Barron's GRE: Graduate Record Examination

I actually return this book because I don't need to take the test anymore. As I look through it, there are lots of questions in this book and large amount of vocabs that we need to know. So I think it's great to have one.

I read the reviews when selecting a book to study for the GRE. Based on that information I choose to purchase two books, Barron's GRE and The Princeton Review's "Cracke the GRE." I used both books to study. The Barron's book confused me, not only was it unhelpful but the "assistance" with the math section scared me. I lost sleep due to this book. Save your money and invest in the Princton Review. Not only was the math section more helpful the essay section provided several great suggestions for creating an excellent essay.

So far, this book has been helpful. I can't really fully review it until later after taking the test. I would recommend it.

I would highly recommend this book for preparing to take the GRE general test. The review material, exercises and sample question answer explanations were very helpful in relearning math I originally learned over 20 years ago (I'm heading to grad school at age 43). To get a baseline, I took one of the sample tests before reviewing. Then I went through each math chapter carefully (but only once) (a few evenings a week over about 6 weeks). After studying, my math score on the GRE was a 750 (up from 550 on the baseline sample test). (Math was always my strong subject so it really was RElearning it for me, but it obviously worked well). For the vocabulary and essay sections, I would say I mostly used the book to become familiar with the structure of the test, which is very important. The time pressure on the test is very tight...you don't want to have to waste time during the actual test just trying to figure out logistics. The book does provide alot of information to learn how to derive the meaning of words you don't know, etc., but I honestly didn't focus on those. My degree will be math -related so I focused on maximizing my math score. The book was also invaluable for its pointing out common pitfalls found on the test (for example, don't assume a geometry diagram is drawn to scale unless it specifically states that it is. They are sometimes exaggerated to be confusing).

I bought Kaplan books along with this, and the Kaplan books were such a waste. This book is truly the ONLY book you need. The word lists are amazing...learn them!! As for the math review, I am not an overly mathematical person. After going through the entire Kaplan math review, I still was not increasing my score. A few weeks before the exam I turned to the math review here, and it saved me. I got a 600 which for me was phenomenal! Others have mentioned that the CD tests are made to make you think you are doing better (I took them all at once and got very different scores). But, make sure to take the tests ETS provides on their site. This book helped me meet my goal not only on those ETS practice tests but also on the actual GRE. I took the test only once and got into the top two schools in the nation for my program. As I said before, this book is the ONLY one you need. Save your time and money and go with this book if you want a strong, comprehensive review of everything on the exam!