106 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My personal favorite out of the popular GRE books, November 28, 2009
I studied every day for one month and scored 720 on verbal and 760 on quant. I used the Kaplan GRE Exam 2010 Premier Live Online Book, Kaplan's 500 vocab flashcards, Princeton's latest prep book, and Barron's guide with the CD (did not attend any of those exorbitantly priced classes). IMO, Barron's provided the best prep-- it had the most in-depth coverage. I especially liked that the book included plenty of practice problems and a comprehensive word bank. The guide's main weakness was its practice tests. Kaplan/Princeton provided more realistic Computer Adaptive Tests. FYI: For practice exams that best mimic the real thing, check out the powerprep software (offered for FREE by ETS, the diabolical company that generates GREs). Good luck!!
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49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you are only going to buy one GRE prep book, buy this one, August 25, 2009
This review is from: Barron's GRE (Paperback)
I'm a college graduate.... who graduated from college more than 15 years ago, so I was a bit daunted when I decided to go to grad school and realized I had to take the GREs. I almost considered not going back to school because the test scared me so much. I haven't done any math past basic arithmetic since college--I haven't needed to. But, I decided to give myself six weeks to prepare for the test and see what happened. After reading several reviews on Amazon, I decided on this book (the one that comes with the CD-ROM), and devised a study plan that would take me through the entire book over a six-week period. The six-week plan I created for myself is not for the faint of heart. This is a book that covers A LOT of information, and if you are going to do the whole thing, I would recommend doing it in 8 to 10 weeks, but I didn't have that kind of time. So I crammed, between work and taking care of kids, I ate, breathed, and slept this book. I started out by taking the diagnostic tests to see where my weaknesses were. I got only 7 math questions correct out of 28 and 15 correct out of 30 verbal questions. I had a lot of work ahead of me.
I began with the math review in the middle of the book, since that was my greatest weakness, and did about 10 pages a day, relearning all the math I had forgotten since high school. I created flashcards for myself with all of the formulas provided so I could keep them fresh in my mind when I moved on to a different math topic. The practice questions at the end of each review are excellent, and the book really teaches you how to think about these problems in a different way. After the math review, I reviewed the test taking tactics provided, which really help when you just don't know how to answer a question. I took every practice test offered in the book, including the one on the CD-ROM, and by the end of my six-week study session, I was getting 18-20 problems correct in the math section.
While I was reviewing math, I also reviewed 2 glossaries a day in the vocabulary review. There are over 3,000 words in the 50-section glossary, so it was important to get started on that right away. I found the verbal section to be a very good review, and I improved my score immensely by the end of my study session.
The essay section of the book provided very good information on what to expect on the test, but I would like to have seen a couple good sample essays in the answer key. Otherwise I would have given this book a 5--really my rating is a 4.5. I'm a pretty strong writer, so for me it didn't matter, but for folks who need help with essay writing, I recommend picking up a book that focuses on writing good essays. ETS's Power Prep does provide good sample essays, though, and I encourage everyone taking the test to download that software AFTER you review this book, and work through the sample tests that ETS provides.
All in all, I am very pleased with this purchase. After taking the test one time, I scored at 650 on the verbal and a 700 on the math, and scored a 5 (out of 6) on the essays. Can't ask for much better than that!
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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not computer adaptive, December 13, 2009
The actual book is useful - although I would recommend picking up a second book and comparing them when studying. But I bought this because it was supposed to come with a CD that had two Computer-Adaptive tests on it. Well, there ARE two tests, but they do not adapt to your answers. The tests simply have 28 verbal questions, 30 math questions, and the two essays. At the end it tells you your raw score (how many you got wrong w/ explanations for why they're wrong), then you check your raw score against a table for your actual score.
The scores seem a little off too. For example, 28 correct math questions gets you an 800, but 27 correct questions get you only a 720? So if you miss more than one you are doomed to <700 score, seems too harsh. I have seen others where you can miss 4 on the quantitative and still get a 700. So are the questions too easy on this test, are they using a harder grading scale, what's going on?
I will admit though that it was useful to try the test digitally first, at least to get a feel for using scrap paper instead of writing on a paper test. Just was expecting a lot more, I mean, I don't understand- It wouldn't have been hard to make the CD a lot more useful.
In short:
- Book is ok, but would use with other study-guides
- Only contains 2 computer tests
- Computer tests do NOT adapt to right/wrong answers or get harder like the real GRE
- Scoring might be off
- CD tests can be useful for learning format of digital test
Later Edit: The more that I use both Barron's and Princeton Review, I have to say that Princeton Review is better - particularly on the practice tests. As I mentioned, Barron's has the CD with two questionable tests on it, Princeton Review has a set of online tests you can take with more accurate scoring, the option to have your writing samples graded ($6/each), and the test looks/feels closer to the actual GRE than the other one. Doing it over again, I would have probably avoided Barron's.
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