Glancing through the book when it arrived, my eyes fell upon 6 Important Strategies, a list prominently featured on the first page after the table of contents. Important strategy three was this: "Don't rely on your memory go back to the passage." So blatant a run-on sentence in a book about English is, at best, amusing.

The book lived up to my initial impression of it. It contained four practice tests (one called a diagnostic test and placed at the book's beginning), and each included a number of questions unlike those on the real test. Though the authors discussed testing procedures and the scoring of the multiple choice section quite well, their treatment of the scoring of the free-response section was inadequate and even misleading. Like most books of its kind, it featured such useless things as a review of basic grammar (a thing that is not directly tested on the exam and that if unknown to a person should be his last concern in preparing) and a large list of suggested reading.

In short, this is a poor but sadly typical test prep book; it was planned with a frontcover listing of features in mind, thrown together without great care or thought, rushed to the presses in time for the school season, and sold to anxious preppies like me.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK- IT IS THE BIGGEST WASTE OF MONEY EVER... GET ANY OTHER BOOK, TRUST ME I WASTED 2 HOURS DOING PRACTICE TESTS ONLY TO FIND MISMATCHED EXPLANATIONS, TYPOS, AND TESTS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO THE REAL ONE.

I need to get another test prep book because I did not feel this book helped at all. The 2002 version also contains many typing errors, errors in the answers, and generally confusing descriptions. I did not have faith that all the answers in the back were indeed the correct ones because of the numerous typos and I was generally very dissatisfied. Do not waste your money like I did and I hope Petersons can at least make the effort of improving the typoing erros before they publish again.

The 2001 edition of this book has many typos, at least in the first 10-20 pages I've read so far. Some serious stuff, like wrong anwsers and mismatching explanations. Of course, the 2002 edition might be better.

The book attempts to redefine the catholic meaning of infallibility as taught at Vatican I in order to strike a balance of authority within the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, O'Gara's thesis rests on a flawed interpretation of the documents of Vatican II.The book is little more than a misguided attempt at reform meant to disproportionately empower the laity.