Kaplan Mastery Book....Tell me about it. Forum

[ps494]

What did you think about it? I'm horrible at LR, and I'm willing to try anything. I did, however, hear that the new Kaplan Mastery Book only uses questions from tests earlier than PT40. I'm a little worried that this would reduced the usefulness of this book since newer LR is slightly different than older LR. Thanks for your input.

[TLS1776]

I have the Kaplan Mastery Practice 2009 Edition (purchased used off amazon.com). When I ordered it I thought it would be solely devoted to LR, with every LR question from every preptest divided by type and arranged by difficulty. That is not exactly what it is. About half the book is LR and the other half is RC/LG. The LR section is broken up by question type, but not every question from every prep-test is included. Instead they have anywhere from 12-105 questions for each question type, I'm assuming based on the frequency. They have 57 parallel reasoning questions (since that's a tough question type for most people, I figured that would be especially useful for you to know). One nice thing about the book is that every question has its source (PT, section, question #) listed in the corner of the page. I paid about $20 for it and may end up using it later, but so far I haven't touched it. I'm not going to sell it, though. And yes, it only seems to include questions before PT 40.

[ps494]

I have the Kaplan Mastery Practice 2009 Edition (purchased used off amazon.com). When I ordered it I thought it would be solely devoted to LR, with every LR question from every preptest divided by type and arranged by difficulty. That is not exactly what it is. About half the book is LR and the other half is RC/LG. The LR section is broken up by question type, but not every question from every prep-test is included. Instead they have anywhere from 12-105 questions for each question type, I'm assuming based on the frequency. They have 57 parallel reasoning questions (since that's a tough question type for most people, I figured that would be especially useful for you to know). One nice thing about the book is that every question has its source (PT, section, question #) listed in the corner of the page. I paid about $20 for it and may end up using it later, but so far I haven't touched it. I'm not going to sell it, though. And yes, it only seems to include questions before PT 40.

So would you recommend it or not?

[beebs]

I took the Kaplan class, and the mastery book we used was amazing - simply because doing the same kind of problem type over and over allowed me to see the patterns in the right/wrong answers, and really solidified my LR. I would definitely get it - and use it!

I'm sure others will knock it because it's "Kaplan" and everyone loves to drink their haterade, but it's a great way to drill problems and find patterns.

(I am in no way affiliated with Kaplan, am not a Kaplan representative, or a Kaplan teacher)

[crossingforHYS]

I have it, and have not used it yet but I plan to. To the poster above, the majority of this forum is in agreement that the Kaplan Mastery book is very useful...the explanations aren't.
Still even that depends on the person and what you find to be helpful...

[Traciela]

What did you think about it? I'm horrible at LR, and I'm willing to try anything. I did, however, hear that the new Kaplan Mastery Book only uses questions from tests earlier than PT40. I'm a little worried that this would reduced the usefulness of this book since newer LR is slightly different than older LR. Thanks for your input.

The fact that Kaplan Mastery only uses questions from the earlier tests is a good thing. When you're doing practice tests (hopefully using PTs 40+), you won't run into questions that you have already done.

[noelleF]

i looked up the kaplan mastery book and you seriously have to pay like $100 to get one that's not used...

any kaplan instructors want to hook me up?

seriously though it sounds like i might need this book. are there any other books out there that have lr sections broken up by type??

[chewdak]

i looked up the kaplan mastery book and you seriously have to pay like $100 to get one that's not used...

any kaplan instructors want to hook me up?

seriously though it sounds like i might need this book. are there any other books out there that have lr sections broken up by type??

1.Look again: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used
and: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... ition=used
There also appear to be quite a few good copies of the Kaplan Orange Book.
I heard it is very similar to Mastery, a little older, not sure what other differences are.
2. --LinkRemoved--
Good Luck!

[Traciela]

seriously though it sounds like i might need this book. are there any other books out there that have lr sections broken up by type??

Yes. The Grouped by Question Type book:

http://www.amazon.com/Grouped-Question- ... 984199713/

[noelleF]

chewdak thanks for the link but i am looking for a brand new copy. i got a pm from cambridgelsat telling me about their downloads too. my printer doesn't do double-sided printing and hate the idea of wasting so much paper. i think i might try the grouped by question type book that traciela mentioned.