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Revised GRE Book Reviews

By on August 31, 2011 in Book Reviews

 

So now what?

Over the last ten days, I’ve written seven book reviews. For many, it’s been hard to sort through all of the material to really get a sense of what to use, and what not to use. In this post, I’ll attempt to create a study plan based on those books. To do so, I’ve come up with a few hypothetical scenarios…

If you need help with Verbal:

For the very beginner, the strategies in Princeton Review are both clearly presented and helpful. There are exercises that will allow you to practice techniques. In general, the questions make the revised GRE appear much easier than the real exam. For more comprehensive strategies, head to Manhattan GRE. Though all eight books are expensive, I would recommend buying the reading comprehension and Essays book. The Sentence Completions and Text Completions has excellent strategies, yet the questions really aren’t that similar to what you’ll see test day.

Once you’ve got a hang of the basics, transition to the ETS material. You may want to start off by taking a test from the PowerPrep software. This will set a baseline, and help you focus on the areas that you need the most work on. If you need extra content on reading comprehension, then you can use Kaplan. I’d also recommend buying the GMAT Official Guide, especially if you need help on the critical reasoning component of critical reading.

If you are struggling with Quant:

Pick up a copy of McGraw-Hill’s Conquering the GRE Math. Make sure you are comfortable with most of the basics covered in the book. The Manhattan GRE math series is also helpful, especially once you’ve got a hang of the “basic basics” of the McGraw Hill book. With both books, do not feel you have to do every problem. Work on the math fundamentals that you are struggling the most with.

I would also recommend the SAT College Board book. The same range of concepts is covered, and with 600 practice questions, ranging from easy to difficult, you’ll have plenty of practice.

You’ll notice that I’m staying away from a lot of books and material published recently for the revised GRE. Just because it says “New GRE” or “Revised GRE” on the cover doesn’t mean the content is the best. Stay tuned for an upcoming post in which I’ll talk about content that, while not developed for the revised GRE, will actually help you prep for the revised GRE.

In order to not forget the idiosyncrasies of the revised GRE environment, you should also start prepping with Barron’s, especially once your math confidence is higher. Then…

If you want to score in the top 10% in Verbal

First off, your vocabulary has to be strong. You should know most of the vocabulary from the Word Smart Series, as well as any vocabulary I’ve included in my blog posts.

If you want to score at this level, I’ll assume that you’ve already got a strong handle on strategies, and are simply hunting around for the best content to hone your skills.

For Reading Comprehension:

For Text Completion/Sentence Equivalence:

If you want to score in the top 10% for Quant:

If you cover the material listed below, there will be little that can surprise you on test day. In fact, a good way to think of it is to imagine you are preparing for the GMAT. You can even take a free GMAT test on-line. If you can score in the top 10% in GMAT, the GRE math should be a cakewalk.

If you’d like more specifics, here are the individual reviews for each of the books:

Let us know if you’ve used any of these books yourself, and whether you’ve found them helpful!

About the Author

Chris has been helping students excel on the GRE, GMAT, and SAT for the last 10 years. He is the Lead Content Developer and Tutor for Magoosh. His favorite food is wasabi-flavored almonds.

26 Responses to Revised GRE Book Reviews

  1. Huan-Lin Chang August 31, 2011 at 7:41 pm #

    Thank you sooooooooo much for the book reviews. BTW, where can I buy the T-shirt Chris wore in the video? It’s telegenic!

    Reply
  2. Amir August 31, 2011 at 8:32 pm #

    Hi Chris,

    I was wondering if the Word Smart vocab LIST from PR and the hit parade LIST in their previous book are the same??
    However, I’m 100% sure the word smart is prominently way better to be crammed on. In a nutshell, my concern is about the list itself.

    Thanks for your thorough posts, I hope the materials (700 math and verbal pesky questions!) and the bonus videos I got recently access to after upgrading my account would be as richly peppered as yours.

    Kudos.
    Amir

    Reply
    • Chris Lele September 1, 2011 at 11:24 am #

      Thanks for the kudos!

      PR’s Word Smart (and this is the general book not just for the GRE) has 1,505 words. That is far more than the hit parade lists. There will be significant overlap but, as you mentioned, Word Smart, with its example sentences, is much better prep for the new GRE.

      I hope you enjoy the videos. Your feedback is always appreciated!

      Reply
      • Amir September 1, 2011 at 12:10 pm #

        Thanks again.

        How about an appropriate book for the writing sections all in all?
        I have the PR.
        My problem is my writing.

        I’m also very thirsty of your profound analysis for writing prep materials and for writing sections of the reviewed books as well.

        In addition, how do you see the Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.?

        Reply
        • Chris Lele September 1, 2011 at 12:20 pm #

          Strunk & White is a little dated, and a little too strict on writing form. For general writing I prefer William Zissner’s On Writing.

          However, both books are for writing from a journalistic standpoint, which while helpful, won’t be quite as targeted as what you’re going for. PR has Grammar Smart, which is somewhat helpful and Kaplan has Grammar Sharp. Both books help more at the syntactical level than at the stylistic level, if indeed that is where you are struggling more.

          As of now, I’m not planning on doing much more than my cursory analysis on the writing sections. Skip Kaplan but pick up Barron’s. I still think they do the best job of breaking down the essay for the New GRE.

          Also, for a small fee, you can pay to have your essay graded by ETS. At least, they were doing this for the old GRE.

          Reply
      • Kiran October 22, 2011 at 6:24 am #

        Hi Chris,

        I wanted to ask you about this book “Word power made easy” by Norman Lewis. Do you recommend it for vocab prep?

        Reply
        • Chris Lele October 22, 2011 at 10:08 pm #

          Hi Kiran,

          Yes, that’s a pretty good vocabulary book as well. It’s by no means comprehensive, but it would work well as a supplementary vocabulary book.

          Were you thinking of using several sources?

          Reply
          • Kiran October 24, 2011 at 7:52 pm #

            The only book I’m currently using for GRE prep is the official guide. I wanted some more practice, so I subscribed to Magoosh Premium. Since I already had this book for vocab, though I’d ask you. Am I good to go or will I require other material? I want to stick to just the basic few which provide comprehensive material for prep. Don’t want to overwhelm myself with a lot of books which I won’t use ultimately.

            Reply
            • Chris October 25, 2011 at 3:02 pm #

              At this point, together with Magoosh, the official material, both the book/CD and the free-online, should be enough material. Definitely continue learning vocab and reading at a high level – Economist, NYtimes Book Review, etc. I would say increasing this general understanding of academic English is just as important as doing practice questions.

              Hope that helps!

              Reply
              • Kiran October 26, 2011 at 1:34 am #

                Thank you :)

                Reply
  3. Arun September 1, 2011 at 10:34 am #

    Actually there is another book for GRE which is not much known and it is called Gruber’s Complete GRE Guide . Somebody recommended this to me . If you can , please review this book also . It would be really helpful

    Reply
    • Chris Lele September 1, 2011 at 11:26 am #

      Thanks for the tip! I will look into this as soon as possible. Though
      the book review week is over, I’ll continue to review books/material
      when I encounter them.

      Reply
  4. Labin September 1, 2011 at 6:08 pm #

    Chris,

    Can you please confirm which book would you recommend for vocab:Word SMART 2nd edition or 4th from PR.

    Reply
    • Chris September 1, 2011 at 7:18 am #

      The 4th edition is fine.

      Reply
  5. Vivek Roongta September 1, 2011 at 9:35 pm #

    Heyy Chris

    Thanks a lot for your reviews on the GRE books
    You gave a very comprehensive review, but i felt you forgot to review one important aspect of the books – practice tests in book and CDs .

    It would be a great help if you can review them too, based on difficulty as compared to the actual GRE.

    Reply
    • Chris September 26, 2011 at 4:03 pm #

      Hey Vivek, right now there aren’t any immediate plans to review the CDs. I want to find the best material for prepping. Most of the books just weren’t up to snuff in terms of their content e.g. McGraw Hill, so I would rather focus on only the best content out there (whether it is CD-based or book based).

      Reply
  6. Vi September 10, 2011 at 11:07 am #

    Hi,
    I have both “old” versions of Kaplan and Barron’s GRE prep books (Kaplan GRE Premier 2011 (pre revised GRE era) and Barron’s 18th edition GRE).

    Do you think I can still use these by recycling Kaplan’s RC section + Barron’s math section?
    Will the content in these sections actually be any different from the versions of these books which are so-called updated for the revised GRE?

    Unless recommended otherwise, I was planning on using these along with the official ETS guide for content and practice.

    What would you suggest?

    Thanks tons.

    Reply
    • Chris September 26, 2011 at 4:06 pm #

      I would only use the old Barron’s and Kaplan books as extra question sources, once you’ve exhausted everything else. It is better that you work with New GRE sources, or Original Guide sources for overlap on questions like reading comp. (the text completions to the new GRE require you to use Revised GRE material – however both Kaplan and Barron’s, esp. Kaplan, are weak). Otherwise, buy Barron’s new GRE book instead of using the old one.

      Reply
  7. Willy September 26, 2011 at 9:28 am #

    Hi Chris,

    Since that I was major in Math, I would like some extra books with only Verbal part.
    Is “New GRE Verbal Workbook”, published by Kaplan, good for me?

    Thank you :)

    Reply
    • Chris September 26, 2011 at 4:08 pm #

      Hi Willy,

      I was very disappointed with Kaplan’s Verbal workbook. Besides some of the reading comp. passages, the rest of the verbal questions are kind of a joke for those seriously wanting to prepare for the revised GRE.

      Princeton Review is better for strategy and Barron’s is better for content.

      Hope that helps!

      Reply
      • Willy September 28, 2011 at 9:17 am #

        Hi Chris,

        I am really appreciated for your kindly help.
        Since that English is not my native language,
        I’m afraid that I have to enhance my basic ability before practicing the strategy for GRE.
        Can you recommend some books for me?
        That would be very helpful for me.

        Thank you :P

        Reply
  8. Mayur April 23, 2012 at 1:15 am #

    Hi Chris,

    In the sub-heading ‘If you want to score in the top 90% in Verbal’,you have said,”’ll be discussing vocabulary in-depth starting tomorrow”.Will you please provide me the link of all your discussions regarding verbal? :)

    Thanks & Regards
    Mayur

    Reply
    • Chris April 23, 2012 at 2:21 pm #

      Hi Mayur,

      That was a typo :) . To read about GRE verbal, I’ll be posting a few verbal posts each week. To check out the history of verbal posts, go to the task bar and click on ‘verbal’ or ‘vocabulary.’

      Let me know if you have any questions while going through those posts.

      Reply
      • Mayur April 23, 2012 at 9:24 pm #

        Hey thanks a lot Chris ! :)

        Reply
        • Chris April 24, 2012 at 3:50 pm #

          You’re welcome :) .

          Reply

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