Customer Reviews

Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards Flip-O-Matic

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This is certainly a good compilation of words that may appear on the GRE. It is not comprehensive, nor does it claim to be, and many of the words here aren't tough, though that statement is relative.

The idea and benefits of flashcards are nothing new and it does what flashcards are supposed to do. One major suggestion, however, is each page should have a perforation line to cleanly, and optionally, remove each page. For one, it would make this "real" flashcards. What happens is sometimes you think you know the word, but really, you know the order of the words. Ever wonder why vocabulary flashcards were meant to be shuffled every time you go through 'em?

As a response to the MCSD from Atlanta, I would think that word "difficulty" is both a nature of praticality and relativeness. What might be easy for you might be difficult for others, and vice versa. Also, the essence of the GRE is not to test on the difficult words but on the words appearing on publications which are important for you to know to understand these reading materials.

Finally, don't just rely on this aid. Personally, I used dictionary.com and m-w.com to gain more insight on the word. I also listed the words I encounter in one of three categories--words I know, I know but might forget, and words that trouble me.

Overall, this reading aid is helpful.

This book really helped me brush up on the GRE's favorite vocab words. Plus the flashcards are bound so I didn't have to worry about losing any of them. Together with the Kaplan GRE Exam 2005 Edition, I felt that I was prepared for the exam and did score well on the verbal section.

I was surprised that the 500 words in this book are some of the "toughest" words found on the GRE. I would expect college graduates to know many (if not most) of these words. And wordsmiths will probably recognize all but one or two of the terms. I think the GRE exam that I took over 10 years ago had more challenging vocabulary.

The usefulness of this title, however, comes in its format. The flash card pages enable the reader to review/learn vocabulary in a quick and easy manner. Sample sentences and phonetic spellings are provided as well. While the author's phonetic system is a bit inconsistent, it's probably easier for the average reader to understand than the more scientific IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

If you regard words such as augur, engender, vociferate, and stultify to be outside your recognition vocabulary, then this title might be just the right one for you. I also recommend any book that uses mnemonics to facilitate word/definition recall.

I found this book extremely helpful. Flashcards are boring, but this flip book perked up my GRE study. I used it as a supplement to my regular test-prep study sessions by using it on my commute. I liked the small size, and on the subway, I found this format easier to handle than traditional flashcards. and, I definitely super-sized my vocabulary!

Do you know words like "apathy," "cacaphony, "discern," "wanton" and "homogenous?" When you see the word "flashcards" do you think of individual cards that are about 3"x5" that you can comfortably carry around to study in free moments? If so, then this book is not for you. It's about 8"x4"x2" and quite heavy. The "cards" are actually regular thin paperback paper, printed with two words per page divided horizontally. Most of the words are so easy that I'm sure that anyone who is at the point in their academic career that they're thinking about taking the GRE would most likely have known them since junior high. If it wouldn't cost me nearly as much as I would get credited, I would send it back.

If you are going to do well on the verbal, you need to study vocab. This is a great tool to keep you disciplined and get you started. It is worth the investment. I made up my own mnemonic devices for each word that I didn't know and wrote them down under the meaning and was able to learn a lot of words quickly. Still, memorizing the words from this book does not guarantee you a perfect score on the vocab questions. I'm told you need to study other word lists on the internet to get in the 700's or you have to be very smart.

I found the flash cards to be very effective in memorizing words and it indeed improved my vocab score during practice. Let's see how my real GRE goes next month. I agree with other readers comments about some words being too simple. I actually found this cool application taht works on the cell phone and has tough GRE words. Google with "GRE tough words" to find it. Best part I liked about it was that the words are useful and well displayed for cell phone use.

I have not taken the GRE test yet, but I can tell that the flip-book will help me in the future. It has a broad list of vocabularies. Sure, there are refresher words from the days of SAT in this list, but I have learned quite a few new ones as well. The book is well organized, and certainly combines with my studies in other GRE books, mainly Kaplan and Barron's. I think one has to buy different books and at least one flashcard to be well prepared for the test, I would recommend getting this set of flashcards.

I am pretty happy with this aid except for the format of not being a real "flashcard". I ended up tearing up all the pages, and cutting in half, so I can get rid of the words I knew already, and I can change the order of the words (Who likes to study words in alphabetical order?).

If you're willing to do this labor and transform the book into real flashcards, I believe this is a good product. Anyway, it's cheaper than buying a set of flashcards, and much faster than making your own cards.

What's also good is that it is not too overwhelming like other word books. I only had a month to study the vocabulary, so I studied 20-30 words a day (of course starting with different alphabets!). Without these flashcards, I don't think I could have done that. I encountered many words on the practice tests and on actual test. My verbal score went up by 200, from upper 300 to upper 500, or 20 some percentile to 80 some percentile. If you're suffering at 300-400 score range, maybe you should give it a try.

One pitfall - it is not comprehensive, and needs to be complemented with other aids. I studied a list of difficult SAT words, because I found these SAT words were not included in the GRE lists...

This little book really helped to bring my score up. I wish that these were truely flash cards it would have helped to ensure I knew the words and just not the words around it. If you have more than a month to prepare for the test get this book!!! It will really help to brush up on your vocab