GRE prep books

[Turin39789]

So I'm beginning to unfortunately consider graduate school for next year. After finals I'll have about 4 weeks until my next semester of madness begins.

Anyone have experience with any prep books? I figure I shouldn't go in and wing it, so I need something I can read over after work and the holidays.

 

[Semidevil]

I hear the official guides are the best ones. Kaplan's are overly difficult. Princeton Review are easy, but they cover the basic concepts.

 

[GeneValgene]

i just took the GRE a few months ago, and only used the free PowerPrep software that ETS gives you. if you do all of the practice tests, and all of the review exercises on there, you should be fine. just make sure you understand what you missed on the practice sets.

i ended up getting 760Q/680V/5.0A

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Semidevil
Kaplan's are overly difficult.

How is that possible?

Studying for the GRE is just
A. Vocab building. Unless none of the words actually appear on the GRE, no such thing as "too difficult"
B. Basic math. If you can add 2+2 and know that the sides of a triangle add up to 180 degrees, you should get an 800.
C. Writing, not necessarily well, but quickly (this was the part that I didn't practice at all, and predictably I ran out of time and did horribly)

 

[esun]

I got a CD with practice tests on it (I think from Kaplan). Took 3 of those tests and that was about all the preparation that was necessary (I did have a stack of flashcards for vocabulary but I didn't use them much). Quantitative should be easy if you have any math/science/engineering background (and if not, it's probably unimportant for the area you're applying into) and verbal basically relies on a huge vocabulary (but for most math/science/engineering people that will have trouble with it, it's not important). The writing is, well, I dunno, I did one or two practice ones and got a 5.5 so it should be pretty easy too.

I would focus on what your major requires. E.g., if you're doing engineering, don't sweat the verbal much (shoot for 550+ or so) and ace the quantitative (800). If you're doing something else, figure out what's necessary and focus on that.

 

[Gothgar]

that's unpossible