Best Resources for GRE Prep

New GRE 2011 Books:

1. Official Guide to GRE Revised General Test [Must Have]

2. Cracking the New GRE - Princeton Review

3. Barron's New GRE Book

4. Kaplan New GRE Premier

There are ample numbers of books available in market and one will be surely in a dilemma about which one to buy. Here we have made a sincere attempt in evaluating some of the books that we referred when we were preparing for GRE.

Official Guide to GRE is a must have. Along with this, one can refer any one of the following books that are mentioned in this site. One can understand the best features of each book and decide which book is suitable for them.

1.Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test Book Review

There is no other prep like the ETS guide. These questions are written by the people who will write the questions you'll see on the test day. And those questions, as well as the ones in this book, are written according to exact standards. There is a sophistication, complexity and "trickiness" to the questions that is saliently absent in any other book.

However this is not the first book that you should start preparation. ETS guide will not offer any strategies about handling questions. They are just providing practice questions and one can expect similar questions on the day of exam.

The Official Guide to the Revised GRE also offers the PowerPrep software, which provides you with an actual GRE test, along with a score range after you've finished. This is the single best prep for the exam.

It is better to learn the strategies from any of the books that is reviewed in this site and then after mastering them with lot of practice, apply them on the practice problems given in this book

 

The bottom-line: If you are serious about scoring in a competitive range on the Revised GRE, then picking up a copy of the Official Guide, along with CD, is critical.

  

2.Cracking The New GRE Book - Princeton Review

Cracking the New GRE Book by Princeton Review is completely revised book for the New Revised GRE test. The Princeton review is one among the best books available on new GRE that makes GRE less intimidating. The strategies to tackle the verbal section will be really helpful in facing the challenging questions.

This book includes:

Access to 4 full-length practice tests (2 online and 2 in the book)

Practice questions with detailed explanations for every question

Key strategies for solving Text Completions, Sentence Equivalents, Numeric Entry, Quantitative Comparisons, and more

Thorough review of all GRE topics, including everything on the new GRE DVD with tutorials from The Princeton Review's Top Course Instructors

Let us review each section of the book.

Vocabulary:

The Princeton review provides some of the very helpful tools on handling vocabulary section. It stresses learning vocabulary from a contextual perspective, rather than cramming words from a deck of flashcards. Well, in order to score well in GRE cramming words from word list is inevitable. However approaching vocabulary from contextual perspective will surely give you an edge over others. This is where Princeton wins over other books.

Text Completion/Sentence Equivalence

The strategies on how to approach these questions are, by and large, useful. The Princeton review gives a step by step approach about how to decipher the given question and how to attack, which comes really handy while solving any questions. Apart from strategies, the questions themselves- sometimes looks less challenging. So one has to try the strategies on wide varieties of questions from other sources as well, in order to get a hang of it.

Reading Comprehension

The strategies here are very effective. It is one of the books that tells you why a particular answer is wrong .  Knowing why your answer is right, and the other is wrong, gives a good insight about how to think while handling RC in general. But again, the RC questions in the book are not that challenging. I would learn the strategies here and apply them on the actual ETS book.

Quantitative section

Princeton review covers fundamental concepts pretty well. It has put all the topics in a clear manner with enough practice questions.

Practice test (At the back)

PR provides 2 practice tests at the back. This will help to evaluate one’s ability after preparation. Some of the questions may seem simple but it gives a rough estimate about where one is standing and depending on the score one can improve on weaker areas. Again, the difficulty of the questions is not close to the actual ETS questions sometimes. But still this can be a chance to check the preparation.

Conclusion:

Altogether, having a PR is a good decision. The book is a worth buy because of the strategies and tools it offers. The difficulty level of the questions might not be too close to the actual ETS questions, but one can master the strategies from this book and apply it on actual ETS questions.

3.Barron's New GRE 19th Edition Book Review

Barron's had been one of the most popular book for GRE preparation because of its exhaustive word list(Old Barron’s) and good practice problems. This is a good book to buy when it comes to the building vocabulary, as it offers exhaustive word lists (Old Barron’s), Maths section and Writing Section.

Verbal section:

Reading Comprehension

Barron's offers numerous strategies for approaching RC questions. This in a way offers the student to comprehend the questions from various view points and helps him/her to develop the elimination/pick out the odd techniques which can prove to be critical sometimes. Barron’s does not provide explanation for practice problems.

Text completion/Sentence equivalence:

Barron's offers good number of questions. So one can get to practice and apply the tactics by solving numerous questions. The quality of the questions in this book is good and the questions are close to those one can expect on the test day.

Analytical Writing:

In this section, Barron's beats all its counterparts and offers effective strategies to help students score 5 and above.

Quantitative Section:

Barron's is one of the best books when it comes to math questions. For someone who wants to brush up his 10th grade maths , you can find all the information put up neatly.The difficulty level of questions almost matches the actual GRE questions. 

 

Conclusion:

As mentioned, Barron's Text completion/sentence equivalence section, writing section and Math section is good. This can be a good buy for GRE aspirants for its quality of questions and numerous questions for the GRE aspirants to practice.

4.Kaplan New GRE Premier 2011-2012 Book Review

The Kaplan New GRE 2011-2012 Premier with CD-ROM is another resource you can consider using during preparation for the new GRE. Kaplan is a name well established in the GRE prep scene.

Vocabulary:

Kaplan emphasis on learning words by understanding roots. In a way this is a better way of improving your vocabulary as you will be in a position to decipher the Synonyms. Kaplan provides a list of words and their synonyms. This is a good list and can be helpful when you are revising your vocabulary.

Reading Comprehension

Kaplan offers lots of tips and tactics to approach RC. The most impressive thing is the number of practice question it offers. The online content of Kaplan also offers numerous questions. These numerous questions can be really helpful for practice when you have built up your strategies sensibly and also digested them.

Quantitative Reasoning

Again, Kaplan shines at the specious level. Information is laid out beautifully - it's á well-formatted, easy on the eyes. The strategies are easily digestible, and by no means cramp the page.

Helpful CD Rom: The Kaplan GRE book provides you with a companion CD that gives you access to ten practice tests for Verbal section and Quantitative section each and practice material for trying out analytical writing five times. However, some users say that there is the need for more full-length tests rather than sections that test only one section of the GRE. i.e: Verbal/ quantitative. But our opinion is its better to start with one section at a time. Few GRE aspirants are good in Math and need a lot of practice in Verbal section while for other GRE aspirants, its the other way round. In such a scenario, it’s better to go for sectional tests instead of Full length tests.

Conclusion:

Altogether, Kaplan is a safe buy. It shines for its strategies and the numerous practice questions provided can play a major role in boosting the confidence level.