The Complete DLAB Study Guide: Includes Practice Test and Pretest Kindle Edition

This study guide does a great job getting you ready for the DLAB, I purchased this as well as 'The Official DLAB Study Guide' by Robert J Cunnings. Both books have great info on the test. I studied for about a week using both books and got a 125.

I'd recommend this book only because it has accurate rules, gives a few more examples of the visual portion questions than what can be found online for free, and just provides a sense of piece of mind that you did everything you could to prepare. Other than that, the book is rife with mistakes, particularly in the practice test questions, and it's clear to me that the authors of these books are out to make easy money and don't actually understand the exam they are attempting to claim to be experts in. The DLAB is not a random or nonsensical exam. Everything in it exists for a specific reason and the entire exam can be solved using logic as long as you understand what the purpose of the questions are. In fact, if you have a linguistics background you may find it to be fairly easy and straightforward. Here are some ways I would recommend better preparing for the DLAB:1. The Stress-Pattern Section: This is meant to be an easy section. As long as you can count the syllables in a word and can recognize when a syllable is spoken with a louder/stronger emphasis than the syllables around it you should be fine. Ignore the book's comment about Esperanto, it has absolutely nothing to do with this exam and the fact that the speaker will be a non-native English speaker doesn't have any effect on your ability to identify stress. Practicing with English words will rely too much on your prior knowledge of English so I would recommend making your own practice questions by having someone (or even yourself) use gibberish words like such, gabadiGA dululiLO baRAguni. Be prepared to get words as long as about 8-9 syllables.2. The Translation Section: This part is testing your listening skills and ability to deal with case-based languages. English doesn't really have cases but many of the languages at DLI do (Russian, Korean, Arabic etc.). Cases are actually very easy to use once you get used to them but you have to get used to the fact that cases make word-order very flexible/obsolete. The key to this section is using the process of elimination. As long as you know how to apply the rules well and therefore can identify the things that you need to hear/could possibly hear in the correct translation, you should be able to narrow down your chances to at least 50/50 every time. There isn't a lot of time in this section so you ideally need to be able to read any example sentence and translate it in under a minute. Practice creating sample sentences and translating them <i>aloud</i> since the vowels used at the end of the words being switched around is an easy way to trip people up. Know what you need to listen for and stick to it and you can do well.3. The Visual Part: This is the section that you may have an advantage in if you know multiple languages since every set of images is meant to demonstrate some kind of grammatical rule/linguistic concept, usually ones found in languages other than English. Practicing linguistic puzzles like the ones available through Princeton are a good way of getting exposed to those different concepts as well as practicing your inductive reasoning skills, which this section is trying to test. Other than that, the best advice I could give here is utilize all the information you're given. There are no red herrings in these questions. Even if something seems like it's random, everything is there for a reason and it's up to you to figure out how they are connected. Also, there could be more than 1 rule so if you find yourself stumped to explain something, maybe there's a second rule you need to figure out.4. The DLAB2: There are currently two versions of the DLAB available since this newer version is still in the data collecting stages to see if it's more effective than the original one. I didn't take this version but I know that the stress section and visual section were replaced with a working memory test and general inductive reasoning section. The good news is this test appears to rely less on prior lingual knowledge and is designed more like an IQ or general aptitude test. Unfortunately, that means you can't really study for it, but there are some ways to get yourself more familiar with the sections. For working memory, a game called Dual N Back is one way of giving your working memory a work-out and, for the inductive reasoning section, try looking at inductive reasoning IQ tests. In the private sector, some employers use the Raven's Matrices test to test inductive reasoning skills so that may be worth checking out, too. Of course, doing these activities for several hours days before the exam will not necessarily make you score better, they're really just a way to get a better of idea of what to expect in these sections.Above all, the best thing you can do to improve your score on the DLAB is to get adequate rest and keep a calm mind. Just do your best and forget the rest!

Test:I took the test today and passed with a 124. The rules were exactly the same as in the book. You will see the sentence in English first before the translated sentences (audio) are said. You can wait until you're ready to click/hear the audio, however the time will still be running so don't take too long. But this allowance was great because it gave me time to think about how the sentence is translated based off of the rules before I heard the audio. The rules will be displayed during the whole audio section but in my opinion you SHOULD MEMORIZE THE RULES! The test will be a lot more fast-paced than the practice test, and the time will start to run away from you. looking at the rules to jog your memory will eat away at your time, little by little. Memorize the rules, and when you think you've memorized them...still continue to study them. The stress syllables section was difficult, but not as difficult as I imagined. It required focus. I closed my eyes and used my fingers to keep track of the stresses. The visual portion was moderately hard but that's my personal take on it. The practice test does an okay job a preparing you for this, but the actual exam questions were harder. I think it just comes down to your ability to perform inductive reasoning.Book Review:Without this book I wouldn't have known what to expect. This book was a good buy for studying for the DLAB exam. Yes, it had a few errors, but unfortunately I don't believe you will find a GOOD practice book that doesn't have them. The trick is to identify the errors and then disregard the question so it won't confuse you.I bought this book after purchasing the Official DLAB Training Manual by Robert J Cunnings. I mainly bought THIS book for the practice test. I found that the "Complete DLAB Study Guide: Practice Test and Pretest" is better than the Cunnings book in terms of the prctice test. However, I would recommend purchasing both books because you have more practice tests to study from.Final Notes:-Understand the grammar rules listed in the book. Don't overlook direct and indirect objects. Being able to rearrange sentences will help to quickly identify word functions in a sentence. For example, "The hair of the dog stands up on the back of the dog" vs. "The dog's hair stands up on the dog's back".-Get someone to read the audio portion of the practice test, and make sure they understand the rules too so they can make the practice test reflect the actual exam as close as possible! It's nice that the person volunteered but they won't be helping you if they read the questions wrong. So, I would sit with the person and read the rules and instructions together so they can understand exactly what you'll need to hear or look out for.- When you're done with the actual exam, you'll feel like you didn't make the qualifying score. But don't freak out until you know for sure.-Focus!Good Luck and you got this!

Answer sheet only gave 55 of 60 questions, no way to work out score, many mistakes and inconsistences, needs editing but basically only book out there.