able to use it, but that is what it is....a work book. Buy it!

I bought this book and the Barrow's book. My son took the 2007 Specialized High School test and he got over 600 point. He said the Barrow book is much better and helpful. This book does not match the real test at all. You may use it as a practice IF you have time.

I bought this book preparing for another exam. When it was time to prepare for the Specialized High school exam I picked up this book again. My friends thought I had no chance. They were paying $1,000 for courses. While I was just using this book. And now Im in Stuyvesant and they're not. It's all thanks to this book!!!

I made it into Stuyvesant High School. I didn't use any other book (I couldn't find any). This book really helped me.

There are a few prep books in the market, I woul rate them as below
1. Barron's How to prepare for SSHSAT ----4 stars
2. Kaplan's SCI-Hi------------------------3 stars
3. Princeton Preview SSHSAT---------------3 stars
4. Arco Specialized science High exam-----2 stars

This book does not include practice tests for the Hunter College High School exam (as Amazon's description indicates).

The explanations of the answers provided by the book are superficial and almost never insightful. I sometimes couldn't help wondering if not knowing the correct answers, how many right answers the author would be able to pick... What a waste of money!

If you are taking LSAT tests 19-28 and are able to figure out why your incorrect answers are wrong then do not waste your money on this book. I immediately purchased this book when I bought tests 19-28 assuming that I would need the book to improve my performance. The book has turned out to be unnecessary. Of the dozen or so old LSATs I have taken I have yet to find an incorrect answer that didn't become apparent within a minute or so of reflection. When I initially consulted this book for help in understanding my mistakes I was very disappointed with the superficial reasoning and, in some cases, by the text's failure to actually explain the reasoning behind some of the answers. I gleaned some useful tips (ie, save parallel reasoning questions for the end of the section, etc.) but otherwise it was a wasted thirty bucks. If you understand your mistakes save yourself the cash.

This book is pretty helpful in terms of discovering what you did wrong - unless it's in the games section. The diagrams that this book creates are unrealistic in my opinion because they take up too much space and also they are difficult to follow. They look like something done in a word processor, so they aren't aesthetically pleasing, but also, more importantly, they're not great at organizing lots of information. There are crazy lines and arrows all over the place that are supposed to show flow of logic, but I don't see it. There are just too many and it's difficult to discertain which arrow came first.

Princeton Review did a good job explaining games and how to diagram. I wish they made an answers book. Because then I would understand what I did wrong.

But this book gets 3 stars nonetheless because it was helpful for the other sections.

This book could be a lot stronger. The answers are not visually appealing, the games are laid out in ridiculous ways, there are numerous typos, the authors resort to explanations that amount to "just because", and I have found reasoning flaws in some of their explanations of why an answer is correct.

You might be wasting money on the book, but there isn't another option out there. GetPrepped's explanations in this book are of the same caliber as what I've seen of Kaplan and possibly Princeton Review. The explanations are also surpassed by GetPrepped's next attempt at explanations: 'LSAT Explained: Unofficial Explanations for "The Next 10 LSAT PrepTests"'

If you get this book you'll want to try to figure out why you got a question wrong before you turn towards "Answers" for explanations; even then the explanations may not be completely helpful. Personally, I wouldn't want my understanding of the LSAT or the individual questions to hinge on this books but it is a mediocre supplement for thinking in greater depth and getting another perspective on the questions.

Because there aren't comparable books out there with explanations for every test question in every released LSAT Preptest included in "10 More Actual, Official LSAT Preptests," I would still consider buying this book for lack of a better option. However, calling the explanations "Unsurpassed" is reaching quite a bit.

The reasoning given for why wrong answers are wrong is often not helpful, and sometimes even incorrect. The book occasionally makes a correct answer sound like it should have been chosen as the best selection among poor choices, but if someone understands the actual logical basis behind a correct answer, then the correct answer is clearly the only choice that would satisfy a question.

For example, the book has a habit of dismissing incorrect answers with the terribly unhelpful explanation, "So what?" That is not a paraphrase; the book will actually analyze an incorrect answer choice with the words, "So what?"

Now, if someone picked that answer choice, and needed help understanding why it was wrong, "So what?" would not even begin to help him or her. "So what?" is not a sufficient explanation because, if it were that obvious, no one would have ever been tempted to choose an incorrect answer choice in the first place!

Regarding the inaccurate reasoning given for eliminating wrong answer choices and selecting the right one, an example wouldn't be very clear here because it would be totally out of context for someone who didn't have the Preptest questions in front of him or her to examine. However, consider looking through the book at a bookstore after taking a Preptest, and carefully reading the explanations that "LSAT Answers" provides for why any of your correct answers are correct. You won't have to read many before you'll find one that is really nothing but fluff.

As I said, because it suffers from a lack of competition, the book still might be worth buying. But don't make it your only source of reference because there are better explanatory texts out there, even if they don't cover all of the questions from all of the Preptests in one of the 10-Preptest volumes.

The Best 368 Colleges 2009 Edition is the latest update to The Princeton Review's top-notch, user-friendly guide to choosing a college. Drawing its information directly from surveys of 120,000 college students, The Best 368 Colleges 2009 Edition compiles rankings of everything from offered financial aid to quality of academics, campus social life, and much more. Straightforward statistics concerning the student-faculty ratio, the composition of the student body, and more round out this solid reference especially recommended for high school seniors and anyone else trying to figure out which campus is best for them.

Good resource, although we did find it odd that Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo wasn't included.

I used this book five years ago to figure out which college best suited me. There may be many colleges listed, and as I bought the book early in the 10th grade (I was dying to go to college) I did read basically every review, but you can also quickly narrow down the colleges that are best suited for you, such as by knowing that you want a small campus, liberal student body, and a high ratio of professors to students. I bought the book in my senior year as well and then passed the books on the underclassmen that I thought might make use of them. I loved the book, and it really help me, as a girl from Ona, WV, learn about schools across the country and pick the right one.

Let me state upfront that our family has completed the college search process, I will be taking my youngest off to college in about 2 weeks. But when I saw this at my local library, I couldn't resist picking this up. The Princetown Review publishes a number of college search-related books, including the "Complete Book of Colleges" and this one. This book is essentially a distilled version of the "Complete Book", and frankly a lot more useful (but for people new to the college process, definitely check that out too).

"The Best 368 Colleges (2009 Edition)" (809 pages) is very similar to last year's edition. After holding the number of best colleges steady at 366 last year, this time there are 4 new "best" colleges and 2 that didn't make the cut anymore. Those new colleges are City University of New York Baruch College, Nazareth College, Prescott College, and University of Alabama at Birmingham. There is a fun-to-browse 62 lists of best/worst, such as "Most Beautiful Campus", "Students Study the Most", "Party Schools", and "Most Politically Active Students" (my daughter will be going to the No.1 ranked school on that list).

The best feature of this guide remains the 2 page layout for each of the colleges, with in-depth information on campus life, academic selectivity (the number of applicants, how many were accepted, and of those how many actually decided to attend), tuition and room/board costs, etc. Another aspect that is very helpful is the "Survey says" sidebar, in which the essence of the university is distilled from the college students themselves, and "The Inside Word" segment on how tough it really is to gain admission.

The proof is in the pudding: of the many college guides out there, my daughter spent more time with last year's edition than with any other. This book is not the first place to start the college search, but once your son or daughter has narrowed down his/her colleges of choice, and assuming those colleges are featured in the "best 368", this book clearly is the best resource, the last step before a campus visit, and can be used again following the campus visits. If I was forced to recommend only one book among all the college search guides, this book is it.

I went to a major book store got the book and sat down to read a few reviews. The major negative on this book like US News reviews, it is a book of college favorites. Princeton seems to think if a college has low acceptance scores, and the students have high SAT's and GPA's that's a good school, and the other 90% are not. The two page reviews of the 368 best colleges briefly cover the basics, and the frivolus "best of" category could be left out in the front of the book. If the book went into depth on each college then it would have some merit.

A great indicator to grade a college would be how many professors of that school have published scholarly articles in journals, also how much money did that college invest in research projects. In addition, how many students from that college recently received prestigious awards such as the Goldwater and Fulbright scholarships. Many colleges such as Virginia Commonwealth University were not on the list of the 368 best colleges. However, VCU produced four Goldwater scholars in 2008. There were only eight colleges in the country that had four Goldwater scholars in 2008. In addition they had five Boren scholars in the last two years, and four Fulbright scholars in the past three years. VCU is doing it's job to nurture the already exceptional students, and preparing them to compete for the most prestigious awards in the country. There are not any colleges in Virginia(Including UVA) that can say that.

The Princeton book of "the 368 best colleges" didn't do their homework, and fell short in producing a quality book that a student can use to evaluate their ultimate college choice for the next 4 to 8 years.

I would not recommend this book for kids preparing for the middle level ISEE exam. The practice exercises for all levels of this exam are intermingled, so it is not clear to the student which exercises are likely to appear on their particular test. It would be overwhelming for a younger student to use this book without a great deal of parent direction.

A Family Apart is one of my favorite books. The main conflict is that a mother can't support her children and makes a decision to give them away. The five children are the antagonists and don't want to leave their mother. The mother is the protagonist and believes it is for the best that they are to be given away. The setting first starts off in New York but most of the story takes place on their journey to the west. I thought this book gave a realistic look at what life is like for orphans. I didn't like that all of the children were separated from each other. I would definitely recommend this book to eighth grade students. It is very suspenseful and exciting. I would also recommend this book to teachers. It takes place at a very interesting time in history and is very descriptive.

I used this book to get ready for the SSAT. It helped alot and when I took the test, I knew exactly what to expect.

If you are about to take the SSAT exam STOP! Buy this book immediately! It was the best thing that I did, when I went into the exam I felt as though I had already seen the paper! This was my only preparation for the exam, unlike many other of my friends who went to expensive tutors....... I was the only one who got ranked in the 97th percentile and now I am going to Phillips Academy/Andover! Thank you Princeton Review!

This book helped me prepare for the middle level ISEE, but for anybody that really wants to study and cram, I would reccomend for you to buy as many books as possible, though this should be your first.

This book is a good crash course with a lot of helpful tips and rules to remember, BUT when it comes to examples or practice test, author makes a lot of mistakes. What's more, author does not explain well why this answers better over others. And most of the time, when she tries to explain, she basically says "it's right - just because it is right!" Does it make sense? No? Well, get used to this kind of explanations because this is author's tactic.

This book is a good idea, and offers a good set of overall strategies for doing well on the GMAT, but it is full of errors, particularly in the math sections. For example, the formula that it gives for calculating the number of permutations of a set of objects (which it strongly suggests that you memorize!) is just plain incorrect. There are also errors in a number of the sample math problems; for example, in a sample problem concerning standard deviations, the demonstration of solving the problem starts off by saying "since you know that there are 100 fish...", but nowhere was that stated in the problem.

If you're a math whiz already, and can spot and work around these errors, this is a great book for giving you an overall test strategy. If you're trying to learn the math from this book, though, beware... If it weren't for the math errors, I would give this book 4 or 5 stars; however, such errors in a test prep book are unforgiveable.

This is the most succinct book written on GMAT but you can find here everything to grade high. Perfectly complement the Kaplan, Baron's and ETS softwares. I recommend it without hesitation. Real value for money.

If you are running out of time to prepare for your GMAT, this book is really good.

It tells you what general types of questions there are and the best way to answer them under a time constraint. (Most of us probably can get it right, but we may not do that well when the time is against us..)

Also includes general reminders for math and english which we may have forgetten since high school. (E.g., Use singular verb for 'The number of' but plural verb for 'A number of'; prime numbers, factoring..)

After many years in the workforce, I decided to pursue a graduate degree. The most significant hurdle was the GMAT. Writing and language are strengths for me, but for the past 18 years, I've let computers take care of quantitative issues. So, in short order I had to become reacquainted with math concepts long forgotten, and learn how to take a CAT exam and score reasonably well. All of my research led me to one conclusion: it takes more than one study guide to adequately prepare for the GMAT. The course I followed, with an evaluation of each guide, is outlined in the following paragraphs.

For my math review, I selected Peterson's Math Review for GRE, GMAT, and MCAT, 2nd edition. There have been some comments about errors in previous editions, but I found this guide quite helpful, and an excellent refresher on math topics I have not seen in years, but need to know for the GMAT. 4 out of 5.

The GMAT Advantage with Professor Dave was selected because of its readability and the questions. The material is challenging, and the more difficult questions in each category provide a good idea of the difficult questions faced on the GMAT. The verbal chapters are very strong and have excellent examples. The math problems are also very good, but the text assumes that the reader already is familiar with most math topics. This is why I recommend Peterson's MAth Review to compliment this guide. Overall 4 out of 5, with a solid 5 for the verbal sections.

The Official Guide for GMAT is the best resource for practice questions. 1400 questions are in this guide, and the last 1/3 in each section represent some difficult concepts that will be tested. This book gets the reader prepared for the real questions that will be seen on the exam. In addition, the question writers provide excellent explanations for the solutions, and reveal some elegantly simple ways to solve math problems that at first appear to be very labor intensive. 4 out of 5. (Also, be sure to take the 2 free CAT tests available online from GMAC. These prepare the user well for the GMAT experience.)

Finally, I also used the Princeton Review Crash Course for GMAT. I used this as a final review and to gain some additional pointers and time savers. While brief, this book does provide excellent quick reference tips for all question types that will be seen on the test. The idiom list and formulas are worth the price alone. 4 out of 5.

I prepared over an 8 week period, with at least 1 hour of review per day, and more often it was 2 to 4 hours. Regular, consistent preparation, using different references that fit your style of learning will prepare you for this rigorous test. Prepare thoroughly with relentless repetition, and take the test. After 18 years out of school, I scored a 690.

Good luck.

This will truly test your knowledge and skill. It will definitely push you to be better than before.

Great explanations for the different types of questions. Great advice on how to answer the questions. I also bought the Kaplan comprehensive review, which I did not like. So if you had a bad experience with that, don't let it scare you away from this one.

the explanations are sooo awful, and the fake questions are not what would appear on the lsat. sometimes they leave some things out

I highly recommend this workbook as a beginning step for building a foundation for advancing points in the games section of the LSAT. However it needs to be followed up with a more advanced workbook such as Get Prepped's Logic Games or PowerScores Logic Games Bible. I found the setups to be very basic but it is a great book to start with if the LSAT games are giving you trouble. I have worked all of the games books because I love them!

I read the good reviews but found this book to not be everything it was hyped up to be. Honestly, I thought it would be better, especially since Kaplan is supposed to be the best in test prep. First of all, the book has some overlap with the Kaplan 2007 Comprehensive Program. Secondly, I did not find any advice for diagramming or approaching the questions. The explanations were mediocre. I found Cracking the LSAT to have a better Games section than this whole book. In terms of practice, it was okay. However, I would recommend GetPrepped's Ace the LSAT Logic Games. That book has a lot more problems and shows better Diagrams than Kaplan did. I think this book was sold to make up for the poor quality of the Games section in the Kaplan Comprehensive Program. But, after completing both books, I would definitely recommend something else. I like the Princeton Review. I know it might not be mainstream, but they are a lot better. I also like their attitude better (I wasn't fond of Kaplan's tone when reading this book). I think doing all the preparation I can is necessary, so it's not like this book was time wasted. It's just that I wish I didn't send the money on this book.

This is a good refresher book for those that haven't had chemistry in a while. However I would recommend using it in conjunction with either Examcrackers or Kaplan as well as a chemistry textbook for reference.

I used mcatchemistry book for the Aug. MCAT. It was great! idid well on the test and this book played a good role. The book is agood guide for mcat chem preparation for both genral & organic. *****

This books provides skimpy coverage of the chemistry you'll need for the MCAT. There are very few practice problems and they do not reflect the MCAT format. Don't bother.

the MCAT Chemistry touched the essential key concepts in chemistry for the MCAt. It functioned as a good refresher for me.

This book helped me to refresh chemistry basics for the mcat. A good review of general chemistry and organic.. practice questions also helped.