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How to Prepare for the GRE with CD-ROM (Barron's How to Prepare for the Gre Graduate Record Examination)(16th Edition) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Sharon Weiner Green, Ira Wolf Ph.d.
Publisher: Barron''s Educational Series
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $2.53
You Save: $27.46 (92%)
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Rating:  97 reviews
Sales Rank: 32409
Media: Paperback
Edition: 16
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 7.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0764178784
Dewey Decimal Number: 378.1662
EAN: 9780764178788
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Students planning to take the Graduate Record Exam will find six full-length model tests with answers and explanations in this up-to-date manual. They will also find intensive test topic reviews covering antonym questions, analogy questions, sentence completion, reading comprehension, vocabulary, analytical writing, quantitative comparison, data interpretation, and math. A 3,500-word master vocabulary list with definitions is supplemented with a GRE high-frequency word list. The CD-ROM enclosed with the book offers a computer-adaptive model GRE test that is similar in structure to the actual GRE test. All questions on the CD-ROM are answered and explained, and exam results are scored automatically.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 92 more reviews...
 Helpful September 2, 2006
Great Faulkner's Ghost (Washington, DC)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
I prepped for the GRE General exam using this book, and I am pleased with the outcome. The paramount element concerning this book is the wide-ranging vocabulary review part: they have included 300 words that they feel crop up frequently on GRE exams. I unquestionably feel that reviewing the vocabulary part of the Barron's book helped me come back with a few questions that I would not have known.
I also recommend going to the GRE's website and downloading the free PowerPrep software in addition to buying this book. It includes two full GRE tests and a few hundred practice problems. Additionally, for the essay part of the examination, they include a few sample prompts and responses, so you can see the writing they grade highly.
Great GRE book August 13, 2004
R. Krause (Tempe, AZ)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
I sat the GRE after studying the Barrons and Kaplans study guides. Of the two, the Barrons guide was much much better in my opinion. Math, verbal and the essay section were all more than adequately covered and gave me all the help I needed to really perform for the test and do great the first time. I also looked through a number of other GRE guides at the bookstore and checked out a bunch from the library, but none of them I felt came close to the Barrons book. Predominately due to the Barrons book, I got 700 math, 5.5 on the essays, and 450 on the verbal on my first try. Why the low verbal? Because I'm in engineering where verbal scores are not stressed and therefore I did not study for it very intensely at all, however I do feel that the Barrons book would more than adequately prepare someone that is taking the GRE for admission to grad school for a major that does take the verbal score in high consideration for acceptance.
Best book for GRE, In My Opinion... August 22, 2004
Joe Smith (NJ, USA)
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
I agree with the positive reviews posted here as well. I want to add that this book is thorough, much more so I think than the Kaplan or Princeton Review books. Keep in mind also that this book has the same dimensions as the Kaplan book, but it has 150+ more pages (the 2005 Kaplan book is constructed from paper that resembles a coloring book). Also, I found this book to be superior for a math review, esp for people weak in math. With that in mind, I purchased a few other books purely for math review, and none of them were as good as the math review in this book. This is because the books dedicated to math review are not designed specifically for the GRE, they cover all the basics that apply to just about every standardized test. As such, I wasted my money on these math review books because I don't really care about every principle in mathematics, I just needed to know enough to ace the GRE quantitative. One last thing: the Kaplan 2005 book has a very skimpy math section. It does have an appendix with some basic principles, and the quantitative section does have all those nice little tricks to 'beat' the GRE. However, the Barrons book has all this as well, and many more examples that cover different angles and an all around better and more thorough review for math. So, I definitely agree that this is the book for quantitative. As far as the verbal goes, I have no idea because I already felt comfortable with that. Hope this helped someone.
Beats the other prep books, truly prepares you for the real test August 26, 2006
vegeta1812 (USA)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful
I bought a ton of GRE prep. books (Kaplan, Arco, Kaplan verbal workout, ETS official practice guide) but ended up ditching all of them for Barrons. Why? Because Barrons realizes that the only way to succeed on the GRE is with a healthy understanding of the facts and a ton of practice.
Barrons succeeds wonderfully as a prep book because they force you to realize that success can only come from hard work. Just flip through the book and you'll know what I mean. It is COMPREHENSIVE. It doesn't have hundreds of pages of tips and tricks like Kaplan does. There's actual material to learn from, and bunch of practice problems.
Barron's verbal preparation section is the strongest aspect of this book, by far. Besides have over 50 practice problems per question type (analogies, antontyms, reading comp, and sentence completions), they include 3000+ vocabulary words taken from over 20 years of practice tests and other sources. I knew that if I wanted to get a good verbal score, I had to memorize vocabulary words, and the ONLY test prep company to provide this many words in a handy guide was Barrons. I spent 2-4 hours a day for 74 days memorizing all 3000+ words and it paid off beautifully on the real test. I started out at a meager 570 on the verbal, my real score on the test was a 730 (99%). Basically, I knew the definitions to all the words I encountered on the test, and I have Barrons to thank.
The math portion doesn't measure up with the verbal section in this book. But it isn't bad either. Again, you get facts galore when you review the math section. However, it can get confusing because of poor organization. Plus, it seems like there is too much material on each page. It can be really be an eyesore, but its helpful nontheless. They do a good job covering what you'll see on the actual test.
Finally, there are the 5(!) practice exams at the end of the book. Practice is everything if you want to do well on the GRE, and Barrons provides it. I can say that the practice tests are somewhat accurate in portraying the actual test, but moreso for the verbal than the math section. Since the GRE is a CAT exam, the actual math questions change (harder) as you get more correct. That is, by the end of the test, the questions get pretty hard, much harder than Barrons would lead you believe.
The software is mediocre, probably not as good as Kaplans and far less comprehensive than the ETS's powerprep software. Use it for the CAT practice test.
From experience, I can say that if nothing else, this book truly PREPARES you for the test. I was never all that great at math, nor was I anything special in the verbal section. My target score was about 1350, and I fully expected to score that. But, after 2.5 months of Barrons (and powerprep), I scored a 1450. Thanks Barron's.
This book is all you need, seriously. June 2, 2007
Kelley Fulghum (Mannford, OK USA)
40 out of 40 found this review helpful
I just took the GRE today. I got a 660 verbal/660 quantitative. I was thrilled with that score; I was hoping to get a 1200, but got a 1320 instead. I studied with this book and 2 older (circa 2000) books. The older books were freebies, and after I worked through most of them I ordered this book and the PassKey(just to be thorough-I'm that way). I would have been better off just using this book exclusively. This was VERY helpful to me.
I am coming into grad school after being out of school for 18 years so I had a LOT of reviewing to do.
I started studying INTENSELY (full-time, 6-9 hrs a day-can't study too much math or I get a headache) for about 2.5-3 weeks before the exam. That was a bit extreme, but if I can do it in that amount of time, anyone can. I felt like I had the just the right amount of preparation for the GRE.
Although a few of the reviews here stated that the math section was easier on the actual test than the problems/practice exams in this book, I didn't find that to be the case. This book is packed with excellent math review concepts, test-taking tactics, practice problems AND additionally 5 full practice exams. Also, contrary to another review that I saw here, I didn't find any mistakes/typos in this book.
I would say skip the flashcards and make your own. Just go off the 350 GRE frequently examined words list in this book or you can probably find it elsewhere. That sounds like a lot, but it's really not. Half of those words you probably already know. The clincher is that you have to know the subtle nuances of the meaning of the word. Don't just study the general meaning of the word, because that isn't good enough. That will become evident after you start working though some of the antonyms/analogy practice problems.
If you're like me, you're sweating the essays. Don't. Just spend about 2 days writing a few practice essays and you'll be good to go. For the writing section, this book's recommendations are quite good. That is: the vast majority of the the issue essay topics will cover some permutation of 8-12 broad themes. Examples are: What are the advantages/disadvantages of loyalty; teamwork; higher education; competition vs. cooperation; specialists vs. generalists; idealism vs. pragmatism, etc. Brainstorm about these topics; do free association; don't censor yourself. Separate the wheat from the chaff and you'll have 3 body paragraphs of your essay. Slap on an introduction and a conclusion. Don't write the intro first, because it will change after you've completed the body of your essay. Trust me on this. Next, although it is painful, flesh out 2 or 3 real essays and you're done.
Btw, the free PowerPrep software is definitely worth using (although the 640x480 mode is just stupid). Download it and work through the practice tests (there are 6 math and 3 verbal practice tests). However, beware of an inflated score when you take the final demo exam. The practice tests are harder than the demo exam, so keep that in mind when you receive your final "score". I would estimate that this program falsely elevated my score by about 100 points.
When you're taking the actual exam, you can't really gauge how you're doing. I was certain that I completely aced the verbal section and bombed the math section. I was sure to be painstakingly thorough on the first 1/3 of the math, totally blew my time (had 15 minutes left for 13 problems) and ended up edu-guessing on the last FIVE. But, amazingly, it worked out.
Lastly, don't get the PassKey book AND this book, because the PassKey book is a subset of this book. If you have > 1.5 weeks to study for the test, get this book. If you have < 1.5 weeks, go with the abbreviated version (the PassKey).
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