The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test, 2nd Edition

This book is compiled by ETS, the makers of the GRE test. It contains original GRE questions, i.e. questions that have appeared in the GRE test. While it is a must have book for all GRE test takers here are a few pointer that could help you get the best of it. *** PROS *** 1. Original GRE Questions: All the questions in here are questions that have appeared in the GRE test. This becomes particularly significant in the Chapters “Verbal Reasoning” and “Quantitative Reasoning”. The strategies described in these chapters are very useful and relevant in the GRE test. 2. Chapters on AWA Sections: This book is, by far, the best guide for AWA section available in the market. It has a collection of sample essays and it explains in great detail how to score well in the AWA section. 3. Verbal and Quantitative reasoning practice Questions: Each section is prefaced by detailed theoretical discussions that cover the entire topic in great detail. There are quite a few solved examples in each topic. The solutions discussed in this chapter are meticulously detailed. 4. Classification of Questions: The questions in the practice chapters are classified as Easy, Medium and Hard Questions. It provides an additional frame of reference for the test takers. 5. Practice tests: The book has two paper tests and two tests on the CD ROM. There is a solution section after each paper test and there is a set of sample solutions to Essay questions. The CD ROM test can also be downloaded from the website as the PowerPrep II software. *** CONS *** 1. Number of questions in the book is quite low when compared to similar books by other publishers. If you need material for practice you probably have to invest in another book. 2. It is not the most beginner-friendly book. The book assumes that you have polished your basic concepts, specially in the Quants section, before going thorugh it 3. While the PowerPrep tests are most accurate test available in the market their result analysis tool is quite inadequate. It does not have the SWOT analysis capabilities comparable to that of the Princeton or Kaplan Tests. This is the perfect book with which you can polish your GRE Prep. The fact that it has original GRE questions alone is a powerful reason to buy it. You need to train your ear, esp. with the verbal questions. Further, the Chapter on Quant and Verbal Practice Question and the Chapter on the AWA section would add significant value to your preparation. *** Some Frequently Asked Questions: What are some of the other study options that I have? Students in the past who have felt the need that they require training from a basic level have started off their test prep with Kaplan or Barron’s books and topped them off with ETS GRE Guide. You might want to consider Manhattan for your initial preparation as well. Manhattan GRE Set of eight strategy guides come with 8 books that target specific math and verbal areas. However they require 2-3 months to complete. If you need more original GRE Questions you can buy the Official GRE Quantitative and or Verbal Reasoning books. *** What is a good study plan using ETS GRE Guide? I would recommend that you could start with Manhattan/Kaplan and finish it within couple of months, then evaluate which are your areas of strength/ weakness. Based on your analysis you can invest in this book by ETS to bolster your weaknesses. *** Will this get me to 320+? This book alone, won’t get you to 320+ score – it is just a collection of questions with some rough rules. You should consider investing in a guide book that can refresh your quant and verbal skills. Good options are Kaplan or Manhattan books to start with and then the ETS guide would prove to be useful in the last leg of your test prep. *** Other Books I should know about? The Manhattan GRE series are a great and very comprehensive collection as well as the Official GRE Verbal and Quant books. You can also use Kaplan Premiere if you don't have the time or money for the Manhattan GRE (MGRE) series) Best of luck with your test prep. Sandy, GRE: 323 PS: I reply to comments on Amazon.

As you likely know from either the title or familiarity with the ETS, this book is the Official Guide for the GRE General Test (Revised). I teach the GRE full-time and this is one of two books I require my students to purchase for two primary reasons. This is the only book made by the test-makers, so there is an extraordinarily amount of useful information here: the questions are phrased in the way that the real test phrases them, the content is fairly reflective of the real exam, and the book itself now comes with 2 paper-based and 2 computer-based versions of the test. So, in total, there are hundreds of questions to try your hand at. Secondly, each question comes with a very lengthy explanation as to why certain answers are right and often enough, why other answers are wrong. The ETS is also kind enough to identify which questions are of what difficulty level, so you can even mark your own progress fairly well, too. The book further comes with examples of responses to the Analytical Writing tasks, so you have a very good sense of what the ETS thinks of as "a good essay" and "a bad essay", as well. The book is, however, fairly lacking on a number of other counts. It is not particularly useful as a stand-alone text and once you've exhausted the questions in the book, there are no other resources to use outside of it from the ETS. Additionally--and most importantly--the book lacks a functionally useful set of questions to really build on basic mathematics skills and takes for granted that test-takers will be able to perform particular operations. My biggest gripe about the book is it's Quantitative Review (Pages 207-305), in which there are no explanations for sample problems and often, concepts are covered in ways that are actually almost unusable for the test itself. Bizarrely, in spite of the fact that the test consistently features Special Right Triangles (Pythagorean Triplets) and often requires test-takers to simplify radicals, the book makes no mention of either of these basic math concepts. These are two among many others. Additionally, the test does not often inform students of the most efficient or effective way of working through a problem. They'll give a very accurate description of how to solve math problems in some cases, but not if it's optimal for ideal test-taking. As a prime example, there are right triangle questions featured on almost every version of the GRE and almost all of the right triangles featured have particular properties to them. But, the GRE Guide makes no mention of these properties and test-takers are left to their own devices to either figure them out or work around them in the most inefficient ways. The book is a sort of oddity, as such: it purports to be the Official Guide of the test but it also seems purposefully left incomplete, as if the test-makers wanted to provide some help in making the test accessible, but not so much help that anyone could effectively study for it using their own materials. The cynical conclusion one might draw from this is that the ETS is heavily invested in maintaining the secrecy and mysteriousness of the test (and is also invested in test-takers re-testing) but they don't want the test to seem unduly unfair. To improve this product, they should include more practice sets that are divided up by concept (rather than simply by difficulty) and further, they should revamp the math review, which has not changed since the good ole' days of the original GRE Guide (which was originally published over 20 years ago).

If you are worried about the Quantitative Reasoning section, this book has an excellent Math Review chapter, with practice problems and good explanations of the answers and how to get them. I had never studied Statistics and Probability and this book did a pretty good job of getting me up to speed. Study this book, plus register for the Princeton Review's free online GRE--that is essential. You must get a couple of practice, computer-based tests in before you go take the real GRE just so you get a feel for the layout of the test, and what the software looks like. I worked with this book, and took the online test twice, then got a 155 on the real GRE the first time I took it. That's not phenomenal but it's respectable for a non-technical person.

As many other reviewers have noted, this is the only book on the market that is produced by ETS, the company that writes and administers the GRE; however, please know that this does not mean that buying this book is a no-brainer. Far from it. The book may be helpful to you in some respects, but I would never recommend purchasing only it to study for the GRE. I would buy it perhaps as a supplement to a book published by a third-party (like Barron's, the Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc) or not at all. These third party books really are likely to serve you FAR better, as I will try to explain. Here are the things I think you should consider as you decide whether to purchase this book: 1) The majority of the practice questions in this book are available for FREE on the ETS website. Just check out their "Prepare for the GRE" page for pdfs. 2) The POWERPREP II software (including two practice tests) which is contained on the disc accompanying this book is also available for FREE on the ETS website. Just check out their "Prepare for the GRE" page for a download. 3) Whether you go with the book or get it online, the POWERPREP II software is Windows/IE-compatible only. (Ridiculous.) 4) The Math Review section of this book is also available for FREE on the ETS website. Just check out their "Prepare for the GRE" page for a download. 5) Many of the other explanations and general tips contained in the book are also included in the free online materials (I think it's called the Practice Book) on the ETS website. 6) All that said, if you prefer to work on paper rather than on a PDF, and you don't want to print out a giant stack of pages, you may like the idea of having ETS' materials nicely printed and bound as they are in this book. 7) One nice thing about the fact that this book was written by ETS is that you get actual old GRE questions. ETS doesn't license its old questions, so all other books will have questions meant to closely approximate authentic GRE questions, but which never actually appeared on a GRE exam. However, since you can get most of these ETS-authentic practice questions for free, as I've explained, you still may not want to spend on this book. Plus, the questions that third-parties write are, for the most part, similar enough to real GRE questions to still be very good practice. 8) The down side (and I think you should think about this carefully) to this being written by ETS is that it, naturally, sells the "ETS-Kool-Aid" - HARD. What I mean is that other third-parties will shoot you straight because they are not invested in promoting the mystique of this exam. They will tell you, for example, the true fact that the GRE really measures your ability to do well on the GRE, whereas ETS' book will claim, as ETS of course must, that the GRE is predictive of your success in graduate school. In addition, third-party books will level with you about how the GRE is written and how it is graded and will teach you tips, tricks, techniques, and work-arounds for the GRE. ETS has to take itself and its exam very, very seriously, which is likely to just scare you and stress you out. Third-parties will level with you. (See also the next point.) 9) (This is to some degree an extension of the previous point.) The Math Review that the ETS has written (recall it is also available for free online) is very misleading in some ways. Firstly, it can be confusingly-presented for those dusting off old, unused math skills. Third-party prep books will serve you far better in explaining these concepts simply, although if you need help with very basic concepts (like long division), you may want to supplement with something like Princeton Review's Math Smart I (or maybe check out tutorials online if you want to save money). Secondly, there are some math topics covered by ETS in their materials that you are simply very unlikely to see on the actual GRE; seeing them in this book will just make you anxious. You do not need to master all the math ETS gives you in this book in order to get a great score on the math portion of the GRE (after all, you can still score in the 99th percentile of test-takers even if you get a few questions wrong on the test). ETS will make it sound like you must know inside and out all the math they give you in this book, but third-party books will be much more honest with you about which concepts you actually need to master, what short-hand tips and tricks you can use, what things you may just want to memorize outright, and what minimum understandings you can totally get by with on some of the trickier math topics that might come up on the GRE. 10) Only third-party books give you actual lists of vocab words that are the most likely to appear on the GRE. This book does not. These lists are very useful in studying for the GRE. Some final thoughts. No book will guarantee you an awesome score on an exam. I suspect many poor reviews of various test-prep books on Amazon are likely just sour grapes. The truth, in my opinion, is that major third-party prep books are probably roughly equivalent in getting you familiar with, giving you good tips for, and getting you some practice on GRE questions. You have enough to worry about without stressing over which book to choose! Just pick up one of the major third-party books and let it be your primary study guide. Get this book, if at all, only as a supplement.

Great resource if you have time to work through all the examples. This book along with the Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions and the Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions are must have textbooks because they give you a very good idea of the range of topics you are likely to encounter on test day. I got a perfect score on the Quantitative section of the GRE, and I'm pretty sure my score would have been different if I had not mastered the questions in this book and those in the Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions book. There are other resources on the ETS website that you should probably take advantage of if you have time but this textbook is definitely a must-have. I teach a GRE prep course online and this textbook is required reading for all students.

Let me start by saying, I am a current college student with an extremely limited budget. I have read review after review written by tutors, teachers and all sorts of self-righteous know-it-all's who tried to explain too deeply. Truth: To all the students out there preparing for the GRE: I would recommend buying/renting this specific book as opposed to the wide range of third party authors. Out of all the other prep books I've seen, this one is the most extensive and helpful. Made by the people who actually write the test, computer and paper practice tests that are as accurate as possible. Most importantly the info is updated and the book is $10 new or close if you find a decent 3rd party buyer.

I've been a GRE tutor since 2003, and also have written a GRE math book. Based on my work with my GRE students, I say that this book is a great buy, but, in terms of the math section, it is not the greatest book to start with. The math review is better as a reference guide than as a teaching tool. The material is presented in a very dense manner and the practice exercises at the end of the chapters cover a lot of different concepts-- so it can be difficult to pinpoint your weak areas. For example, there are several different topic areas that fall under the "arithmetic" section, which can cause students to become discouraged. So, unless you have a math-heavy background, it can be difficult to work through. The main plus about the book-- and it's a biggie-- is that you get to practice with test questions written by the makers of the test. There are practice sets, two paper-based practice tests, and a CD Rom with two additional practice tests. This alone makes the book a good buy. Also, as other reviewers have pointed out, the CD Rom only works with PCs, not MACs. And, the math review and the two practice tests from the CD Rom (also for PCs only) are available on the ETS website for free. So, bottom line-- get this book for the "official" practice questions, but get another review book to help you break down the math concepts. Of course I'm biased towards my own book-- GRE Math Simplified with Video Solutions. Another recommendation-- a book I've been working with for years-- is Barron's GRE, which is comprehensive and breaks down all the math concepts. These books are based more on teaching the math behind the concepts than some of the other strategy-based books.

This book really does an excellent job of providing efficient techniques. I know other distributors of GRE test materials waste time on working around the GRE and continuously talking about techniques such as POE (process of elimination). Although this is a helpful technique to keep in mind, it is not necessarily guaranteed to be effective every time. This guide really helps you at the source, giving you explanations as to how to tackle and properly comprehend the questions given to you. The only thing about this book is that it assumes that you have a thorough vocabulary for verbal reasoning and are familiar with all concepts for quantitative. I would definitely use supplemental materials for this (Magoosh, Manhattan Prep Flashcards, Manhattan Prep workbooks, etc.)

I had been using various free apps / online resources to practice a bit for the GRE, but when I decided to get more serious about it I bought this book. It's a really good place to start and covers the bases of the different tests and questions. Save the tests until nearer the end of your revision. I took the two practice tests (on the CD) a couple of days before my actual test, and it predicted my actual score very well.

Bom livro, bem preparado, eficiente explicação, tem muito exercício, perfeito em todos os aspectos. Eu recomendaria a todos os meus amigos. Obrigado!

First of all great service fo amazon, delivered the product on time and nicely packed as usual.Keep it up Amazon. WORD OF ADVICE** :make sure to give one practice test before staring preparation from this book to analyse your strength and weakness. And your final practice test before appearing GRE should be from GRE official book. GRE official book by ets is a must have for anyone who is planning to appear or preparing for GRE exam. Book will help you understand the level of difficulty of both verbal as well as quant sections of the exam. Sections of book or basic structure of the book 1. Basic intro of the GRE exam and things you need to keep in mind while preparing and appearing for exam. 2. Analytical writing: Details about what kind of questions will be their in the section and how to approach the analytical writing section to score well. 3/4.Verbal reasoning/ Practice question: Basics of verbal reasoning section, along with practice question of various difficulty level from easy to difficult. 5/6. Quantitative/Practice questions: Introduction about the quant section, examples of what type of question will be their in the quant section as well a some practice questions of various difficulty level. 7. Math review: Explains basic maths topics from which you can expect questions in GRE exam. 8/9. Both section contains full length practice test each. In the end there is score conversion chart which help you analyse your score on the basis of correct answers . One should consider other practice material as well for preparation, but to get real feel of the kind of questions which could be expected in GRE exam ,buy this book immediately.

The book is very clear on what you need to know for the GRE exam and gives you great practice for the concepts with practice sections throughout the chapters, at the end of chapters, and then there are practice tests at the end of the book! The disk isn't supremely necessary since the software is available online, but if you don't have internet access it can come in handy - doing the practice tests on the computer are REALLY good though because they give you a good sense of what it will be like on test day! Definitely great for anyone planning on writing the GRE!

This book is a complete step-by-step guide to GRE. There are usefull tips and samples. Moreover, there are different samples to be compared according to their scores in a real exam.