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Gre Prep Course With Software Online Course (Nova's GRE Prep Course)

by: Jeff Kolby
en

1889057363  9781889057361 



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Date: 2006-03-22   Rating: 5
Review:

To all who had a part in writing the GRE Prep Course book.

I took the GRE for the first time in November 2004. I used books like Princeton Review and Peterson's material put out by ETS. I used these books to study mostly on my weak area, math.

I decided to take the test again in December 2005. I only studied math and used the GRE Prep Course book. It was hard at first. The book was different than the rest -- it actually had hard math problems in small print on 300 pages, instead of large print baby problems like in the Princeton Review. I've never done well in math, but your book made sense. It made the other prep books seem like they were written to make you have to take the test twice.

Anyway, when the date to the test came around, I felt prepared. I got up at 4 AM on the morning of the test to drive 2 hrs. to the testing site. On my way, my car started to have problems. I called my mechanic uncle and he said the car wouldn't make it. I was passing the airport, so I pulled into a rental car place, rented a car and got myself there with minutes to spare. Two hours late, I got my scores: 240 points higher on my math!

Your book works,

Thank you,

Leah



Date: 2004-01-15   Rating: 3
Review:

Contains some good features, but has serious flaws, as well.

This book has a good introduction and description of the GRE. The math explanations are clear, and the math problems are well constructed. The word list is helpful -- I already knew most of the 4000 words but the list is a good guide for the vocabulary to be tested. However, the definitions for many of the words were from an older dictionary (circa 1913). Furthermore, many of the word problems were simply incorrect (e.g., "seasoned" is not an antonym for "verdant" by any stretch of the imagination. We can't use the transitive property as in mathematics for definitions, especially when the intermediate terms involve using figurative language! Another bizarre example was having "convocate" be the antonym for "mete".) Luckily, you can see that the actual GRE questions are more straightforward than this. The best thing to do is use questions from ETS's actual tests. The other reference books I've found to be better in the verbal practice sections and definitions are Barron's and Kaplan's.



Date: 2003-10-31   Rating: 5
Review:

gre prep course

Obtained very good score after 4 weeks of preparation. Excellent for the analytical section, you get a full review for 1 week revision. It is in this book that I really understood analogies and it became very easy when you apply the techniques. The 4000 words given in the dictionary is too much. It should give the top 600 words which I think is quite appropriate for 4 weeks learning. I've also bought Kaplan and GRE secrets. They have a very reasonable amount of words to memorize. For all the three books, I have bought the e-book version. Apart from GRE secrets, you cannot either copy or print the other two books. It is a big problem because you have to stay all the time on the same computer. I have reconfigured windows, and I could not open the e-book again. Hence, I believe that the publisher should have an e-book version that can be printed. I agree that it will be a bit more expensive. I have choosen to buy e-book version because I knew that the printed books would take a few weeks before it arrives in my country. I needed them urgently.



Date: 2002-09-30   Rating: 5
Review:

Worth it

Though several other reviewers seem to find this book mediocre at best, I found that it was very helpful in a lot of ways. The questions seemed a lot harder than actual questions on ETS practice tests as well as on the real GRE, so when it came to actually taking the test I felt that everything was pretty easy by comparison. My score was much better after having studied this book than it would have been without it. Granted, I did come across some wrong answers in problem explanations, but very few when considering the sizable quantity of practice questions in this book.

The Quantitative lessons were the most helpful to me, as they provided in-depth reviews of all the concepts that are likely to be encountered in the exam, with practice problems for each concept. The logic sections were also very helpful, especially when it came to practicing how to concisely jot down the conditions of a problem and how to draw the right kinds of diagrams quickly. Finally, the verbal section provided a good review, including a list of 4000 important vocab words. Unfortunately, the vocab definitions provided were extremely brief, and I found it necessary to turn to another study guide for more extensive definitions.

Overall, though I didn't manage an 800-800-800 like some reviewers who used this book (I wish I could have gotten that score!), I did very well (well enough to feel no inclination to take the test again). I found that the only factor that lowered my scores at all was the fact that I had trouble finishing all the questions on the quantitative and analytical secitons within the time limits (damn those time limits! damn them to hell!). I was much better off for having studied with this book and I would recommend it to anyone, although I'm sure that most study guides are fairly equivalent. What really makes the biggest difference is the time and effort you're willing to devote to studying this or any other guide.



Date: 2002-09-06   Rating: 2
Review:

Buy something different

This particular GRE review book is actually quite difficult to use and does not, I believe prepare you for actual GRE questions.
1. The anylytical or Logic portion of the book (Soon to become obsolete) is ridiculously easy, I scored 800 each time on all the tests in the book, and found they had no helpful strategies in the logic section. While I scored a 760 in Analytical, I did not find anything in this book remotely challenging when it came to test day...

2. The Verbal section of the book does have a helpful vocabulary list, however, their one word definitions are not always entirely accurate in defining these words, thus on test day, you may come up against a word with two meanings such as Purchase (traction or to buy) or Slip (used by potters, or to fall, or an undergarment) and only know one. In addition, their questions for the reading interpretation are somewhat vague and really open to interpretation.
3. Math is my weak point. The math section was thorough enough it seemed to me, but there were several errors.

The other complaint I have regarding this book is the unusual percentile scoring which seems to have very little rhyme or reason. While it appears logical, it scores your test very differently than an actual CAT exam would- despite it being on the computer. The book bases your score on number of questions answered correctly, where as the CAT bases it on the weight of the questions you answer correctly...Based on the scores I got from this book I would have had a 1630, when in reality I scored 1860.

There are several GRE prep books out there. i would recommend you choose a company that focuses on Test Preparation (ie Princeton Review and Kaplan and a few others) to find a more reliable prepatory course....Taking the test is stressful enough without this confusing document.