Kaplan GED Test Premier 2016 with 2 Practice Tests

by Kaplan Test Prep, Caren Van Slyke

Always study with the most up-to-date prep! Look for GED Test Premier 2017 with 2 Practice Tests, ISBN 978-1-5062-0928-9, on sale November 29, 2016. 

784 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2015

Reviews

[Charles]

A valuable resource for people preparing for the GED as well as those that are helping them prepare

This book provides what all study books for major tests should provide, the opportunity to over prepare for the test. By this I mean that for most students, there is more than enough material for preparation for the test, giving them the opportunity to pick and choose what they study. There will always be a few people that require a great deal of material and their needs will also be satisfied. Furthermore, for many people they will need to heavily study certain sections and do not need to do so in the other areas.
There are four general sections, language arts, social studies, math and science. The coverage is wide and thorough, it can be considered a summary of high school expressed in the form of preparation for a test.
For the math sections, the general pattern is approximately one page of review material followed by a short quiz where those topics are applied. The coverage is review only, if the reader is unfamiliar with the material, it will generally not be helpful.
In the other sections, the general pattern is to open with a short section of text or charts and follow it with a few questions referencing that material. One full test is in this book and solutions to all the questions are included. An additional full test is available online.
If you are in the process of preparing for the GED or are an educator that is assisting people in preparing for the GED, this is a book that you will find very helpful.
Note: Kaplan publishes another GED test preparation book called “GED Test Strategies, Practice & Review.” If you purchase this book there is no need to purchase the other one, for it is essentially the same book.

This book was made available for free for review purposes and this review also appears on Amazon

[☼Pam Might Read Too Much ☼]

If you have the 2015 Kaplan GED Test Book but haven't taken the test yet, you might be wondering if you should run out and buy this 2016 edition. While I can't give you a definitive answer what I can tell you is that I did a quick check and the table of contents for the two were identical. Same number of pages and same headings.

What is DIFFERENT is apparently the GED test itself. To give you an example, under Reasoning through Language Arts, the older 2015 test states that there are 54 questions with 1 extended written response to a reading passage. The New Test states that there will be 50 - 55 questions with the same extended written response. So there are subtle things that might be adjusted in regards to the online test, but in general it would appear more of a case of the actual GED test being tweaked rather than what Kaplan is teaching you.

WHAT I like about Kaplan's approach is that they really try to focus on your weaknesses. If you take the pre-test you should have a good idea of what you need to focus on in order to pass.

The only problem with this system is that there can be a lot of material to cover for some people and getting organized and finding the time to study may be problematic. I reached out to my children's counselors and they suggested classes and/or finding a study buddy. This buddy can be someone else who is studying for the exam, or it can be someone who will just be there (perhaps it's you if you're buying this book) who can help the test taker to get organized if they (you) aren't naturally the organized type.

~review copy
~book #18 for 2016