Customer Reviews

Barron's GRE Flash Cards

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I set out to practice for the GRE General, I bought 3 items from different testing groups: a 500 vocab set from Kaplan, Princeton Review Book, and these Flash Cards.

*** Long story short, for Vocab, you WILL acquire the words from the Barron's Flash cards than the Kaplan set. They're far better presented.
For Math, I personally found the majority of the problems on these flash cards more encompassing than the problems I found on ETS's Powerprep software... but DO practice with PowerPrep! ***

As for details... the box itself is real sturdy, the cards are pretty durable, and you get a convenient ring to grab a few cards on the go. The stock cards are far more durable than the flimsy Kaplan set, which are paper-thin sheets moreso than cards.

The cards themselves are split as follows: 250 Vocabulary words, 25 Math Strategy Cards, 75 Math Facts, 75 Quantitative Comparison, and 75 Multiple Choice Math problems.

The presentation for ALL the cards is really well done, in my opinion.

The 250 Verbal cards are set up as follows:
Front: Word, Context Clue, and a space for putting your own personal clue.
Back: Definition (and synonyms), Antonyms, fill-in sentence, and Analogy sample (with explanation of the relationship)

All in all, there's plenty of material on each card, and I found myself learning the words on these cards far better than those on the Kaplan set. My only quip for the cards were that they did not come with pronunciations, not a major deal I suppose... unless you legitimately want to improve your vocabulary permanently.

The Problems for the Math card sets were well constructed as well, minus the grievous typos I found.

All Math cards came with a sample setup matching what you'd see on a GRE screen for Quant Comparison and Multi-Choice. In the back, you will find at least one explanation for WHY the answer choice is correct. In many cases, they give you an Algebraic explanation... but they realize in some cases, plugging in works well, and you can use Process-of-Elimination to finish the problem as well. They also give references to see certain Math Strategy or Fact card #s when applicable to help explain the answer choices.

Overall the package is a pretty good deal.

**NOTE**
1) You *should* look into other sources for additional GRE vocabulary words. 250 words are not enough, especially when considering that there are so many random words that ETS can pick for the test. By comparison to the Kaplan Vocab Card set, *most* of these words were also found in their set, however.
2) DO THE POWERPREP Software from ETS. Simply put, there's no better way to prepare for the Computer Adaptive Test than by taking a Computer Adaptive Test. IT IS FREE to download... and WILL help you time yourself.

For those who have purchased the cards, here's a couple corrections for two of the Math cards:
MC 12 claims the answer is C, but the explanation and work prove the answer is D.
MC 36 *should* say (7^a)(7^b) and NOT (7a)(7b), otherwise the problem would require logarithms to solve, which are NOT on the GRE.

These were the best study aid I bought for the GRE, by far. While the Kaplan Vocab Flash Cards features trickier words, I saw more of the Baron's words on the actual test.

The layout and form of these cards is also nicer. The front of the vocab ones has the word in boldface, followed by its part of speech, a context clue, and a space for you to add your own clue (which I didn't use). The back has the definition (usually list of synonyms and similar phrases), antonyms (which were VERY helpful for the actual test), a complete sentence, an example analogy, and a little hint.

If I had to take the exam again, I'd buy these. In fact, I lent my cards to a friend who took hers and she raved about these cards after her test (i.e. the words appeared on her test, etc.)

The math cards are also good review. It basically takes the Barrons book (which is also one of my preferred study aids) and puts it into card form. There are 3-4 different types of math questions testing quantitative ability, basic knowledge, multiple choice, etc.

This is definitely a good investment. Best of luck!

The cards are also made of a better cardstock than the kaplan paper ones and come pre-hole punched with a ring to keep them together.

The cards are of good quality - I read someone complaining that the Kaplan cards are like business cards - small, flimsy, not well constructed. But the Barron's cards are more like a deck of playing cards that are sturdy and plastic coated.

There is a small hold punched in the corner of each card and a ring to put however many card you want on it so that you can carry some with you without brining the entire stack.

There are 250 math and 250 verbal cards. The verbal questions lend themselves to the flash card format more so than the math questions. Still, if you want to drill with flash cards, Barrons is the way to go.

I definitely like the cards. And I love the fact that they come with a metal ring so I can take the bunch that I am focusing on for that week and review them while I'm at work, etc. However the Kaplan 500 Vocabulary in a box has way more words than the Barron's so I am actually using them together. They have some of the same words and I feel that their definitions and examples complement each other very nicely.

I bought 4 study aides for the GRE (two books and two sets of flashcards) and these were my favorite. The cards themselves are sturdy and contain a lot of great information. There are 250 vocabulary cards, which have the word and a context clue on the front, and definitions, antonyms, a sample sentence completion and a sample analogy (with explanation) on the back. I ran into some of those 250 words on the actual GRE, but of course it would be impossible to know every word that will be on the test. There are also 250 math flashcards: 75 math Facts, 25 Math Strategies, 75 Multiple Choice problems, and 75 Quantitative Comparison questions. Each have detailed explanations. I hadn't taken a math class other than Statistics since high school, and needed a refresher course on things like the laws of exponents, which were in the books and on these cards. The cards were sturdy (unlike the Kaplan cards, which are extremely flimsy) and each had a hole punched in the bottom left corner. The cards come with a metal ring so you can put as many as you want on the ring to make them more portable and keep them all together. Overall, I couldn't recommend these cards more, and I really think they helped me achieve my scores (720 in math, 700 in verbal).

The cards come split into a math section and vocab section and come with a metal ring to hold however many cards you want. I found the vocab cards more useful than the math tho the math cards are also good. My only complaint is that the vocab cards were not arranged in order of difficulty - but I did that myself.

They're flashcards, and they have math and words.
Simple.

Sure enough, a bunch of the words ended up appearing on my GRE exam, and I ended up with a very nice verbal score. I used the math cards as well, but, since I suck at math anyway, I didn't place too much emphasis on the cards, but still received a decent score.

I recommend these cards to just about anyone studying for the GRE. They're great for taking along whilst traveling; I used them on the train to and fro work, and still use them to strengthen my lexicon weeks after having taken the GRE.

I got these flash cards along with the Barron's math workbook and the Barron's vocab workbook. Out of the three products, I used these the least, mostly because I just ran out of time.

I think it's more important to work through the books with the examples and sample questions than sift through a bunch of flash cards, especially for the math section. I found them to be more helpful for a final review, making sure that I knew the formulas for the quantitative section.

As you can tell, I focused a lot more on the quantitative section. If you're looking to memorize 250 words for the exam, then these flash cards would most likely be very helpful. However, if you want to just focus on quantitative stuff, I'd stick to a book with lots of examples and questions, use the powerprep software, and save the dough on these. My score was in the 1200s, so take my advice with that in mind.

That being said, the flashcards are high quality and durable. Comes with a little ring to keep them on and a nice box to store them in. My opinion, more helpful for the verbal than the quantitative section.

The vocab, at least, has VERY common terms on the actual exam and will help you a lot. It's much easier and helpful than trying to go through the dictionary or something like that.

I haven't taken the GRE test yet so I can not tell about the effectiveness of this product, the only thing I can say is that they are very easy to handle and carry. I've crosschecked a few words with dictionaries online and found them correct.