Manhattan GRE (MGRE) is one of the best study sources for the GRE. However, one thing they’ve always been lacking is book-based practice questions—most of their questions comprise their six online tests. Well, the folks over at MGRE have more than redressed this omission. The 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems has over 1,800 practice questions.
Such a massive book, clearly calls for a massive review. I’ve broken up the review into Intro, Verbal (which is broken down into different question types) and Math so you can home in on the part that is most pertinent to you.
Intro to the 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems
Creating a GRE question that mimics the real thing is no easy feat. This is especially the case for verbal. Just finding a reading comprehension passage that would pass ETS’s rigorous standards is tough enough (each prospective passage must meet a certain number of guidelines, and even then may not make the final cut) is a case of looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Even if a GRE content writer finds such a passage, there is no guarantee that they would focus on the part of the passage that the GRE would. The prospect of writing a question in the style and manner of test writers makes creating content an even more daunting—if downright impossible—task. And let us not forget those artfully crafted distractors, or wrong answers, that can make a seemingly easy question diabolical.
I think it is safe to say that no publisher will be able to create a test that, at least to experts, is indistinguishable from the actual test. At the same time, as a test taker, you should only use prep material that comes as close to the original as possible. The implicit assumption is that the more closely material hews to the real deal, the more effectively you can practice (and, by extension, the higher you can score).
In this sense, Manhattan GRE has done a fair job: You will get practice material that approximates what you’ll see on the actual test. That is not to say that the questions in this book are perfect. It is clear that many people authored the questions in this book, and thus the quality, especially in the verbal, is inconsistent. But with one notable exception (I’ll elaborate on below), using Manhattan’s massive 5 lb book will not hurt your score GRE, and in some cases, especially on the math section, it will definitely help your score.
The Verbal
Text Completions
Ever since MGRE released its first TC/SE book, I’ve been grousing how the questions relied more on obscure vocabulary, you would never see on the test, and less on convoluted sentence structure. Fortunately, the words in the Text Completions section are not nearly as obscure. There is still the odd ‘Myrmidon’ (or two!) in there, but otherwise most the words could conceivably show up on the test.
In terms of convoluted structure, there are sentences that parallel what you’ll see on the test. However, some questions are nothing more than really basic level sentences, e.g., (It was very <blank> outside, and so John was sweating) followed by ridiculously tough words (this is something Kaplan does).
Even questions that are written in sophisticated prose don’t mirror the algorithm (for lack of a better word) used on the real GRE. That is you won’t have to decipher what the blanks have to be based on the context; instead, the word that goes in the blank is the only possible word given the answer choices, and given that you know the vocabulary. So despite the plethora of questions, many of the questions in the TC section feel more like vocabulary exercises than actual GRE questions.
Sentence Equivalence
Usually, I group SE with TC. However, the SE questions in this book were noticeably inferior to their TC counterparts. Synonymous sentences oftentimes did not result (‘to bedazzle’ and ‘to flabbergast’ create two totally different meanings). The vocab could be ridiculously obscure. For example, one question was so simply worded but at the obscure word ‘bootless’ (such a word would never show up on the GRE). This is but one example in a sea of many subpar questions.
In both the TC and SE questions, there is an exception to what I’ve stated above: the verbal practice sets at the very back of the book. The quality of questions here is higher and, except for the fact that the difficulty assigned to the questions is not consistent, the questions themselves more closely parallel what you’ll see on the actual test.
Reading Comprehension
As I noted at the beginning, finding passages that are very similar to those on the test can be difficult. Again, the 5lbs. book is a mixed bag in this case: some passages were suffused with that unmistakable GRE-ness; others not so much. Many questions dealt with a specific part of the passage, whereas GRE questions tend to deal with more general meaning.
I also felt that the inference questions on Manhattan were very different from those written by ETS. Whereas the latter want you to be able to formulate big-picture inferences, I found that the MGRE questions were very literal and specific about the inference questions. When I employed the MGRE logic on the ETS inference questions, I could make a case for why the credited answer wasn’t correct. My big concern here is that students who only practice inference questions from the 5 lbs. book may struggle with the inference questions on the GRE.
Paragraph Arguments
These questions were drawn from Manhattan’s GMAT product, which is a good thing. Those questions have stood the test of time, in forums where such things are debated ad nauseam. That’s good news for test takers. Lots of questions to practice logical reasoning should definitely help test day. That said the questions have a slightly different “flavor” than the ETS questions, but overall the logical structure is similar.
The Quantitative Section
The good news is the math section is so good that I don’t have to spend another 1,000 words pontificating on the nuances of each question type. MGRE has created hundreds of GRE-like problems that are conveniently broken up into different sections. Many concepts that most prep books overlook—standard deviation, weighted averages, and combinatorics—are given their own section replete with dozens of practice problems.
I also like how the explanations are clearly presented. With many books I feel like I often have to decode the explanation just to understand what should be a relatively simple problem. Those who wrote the MGRE explanations anticipated the difficulties students would typically have and clearly addressed them.
But I do have one quibble: the questions were not assigned difficulty levels. Therefore, students may become frustrated if they miss a string of questions, not knowing that those questions were tough questions, or overly confident if they hit a patch of easier questions. Breaking the questions based not just on type but on difficulty would have improved this book.
Overall:
Verbal: C+/ Math: A
How close are the Manhattan MSTs scores to oringinal GRE scores?
Hi Krishnendu,
The feedback from students is that the scores are somewhat similar. I know that is not the best answer — at the same time, I’ve never heard a student say that their MGRE mock tests were wildly different than their actual score test day.
Hope that (somewhat!) helps
.
Hi Chris,
I have my GRE in two months and I wanted to buy a book with a lot of practice problems especially for the verbal part. (RC and TC) I was confused if I should buy the 5lb book by MGRE or the two strategy guides for verbal by MGRE since I wanted access to the 6 online tests as well and I read on the Manhattan website that the 5 lb book doesn’t come with the online test access. But the strategy guides don’t have a lot of practice problems. (which is what I want)
So, please help me out on this. Would you suggest that I go ahead and buy the 5 lb book and rely on other practice tests that are available online or buy the strategy guides?
Hi Rohan,
If the focus is RC and TC, the 5 lbs. book is an okay investment. My experience was the questions on the 6 on-line practice tests were better than the ones in this book. If you go ahead and buy only one of the 8 guides (I’d recommend the Reading Comprehension guide), you get access to all six tests (which is lots of content).
Also, for lots of practice content on RC and TC/SE, Magoosh has plenty of practice questions, and we rely more on thorny passage structure than obscure words.
Hope that helps!
Hi Chris,
Thank you for the honest review. I was looking for a book which gives me ample practise questions without breaking my bank. I am a little more concerned for my vocab skills than my quantitative – this doesn’t seem to offer what I am looking for. I am looking for something which brushes my RC as nicely as possible ( read: stuff which is as close to ETS actual GRE as possible). Do you know of any other such “question bank” book?
I do have the kaplan book – but as you rightly said some of it is ridiculously easy and some words and sentences force me to question – Are we still talking in English? The Kaplan book is more of a personal harangue than a help guide.
Coming back to my query – I was looking for a book which just pours out (almost) unlimited questions in the range of 20$ – 25$. I just need to practise as much as I can, I know my basics. If you have anything for me, please do let me know.
Thank you.
I think your best bet is still to buy the MGRE book. That is, the purchase of any one book on Amazon ( which will set you back less than $15), provides free access to the MGRE six on-line tests. That’s a total of 240 verbal questions, some that are quite tough
.
Hope that helps you get started on practice questions!
Hi Chris! Would you recommend practicing PA arguments from 5lb or Gmat OG? I read in your review that 5lb is indeed a good choice. But just to confirm. Thnks
Yes, the PA arguments are good, since most–if not all–are taken from the MGMAT product. Hope that helps!
Thanks Chris for the great review of the current GRE prep material. Your analysis is up-to-date and precise, something that only can be found at Magoosh!
I do own the complete MGRE 8 book set, as well as the ETS official GRE 2e book. My question is simple: how much value addition will this book give by complementing the MGRE and ETS? I mean, is it worth getting this (in my case)?
Thanks.
Hi Shakeel,
I’m guessing you should be fine with all those resources – you do, after all, get the 6 online tests by MGRE. Only if you have really burned through all these resources, meaning you’ve done the questions multiple times and have a sense of the answer, should you pick up this book.
Or you may simply want some extra quant practice (you get access to some online MGRE challenge questions if you buy the book). Otherwise, you are probably fine with your current resources
Thank you.
I recently purchased this 5 lb book.
There seem to be a lot of questions in it.
Is it worth practicing for Verbal to improve pacing and implement Magoosh strategies?
Plz help Chris..! Thanks!
Hi Vanan,
Yeah, I’m a little ambivalent on my response, given the overall mixed quality of the questions. If you feel you have run out of questions, then go through the book. I don’t think the TC/SE will hurt you per se. Again, there are a lot of good questions in there, and a lot of helpful vocab (though there are a few obscure words).
The RC is fine, except for the type of inference questions they ask. Again, only use if you have run out of practice material.
Hope that helps, and let me know how it goes, if you choose to work through the MGRE book
.
Thanks Chris for all your inputs, ordered this book the day I read your review. I should be getting the book today. I am preparing for my second gre attempt (targeting 75% math and 50% verbal). I lost all the hope after first test scoring 152 for maths and 150 for verbal last week. But thinking about what happened during the test, I could recollect all the simple errors I made, wasting too much time for simple problems, forgetting all basic formulas and so on..I read a gre test taker experience of improving score from 152 to 165, following the same guidelines, practicing to solve maths problems with in timel. I am following the magoosh quiz with 20 questions every alternate day, hope this new book will also help. My next next gre is on April 10th. Also I am going to try all the manhattan tests available online.
I told my wife, this will be last my gre attempt (then I said after a pause, may be one more time ..:)
Hi Matt,
Glad I can be of help! Enjoy all those questions. They will give you lots of practice is you aim for that 165. It is possible! Make sure you also follow the Magoosh study schedule for quant. I think it is important that, as you get better, you start doing progressively more difficult questions. The tough march from 152 to 165 will be based on incremental improvements; the only way to get there is to make sure you are doing questions that are just challenging enough.
Hope that makes sense
.
And hopefully this will be your last GRE
.
Thank you!!
Hi chris ,
Thnks for the review. I have purchased the MGRE guides for verbal and quant. is this book having a similar content ?? or is it having completely different set of questions?
That’s a great question – and something I should put in the review. The questions in this book–besides the PA arguments that double as GMAT questions–are all new (at least I didn’t notice any redundancies with the practice tests or the books).
To those who’ve purchased the TC/SE book, I’d say def. go ahead and purchase this book, esp. for the quant.
Hey chris,
Does this book also have free online tests nicluded with it that Manhattan offers with other GRE books?
Hi Yaman,
Yes, it appears there is a code in the back that should allow complete access to the on-line test. There are some other tools including a challenge problem archive that are available.
I think they wont provide access to 6 MST thru 5lb book..
Yeah, that makes sense…the 6-tests came bundled with the set of eight guides. It’s still a pretty good deal — shell out about $15 for one of the books and you get access to the tests.