Customer Reviews

Crash Course for the GRE: 10 Easy Steps to a Higher Score (Princeton Review Series)

5 star:		(17)
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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book covers all of the test strategies and skills you need for the GRE. The quantitative and verbal sections are thorough and packed full of good tips and tricks. The questions in the analytic section are a good warm-up but slightly less difficult than those on the real test. Supplement this book with some electronic sample tests and vocab lists that you can find on-line and you're ready to go.

This book is incredibly useful in studying for the verbal and math sections of the GRE. However, the test has recently been changed, replacing the multiple-choice analytical section with a writing sample, and this book was published before the change. Almost half of the book is dedicated to solving the analytical questions which no longer are a part of the exam, and there is, of course, no information about the writing sample.

Even if you only have a few weeks to study, I would recommend getting one of the more comprehensive, more up-to-date books. I found the one published by ETS, the organization that creates the test, to be the most helpful, as it has sample essays to look at and questions to practice writing on.

Like my title? It lacks wit, I know, but it is loaded with truth. My score went up considerably after cramming with this book. I hope your score does as well.

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 "Crash Course for the GRE." It is what you need.

I suspect those who take the courses get their money's worth. However, "Crash Course for 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.

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 "Crash Course for the GRE." The MIT admissions people wouldn't be impressed, but for a guy with a literature degree looking to get into a marketing communications program, the "Crash Course for 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 "Crash Course for the GRE." You'll get the best results cramming can bring you. Oh, and be sure to get to the exam early. Long form to fill out beforehand.

I fully recommend "Crash Course for the GRE: 10 Simple Steps in Less Than 1 Week" by Karen Lurie.

Anthony Trendl

When I started preparing for the GRE, I bought the ubiquitous Kaplan Guide and after I took the practice test I was incredibly dissapointed in my scores. Picking up this book, I read through the strategies for answering questions correctly, and then returned to Kaplan and went through every question in the book, answering them as recommended in the Crash Course book. I got INCREDIBLE results -- one of my scores jumped 300 points from the practice test to when I actually took the GRE. If you are the type of person who is bad at standardized tests, THIS BOOK is what you need. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

This GRE book has basically all of the same techniques as much larger books from Kaplan and Princeton, but doesn't waste your time with lengthy discourse. It's right to the point, which is exactly the way you want it.

I didn't use this book as a last-minute cram, I read it before starting my study program and it saved me countless hours of trying to figure out strategies for the question types. This method was extremely effective and highly recommended. Finishing the book in an afternoon or two is not difficult.

Final note: You will definitely need a large word list to study and some practice tests. The free GRE powerprep tests are similar to actual GRE questions and are scaled correctly, unlike the Kaplan tests in both respects. I used the GRE Verbal Workout for it's word lists and was not especially satisfied. The book "1000 Most Important Words," while not designed for the GRE, would have been much more thorough and effective, not to mention a third of the price.

Good luck!

Great book! It is short, compact, and easy to read through. It contains examples, practices exercices with detailed answers, and useful tips and "tricks"! I received it only the day before taking the test, and it really helped me remembering important points and methods! I would recommend it to anyone instead of the other big long books! However, practice makes perfect, so practicing with the free ETS cd after reading this book could only improve your scores! Good Luck! =o)

This book should totally prepare you for the GRE. Don't fret and get the really big books - they are a waste of your time.

This book has good practical advice for taking the test too.

You can buy this book and finish it in less than a week, but I would read it a month before your test and then skim through it again a week before.

The first time I took the GRE I prepared for only one day-- I read this book cover to cover. I performed outstandingly on the test because of the things I learned in this book! You should read this and learn the techniques no matter how much time you have to prepare for the GRE. A++++++

This book provided me with an excellent overview of GRE strategies and information. It does not contain any vocab words, but it definitely has very effective ideas on how to boost your verbal score. You have to carefully read and reread the math section because there are a lot of helpful math tips and information presented in a small space. The analytical section is so clearly laid out that it was better than most of the bigger GRE books I bought. I recommend buying it because it will effectively summarize the larger GRE books that are easy to get lost in.

The Crash Course for the GRE is an excellent book because it gets the reader beyond the superficial aspects of the exam (i.e., vocabulary and geometry) and gets to the heart of the GRE. Books which give 3,500 words to memorize tout nothing more than a cumbersome, and often times useless, feature, since only about 0.015% of those words might happen to appear on the exam. The introduction to the book states something which will become obvious as one prepares for the exam - the GRE is not an IQ test. After having studied for this exam I can attest to this. I believe that people who will do poorly on the GRE are those who are congenitally mentally inferior, and those who are mentally superior but have not trained themselves to take the test. For example, in the analogy section, one may be able to contrive all sorts of convoluted relations because that individual is extremely creative. However, the answer is always the simplest one, but for an intelligent person, the simple is usually not instinctive. A simple mind would see the simple relation more easily. In other words, without preparation the average individual has a leg-up on the genius.

The book approaches study for the GRE within the framework of a seven day time period in which one may prepare for the exam. Therefore, it takes a theoretical approach to some of the methodology which goes into writing it. It is invaluable to get inside the minds of the eggheads who write these things, because recurring patterns arise which may be exploited. For example, in the verbal section, the book outlines how even if one does not know the definition of the words, it is still possible to eliminate some of the choices because they are not related to each other.

If you are in a hurry and don't have time to go through the tomes which are put out by other publishers, this book will be a great asset.