Customer Reviews

Cracking the GRE, 2010 Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation)

5 star:		(28)
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3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I just finished studying for the GRE with Barron's, Kaplan, ETS, and Princeton Review, and Cracking the GRE is by far the best out of the four. Its math and verbal sections are incredibly user-friendly and helpful, and the analytical writing section is essential if you want a top-scoring essay on the test. Princeton Review not only tells you exactly what you need to do to get the highest scores on your essays, but its website also offers LiveGrader, a service which allows you to have your essays scored by actual graders (not computers!) for $6 per test. This is much cheaper than the grading service ETS offers ($13 per test)! The math section is excellent for someone (like me) who is not gifted in math, with the most simple, clear, and useful explanations of any GRE prep book I've found. As far as I'm concerned, Cracking the GRE is ESSENTIAL to do well on the GRE!! The only caveat I would add is that if you want a top score on the verbal section you'll also need to reference Barron's comprehensive vocabulary list, which is unmatched by any other book...

This book should not be the only source you use to study for the GRE. While it does contain advice on helpful strategies to employ to answer the different question types, it has very, very little practice, which is precisely what you need most to adequately prepare for the GRE! The DVD that accompanies the book has very little material on it, and even less material that is useful. If you do want to buy this book, choose the non-DVD option and save yourself some money. I don't find the Hit Parade very useful because it just lists the word, part of speech (noun, adjective, verb) and the definition of the word, without giving the word in context. They encourage you to put the word in a sentence yourself, but this is difficult for words that you are totally unfamiliar with (you may be using it the wrong way). I like Kaplan's strategy better, which is to place a word in a sentence, because it helps with recall. Kaplan also creates sentences in which the meaning of the word is clear.

A positive: the PR book comes with a product key which you can plug in on the Princeton Review website and get access to four full-length practice tests and some practice lessons and drills. You can get a demo version of what I'm talking about for free on the website (even if you don't have the product key), but the product key unlocks some more options. Curiously, the study plan that PR provides you with (on the website) tells you to practice using ETS's "Practicing to Take the GRE: General Test, 10th Edition" -- so they expect you to buy yet another book.

Bottom line, PR is good for strategy, but bad for practice. My boyfriend used Kaplan and I'm using some of his material (flashcards, pocket reference, etc), and I'm finding Kaplan much better for verbal (I haven't gotten to the math section yet).

I echo many peoples' sentiments in that I feel both the Princeton Review and Kaplan books are useful. Personally, I like how this book is written better than I do Kaplan's. I also like the strategies a little more. Both are good though. If you're not going to take the courses in person, then I would suggest getting both this text and Kaplan's. The more practice the better. One thing that I found interesting is that after combining Barron's, Kaplan's, and the Princeton review's top 250, top 200 (and top 400 found online after signing up for the online supplements), and top 450 (Hit Parade and beyond the hit parade)words, respectively, I came up with about 940 words. You would think that there would be more overlap; I guess not.

There are two kinds of people who take the Graduate Record Examination. Well, three, actually: Those who don't study for the GRE, those who take a course costing several hundred dollars, and those of us buying a book or two. Buy "Cracking the GRE." It is what you need.

I suspect those who take the courses get their money's worth.

However, "Cracking the GRE" is a much cheaper, quicker solution. It cuts to the chase, tells you what you need to know, and shows you how to figure out those algebra problems better than your high school freshman year teacher.

They teach you how to be organized during the test. And you'll learn how to draw sensible charts for the logic portion. This will save you precious time as you realize you have no clue how to answer number 27. It teach you how to effectively guess.

With the DVD, you will endure (it is a tough exam, after all), test conditions, and receive video tutorials. The greatest benefit, however, and where you might find yourself studying the most is the book. Plow through word lists, key types of questions and testing suggestions.

I took the GRE. I used the Princeton Review. I crammed. Sure, sure--not the best approach for an important exam, but the fact remains, I'm not alone. Effective cramming involves knowing what to jettison, and what to keep on board. That is, knowing what is important to focus on. The Princeton Review folks know this.

I dreaded the math portion. If I told you how low my high school grades were for math, and then told you my GRE score, you'd likely believe neither. But it is true. My score rocked. Why? The easy teaching style of "Cracking the GRE." The MIT admissions people wouldn't be impressed with my score, but for a guy with a literature degree looking to get into a marketing communications program, the "Cracking the GRE" helped me get the math score I needed.

Have I convinced you? No more delaying. Hurry up, get on with it, and buy "Cracking the GRE." You'll get the best results cramming can bring you. Oh, and be sure to get to the exam early. There is a long form to fill out beforehand.

I fully recommend "Cracking the GRE."

Anthony Trendl
http://anthonytrendl.blogspot.com

I purchased the Princeton Review and Kaplan GRE study books several months ago. I started with Kaplan and found it more confusing than helpful. I read the first section or two, and then did not continue with this book. Princeton Review, however, was much more clear, in my opinion. Before studying at all, I scored a 490 verbal and 490 quantitative on the PR computer adaptive test (very helpful!). I spent the next two months studying about 10 hours each week. My main obstacle was learning new vocab, whereas I really just needed a bit of review for math. I memorized the first 4 vocab lists in PR's "hit parade" (out of 6). I also bought ETS's "Practicing to Take the GRE" book, which contains actual past-used paper tests. The PR book does not provide enough practice problems, which would be my only complaint, so definitely buy ETS's book as well. I also found the Writing Section in PR to be extremely helpful. I went into the test with the structure for the essays already planned out.
The last week of studying, I took 2 full tests to get a good idea of how to pace myself (VERY important!) and how tired I would be by the final section. Again, the ETS and PR books are all I used to study. I took only 1 math and 1 english class in college, so I'm not exactly an expert in either area. On the actual GRE, I scored a 730 Quant, 610 Verbal. I would definitely recommend these two books to anyone taking the GRE. I am thrilled that I don't have to worry about taking the GRE again for a higher score!

I can't recommend this highly enough. I've been out of college 34 years. It's been 38 years since I took a math class (and then who knows how much attention I was paying). I worked with this book and the related tools on the Princeton Review web site for less than two weeks and I was able to get the score I needed for grad school (a combined 1100). It was also helpful on the essay questions, though I won't know those scores for a while. What an amazing tool! Just do like they say, take the practice tests, etc., and you'll be good.

I took the GRE last year with only the ETS preparation materials, and didn't realize until I read this book how many little tricks there are when it comes to the GRE. It's about strategy, and not so much about what you know. I used this book along with 'The GRE Test for Dummies' and between the two, my score went up significantly.

The vocabulary lists in this book are wonderful. I made an online flashcard game for every word and spent the summer glancing through them when I had a chance. I was a bit dubious that these would actually be the words on the exam, but on test day I was amazed to find that I knew nearly every word (both in the questions and answer choices and in the reading comprehension) because they were in the lists in this book. My score went up from 560 to 780, and that's a testimonial to this book. The verbal section becomes quite a bit easier once you know your vocabulary :-)

The math section was more difficult for me. They had some really good strategies and problem-solving techniques, a lot of which felt like 'cheating' (e.g., they suggest always plugging and never actually doing algebra) but which worked surprisingly well. The strategies for averages and distance/rate/time made life a lot easier and simpler for me. My score went up from 630 to 650, so not a huge improvement, but it's something.

This book saved the day with the analytical writing section. They had some really solid advice on writing good essays. I consider myself a good writer, but only got a 4.5 last year. When I read this book, I understood that there is a definite formula that needs to be used and they pinpointed exactly what the GRE graders are looking for. They suggested some basic templates that could be used in any scenario, for both the issue and the argument essays, and it made my writing much more straightforward. My score went up to a 5.5.

They also give some general advice, like how to effectively use your scratch paper. Their advice helped me pace myself and focus better.

Although I'm giving this book 5 stars, I did feel that the practice sets at the end could have been better. I didn't like how they split it up into 'easy', 'medium' and 'hard.' I would have preferred to have a full-length practice exam that had a combination of difficulty levels because that would better simulate the actual exam. But they're explanations of the correct answers were good and thorough.

I highly recommend this book, in conjunction with 'The GRE Test for Dummies.' Between the two, I felt very prepared. This one is a bit more dry and boring, but straightforward, and the Dummies book is more fun and a bit more accessible, but it seemed more geared towards those shooting for just an average score, not a really high score. The improvement in my scores speaks for itself!

I purchased both the Cracking the GRE, 2010 Edition and the Kaplan GRE Exam 2010: Strategies, Practice, and Review. I went through the Kaplan book first, because there are less pages in it than in Cracking the GRE. However, while going through the Kaplan book, I found that I was only being told what, for example, types of math problems might show up on the GRE, but there was no real review. Looking at the same section in Cracking the GRE, you'll find step by step breakdowns of problems as well as information and explanations about things like the area of the circle, factorials, etc, that are not in the Kaplan book. Overall, I would say that Cracking the GRE is so much more user-friendly than the Kaplan book and I recommend it over the Kaplan, if you are only planning to get one.

I used this book, 1,014 GRE Practice Questions (also by Princeton Review), and Kaplan's Vocabulary in a Box (1st ed) to study for the GRE. This book is really helpful. It offers strategies that when applied really can raise your score. The online practice tests are essential and are EXACTLY like the real test. I recommend using this book and a vocabulary aide from a different company (Ie loved my Kaplan flashcards)as the verbal section really is just a vocab test. I used th 3 materials mentioned above and only studied for about 3 weeks. I scored very well.

I took the GRE more than 5 years ago and didn't use it, so I have to take it again. I scored well the first time (770 in each verbal and quant) so this time I'd like to do at least as well. I don't think this is the only book that a person looking for a high score should use, but it's probably OK if you're aiming in the 500s and 600s. There's not enough advanced questions.

If you're a high scorer, you will find when you take the real test, that after you get the first couple questions right, the computer adapts and the test gets very hard. So you can forget all those easy questions you practiced; you won't see them! So focus your efforts on hard questions.

I would say I learned one or two things about the test from this book, such as early questions counting more, but not much else. The major strategies are process of elimination and plugging in math answers. OK, I can do that on my own, and that is helpful only when I don't know how to solve something, because I'm fast with math, but the book usually only tells me how they plugged in the answers. Not helpful.

The first time I took the test, I found it most helpful to study vocabulary words in groups of synonyms, and I *always* learn the etymology. I find that more helpful than coming up with odd pictures, which this book recommends. This book has a lot of words to memorize but not grouped and there's no etymology. Sign up for a word-of-the-day e-mail from a couple of places and learn the definitions WITH the etymology and you'll retain a lot more.

And forget about filling in all the answers you don't know with the same letter. That is bad advice. I have tested that approach and it is NOT as good as filling them in randomly. Try it!