21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
it helped me, December 19, 2007
This review is from: Verbal Workout for the GRE, 3rd Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation) (Paperback)
I bought this with Cracking the GRE to prepare for the test. I'd say it helped me (my boyfriend said "wow" when I told him my score). It has plenty of quizzes for good practice, and they do a great job of explaining the testing process to you. The strategies might take a while at first, but over time it gets easier to process faster. What I didn't like, though, was that beyond the quizzes, nearly everything is identical to the verbal and writing sections of Cracking the GRE. The vocab hit lists are exactly the same- I would have liked some new words.
The math on the GRE is pretty simple, so if you want test prep, I'd suggest getting this book only, and get free math prep from the ETS website.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good practice book, March 3, 2010
This review is from: Verbal Workout for the GRE, 3rd Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation) (Paperback)
I would recommend this book to someone who is looking for a practice book with a bit of explanation and strategy. The sample questions are solid and there are plenty of them. The strategies are sometimes helpful but at other times not so helpful because the author explains them too hastily, assumes prior knowledge on the part of the reader, or does not provide enough detail. They also do not differ from Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE, at least not very greatly.
Here is what I mean about the explanation of strategies.
In the section on analogies, the writer discusses what to do when you "only sort of know" a root word. One strategy given is to look at the answer choices, determine the opposite of each answer choice, and see if that word means the same as the root word. This is how the writer handles a sample question to illustrate this strategy.
_______________________________
INCENSED:
- mollified
- ecstatic
- entertained
- peeved
- satisfied
Let's say that you're not sure what INCENSED means. Therefore, take a look at the answer choices.
What's a simple opposite for (A), mollified? Mollified means appeased, so a good opposite would be along the lines of provoked or irritated. Does INCENSED mean provoked or irritated? No. So eliminate (A).
What's a simple opposite for (B), ecstatic? Since ecstatic means very happy, a good opposite is very angry. Does INCENSED mean very angry? Yes.
(...)
_______________________________
When I read this, I couldn't believe it. If I don't really know what a word means, how am I supposed to know if the opposites of the answer choices have the same meaning? This is totally useless to me if I don't definitely know what the word means. The same section then goes on to tell you to figure out the connotation of a word if you don't know it, but Yung does not give any steps or guidelines for doing that. If you have never read the words "bucolic," "puissant," or "sedulous," you might easily assume they are negative in connotation, when in fact they are positive.
But by far the greatest disappointment for me with this book are the explanations to the questions on the sample quizzes. Since I had already learned the strategies from Cracking the GRE, I bought this book primarily for these explanations, not so much for the strategies. Throughout the book, however, I was left high and dry. I'll give you an example.
In a reading passage quiz, one of the questions and its explanation:
_______________________________
7. The author's attitude toward the Republican party of the mid-nineteenth century can best be described as
- admiring
- appreciative
- sympathetic
- objective
- vehement
For a tone question, anything too extreme must be wrong. (E) is out, as a result, as is (A). So you're left with (B), (C), and (D)--each of which is pretty moderate. So use "Republican" as your lead word to find out how the author feels about the party. The fourth paragraph talks about the Republicans, and clearly, the author is pretty neutral in tone. So the best answer is (D).
_______________________________
You can see pretty "clearly" where this explanation drops off. It starts out using a good strategy (eliminating extreme answer choices) but then fails to explain why (B) and (C) are wrong and why (D) is right. The author should at least have explained that the relevant paragraph does not contain any adjectives that show opinion.
This is the general pattern of the book. There are many cases where Yung putatively explains concepts and answer choices but fails to deliver solid information. Nevertheless, I don't consider my time spent on this book to be a total waste, and I feel that reviewing the strategies and having the extra practice material were both helpful endeavors. And, to temper my negative tone, I'll add that about half of the explanations are helpful. Thus, three stars.
For anyone who thinks I'm writing this because of sour grapes, I aced or nearly aced all the practice quizzes in the book. So it's not like I was outraged by my failure and looking to blame the author. I am a writer of ETS test-prep books myself (not for the GRE) and used this book with a critical perspective thereof.
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