Customer Reviews

Word Smart for the GRE, 2nd Edition (Smart Guides)

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I bought this book last year, but only took the exam this year. Anyway, I took a practice test before studying and got a 590 Verbal and a 640 Quantitative...then used this book combined with "Cracking the GRE with DVD, 2008 Edition (Graduate Test Prep)." Since the math is the same level as the SAT, verbal practice is the only real way to up your score. I personally made flash cards of all the words in the word bank and skimmed the back section on prefixes, stems, and suffixes.

I'd say my strategy worked pretty well; my GRE score was 670 Verbal and 740 quantitative. You'll need about 2-3 months to really learn all the words in this book if you try to learn 10-20 words a day. It's worth it though. Combine that with practice tests you get from registering "Cracking the GRE" and you should be well-prepared. In fact, a few questions on my actual GRE were ones I'd seen in practice tests.

Overall, I think this is an excellent way to improve your functional vocabulary, with definitions, secondary definitions, and usage in context.

There are many different products out there for improving your GRE vocabulary: flash cards, text books, mp3s for your ipod, etc. This book is ideal if you're a person like me -- a person who never leaves home without some sort of reading material. Whether you commute everyday on a train, or you walk to the grocery store to buy your groceries, this book is the perfect size and weight.

I know most people like Barron's High Frequency GRE Words List, but I feel that the list is too short. Barron's books are also too big and clunky to carry around with you. And Barron's complete vocabulary list is a little too much -- I don't think it's realistic for most people.

I thought this book was the perfect length. It doesn't have too few or too many words. I also like the format of the book. The words are broken up into small sections of 10 or 12 words, and there's a short quiz at the end or each section. This allows you to learn a few words at a time, and the quizzes help you review the words you've learned previously.

I carried this book around with me on my daily walks to the grocery store, the library, the local cafe... everywhere, really. After a few months, I had internalized every word in the book. I finally took the GRE (for the first time) and I scored a 780 in verbal -- a surprise since I was only expecting a score in the 600s. And, yes, I did see many of the same words in the actual GRE exam.

This book isn't for everyone. For instance, if you drive or ride your bike everywhere, you may prefer using flash cards (although, its light weight makes it a pretty good choice for cyclists too). But for people like me, I think this is the best product available.

I highly recommend this book as an additional guide to the "cracking the GRE" book, for improving GRE vocabulary. The book has many words frequently used in the GRE. The strength of the book is that each word is put in a couple of sentences to make clear its exact meanings which I found very helpful especially for the secondary less intuitive meanings which they like to use on the GRE. There are also helpful tips throughout, such as which words are likely to get confused. Also, some words's roots are explained which more than being interesting uses as a very effective mnemonic. Would definitely recommend to non native speakers who need to learn as many words as possible...good luck!

This book was a lot of fun to read. The sample sentences are hilarious and the tests are pretty helpful. I went through it about ten times and made multiple lists and flash cards of the words. I highly recommend it to anyone who is prepping for the GRE or looking to expand his or her vocabulary. I would, however, not use this as my only guide for the GRE verbal. It would be best to get a complete test guide or another one that talks more about strategy.

This book goes that extra mile that I needed. I used this book as a supplement to a Princeton Review GRE prep and found it at times better than the text book from my course. This book uses the words in context which is helpful in memorizing.

This test prep book is designed to help build up one's vocabulary in preparation for the GRE. The math on the GRE is of the same level as the SATs, but, as the book explains, the creators of the GRE figure you should have been working on your vocabulary during your undergraduate years.

The book offers several helpful tools for learning new words, and picks a list of words that are most often employed on the test. This is much better than studying a dictionary. It also provides sentences to give examples of how the words are used, etc.

This is a great book, and has been very helpful for me.

The GRE exam has changed. and as a result the vocabulary section is not as important as in the past. So, if you have limited time to prepare this exam, you need to increase your practice in other areas like reading comprehension (RC),(50% of the verbal section is RC) and decrease the time that you use in learning new vocabulary. This book was published in 2007. It may be better if you buy a newer version for the new GRE.

I gotta say this book helped me a lot in the preparation for the GRE. I started to study GRE seriously in the September and took the exam on December. I found this book in the library, and i liked its choice and explanation of the words. It's not like other word books where they give you too much words and too little explanation. Anyway, I went through the whole book and tried to memorized all the words, and the result is 700 in verbal (my high school sat verbal was 550)! Can't be more satisfied. Of course i used some other books too, but this book was one of the most effective in increasing my gre score.

First of all, the GRE is the most ridiculous test ever created. In no way does it measure your intelligence, nor is it a sound device for determining your success in graduate school... But enough of that.
My verbal score was very low the first time I took the GRE (330). So I decided to give this book a try, seeing it had some of the better reviews.
I memorized every word in this book. I would estimate nearly 1,000 words. With the many hours spent preparing to retake the test, I was anticipating a fairly significant increase in my score.
Only ONE word of the approximate 1,000 words I studied was on the test. I guess this book can be hit or miss, considering the various forms of the GRE and the adaptive features.
Needless to say, when my score only increased from 330 to 350 in the verbal section I was a little distraught. Don't waste your time.