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Cracking the GRE with CD-ROM, 2006 (Graduate Test Prep)

by: Princeton Review
en

0375764755  9780375764752 

 


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Book Description:

Cracking the GRE teaches proven techniques specifically designed to help students prepare for the computerized format of the Graduate Record Examination. Newly updated, this best-selling guide pres comprehensive preparation for the GRE. Book buyers even get an exclusive free pass to go online and take extra full-length practice tests.

 


Date: 2007-05-11   Rating: 4
Review:

Solid -- especially helpful for the writing section

This is a pretty solid all-around GRE prep. Especially helpful, though, is the part about creating templates to deal with the analytical writing session. This advice in itself makes the book worthwhile.



Date: 2006-11-11   Rating: 3
Review:

good for review, but tests on CD repeat a lot of questions

the math review in PR was, i thought, the best amongst the main players (barron's, kaplan) - though i am very good at math, so i didn't need a lot of explanations regarding some of the shortcuts, etc., they have in this book. verbal was pretty solid in terms of instruction as well. you want to supplement the vocab here w/ kaplan's word list and barron's top 300 words. vocab is key to the verbal part of the exam, but you don't need to go overboard and learn 3,500 words (in barron's) unless you have time to prep that much...it's overkill. 600-800 is about right, which is what you'll get if you combine all sources. the one major negative - PR's tests are really easy. well, moreso because they repeat a lot of questions from the book. not to say the real exam is much harder than PR's, but it would probably be a good idea to try a few different books for more realistic tests (kaplan and barron's are pretty good). again, it's not so much that the questions here are very easy, it's that a lot of them are repeats.



Date: 2006-11-07   Rating: 3
Review:

Decent, But Not the Best

This GRE prep book has a fairly decent Math review and Verbal review, but the practice tests both in the book and on the CD aren't very difficult compared to the actual GRE. It has some good points on how to write the Issue and Argument essays, but the Baron's prep book is much better in all areas. It's good to use this book along with other guides like the Baron's simply because they have a few different points, and getting all the practice possible is what will ultimately help you in the end.



Date: 2006-08-23   Rating: 1
Review:

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR STUDY TIME

Please do yourself a favor and buy the Kaplan review book, as well as the book ETS publishes. This book has AWFUL advice and wildly unrealistic practice tests. The tests on the CD rom often repeat questions already answered in the book and have produced a range of scores which in no way reflect my scores on the tests ETS pres in their book (which are the real deal). The only saving grace of the Princeton Review book is the fact that they pre 4 or 8-week study schedules combining work from this book and the ETS book. My advice -- just make your own schedule and try to stick to it.



Date: 2006-08-13   Rating: 4
Review:

Good, but not complete

I bought this book in an attempt to improve my GRE score on a second outing. My first score had been good enough to get me into a Masters program, but I felt I needed something more competitive for the PhD programs I planned to apply for later on.

Princeton Review presents the material in a fairly straightforward and engaging manner, written in a very "You vs. the System" style that tries to get you into the minds of the test-writers and how to outthink them when all else fails. My main issue with the book is that it does not pose as a dual resource for those looking to seriously get as high a score as possible (800/800) as well as for the more general populace looking to simply get a strong score. It's a bit too simplistic for the former. However, I think the material here is a good start, particularly their ~360 frequent vocab words list and the math breakdown.

For people looking to get a strong Verbal score (which seems to be most people's achilles heel), try supplementing this with the Barron's book which contains a master 3,500 word list of (just about) every word that's ever appeared on the GRE's. The two combined jacked my score up 110 pts and into the top 4% in this section.

Princeton Review claims on the back of their book that their classroom based course improves students scores by an average of 210 pts. I think most people can see that same improvement without having to pay for the $1,500 course fee... but it will probably take more than one $20 book to do it. My advice would be to not just rely on one prep book and expect it to cover everything - although for what its worth this is a pretty solid book to start off.