Customer Reviews

The Official Guide to the GRE revised General Test

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is one of the earliest books available for the new revised GRE available in August of 2011. Most books are even weeks or months from even being released now and its already April of 2011. So in that regard, it was a valuable tool for people to get a jumpstart on the masses and see what is going on with this new test and what will be expected.

I loved the changes made to the reading comprehension sections. The book does detail all of the things that have changed from the old GRE. Getting this information straight from the test makers at least gives you confidence that they do know what they're doing.

An issue I had with the book is that it has review sections in math that glosses over an area and moves on. They mention that if you don't understand a concept or need more explanation, you will need to purchase some other book or review an old text on the subject. As I was working through the math section, I got an answer incorrect on a triangle problem. The problem was that when I went back to the triangle section, there wasn't any examples exactly explaining how to solve such a problem. This book does not provide an explanation for the review questions. They just give a list of answers. I think most of us learn by working a problem, then seeing where we went wrong in the process. It is a real drain to have to go back to another text to solve a problem. I had to go back and get my Barron's GRE book from last year to solve the problem. Barron's by the way has one of the most complete and almost too complete reveiws in math and vocabulary.

I took the test provided in the book and did pretty good. I will buy one of the other books when they come out in June or July and work through them and finally take the cd-rom version of the test in this book to see how I do. If you are looking for a good GRE book and it is already July or August, there are going to be books much better to choose from by this time.

Good luck on your GRE. I hope we all do well!!

This book was helpful and accurately represented what was on the new GRE. The CD was especially helpful because the practice tests were in the exact format with identical on screen calculator and timers as the real test. After reviewing with the CD there were no surprises when I took the actual test. The practice tests are also very representative of the questions on the real test, I got almost the exact same score on my practice tests as I did on the real test. Overall it was helpful and I would recommend it to other test takers.

I am tutoring students on the GRE and I believe that this book, although helpful, should not be the only GRE preparation book to use. I found that there are too many simple questions and not enough hard questions that will really make you well-prepared for the GRE exam. The solution explanations in this book can also be unclear at times. If you look at the explanation on page 196 in this book compared to the explanation on page 413 for problem 16 in other book " A+ Notes for GRE Revised General Test by Rong Yang", you can see that Rong Yang does a better job explaining the solution. Overall. this is a good preparation book, but I suggest using the A+ Notes for GRE Revised General Test book along with this book for the best preparation.

I purchased this book to complement my Princeton Review GRE study book. I think this guide is useful as a companion book to another study guide. Of the three GRE test prep books that I went through, this book's questions were most similar to the questions I encountered on the actual GRE test, which makes sense, because this book was written by the writers of the test.

Here's where the book shines: in its description of core knowledge you will need to know, its practice tests, and its examples and explanations for the written section of the test. You can read this book's guidelines and feel confident that you have a good idea of what to expect on the test; in my experience, that wasn't the case with some of the other current review books. The practice test included on paper gave me a good indication of my score and allowed me to work through problems that I missed. The included CD's Powerprep software helped me to understand exactly the format I would encounter on the test.

However, this book is not a great comprehensive guide. For example, there are three sets of math problems, and each of those questions has answers or descriptions. However, if you decide you will need to focus on one particular section (say you're feeling weak in two-variable algebra), you'll only have a set of rules to read over later in the book. It is short on general practice problems and specific practice time.

As a final note, many of the elements of this book which I found most useful are also available for free online. The Powerprep software (which lets you practice the test on your computer) is available on the ETS website. So are the comprehensive breakdowns of the written section. I found the physical copy of the book useful, but this book should be used as a companion to another study guide. Price conscious buyers may find that ETS's website has all the companion information they need.

This book is good for an overview of the test, especially since it is for the revised version. It's good to see how you would do on the test, but not that great if you need to brush up on material. However, with that said, it is definitely a necessity. Where else will you be able to get tests from the actual creators?

I tutor standardized tests full-time and have been for several years. I like it when test-writers publish books with several practice tests in them. It makes it a lot easier for my students to get familiar with the nuances of the test before test day.

In the case of this book, ETS does do a good job of covering what will be on the test. All question types are presented and explained fairly well. The math review and math conventions are especially helpful, since they outline all of the topics the test might cover.

However, this book only provides one computer test. ETS is a huge company with the resources to publish several computer tests - which would let students get much more comfortable with the GRE. Since it doesn't, I usually supplement this book with computer tests published by third party companies - tests which are far less realistic than those written by ETS.

Overall, you should buy this book if you're going to take the GRE, but I'd recommend supplementing it with another one that actually provides more than one computer practice test.

I just finished my GRE test and I scored extremely high (I don't have my final score yet; the GRE format just changed. It's safe to say I'm somewhere in the 90th percentile range, but I can't say if I am over or below the 94th percentile or so).
Unfortunately, very little of the credit can go to this book. What DOES help about this book, is that it covered some areas that the other books missed. The practice tests were also helpful because I was able to identify my weaknesses based on a real GRE test.
I probably had an advantage because I've also been studying for the GMAT (so I went through a lot of books beyond just the few GRE books I used for Prep).
I supplemented this with both the Princeton and Gruber GRE books. Those were quite helpful as well... and my favorite GMAT books that helped a bit (but perhaps went too far beyond the math required for the GRE) were the Manhatten Review books.
Overall, I would say you probably need to get this book; it has real test questions (since this is the official guide directly from ETS, the organization that administers the GRE test). However, don't limit yourself to this book. I often found the explanations incomplete in various problems. In some cases I had to spend a lot of time figuring out why my answer was different from the answers in this book.

Next to not studying at all, using this book alone to prepare for your GRE is the worst thing you could do.

This book will give you very represenative GRE questions, and a nice overview of the exam. But it will not give you the study strategies, tips, and tricks that are so vital to getting a good score on the GRE.

For example, the official guide will tell you that unlimited scrap paper is available at the exam. However, it won't tell you that you only start with 3-6 sheets, and requesting more takes time away from your exam. So, it is in your interest to learn how to work with less.

Un-official GRE prep books, like the one by The Princeton Review, Kaplan, or Barron's, will give you additional, crucial, information you need. Preview each one, pick the one that has a tone you most connect with, and start with it FIRST.

After you have done some studying, you may find the official ETS guide helpful for supplemental questions. But again, it's PowerPrep II software is also available online for free, so you probably won't need the book at all.

Good luck.

i decided to get this book upon the good reviews stating that it's best to get study material directly from the source (ETS). while that's valid (as they are the ones who make the test), do NOT have this be your only study source. here's a brief breakdown:

pro: sample questions and sample essays. this is incredibly helpful. i have other review books that have sample questions, and i do believe there's a difference between this book's samples and, for e.g., Princeton Review's samples. i have a feeling the questions in this book are more accurate and it's helpful to see what the questions might look like in that respect.

con: this book does not provide adequate strategy, particularly in the math section. the "math review" section is almost another language to me, as it's been 4+ years since i've taken a math course. i recommend (for math) the Princeton Review Math Workout, which "dumbs down" the explanations for different problems and gives step by step help in how to solve questions that incorporate the different mathematical concepts that are likely to be on the test (here i am saying "likely" because like i said earlier, i do think that the ETS guide does a better job at illustrating what the questions will look like).

conclusion: this book is good as an illustration of the test, but for further practice and help working through strategies (particularly math), i recommend an addition book.

best of luck studying!

I believe this book is worth getting, because it is by the actual makers of the test, and seems to go into good review of knowledge that will be used on the test, and upon strategies for the test. They also describe how the actual test is laid out and graded, and the practice test on the CD is an actual enactment of the computer test. I would trust this the most, again because it is by the makers of the test. However, the CD is only for Windows, which I find the be a HUGE inconvenience, especially as this is not noted anywhere in the product details.