I’ve been hearing a very popular question from the community aimed at old ETS materials, namely the Big Book/10th Edition GRE guide: Can I use them to prep? Given the review I posted yesterday—that praises, without reservation, ETS’s content for the new GRE, this question makes sense. After all, the new GRE is not vastly different from the old one.
Before answering this question, it is important to note the difference between the Big Book and GRE Practicing to Take the General Test 10th Edition. The former is out of print, and only available used for hundreds of dollars. Yes, it sounds all very black market. The latter book is available on Amazon for only $11.95. It contains five of the tests found in the Big Book, which contains a whopping twenty-seven tests.
The short answer to this question is yes. But, the longer answer is that you do not want to make the Big Book the foundation of your prep (that should be The Official Guide for the Revised GRE). However, for an abundant resource of reading passages and sentence completions, The Big Book can be helpful. For one, you’ll have passages written in the same ETS vein. The answer choices are written so as to be very misleading—which will definitely help prep you for the actual New GRE.
However, my endorsement of these books is not without a few caveats. As far as the passages are concerned, they won’t completely prepare you for everything you will see on test day. Some of the passages on the new GRE are written in a more straightforward, non-academic language, similar to what you’d usually find in The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, etc. Also, the flavor of some of the questions has changed – after all, both the Big Book and 10th Edition are based on content that is twenty years old.
As for Sentence Completions, the Big Book will be helpful, up until a point. The current Text Completions are far more varied, and not only in terms of the number of blanks (one to three), but also in the way that they are written. Some are fiendishly convoluted and wordy, others deceptively straightforward. The sentence completions from the Big Book, while still difficult, mostly lack this syntactical and stylistic variety.
But, they still make for great practice. Just as importantly, the vocabulary words you’ll find in the sentences and answer choices are words you’ll have to know for the test. This mostly holds true for the antonym section. So, while the antonyms are no longer part of the new test, they are still a great way for you to learn and strengthen your vocabulary.
As for the analogies, don’t worry about them. Some of the vocabulary will only come up on analogies, e.g. a pylon, and the logic employed isn’t really analogous—pardon the pun—to the content on the new GRE.
For the quantitative section, the Big Book will not be as helpful. Over the years, the math has become much more difficult. On the other hand, if you are struggling with math, and are only looking to break 500, the Big Book or The Official Guide will provide helpful practice. Even then, the range of question types on math is limited compared to what you’ll encounter on the new GRE.
Finally, the strategies and exercises at the beginning of the book, and the explanations the 10th edition provides for one of the tests, are without exception awful. I’ve had students literally throw the book against the wall when trying to wade through the morass of inscrutability that are the explanations.
That said, is it worth paying upwards of $150 for a copy, only to use it on certain parts of the test? Unless you are really starved for content, I would say no. It is much better to pick up the slimmer—but so much cheaper—11th Edition guide (it’s only 21.00). Again, this guide will only be extra prep, and should not be the foundation of your studies.
Content: C+
Strategies/Explanations: D-
This is the seventh (and last!) installment in a series of new GRE book reviews.
Hi Chris
I am to give my GRE b April end this year, and I am curently doing a lot of practise tests, to improve my score on both Maths and Verbal. Now, during my research, I came across this book ‘Big Book’, that everyone says is good for practice since it contains actual GRE tests and will give the look and feel of the actual test as such. Do you think it makes sense to download it online, and practice from the same considering it is still the old version? Is there a newer version? I have one month in hand, as of now and I do not really know how to utilize it – need as much practice as I can right now.
Would be great if you could advise on what would be the most useful way to practise and if you know of any resources online, that I could use for the same, if not this book? Thanks!
Niti
Hi Niti,
Well, that’s the thing about the ‘Big Book.’ It’s for the old GRE. Things have changed significantly on the Revised GRE (unfortunately, there is no ‘big book’ of Revised GRE tests).
I say it makes sense to download if you are struggling on the verbal and want lots (and I mean lots) or practice strengthen your vocabulary and reading comp. skills. Of course many of the question types are obsolete, so much of you prep will be more of a vocabulary building exercise than one that actually targets the question types you will see test day.
For that you will have to use material that has the new question types.
Hope that helps
Ok, makes sense.. Yes, it helps..:) could you perhaps also suggest some resources for the new GRE, that I could avail to practice on RC’s and verbal content (if not quants!)? I really need to improve my verbal score. Anything that is online/hard copied would be helpful..may be if you could give me a few options. To give you a bit of background, I have already practised from ETS, Barron’s and Kaplan (still to do online tests from the last book!)..
Thanks a ton again!:)
Niti
Hi Niti,
You might want to try the MGRE series. Buying just one book gives you access to six on-line tests. I haven’t seen Kaplan’s online tests, but if the content is anything like that found in their book, your time would be much better spent with other sources.
Hope that helps!
Ok, I think will buy it. How is the RC content in Manhattan GRE? I am thinking of purchasing ‘Manhattan Reading Comprehension and Essay Strategy Guide’ or ‘Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence’ book, since I am still quite weak in Verbal. I have a very short attention span when it comes to RC’s (or sometimes I do not fully understand the options also) and I score quite bad in Sentence Equivalence as well (one of the options I choose invariably turn out to be incorrect
). Not sure which one of these should I purchase, and which of these areas should I focus more on improving since there is only a month left for my exam.
It would be great if you could a) advise me on which area should I focus more on in terms of improvision – RC’s or Sentence Equivalence depending upon which comprises more questions and b) accordingly which one of the these books is a better one to buy from Manhattan GRE?
Hope it is ok to come back to you, with multiple questions! Thanks a ton for your help here..:):)
No problem Niti:
1. The MGRE RC is definitely better than its TC and SE book.
2. RC definitely makes up more of the test than SE, so if you had to focus on one definitely focus on RC.
3. Finally for SE it is definitely a question of vocabulary. For the best SE hints/strategies out there, just use the Magoosh blog. Best of all, the posts are free
.
great, will do that.. thanks a lot!
You’re welcome
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