Customer Reviews

Cracking the GRE with CD-ROM, 2006 (Graduate Test Prep)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The book follows the typical Princeton Review format of teaching you skills and vocabulary that will help you to score higher on the exam. This series has always, in my opinion, down an excellent job in this regard.

But the software on the accompanying CD-ROM...AWFUL. First off, you are required to register at their web site to even utilize the features of the CD, so prepare yourself for all the Princeton Review spam you're going to recieve. Second, after you sit and spend hours taking the exam, sometimes the software will not even score your exam!!! The software will just exit back to the main screen and erase all the answers you just spent putting in!!! The book also makes mention to extra exams you can take at the PR web site in addition to the ones on the CD-ROM. I took these exams and guess what... the online exams use the same questions as the one on the CD-ROM!!!

I give the book 5 stars, but take off two for the bad software. If you must buy this book, save your money and get the version without the CD-ROM. Then, if you want to take practice exams, take the free ones offered on their web site.

The text of this book is a decent prep for the GRE general test. But the accompanying CD might as well be a coaster.

I registered online to establish an account, then took the first test off the CD-ROM. When the program failed to authenticate my information with the website, it erased all the answers I'd provided for the test.

So then I made sure my login name matched with the CD-ROM and the website, and took the test over again, replicating all my answers precisely so as not to encounter different questions as the test progressed (I have a very good memory). After that, I was able successfully to upload my test info to the website.

Then I was informed that I would receive an email "in a few minutes" to let me know my test info was available online. No such email ever arrived. And I don't see any way to attempt to upload the info again, except perhaps to erase my test score and re-take the test. As I've done this once already, I really don't feel like doing it again.

Thus begrudgingly I decided to take the first of the free online-only tests advertised on the cover of the book. Lo and behold, that function doesn't work at all. Why am I not surprised? The pop-up window that appeared contained not a GRE practice test but an impenetrable error message insisting I was using Mozilla (I was using Internet Explorer; I don't even have Mozilla on my machine!) and urging me to notify a certain tech support address of the problem.

I emailed the address given -- surely, I hear you say, that message didn't bounce! Alas, my brothers and sisters, it is my duty to inform you that the message did, indeed, bounce.

I will never purchase another Princeton Review product.

I took the GRE CAT exam several weeks ago and had purchased this book with the CD-rom and also Barron's GRE book. I highly recommend that you do not rely on just one book alone when studying.

I started studying from the Barron's book first but found the practice questions to be incredibly difficult (I am not a naturally good standardized test taker). I settled on Princeton Review's (PR) guide as a backup. As I worked through the PR explanations and practice questions, I found both the Verbal and Math portions to be much easier in comparison to Barrons. I initially appreciated the "right-brain" approach to the GRE: taking advantage of process of elimination, viewing questions holistically, and making educated guesses- which gave me the confidence to take on the problems even if I did not know how to calculate an answer precisely.

Although PR's book gave me the confidence going into the exam, the exam itself was somewhat different and indeed, did require at times precise calculations for the math portion. That is where Barrons came in handy. In addition, the verbal portion on the actual CAT was harder than any of the practice questions PR provided (I did not have a chance to use the actual CD; I am referring to the practice questions in the book). The vocabulary list was also somewhat insufficient for the exam. In order to do well, you MUST know as many vocabulary words as possible. I recommend reviewing Barron's 3,000 word hit list and PR's Word Smart to beef up your vocabulary if needed.

Overall, CRACKING THE GRE isn't terrible, but it's not the best. If vocabulary is your achilles heel, check out University of California's free tutorial and vocab site called Number 2 (search for it online). I wish I had discovered this site much earlier than a few days before taking the exam. You should not dread the GRE, as CRACKING THE GRE emphasizes, but as a three hour game solving vocabulary and math questions. As silly as that sounds, being able to breathe deeply and be confident can really help you do well on the exam. Good luck.

I had taken the GRE in 1999 on paper. When I was preparing to re-take the GRE, I bought this book to understand the changes in the test and to practice on the computer. My practice scores were excellent (far exceeding my performance in 1999), so I went into the actual test expecting to do well. However, my verbal score was 80 points below what it was in 1999, and 120 points below my average practice test from the CD-ROM. While the information for the analytical section was helpful, the verbal reasoning practice sections and vocabulary are not challenging enough. You would do well to look elsewhere for verbal practice.

I'm usually a big Princeton Review fan, but this book fell short.

Strengths:
*Engaging style (makes everything less intimidating)
*Easy to read (compared to Barron's, more jokes and funny asides)
*Good test-taking tips and guessing strategies

Weaknesses:
*Math! Total of 58 questions in practice sections (compare to Barron's roughtly 630 practice questions). Now I don't know about you, but I stink at math. I need repetition, not just Princeton Review's "present it once and be done" approach. 58 questions may seem like a lot, but you'll be done in a week.

*Easy math questions (compared to Barron's). I breezed through Princeton Review's math section, and thought I was set. I took a practice GRE and bombed. A few months with Barron's math section boosted my score a lot.

*An over-emphasis on math 'tricks' here, and less on learning math facts. Over half the math section is on how to guess a good answer. Which is helpful, if you're pressed for time-- but it only gets you so far.

*Not as big as it looks. This book is around 400 pages (compare to Barron's 540). However, Barron's has .5 inch margins, tiny print, singlespacing, and normal paper. Princeton Review uses 2 inch margins, a lot of doublespacing, and huge newsprint paper! As a college student, I'm familiar with the old 'expand the margins and hope they don't notice' ploy. Shame, Princeton Review!

Bottom line: if you're pressed for time, need a quick overview of the test, and already are good in math, go with the very readable Princeton Review. Otherwise, get more for your money and invest in a Barron's.

Princeton presents an extremely simplistic overview of the quantitative portion of the GRE. The writing style is easy and it does a decent job presenting the few facts that it does. I breezed through the math section in three days feeling very confident. However, I also purchased Barron's GRE book and attempted their math worksheets. They were *MUCH* more difficult. Princeton didn't prepare me at all for the types of questions Barron's was asking.

One of the biggest differences were the stratagies for finding shortcuts to answers. Barron's book is rich with little tricks that can save a lot of time. Besides that, the questions themselves are completely different. Princeton asks fairly straightfoward questions. Their questions make sense as something that one might actually do in real life. Barron's questions are from the screwy variety that typify the GRE. (Example - How many times does the number "1" appear between 0 and 300)

The only recommendation that I can give is that, if you feel that your math skills are really dusty, this book might be a way to ease back into math. Of course, after you finish, pick up Barron's to get to the real thing.

I was very nervous about going into the GRE. I hate math and have not practiced it any since being in college other than a calculus class my freshman year. I also haven't taken a test like this since my SAT, and I knew what I had to have for grad school. This book is great at getting you in the mindset to take the exam, not just for the questions themselves. I really think the math sections help a lot, I got over 700 on my math, and I think it's in great part due to this book. I thought the analytical part helped a lot, as well as the vocabulary words, yet again the review was a majorly necessary part. The only complaint I have with this book is that the CD-ROM often cuts out the question so that you can't read the ends of questions, you can see that the border thing that goes around them is actually blocking the ends of some of the questions and charts. Also, it tries to make you do the writing part even if you don't want to, and you have to skip over it to do the rest of the test. However, my final score on the CD version and my real score were pretty close, so I feel like it must have pretty standard questions on it. I was really surprised though, because I am more of a verbal person than a math person and I actually did a bit better on math, so I have nothing but praise for the math section, but I don't think I would have done as high on either section without this book. This is not the only GRE prep that I used, but I do consider it the best of what I used. I did do it all in about 11 days instead of the 8 and 4 week plan it has, so perhaps it was more fresh. Nonetheless, I hold this in high esteem since I got higher than what I was shooting for on my exam and I mainly used this book.

First of all, the book (like most of its peers) is engineered to stretch a little content a long ways: many pages are blank or half-blank and taken up with formatting or repetition of previous material, the font and margins are huge, and the reader is frequently harrassed by condescending bullets like ``study your vocab!"; ``don't forget to go to the bathroom!" (o.k., not that one). I am not a fast reader, but I worked through this large 350 page book in 3 hours.

Second, I purchased the product in part because of the advertised 4 practice tests included on the CD-ROM. However, the software is incompatible with OS X. It is supposed to run in OS 9, but the program crashes when you try to take one of the tests.

Third, I found the verbal and math questions presented in the book to be much easier than those in the real computer-adaptive test. Of course that problem afflicts any preparation format in which the instruction and exercises are fixed independently of your level. But, it is worth pointing out that this book will be of little help to you if you are predisposed to score fairly well.

The books produced by ETS have sharper questions, which are extracted from past exams.

It is unfortunate that academic admissions (as, increasingly, public education as a whole) depends so heavily on the standardized testing racket. People could instead be doing something of benefit to themselves and to society.

If you are seriously interested in scoring well on the GRE, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

I am an anal-retentive perfectionist and purchased this book because of its name... "Princeton". With a name like "Princeton", how can you go wrong? Or so I thought...

At first, it seemed that the content was a very useful review (I'd already seen all the concepts discussed before). And I was grateful for the opportunity to brush up on my math and verbal skills.

But once I began using the practice tests, I was SERIOUSLY DISAPPOINTED.

To put this into context, I graduated from high school in 1985 and college in 1989 so I was expecting to have to work HARD to retool in order to score well on the GRE.

On my first two practice tests with the Princeton Review system, I scored:

#1: Q = 800; V = 660
#2: Q = 800; V = 760

Now, it makes me feel good to have my ego stoked a bit but two 800's in a ROW? Seriously, I'm no Stephen Hawking!

THE PRINCETON REVIEW PRACTICE TESTS ARE RIDICULOUSLY EASY AND THE BOOK'S CONTENT IS RUDIMENTARY AT BEST.

I consider myself fortunate to have discovered this BEFORE I took the real GRE, and have purchased a copy of BARRON'S GRE test prep. The ETS (the folks who design and produce the GRE) also offers their own book.

For the slow learners out there, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT! IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY! PURCHASE EITHER BARRON'S OR THE ETS'S BOOK.

I give 5 stars based on the book alone (not the CD). This book was priceless and you should definitely read it even if you dont' need any refreshing. It's very readable and gives you an inside look at how the GRE is set up and graded. The book explains lots of strategies that will save you a lot of time on the exam and boost your score. You might scoff at these test taking "tricks" as I did, but believe me that they know what they're talking about. The book does a really good job of concisely reteaching you all the math stuff you need to know that you've probably forgotten (as I had), but it doesn't have as many practice problems as I would like. I bought a second book by ARCO that had a ton of practice problems, so that took care of that.

As far as the CD goes, everyone is right that it sucks. The test program worked fine, but the difficulty of the exams were wayyyyyy easier than the actual GRE. For example, I actually got a perfect Quantitative score on one of the practice exams (but got 70th percentile on the real GRE). I also tried the CD of the other book I mentioned and it sucked just about as much.

By far the most realistic practice exams are the ones on the CD ETS sends to you when you sign up for your GRE. Everthing looks *exactly* the same as the actual GRE and the difficulty is about right. My two ETS practice exam scores varied by about 10 percentile points and my actual GRE scores fell pretty much right in the middle.

Final Conclusion: Definitely get this book and read it all the way through (an easy read... won't take long), but don't count on the CD for realistic computer practice tests. The Math section is really good about reteaching you stuff, but get a second book if you think you'll need a ton of practice problems (as I did).