Admissions Books

This book has great questions and is a fantastic companion to the review book. Some quesions on this book are repeated in the review book and CD so beware. Otherwise, a great book that will help solidify your test taking techniques and fill in gaps in your knowledge base.

That said, I really benefited from doing tons and tons of questions. I would get this book but also spend some extra cash on getting more questions and full length tests with answers/explanations and grading scales to really asess where you are.

Good luck!

The Kaplan MCAT workbook gives a couple helpful hints when taking the MCAT. The hints are about how you take the test and some information about what the MCAT is, but says nothing about what you should study. The workbook, however, has some work sections and a practice test that do reflect the real MCAT. If you want practice test though, actual past tests have been released which you can look over.

I'm so glad I found this book! Yeah, I'm great at organic chem and calculus, but I HATE taking multiple-choice tests! But Kaplan's workbook let me practice, practice, practice, until I had the test-taking strategies down pat. And those questions I did get wrong were immediately clarified by the detailed explanations.

I found the kaplan book to be pretty good in exercises for the mcat. Definitely not a place to start studying. But when you're more experienced, then it is wise to hit this book. Has one full test and a few sectional exams. It would be better to just enroll in a prep course and get the full experience.

This book was a very good tool for checking my progress and practicing. By the time of the real test, I had used every section in the book and was wishing it was longer. One word of caution: the "practice tests" for each section are not full-length but only about 30-50 minutes long each. However, it's still a good book for your review.

I've always favored The Princeton Review over Kaplan, and this is not an exception. Here's the structure of the Kaplan AP US History Test Prep Book:
Section 1 covers general strategies for taking the test (answering easy questions first, answer FRQ's explicitly, stress management...). It lacks adequate coverage of how to do DBQ's well. Overall, this section isn't very helpful, and The Princeton Review does a better job. The Princeton Review explains in detail how to do DBQ's.

Section 2 is the Review. It's basically a bunch of summaries, a glossary, and multiple-choice and essay questions. The multiple-choice questions and essay questions are good, because they reflect for the most part actual questions you'll see on the real test. But the key terms and concepts are bad, because they're not linked. Because of this, it is difficult to group up terms for an FRQ. For example, it might be hard to answer something like, "Analyze the differences between the Spanish settlements in the Southwest and the Ennglish colonies in New England in the seventeenth century in terms of TWO of the following: Politics, Religion, Economic Development." (This was on the 2006 exam) Here, the summary would not do for a good essay. Neither would the glossary alone.

I prefer the Princeton Review.

Like all books, there was a good and a bad side to it.

The good side, there were multiple choice questions and some sort of essay question or a DBQ type questions. I thought that was helpfull to summerize what you just learn, especially if you are the type of person that has to write things out to remember. I took the multiple choice part of the practice test since i don't have much time left. I did okay, but i think that's just me. I heard that Kaplan tests are the most realistic though.

The bad part is that it really sucks at summerizing. It gives an okay opening page of what they are going to talk about and you think its gonna summerize the chapter for you, but they give you the information in vocabulary word form. It seriously is a straight list in alphabetical order too! Because the info is in vocab form, the information does not connect together so sometimes is was difficult to do their essay questions at the end of each section.

Don't use this book alone!

I used this book in prep for the AP USH May 2006 Test and received a 4 - just start studying around December and you should be fine. My teacher wasn't the greatest and teaching so this was my sole supplement for test prep, very clear and well explained material. Nicely outlined.

This book isn't bad-- it reviews all of the topics and presents the material in a different way (doesnt't have long, long blocked passages that make reading so tedious). The book's free response practice helped me a lot since I didnt have a clue as to how to approach it before. I never did the 2 complete tests at the end but I always heard Kaplan books gave the most realistic tests. I think that if i hadnt gotten help on free-response from this, I would not have gotten a 5.

My teacher had us do Barron's practice tests the weeks before the actual exam, but those were just so insanely hard that it's just pointless and discouraging (seriously).
Also, I saw the REA book from a friend and although the sample essays for each practice free-response question seem to be written by very knowledable people, they must have taken much longer (than the alloted time on the actual exam) to write. In other words, there is no way anybody could write as much as the authors of the REA essays did (this doesnt exactly help you much on your free-response score).

By the way, this book should be used along with your school textbook because in the end, it really is just about how much you've prepared throughout the entire year.

Honestly, AP US exam is really hard. If your teacher can't teach you the material, then you're screwed. The nice thing about this prep book is that it lays out a nice summary for each section of the AP Exam. While not as detailed as REA, it does its job by giving you nice summaries on each US History era followed by short summaries of key events or terms you might run across on the AP Exam. A nice thing is at the end of each section there are mini quizzes on the section. The main thing you want to use this prep book for are the practice exams. Sucks there is only 2 but if you do well on the multiple choice, you will be in good shape.

I used this book in conjunction with REA, which was WAY too much information. If you really want that 5, then REA is your best friend. Kaplan does a great job with bare information you'll need for a 4 on the exam.

Didn't both with the essays because I had practice essays from my wonderful AP US history teacher. If you have a great US teacher like I did, you'll do fine on the essay section. Overall, not a bad book. Use this book to supplement main textbook and to review for major cramming before AP exam.

Pass Key to the LSAT provides excellent basic study tips and guidelines for the LSAT. This book is highly recommended for its information, affordability, and user-friendly layout.

This book is great. I've taken a lot of these standardized tests, and I've found that for a test like the LSAT, the best preparation is to know the format of the test well, to practice each section (timed and untimed), and to finish with taking a few full length practice tests. There is no need to buy a big ... book for the LSAT. There's no need to take a course. Simplicity is the key and this book is all you need. It's a ... good little book.

this is a decent little book. the organization is well thought out, and unlike other lsat guides i used, structured to aid in learning. the problems and questions are about as good (or bad) as the other books (it's best to also get actual testpreps from LSAC--actual past tests for practicing--they sell them here too i've noticed). this is a good book to pair with another book that specializes in your weak spot. all of these books, in my experience, are very similar in their strengths and weaknesses-- this one is very good for the price.

This book was the worst LSAT book I used to prepare for the test. It's compact size made it stressful on my eyes and the book was hard to keep open during a practice test. The questions were misleading and sometimes irrelevant. I would estimate my score went down from using this book.

I would recommend this book to someone who is wanting to narrow down their trouble spots and then move on to another source to tackle them. This book is excellent at helping you sort out your problem areas and gives questions that are about the same as those found in other test prep books. I found this, combined with a pile of prep tests availble from law services prepared me well for writing the lsat. I wouldn't suggest one use this book on its own and expect to get gleeming scores. It works great to a point, but another study aide is essential to compliment it.

Though this book will not give you the same crucial, informal advice that guides written by students will, it offers invaluable information about your chances of getting into law school. Most of the law schools in this book have included admission indices, which is a cross-referenced chart that details which students get in and which do not. By using your LSAT score and your cumulative gpa, you can tell how many people with your credentials applied to a certain law school, and how many of them got in (such as, 2/13 --2 out of 13 applicants-- or 39/39).

...but that time was two years ago. Buy the updated version.

If you want objective reviews of law schools (but only the ABA-approved law schools), this book is the ultimate Bible to them. In my opinion, in your search for a law school, you need to have this book as a reference. It describes the specialties of different schools, and the grid comparing your chances of admission against your LSAT and GPA is priceless. However, many top-ranked schools do not provide that information, so if you're hoping to determine your chances at Harvard or Columbia, guess again. You'll just have to apply to find out! It's also useful in that it provides e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses, phone numbers and websites for all of the schools. That is a handy way to request catalogs and other information.

This book doesn't tell you the whole story behind each law school, but it gives valuable statistics to help you figure out where to apply. The preliminary chapters and the appendices also have some useful information.

This was the first book I bought when I decided to apply to law school. It's a good book if you're looking for general information on a variety of law schools, but don't expect any student comments like you might see in some other books (i.e., Princeton Review's guide to the best law schools). All of the information is purely factual and is supplied by the law schools themselves. The best part of the book is the little chart where you can match up your LSAT score and GPA and find out how many people in your corresponding category were accepted or denied at a particular school. Unfortunately, many of the top law schools refuse to include such info, which tends to be very annoying. Other than that, I'd say it's a great beginners' guide for those interested in applying to law school.

Good book. Very helpful

Cracking the SSAT/ISEE by Liz Buffia is a very thorough and precise book! You know what? Well I would have spent many useless hours studying material I didn't even need know. This great and very informative book puts everything I need for the SSAT and also the ISEE. If you buy this book, you will surely make a great choice because they tell you what the tests are on, and it has the current up-to-date information because they are published annually. I just have 2 words---BUY IT! You will score high!!!

I checked the results of my son SSAT low level test. I faild to understand or got different answers on next math questions: Section 2, question 10; Section 2, question 15; Section 2, question 25; Section 4, question 16; Section 4, question 20; Yury Makedonov, Ph.D. (Physics and Mathematics)

I bought this book to help my son get ready for the SSAT which he took last month. It was clearly superior to the others available at my local bookstore, some of which had not been updated to reflect that the test has included an essay for nearly two years now.

The tone was lighthearted and made him actually enjoy the math review. There is an excellent vocabulary section at the beginning of the book and I've seen him continue to develop and use the vocabulary skills he learned during his work with the book.

I have recommended it to friends.

I was so disappointed with this book that I wrote a letter to The Princeton Review, the publisher. It sums up my feelings. Obviously, I cannot recommend this book.

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My daughter was recently scheduled to take the ISEE test for middle school. To that end I bought "Cracking the SSAT & ISEE". You should be ashamed of yourselves. This book is sloppily written, assembled and edited.

On page 49 "negative" is spelled "negitive".

On page 509 you are given 35 minutes for the 25 questions in Section 2... but there are actually 40 questions in Section 2. Should there be more time? Less questions? Are the rules of thumb to gauge your results correct?

On page 347 400-180=120! Hello?

Furthermore, though this book tutors both the middle and upper school ISEE tests there is no distinction betweent the two in the study work. We had no idea when we were spending our time on something that wasn't part of the required work. Since you formulated the sample upper and middle tests you must have known. This was valuable information that was totally missing.

I do not send this letter lightly. It is not the kind of thing I would normally do. However, I am livid after being let down by a company I thought I could trust. Didn't someone take a critical look at this book before it was published?

this is a very good book to get with the package. follow the directions in the book and this will b a great start for ur prep. i toke a kaplan class which was a waste of time and money.. studying with the examkracker book has helped me out tremendously. use this book with the package. it is great!

The premise behind 16 mini-mcats was apparently to closely parallel the information covered in the examkrackers prep books, all the while requiring small chunks of time to do so. While they did succeed in doing this, there were some important problems that I encountered as I simultaneously worked through the prep books and supplemented my practice with this workbook.

First. The 'schedule' is suspect. They include an order in which each mcat should be taken to stress the concepts that would have been recently covered if you were working with the examkrackers prep books at the same time, i.e. take practice test 1 after completing ch. 1 in Bio, ch. 1 in inorganic chem, and ch.1 in physics, etc. This really is not a great idea, as what they are trying to, and in my opinion do so faithfully, is replicate the actual content found in mcat passages. Anyone who has actually taken the test could tell you that any given passage stresses multiple concepts, and not just those from ch.1,2,3 of a prep book. This workbook is similar to the actual test, so to fully benefit from the material, you really should start to take these after you have essentially finished your initial prep. While each practice mcat will superficially stress specific concepts covered in the specified chapters, following that schedule will limit the effectiveness of this book.

Second. Expect typos/suspect answers. I did not find this to be a huge problem early on, but towards the second half of the workbook I did encounter some problems. This should be expected for verbal, given the ambiguity of the questions. This should not, however, come up in the science sections, where precision is important. Alas, the only way to know that a mistake has been made is to go on to examkrackers website and pay a $15 fee to be allowed access to the proper forum. Again though, this is not a very big issue with the book.

Third. Don't be disheartened at first. It seems that examkrackers may have tried to elicit a 'shock' response with some of the initial sections. I say this because I found the first three verbal and the first two biological science sections to be inordinately difficult. These were unlike what I had seen on the real deal. Do not be discouraged if this happens to you, as it is not a recurring theme.

So... Is this a good buy? I would say so. I think that the 20 minutes that you get for each section is too much, since each section only has two passages, and sometimes a few stand alones. If you can complete these in 15 min, you will probably be better off for the test. These are inferior to the aamc online tests, and if you really want to know where you stand, then that is the best way to go. Otherwise, the only way to improve on your mcat score is to practice, and this is a pretty good option. Hope this was helpful.

Compared with the acutal mcats it is not a accurate representation. They seem to cover details that are not even covered in any of the AMCAS practice test or even on the real mcat I took. The verbal passages are horrible. Overall I think its not worth it.

I found this book to be moderately helpful but not accurately representative of how MCAT passages really are. Can definitely use it as a guide for what subject material you need to study, but overall, it's not worth the rather expensive price. I found other Examkrackers products to be more helpful, especially the "1001 questions" series (although those are also quite expensive).

A good book to supplement your other study materials, especially if you use other examkrackers books. The 1 hour format of each mini mcat makes it easy to fit into your study schedule. The only drawback is at times the questions can be overly hard, especially in biology. But a good book none the less.

one of the best books for the FPGEE , contains hundreds of questions , which is subdivided in categories , it practise you on the real exam , I think every one must have this book for the FPGEE

It's definitely helpful but only after you've read the essential reference books. It may not offer any explanations but going through it will give the student preparing for FPGEE a chance to test adequacy of knowledge.

I want to Know did this book includes explainatory answers or Questions only?

This book contains questions and answers only. No explaination for answers is given. I found this book useful to get idea about the kind of questions that will be asked in the FPGEE. I recommend that you combine this book with Comprehensive Pharmacy Review.

I want to know did this book includes explainatory answers or Questions only?

This book has been a terrific help in getting started in the med school application process.

The biggest benefit of this book is that it gives you a clear-cut idea of what to expect in the application process. The description of the interview process was especially helpful.

It would have been nice to see more examples of letters and personal statements but it was still a good investment.

I am a professional admissions counselor [...] and have used this book to keep myself abreast of the latest in medical school admissions. The information is accurate and organized, and it is a good basic summary. If you are willing to do a little work on your own, however, you can acquire this broad-based information less expensively using the internet, the AMCAS web site and other free sources. Also, portions of the book are interesting but may be inconsequential to most applicants.
M. Finkel, Insider Medical Admissions

Worthless book. The only thing I probably learned from it is the fact that a vast portion of medical students get married during medical school (which by the way is an irrelevant fact to the topic "Get Into Medical School")

The rest of the information you can scour from the internet.

The book probably will just reassure you of what you already know, like get good grades, do volunteer work, study what you like for undergraduate school, etc.

I just completed my first year of my undergraduate degree at a UC school and have been considering a career in medicine for nearly eight months. This book was a great resource for discovering all the detail that goes into successfully matriculate into a medical school. This book recommended I also purchase the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) which is a great resource for researching potential medical schools. However, I realized that the content of this book was to be found in the first chapters of the MSAR. So, if you're considering buying this book forget it, you'll get everything you want/need out of the MSAR and then some. But hey, you don't have to take my word for it.

I also used Nova's LSAT prep book. I loved it! The problems were explained in depth whereas with LSAT 180 you are left in the dark. LSAT 180 is good for practicing hard questions but if the book doesn't tell you how to work through them what good is it?

This is not a good place to start with your LSAT studies unless you have a Bachelor's degree (or higher) in Computer Science or Philosophy (or both).

However, if you have spent a few weeks, or even months, already studying for the LSAT and find most of the questions on any given previously released test fairly easy, this is a good book to take you to the next level. Kaplan 180 shows you how to read a little bit closer, analyze formal logic, and interpret complex statements so that you can wade through the questions that suck up your time and leave you ambivalent.

If you can get through the 20 Logic Games provided in this book in under 9 minutes per game, getting most of the answers correct, then you should be able to handle any game on the actual test with ease.

The Logical Reasoning portion of this book I find somewhat weak, as most of the "difficult" example questions presented in Kaplan 180 were fairly easy for me to knock down. Though the questions weren't excruciating, the explanations for them are thorough and provide insight that will give you an edge on test day if you pay attention closely.

I haven't gotten much into the Reading Comprehension portion of the book, but from what I have seen, the passages they've chosen are particularly dense and will help with your ability to understand what the real LSAT Reading Comp passages are getting at.

Keep in mind that none of the questions in this book are actually from real LSATs, so some of the wording and subjects in the questions are peculiar and confusing (but not because they're necessarily difficult).

Overall, I recommend this book as an ancillary resource to "The Next 10 Actual LSATs" "10 More Actual LSATs" and "10 Actual LSATs." Furthermore, make sure you pick up the Logic Games Bible and Logical Reasoning Bible by PowerScore. I personally am taking TestMasters and, if you have $1250 lying around, highly recommend this course as your primary preparation.

Good luck!

This book is meant for the high-scorers. The Arguments section is very useful. The Reading Comprehension section passages and the Games section are not very LSAT-like, but still useful. If you already own the GMAT 800, be aware that the Critical Reasoning (Arguments) sections are virtually the same.

I originally purchased the Kaplan 2003 LSAT Prep Book to prepare for the test, but due to circumstances beyond my control I needed to push my test date back a year. I was completely disheartened to see the amount of questions which were recycled in the 2004 LSAT 180 book from the 2003 book I studied from previously. Basically they took at least 1/3 of the questions in this book from their previous publications and simply relabeled them "difficult" to go along with the title of the new book and expectations of the reader. While the format of the book is quite nice, each sub-type of question has its own section, this in no way makes up for the sheet Kaplan tries to pull over the readers eyes by labeling the questions "tough".

LSAT 180 is a great companion to the Kaplan LSAT preparation material. I used it in conjunction with Kaplan's 2004 LSAT Prep book and multiple Official Tests from LSAC. LSAT 180 really puts you through the paces, making the normal questions seem easy. I would definitely recommend it, but I think it's important to use it with the more general preparation material as the LSAT 180 has less information regarding techniques and approaches than the Kaplan 2004 LSAT Prep book. Using these books together with a number of official tests is a great self administered course in LSAT preparation. It definitely raised my score.

After taking the official PCAT practice tests, I found that the questions and problems in the Reference Guide for the Pharmacy College Admission Test PCAT book by and large covered different material not really associated with the actual PCAT. My suspicions were fully confirmed after I took the real PCAT.

The book consists of hundreds of questions pertaining to each of the core areas that the PCAT tests. While some of the biology, verbal, and chemistry questions are pertinent and served as decent review, the majority of the problems and answers stray away from typical PCAT questions. The one definite positive aspect of this book is that it provides a really good sampling of organic chemistry questions that are actually really similar the real ones on the real PCAT. However, I found that the math section and problems to be about 50-60 percent useless for PCAT prep, but a great refresher for those that have forgotten the grittier details of algebra and precalculus. It also doesn't help that the book is riddled with many errors in a good portion of the questions and answers of all sections that really takes away from the review.

Overall the main problem with the book's questions is not so much that they don't cover pertinent PCAT material but that the TYPES of questions and the way they are presented in this book are really unlike much of what is on the PCAT. My recommendation is to avoid this book and spend your money on the official PCAT practice tests that serve not only as a great review but a near perfect preview of what the actual test is like.

Comparing to other PCAT materials, why is this book so expensive? It is twice the price of most of the available PCAT review books. If anyone already bought the book and took the test, would you please let me know how relevent is this book to the actual PCAT?

Thanks!

When cramming for the PCAT, it's hard to just try to memorize a lot of information at once, but with this book, it's easier to see questions and what kind of questions they will ask. this book has improved my PCAT score by almost 20%. It is worth getting.

The book is really good. The questions on each section have been thoroughly explained and cover the major portion of PCAT exam. You will not regreat to spend money on this book. Excellent!

I have just bought this PCAT book from amazon. Its really good. 200 questions each on biology, chemistry and maths explained and outlined very well. I have just finished reading biology section. Its brilliant. I have not taken PCAT yet so I will be more clear after taking the test. But so far this book is outstanding from PCAT material what I have.