Best GRE Review Material

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smarty666

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Wanted to get people's opinion as to what is the best review material for the GRE in regards to books. I have taken the GRE before and have always struggled with the verbal section, particularly the vocab and analogies. I do fairly well on the quant and writing.

Princeton? Kaplan? Barron? etc?

They have someone post a great study schedule and review material list for the MCAT ON SDN, I just wish they did one for the GRE b/c it would be so helpful.
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Hi! First of all, I'm not sure where you are in the application process, but if you are not applying until next year it might be worth your while to wait until August to take the GRE again, as they are eliminating anaologies and antonyms and emphasizing reading and "vocabulary-in-context" starting August 2011. However, if you want/need to re-take before that, I would recommend working through the Word Smart books from Princeton Review if vocab is an issue (they make Word Smart books specifically for the GRE, and in the regular ones there are lists called the "GRE hit parade" to which you should pay particular attention). Also, if you have a smartphone, Kaplan makes a GRE vocab app so you can use it on-the-go when you have time to kill...or you can just make good old-fashioned flashcards. VerbalLearn makes podcasts of GRE words you can download to an iPod or MP3 player as well, so you can listen to them while going about other activities. If strategy is the problem, more than just not being familiar with the vocabulary, that's a slightly different ballgame. What specifically do you feel is getting in your way on the verbal, vocab, strategy, or timing?
 
The gre-bible is also a good software n d testprep is a must have
 
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symphonyinc11 said:
Hi! First of all, I'm not sure where you are in the application process, but if you are not applying until next year it might be worth your while to wait until August to take the GRE again, as they are eliminating anaologies and antonyms and emphasizing reading and "vocabulary-in-context" starting August 2011. However, if you want/need to re-take before that, I would recommend working through the Word Smart books from Princeton Review if vocab is an issue (they make Word Smart books specifically for the GRE, and in the regular ones there are lists called the "GRE hit parade" to which you should pay particular attention). Also, if you have a smartphone, Kaplan makes a GRE vocab app so you can use it on-the-go when you have time to kill...or you can just make good old-fashioned flashcards. VerbalLearn makes podcasts of GRE words you can download to an iPod or MP3 player as well, so you can listen to them while going about other activities. If strategy is the problem, more than just not being familiar with the vocabulary, that's a slightly different ballgame. What specifically do you feel is getting in your way on the verbal, vocab, strategy, or timing?
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Honestly, if I was in the position of having to re-take the GRE's, I would most certainly do it before the August implementation of the new GREs. Yes, analogies and such are going to be gone...but, on the other hand, the math section is going to be more challenging, and the changes in the verbal are going to be even worse. Fill-in the blank is going to be even more treacherous, with three blanks to fill-in, with each blank, getting an option of three words to choose from....so its essentially multiple, multiple, multiple choice-fill in. This is a disaster. As someone who took a KAPLAN course very recently to study for the GREs, KAPLAN is recommending that people take the current GRE test, because the changes that will be implemented in the new one are going to be....well....making the test more challenging in many ways.

My guess is that most test-prep companies have a good system worked out that has been in operation for a number of years to help study for the current GRE. In terms of prepping for the new one....I'm sure they are still trying to work those kinks out, and thus could provide a less-than satisfying experience for you when you study for it. Personally, I would definitely take it before August. I looked at how the new test is going to be....and, IMHO, the current GRE is more approachable and manageable.

With that said, I don't know the exact difficulty that you are having in terms of the verbal section. However, the majority of problems that arise when dealing with the verbal GRE is a limited vocabulary. Much of the GRE is concerned with how well you know the meanings of words, and how these words are used. Therefore, having a good handle on vocab alone should boost you by 25-50 more points on the GRE. The best thing that I found, was to buy (its like...20 bucks or something) the GRE 'VOCAB IN A BOX' which is a 500-word vocab flashcard package that KAPLAN puts out. These words are commonly found on the GRE. Just from taking my GRE two months ago, a good chunk of the words that I came across were in that box. So, I would look into that very seriously.

I took PR initially, but I had to stop it because I got sick, and couldn't attend classes. When I got better, I took another class w/ KAPLAN, and personally, I loved KAPLAN. I love their structure, and I love the fact that they teach strategies that actually work. I boosted my score from an initial 1000 practice GRE score to 1350 (official GRE score) in three and a half weeks of studying, while still being very very sick. BTW, I took the KAPLAN course on-line. So, there you have it. My two cents. Good luck!

By the way....the app that symphonyinc mentioned is awesome, and really worthwhile. Go for a walk, and flip through some vocab words. Traveling in the car, flip through the vocab words. At a movie theater watching the previews, flip through some vocab words. At church...flip through some vocab words....you get the picture.
 
ToxMan1 said:
Honestly, if I was in the position of having to re-take the GRE's, I would most certainly do it before the August implementation of the new GREs. Yes, analogies and such are going to be gone...but, on the other hand, the math section is going to be more challenging, and the changes in the verbal are going to be even worse. Fill-in the blank is going to be even more treacherous, with three blanks to fill-in, with each blank, getting an option of three words to choose from....so its essentially multiple, multiple, multiple choice-fill in. This is a disaster. As someone who took a KAPLAN course very recently to study for the GREs, KAPLAN is recommending that people take the current GRE test, because the changes that will be implemented in the new one are going to be....well....making the test more challenging in many ways.

My guess is that most test-prep companies have a good system worked out that has been in operation for a number of years to help study for the current GRE. In terms of prepping for the new one....I'm sure they are still trying to work those kinks out, and thus could provide a less-than satisfying experience for you when you study for it. Personally, I would definitely take it before August. I looked at how the new test is going to be....and, IMHO, the current GRE is more approachable and manageable.

With that said, I don't know the exact difficulty that you are having in terms of the verbal section. However, the majority of problems that arise when dealing with the verbal GRE is a limited vocabulary. Much of the GRE is concerned with how well you know the meanings of words, and how these words are used. Therefore, having a good handle on vocab alone should boost you by 25-50 more points on the GRE. The best thing that I found, was to buy (its like...20 bucks or something) the GRE 'VOCAB IN A BOX' which is a 500-word vocab flashcard package that KAPLAN puts out. These words are commonly found on the GRE. Just from taking my GRE two months ago, a good chunk of the words that I came across were in that box. So, I would look into that very seriously.

I took PR initially, but I had to stop it because I got sick, and couldn't attend classes. When I got better, I took another class w/ KAPLAN, and personally, I loved KAPLAN. I love their structure, and I love the fact that they teach strategies that actually work. I boosted my score from an initial 1000 practice GRE score to 1350 (official GRE score) in three and a half weeks of studying, while still being very very sick. BTW, I took the KAPLAN course on-line. So, there you have it. My two cents. Good luck!

By the way....the app that symphonyinc mentioned is awesome, and really worthwhile. Go for a walk, and flip through some vocab words. Traveling in the car, flip through the vocab words. At a movie theater watching the previews, flip through some vocab words. At church...flip through some vocab words....you get the picture.
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Good point about the test-prep company strategies and having the kinks worked out. I know one or two people are planning to wait simply because they have a lot of trouble with analogies and/or don't want to spend a lot of time learning vocab, but you're right, they are changing the quant too, so it would be a bit of a gamble in that regard. Also, if the problem is mostly vocab, I agree that it's probably a more study-able verbal section now (easier to learn words than to practice reading comprehension imo). Also, congrats on the score improvement ToxMan!
 
Thank you all for your opinions. I know the GRE was changing and you all bring up good points of the pros and cons to each test. My biggest troubles in the past have been vocab and analogies. I took a PR classroom course a few years ago and studied my butt off for 3 months and there still were words in the vocab and analogy sections that I had never seen in the over 3,000 words I studied before the test. Analogies in particular have been my Achilles heal so the thought of not having them anymore is pretty appealing.

But as you said the math section is changing and while I have done pretty well on that section in the past I'll have to take a look to see what changes on that.
 
Hi everyone,

Sorry if this deviates a bit from the discussion, but I'm in my 3rd year of undergrad and was also looking to write the GRE sometime before August. I am looking for other opinions on my situation as I won't be applying to grad school for another few years (probably 2013 or 2014), so should I take it now or do the revised GRE in a few years? From my understanding, after you take the GRE, you can have it sent out to a number of schools, but I am guessing this won't be applicable to my circumstances. I assume that I would have to report the GRE scores to each school individually in the future when I apply? I am up here in Canada so while I have done research into grad school, I am still working out all the details. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
 
Most schools of public health (and I believe a lot of other graduate school paths) accept a GRE score for up to 5 years after it is taken. So, if you think you will apply in 2013 or 14 (2-3.5 ish years from now) then you would be safe to take it now if you wanted to take advantage of the current format. If you have the money to do it it's not a bad idea...you can always take it again in the future to improve your score if you feel it's necessary or if you want to try the new format...if you're happy with your score on this one then that pressure is off for the future and applying to schools.

As for materials, it can depend on your style of studying...I really dislike studying for anything and found that I couldn't make myself do it for the GRE. I do love puzzles and just outright taking tests though and so I found a big book that was solely composed of past GRE questions as well as 6 full length tests. This helped with my vocab and analogy skills more than memorizing words...there are so many words in the English language and it's impossible to study them all, I think that the key to analogies and vocab is to combine studying words commonly seen on the GRE with a study of how the questions are asked and how to eliminate answers that are more than likely incorrect even without knowing the exact definition of a word (most books and websites give tips on honing this skill). After I got comfortable with the questions by just practicing analogies from the book, I was able to quickly weed out answers and found that my overall test speed and accuracy improved tremendously (it's a lot easier to make an educated guess between 2 choices than 5). I took the test with a friend who studied for months and could tell you the verbatim definition of just about any obscure word you could come up with...I studied for about 2 weeks and ended up doing 120 points better on verbal than she did. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that some people just don't standardize test well regardless of intelligence (she's super smart, but maybe she chokes on tests)...but I think that a lot of it fell to the fact that I had practiced the questions and understood what to do if I saw a word I'd never seen before where she relied on having a vast vocabulary and didn't do that well on questions with unfamiliar words (which, despite her studying, happened on over half the questions she later told me).

Good luck whatever you decide!
 
Awapi said:
Most schools of public health (and I believe a lot of other graduate school paths) accept a GRE score for up to 5 years after it is taken. So, if you think you will apply in 2013 or 14 (2-3.5 ish years from now) then you would be safe to take it now if you wanted to take advantage of the current format. If you have the money to do it it's not a bad idea...you can always take it again in the future to improve your score if you feel it's necessary or if you want to try the new format...if you're happy with your score on this one then that pressure is off for the future and applying to schools.

As for materials, it can depend on your style of studying...I really dislike studying for anything and found that I couldn't make myself do it for the GRE. I do love puzzles and just outright taking tests though and so I found a big book that was solely composed of past GRE questions as well as 6 full length tests. This helped with my vocab and analogy skills more than memorizing words...there are so many words in the English language and it's impossible to study them all, I think that the key to analogies and vocab is to combine studying words commonly seen on the GRE with a study of how the questions are asked and how to eliminate answers that are more than likely incorrect even without knowing the exact definition of a word (most books and websites give tips on honing this skill). After I got comfortable with the questions by just practicing analogies from the book, I was able to quickly weed out answers and found that my overall test speed and accuracy improved tremendously (it's a lot easier to make an educated guess between 2 choices than 5). I took the test with a friend who studied for months and could tell you the verbatim definition of just about any obscure word you could come up with...I studied for about 2 weeks and ended up doing 120 points better on verbal than she did. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that some people just don't standardize test well regardless of intelligence (she's super smart, but maybe she chokes on tests)...but I think that a lot of it fell to the fact that I had practiced the questions and understood what to do if I saw a word I'd never seen before where she relied on having a vast vocabulary and didn't do that well on questions with unfamiliar words (which, despite her studying, happened on over half the questions she later told me).

Good luck whatever you decide!
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Well....this is why I chose to study with a testing service. KAPLAN does both, word memorization (bottom line is, statistically, GRE tends to test more on some words than on others...thats just the way it is. I found 8 words on the GRE analogies / antonyms, and fill-in, that I studied just by memorizing them) as well as strategy. The strategy is what helped me rack up the most points, particularly with reading comp and analogies, since much of the vocab / and vocab in-context will not be commonly encountered, thus, other strategies need to be implimented to narrow down answer choices, so that--even if you have to guess, you are making a really really really good guess. Good luck!
 
I used Barron's Essential Words For The GRE (2nd Edition) and it worked wonders for me. I'm not really a flashcard person because I'm not a fan of holding so many cards, so I prefer vocab books I can scribble in. If you're like me, the Barron's book is great because it's like that vocab book you get in middle school - you read the definitions, fill the blanks in, and then go through the matching columns. I memorized a lot of the words just from doing all the exercises the first time (of course, just until I took the GRE since I don't use 90% of these words in daily conversation). I got a 690 on my verbal, from studying the words in this book for two weeks and taking a bunch of practice tests the week before the exam. I'm sure it would have been a lot more helpful if I wasn't cramming!

Also, if you're going to take a course, I'd recommend Kaplan's courses. They definitely offer the most material for the price.
 
I mostly used 'Barron's 800 Essential GRE Words' to prepare for the verbal section of the GRE. Depending on how much time you have, I would start by learning the '300 most frequent GRE words' at the beginning of the book and learning the other 500 if you have the time. I used flashcards and the activities in the book to learn the words.

In addition to Barron's, I also used the Princeton Review 'Crack the GRE' Book to prepare for the GRE. In reference to the verbal section, I did a few of their 'hitlist' sections to learn some of the common GRE words. There was some overlap between Barron's/the Princeton Review.

On top of those two, I started reading a book (novel, not a textbook) with college level vocabularly. I tried to read 1-2 chapters each night (which also helped me with the reading comprehension questions). When I came to a word I didn't know, I wrote down the word/page number, then looked up the definition and saw how it was used in context later on.

Lastly, I downloaded the ETS GRE 'Powerprep' software and went through the verbal sections and full tests. I went back over the questions I missed and looked up definitions for words I did not recognize.

Good luck studying!

-waystinthyme
 
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The new GRE is coming this August. I was just curious if anyone knows if Kaplan or Princeton Review has updated their study material yet for the new test version? I know that analogies will be gone on the new test and there won't be as much vocab, but the Quantitative section is changing and I don't want to get a review book that focuses on the old style of the GRE. Any thoughts?
 
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smarty666 said:
The new GRE is coming this August. I was just curious if anyone knows if Kaplan or Princeton Review has updated their study material yet for the new test version? I know that analogies will be gone on the new test and there won't be as much vocab, but the Quantitative section is changing and I don't want to get a review book that focuses on the old style of the GRE. Any thoughts?
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Hey smarty, the answer to your question as far as KAPLAN is concerned: YES. They have. It has been updated for a few years actually. Believe it or not, alot of the types of questions that the GRE had on their research sections became now part of the new GREs. Well, since KAPLAN whent over research type questions, they easily transitioned into the new version of the exam. In fact, the book and web materials that I used where already tailored for the new GRE, but we didn't have to do new GRE type material, because it wasn't on the exam now. Plus, all the analogies and stuff that applies to the current exam was there in stead. But, they have updated their materials and are ready to go for the new exam. You can be sure of that. However, the question is, whether the teachers and KAPLAN instructors have the necessary prep and ability to transition in teaching the new version w/ new concepts and strategies will remain unknown until the actual transition happens. Good luck.
 
I used Barron's 800 words. I then made flashcards from the 300 words and wrote definitions and sentences in my own words. I am actually kind of lazy and I got sick of making flash cards so I only made them for the words that I didn't know after reviewing half of the book (so basically words from P on :). I also just followed the Kaplan GRE book's instructions on how to break down the analogies. The mix of those two things worked for me.

People say to learn the roots, etc., and if that works for you, that is the most efficient way to go about it, but that didn't work for me. I would overthink it, etc. and I am just better at memorizing words if I put the definitions in my own context.

I actually took the "research" portion of the verbal section when I took the GRE. I thought it was harder.
 
jaya88 said:
I used Barron's 800 words. I then made flashcards from the 300 words and wrote definitions and sentences in my own words. I am actually kind of lazy and I got sick of making flash cards so I only made them for the words that I didn't know after reviewing half of the book (so basically words from P on :). I also just followed the Kaplan GRE book's instructions on how to break down the analogies. The mix of those two things worked for me.

People say to learn the roots, etc., and if that works for you, that is the most efficient way to go about it, but that didn't work for me. I would overthink it, etc. and I am just better at memorizing words if I put the definitions in my own context.

I actually took the "research" portion of the verbal section when I took the GRE. I thought it was harder.
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If you sick of making flash cards, I just saw on PR website that you can by premade flash cards up from them. I'm still looking to see if Barron or Kaplan offer that as well. Not sure how much vocab or flash card studying is going to be needed with the new GRE come August since there will be no analogies or antonyms anymore?
 
I was broke and busy. So no books and no classes were used for my prep. Number2.com was my main source of GRE prep material. Believe it or not, I also went through a ton of youtube GRE vocab videos, even made a playlist that I listened to making dinner or doing other activities. Many of the words that came up on the test were in those videos. My score could have been higher if I invested more time in studying (I did maybe a week and a half of prep, about an hour a day) but I am happy with my 1290. My verbal score was really good considering that I don't usually score high on verbal sections of standardized tests (got a 600, 86th percentile).

Combine whatever prep materials you have at your disposal, but there are a lot of decent free resources out there for the financially-challenged.
 
You can probably find a free version of Big Book GRE on the web somewhere ;) Its out of print now but useful as hell (a friend who got into Princeton for neuroscience recommended it to me, and I think she had like 760V, 800Q). It's got tons of past ETS tests for verbal, some of which Princeton Review still uses in their own practice tests. ETS recycles its questions, so doing more past tests definitely can't hurt! I wouldn't print it all out--just do it on the computer screen and keep track of how well you're doing using an Excel spreadsheet, and tally up your strengths and weaknesses for each section accordingly. You tend to see a general trend if you practice enough.

I wouldn't trust Kaplan for verbal questions. I used both Kaplan and Princeton Review and I just found Kaplan's verbal way easier. It was easy to tell they prob wrote the questions themselves, and sometimes you can rule out 2-3 options at a time just by glancing over the choices. I wouldn't recommend it...things like that tend to fool you into believing that you're doing well when in reality you're used to a totally different type of questions and diff way of thinking to target these questions. It's my personal opinion though :) Someone else might feel differently about this...
 
waystinthyme said:
I mostly used 'Barron's 800 Essential GRE Words' to prepare for the verbal section of the GRE. Depending on how much time you have, I would start by learning the '300 most frequent GRE words' at the beginning of the book and learning the other 500 if you have the time. I used flashcards and the activities in the book to learn the words.

In addition to Barron's, I also used the Princeton Review 'Crack the GRE' Book to prepare for the GRE. In reference to the verbal section, I did a few of their 'hitlist' sections to learn some of the common GRE words. There was some overlap between Barron's/the Princeton Review.

On top of those two, I started reading a book (novel, not a textbook) with college level vocabularly. I tried to read 1-2 chapters each night (which also helped me with the reading comprehension questions). When I came to a word I didn't know, I wrote down the word/page number, then looked up the definition and saw how it was used in context later on.

Lastly, I downloaded the ETS GRE 'Powerprep' software and went through the verbal sections and full tests. I went back over the questions I missed and looked up definitions for words I did not recognize.

Good luck studying!

-waystinthyme
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I totally agree about Powerprep. I think you'll recognize some of their questions to be the same as from Big book GRE and some to be same as those from Princeton (I've done all three lol). If it's your first time using Powerprep, it's a really good way to simulate the actual test, and it tends to accurately predict how well you'll do on the actual thing. So save one full test for half way through your studying, and another for a few days before you write your GRE. If you do it too much, you'll saturate the test bank.
 
I am planning on taking the GRE in August and I am not sure what study guides to purchase. I am very weak in the math and ok on the verbal. I have seen many references to Princeton, Barron and Kaplan and I was wondering of these 3 which one has a clear and concise review of the math. Has anyone used Nova's GRE to study for the math? :) I have been out of college for a few years and discovered by taking the math section of the sample GRE that I need help. Any recommendations on what to use on the verbal section would be great.

Thank you,

Ebonyxtasy
 
Other than stats, I never took a college math class and I am several years out of college. I strongly recommend Princeton Review Math Smart. Also, google Khan Academy. It covers everything via video if you don't understand the book. I felt like I "knew" those instructors by the time I was done with those.
 
ebonyxtasy said:
I am planning on taking the GRE in August and I am not sure what study guides to purchase. I am very weak in the math and ok on the verbal. I have seen many references to Princeton, Barron and Kaplan and I was wondering of these 3 which one has a clear and concise review of the math. Has anyone used Nova's GRE to study for the math? :) I have been out of college for a few years and discovered by taking the math section of the sample GRE that I need help. Any recommendations on what to use on the verbal section would be great.

Thank you,

Ebonyxtasy
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You know the GRE is changing its format in August, right? If you're weak in math, you might want to make sure to take it before the changeover happens. I've heard the math is going to be more challenging.
 
ebonyxtasy said:
I am planning on taking the GRE in August and I am not sure what study guides to purchase. I am very weak in the math and ok on the verbal. I have seen many references to Princeton, Barron and Kaplan and I was wondering of these 3 which one has a clear and concise review of the math. Has anyone used Nova's GRE to study for the math? :) I have been out of college for a few years and discovered by taking the math section of the sample GRE that I need help. Any recommendations on what to use on the verbal section would be great.

Thank you,

Ebonyxtasy
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Hi! I was also a bit rusty on the math section of the test. I used Kaplan's Math Review Workbook and it saved me. I'm not overly strong when it comes to math anyhow, but the book showed step-by-step of all of the concepts they would test on. I took the test twice. The first time, I only reviewed material briefly. I scored alright, but not well enough for me. I had two weeks between tests and studied this workbook like no other. I improved my test score by 40 points.

I should give you a caveat though. I wasn't concerned about my GRE score. I had already finished an MS and knew my application would be looked at differently than people fresh out of undergraduate.
 
ebonyxtasy said:
I am planning on taking the GRE in August and I am not sure what study guides to purchase. I am very weak in the math and ok on the verbal. I have seen many references to Princeton, Barron and Kaplan and I was wondering of these 3 which one has a clear and concise review of the math. Has anyone used Nova's GRE to study for the math? :) I have been out of college for a few years and discovered by taking the math section of the sample GRE that I need help. Any recommendations on what to use on the verbal section would be great.

Thank you,

Ebonyxtasy
Click to expand...

i have used Nova's GRE for math and it is fantastic. TONS of drills and techniques. My friend basically went through the entire book and got 800Q. This was a year ago though. I'm sure there are copies of it online somewhere--just gotta find it. The Nova Prep for verbal was pretty helpful, too. And some argument techniques for AWA. Overall, a great book.
 
Hey guys- I'm new to this whole GRE thing. I've taken the MCAT (did so so, took it 10 years ago) and PCAT (took last year). For PCAT 77th overral, 94th in Bio and 88th in Chem, other subjects OK. Worked as a Pharm Tech to see if it was right, hated every minute. Don't want to be a pharmacist. Been working in research since graduating from college. Got a new job in research in gov sector, love it, and looking into PhD programs. The main school I would like to get into just requires the general test. MY questions: 1. Do I have enought ime if I start now for the August 2011 test? I used Kaplan for PCAT and it was sufficient. 2. Can anybody who has scored well give me their startegy and attack plan? I have time to study on my own and very committed. I was looking at buying the KAPLAN GRE Premier. 3. If I take the GRE in August should I buy the 2010 version? 4. Vocab seems to be a downer for everybody, what's the best material/ way to approach it. 5. I guess I will have to order more practice tests from ETS too it seems.
 
I would say of the prep books, I think that Barrons was most helpful -- Kaplan is awful, don't waste your money.

As for vocab, I would recommend Googling a list of the 300-something most common GRE vocab words. I don't have the link, but a website basically compiled a list of the most common words. Make flashcards, learn these, and you're golden. I got a 720 and then an 800 on my verbal sections.... 98th and 99th percentile.
 
Thanks for your reply! Is the Princeton book any better? Do you still feel that Barrons is better? I do feel the need to buy a prep book. I was good at math back in the day, but I graduated from college back in '02 so you can imagine that my middleschool/high school math is rusty. Did you purchase a whole bunch of ETS practice exams to drill yourself?? Do you think I have enough time for the July exam dates if I start now and do a solid 6 hours a day or so? Or am I making this exam out to be way more than it is?

Thanks for your input!!!

confused13 said:
I would say of the prep books, I think that Barrons was most helpful -- Kaplan is awful, don't waste your money.

As for vocab, I would recommend Googling a list of the 300-something most common GRE vocab words. I don't have the link, but a website basically compiled a list of the most common words. Make flashcards, learn these, and you're golden. I got a 720 and then an 800 on my verbal sections.... 98th and 99th percentile.
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The Princeton book was ok, but I really would recommend the Barron's. If you read through the whole Math review section and do practice problems you'll be completely prepared.

I also got the ETS book from a friend who'd taken the test already and just did a lot of practice problems -- it's probably the best way to learn and also to gain confidence. And definitely download the free ETS program to practice the CAT.

And, you probably are making it out to be more than it is... haha. I freaked myself out the first time I took it and ended up doing much worse in Math than I was capable of, which is why I took it a second time a month later. (I got a 640 the first time and a 790 the second time, didn't study between the two.) Definitely prepare yourself, but don't psych yourself out like I did.
 
Hey confused13 and anybody else - I have started prepping and making flash cards w/ Barrons. I also bought the essential words for GRE book to go along the main prep book. Q1: How many words do I really need to know? I decided to study the 300 most frequent words first, but the main prep book has a list of 3,500 words and the Essetial book has about 800 w/ overlap w/ the 3,500. I know the more the better, but 3,500 is overload. My fear is that the acual test will not have a majority of the words on my 300 list or even the 800 list. Q2:Am I wrong? Or what do you guys think?? I've read some ppl's prep material's words list are not accurate to the real GRE. Q3: I should be OK, Barrons WORD LIST is close to the actual GRE word list right??

Thanks for your input, much appreciated!!
 
RedDress said:
Q1: How many words do I really need to know? Q2:Am I wrong? Or what do you guys think?? I've read some ppl's prep material's words list are not accurate to the real GRE. Q3: I should be OK, Barrons WORD LIST is close to the actual GRE word list right??
Click to expand...

There are some words that are said to appear more frequently than others. So the 300, 500 or 800 word lists are supposedly constructed to feature those "high frequency" words. How many words you need to know depends on how bad you want a particular score. It can be a crapshoot at times with the vocabulary.

No one company has the exact "word list" that contains the GRE vocabulary. I believe your focus should be on learning as many as you can in the time you have. Starting with the Barron's 800 word list isn't a bad idea.
 
I was wondering what "good" books people would suggest to help me with vocabulary for the GRE.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-XlJhRPFeI[/YOUTUBE]
 
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