McGraw-Hill's Catholic High School Entrance Exams, 2ed (McGraw-Hill's Catholic High School Entrance Examinations)

Don't waste your money (and time) on this book! It is filled with errors as other reviewers have cited. I only wish I had read their reviews before I purchased this book for my child, who encountered more than a dozen errors on the practice tests. The editors and proofreaders of this book should be ashamed! I am talking about the 2009 edition with the orange cover. Another reviewer says this book is an improvement over a previous edition. Faint praise at best.

As a math tutor, it is important for me to research possible books that may be used by my clients. One thing I've noted is that most of these negative reviews have been posted for the previous edition. Apparently, Amazon automatically attaches the reviews to this new edition, which is quite unfair.

Those reviews were certainly not wrong. The previous edition was rife with errors, literally dozens and dozens. After having looked through this new edition, I can confidently say that the work is much improved. As an example, on page 242, the previous edition listed that 100 grams = 1 kilogram, 100 milligrams = 1 gram, and that 100 meters = 1 kilometer. This error does not exist in the new edition. In fact, a lot of the blatant errors in the previous edition have been corrected in the new edition.

This, of course, does not excuse the publisher for having released a wildly inaccurate product in the past, but it is worth noting that this is the first time the new edition has been reviewed on Amazon. If you are to make an informed decision regarding this book, you will have to keep in mind that all reviews posted before this one are in reference to the previous edition (the cover has a blue and white background) and do not have bearing on the new edition (the cover has a picture of a female student with an orange banner across the top). Keep that in mind as you seek your book.

But I do urge people to stay away from the previous edition. It will lead you astray. I cannot say the same for this edition.

Sadly, I cannot review the entire book, as my emphasis is in math. As such, I am only giving it an ambivalent review. But you should be able to accept this book in far greater confidence than its predecessor.

We recently paid for a diagnostic exam at a local test preparation center, which will remain nameless. They used this book's exam for my son's assessment. Fortunately, before making any decisions about using the center for a full preparation course, we took their proposed program home and asked them for a copy of the diagnostic questions. However they did not give us a copy of all the questions and all the answers.

In reviewing the questions for some of the answers the center had marked wrong we couldn't understand why there were no choices that were actually correct, yet my son was marked wrong anyway. We purchased a used copy of the book to find out more. After reviewing the actual book, we found it has many errors. The test preparation center and the book's assessment have now lost credibility and we have lost our time trying to figure this out. Thankfully, Amazon sellers were selling this book for only a penny + shipping.
__________
Some questions on the HSPT diagnostic which should not be trusted are:

Quantitative: #17 (no correct choice listed)
Mathematics: #38 (choice A should read '-1' but reads 2/5. In the overview section the editors didn't catch this but they actually listed '-1' as the correct choice)
Language: #46 (no correct choice - "anniversary" is spelled correctly)
"Faithless book to deceive me, I who tru-sted so" (adapted from Pirates of Penzance)

This book was written by someone who could not pass a HS equivalency exam. The number of incorrect answers to the Math problems is unbelievable. For your own sanity, teach your child yourself before you even think of opening this book. I'd like to know who edited this. How can McGraw Hill publish this - does anyone in this world know grammar-school math? I wish I paid for this directly and not along with tuition to the review class. I would insist on a refund and sue for emotional damage!
I am unable to enter zero stars - that is the only reason it gets one star.

We used this book to prepare for an upcoming high school entrance exam. We have since found several errors in the book, including 3 incorrect answers on a single page. Publishers should spend more time making sure these accuracy of the printed materials. It cheapens their brand. I would not recommend this book.