Books for Prep | |
 - Good, but not completeI bought this book in an attempt to improve my GRE score on a second outing. My first score had been good enough to get me into a Masters program, but I felt I needed something more competitive for the PhD programs I planned to apply for later on. Princeton Review presents the material in a fairly straightforward and engaging manner, written in a very "You vs. the System" style that tries to get you into the minds of the test-writers and how to outthink them when all else fails. My main issue with the book is that it does not pose as a dual resource for those looking to seriously get as high a score as possible (800/800) as well as for the more general populace looking to simply get a strong score. It's a bit too simplistic for the former. However, I think the material here is a good start, particularly their ~360 frequent vocab words list and the math breakdown. For people looking to get a strong Verbal score (which seems to be most people's achilles heel), try supplementing this with the Barron's book which contains a master 3,500 word list of (just about) every word that's ever appeared on the GRE's. The two combined jacked my score up 110 pts and into the top 4% in this section. Princeton Review claims on the back of their book that their classroom based course improves students scores by an average of 210 pts. I think most people can see that same improvement without having to pay for the $1,500 course fee... but it will probably take more than one $20 book to do it. My advice would be to not just rely on one prep book and expect it to cover everything - although for what its worth this is a pretty solid book to start off. Rating:  - Seriously deficient in the math departmentPrinceton presents an extremely simplistic overview of the quantitative portion of the GRE. The writing style is easy and it does a decent job presenting the few facts that it does. I breezed through the math section in three days feeling very confident. However, I also purchased Barron's GRE book and attempted their math worksheets. They were *MUCH* more difficult. Princeton didn't prepare me at all for the types of questions Barron's was asking. One of the biggest differences were the stratagies for finding shortcuts to answers. Barron's book is rich with little tricks that can save a lot of time. Besides that, the questions themselves are completely different. Princeton asks fairly straightfoward questions. Their questions make sense as something that one might actually do in real life. Barron's questions are from the screwy variety that typify the GRE. (Example - How many times does the number "1" appear between 0 and 300) The only recommendation that I can give is that, if you feel that your math skills are really dusty, this book might be a way to ease back into math. Of course, after you finish, pick up Barron's to get to the real thing. Rating:  - Do not buy this bookOk, so one of the very first things this book tells you to do when you open it is to go out and spend another twenty bucks on purchasing 'Practicing to take the GRE general Test' put out by ETS: a book by the company which actually manufactures the GRE test. The princeton review book sets you up a weekly schedule based on how many weeks you have to study before taking the test. Each week it instructed me to practice on one of the sections in several of the practice tests that are included in the ETS book- all of which are based on previous years' actual GREs. This book labels these practice tests in the ETS book test 1, test 2, test 3, etc. There are no tests given any such numerical labels within the ETS book, so I have simply practiced on them in the order in which they appear within the book. I am beginning to think this was a mistake however, as I have started practicing some of the Math sections which this book has not yet had me review. Last week my schedule told me to do the math sections of test 1, a good 60% of the questions therein I had not yet reviewed in any chapter of the princeton review. This week I find that I am finally instructed to read the chapter which explains to me how to solve all the problems I was so struggling with last week. Since the book ETS puts out is filled with instructions on how to practice for it's companies test, comes complete with practice tests, and since this book directs you to purchase it anyway, one wonders why they ought to drop any money on this book whatsoever. I don't have any complaints about the verbal sections of the book. It's been having me write weekly flashcards and run some exercises. I have yet to take the actual GRE however, so I can't say how accurate their suggested vocabulary truly is. This book has been intensely frustrating, and in my opinion, more trouble than its worth. just buy the ETS book, or, if you must, buy the Kaplan version; it has to be better than this. Rating:  - not up to Princeton Review qualityI'm usually a big Princeton Review fan, but this book fell short. Strengths: *Engaging style (makes everything less intimidating) *Easy to read (compared to Barron's, more jokes and funny asides) *Good test-taking tips and guessing strategies Weaknesses: *Math! Total of 58 questions in practice sections (compare to Barron's roughtly 630 practice questions). Now I don't know about you, but I stink at math. I need repetition, not just Princeton Review's "present it once and be done" approach. 58 questions may seem like a lot, but you'll be done in a week. *Easy math questions (compared to Barron's). I breezed through Princeton Review's math section, and thought I was set. I took a practice GRE and bombed. A few months with Barron's math section boosted my score a lot. *An over-emphasis on math 'tricks' here, and less on learning math facts. Over half the math section is on how to guess a good answer. Which is helpful, if you're pressed for time-- but it only gets you so far. *Not as big as it looks. This book is around 400 pages (compare to Barron's 540). However, Barron's has .5 inch margins, tiny print, singlespacing, and normal paper. Princeton Review uses 2 inch margins, a lot of doublespacing, and huge newsprint paper! As a college student, I'm familiar with the old 'expand the margins and hope they don't notice' ploy. Shame, Princeton Review! Bottom line: if you're pressed for time, need a quick overview of the test, and already are good in math, go with the very readable Princeton Review. Otherwise, get more for your money and invest in a Barron's. Rating: - Just OKThis book has a nice format but is much easier than the problems you will find on the actual test. It is probably worth looking at as a secondary reference only. In association with Amazon.com | |