The Best Test Preparation for the Gre Physics (REA Test Preps)

Rating:
Summary: A lofty title for a worthless book
Review: As you've probably read in the other listed reviews, the physics review given in this book is worthless. The practice tests completely miss the point of the GRE.
Do yourself a favor and download the free practice test provided by ETS. Also check out www.physicsgre.com.

Rating:
Summary: Really bad
Review: Gee whiz, this is just a not so great book. The problems are much harder than the actual GRE and test abstruse stuff and your knowledge of specific equations. The review in the front I guess is sort of okay in that it lists a lot of differents equations that might be helpful. But the questions are terrible.

Rating:
Summary: Not a useful book
Review: I have a couple of serious criticisms for this book.

First, the review is not terribly helpful. If you know *everything* in the review section, you would probably be alright for the Physics GRE. But generally people retain less than what they actually read, so it's unlikely that you'd learn it all. The review essentially consists of a series of key equations without much to help you understand the underlying physics. You'd be much better off working problems in text books and ETS practice exams, as others have suggested.

Second, also as others have argued, the problems in this book are inordinately difficult. It's not that these problems are in and of themselves too difficult -- given enough time, most future physicists could work most of these problems. The issue is that by and large, these questions would *not* be asked on a GRE, simply because many of them take far too long to solve. It's difficult for me to believe that most people who did well on the GRE would be able to solve the majority of these problems in a 170 minute time frame. The problems in the ETS text are much more realistic.

But as general advice to those taking the test, you should know that working problems on the test itself is a very different "game" from working general physics problems. It's a multiple choice test by construction, so of course there are techniques for getting the right answer that don't exist in real life. Therefore, taking tests that are accurate to the real thing is most helpful. In that regard, this book really comes up short.

Something to also consider is that the questions in the ETS tests have been rigorously checked for clarity and correctness (they are actual former tests, after all), so it's virtually impossible that a question would contain errors. This book has maybe been looked at by a few people, but not nearly to the extent as the ETS questions.

In sum: get the ETS book, and read a lot of textbooks and work the problems.

Rating:
Summary: Not so bad, actually useful ...
Review: I read all the scathing reviews of this book, and I believed them, which was too bad for me, because I never bought this book, and it would have helped me a lot. But a friend gave me her old copy, and I tucked it on the shelf believing the Amazon reviewers who proclaimed it useless. A year later, I'm preparing for the Physics GRE using all the standard methods, studying old GRE Physics tests, looking at undergraduate texts, etc..

But then I noticed that this book has a fairly decent (very concise) review section in the front, so I figured it might make interesting reading. There are some mistakes, but for the most part it is decent. Then I started working on the problems, not rigourously, just doing order-of-magnitude estimates of them in my head when I could find a few minutes of time here and there.

It is true that the problems are a bit different from the Physics GRE, but mainly in that they are harder, not easier. Another difference is that to solve the problems in this book you either need a calculator, a few minutes to do the calculations by hand, or you'll need to make rough estimates of the calculations. I chose the latter. The physics GRE usually poses the problems in such a way that you don't need to do much 'cipherin.

And of course there are typographical errors and such in the book, which are annoying.

But none of these problems kill the book. If you have enough time before the test, this is a good workout tool. Of course you'll still need the old ETS tests, and www.physicsgre.com, but this is a good place to hone the skills before you jump into the old tests. This book gives the answers to each problem, which allows for faster preparation until you're ready for the old ETS tests.

Like all of REA's books, this one requires some adjustment. REA is the kind of publisher that is not too rigorous with their production and editing methods. But they do seem to have a knack for hiring people that understand the subjects. This book was written by people that know how to focus on the essential points of physics.

It's useful. And considering the physics GRE costs $130 to take, spending a few bucks on this book is not out of line.

I can understand all of the bad reviews of the books. But given the fact that this is only one of two books to prepare for the physics GRE, the complaints are not really justified. If you believe the anti-hype, then you'll miss out on an effective way to add a few points to your score.Two friends who scored in the 90th percentile used this book as a rough intro to the tests.

Rating:
Summary: Has nothing to do with test
Review: I started reviewing for the Physics GRE 6 months before I took it and it gave me very false impressions of what the test would be like. Based on the book I studied many obscure fields of physics as well as advanced vector and tensor manipulations. But when I got the practice test ETS gives out, I realized I wasn't prepared for the test. This test, like every other ETS test ever made, tests you on subject material 2 years beneath you and separtes 990s from 700s with dirty tricks as well as problems that you basically have to had memorized coming into the test. Here are my complaints:

1. Questions did not reflect real test.
2. Practice tests requires a calculator to do, real test does not and in fact a calculator is not allowed on it. Sets bad habits.
3. Review looks like someone cut and pasted it. Explanations are poor and incomplete.
4. There were no actual test taking strategies, just the review of material and the practice tests.

End result: It's not good for test, it not a good reference, I might recommend it to teachers as a source of problems, but other than that, it is worthless.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad book.......
Review: I think the best way to study for the Physics GRE is to review all the basic undergrad material(Ohanian (or Resnick), Marion, and Griffiths), and then practice a lot of problems. Since there are only two sources of Physics GRE questions (apparently our market is too small for Kaplan and Princeton Review), you pretty much have to buy this book. The other source is of course ETS's guide, which only has three exams. If you review all the material, then go through all the questions in this book, and finally go through ETS's guide, then you should ace the test. A lot of people complain that the questions in this book are too hard, but this is physics. If you can't handle hard questions, you should become an engineer. I am very serious about this!! Physics Grad school is not a joke, everyone that wants to go should know the basics, and if you can't do the questions in REA's book, you have no business applying.

Additionally, the questions cover all the vital areas of undergraduate physics. They ask very basic questions, and make you work out all the details. Then what you have to do is memorize the solutions! That is the key!!! The Physics GRE is a FAST-RECALL TEST, you don't have time to work out every detail and think about things. You have two minutes per question (roughly), so you have to know your stuff cold. This book gives you a listing of all the basic questions, and in solving them and memorizing the solutions (via flashcards, helps), it indirectly prepares you for the mission.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I wasn't going to add another bad review (although it deserves many :0), but I noticed nobody mentioned that not only is it a terrible survey, but some answers are incorrect as well!

My university offered a course to prep for the GRE- for which this was the text. All of us, professor included, realized quite quickly to trash it and throw some ETS practice tests up on the overhead!





Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: There are many other reviews saying exactly the same thing, so I'll keep this short and to the point. This is useless as a preparation for the GRE Physics subject test. Many of the questions require a calculator, which of course means they aren't very close to questions you can expect on the actual test. Some have argued that the book is still nice because it gives a concise summary of major topics which will be on the test, but really all it gives is lists of formulae. Assuming you've taken physics courses, you should have all this material in your textbooks and course notes anyway. There is absolutely no reason to spend your money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Is there a rating for "zero stars"?
Review: This book is both overpriced (compared to ETS's GRE prep book) and fantastically worthless. I took the GRE Physics test a few years ago and there was nothing about this book that was worth looking at. I was further reminded of its glorious wastefulness when I co-taught a GRE-prep seminar for our astronomy majors this past fall. All of the instructors had the same low opinion of this volume. To teach the seminar, we turned either to the ETS volume or we made up our own problems. To review the physics, we went back to the basic texts. (Griffiths, Marion and Thornton, etc.) We went so far as to specifically warn our students against this book.

To extol it's lack of virtues:
* The review is too short to be of any use on a test as involved and carefully crafted at the GRE. Worse than short, it's shallow to boot. Memorizing a few equations will get you slaughtered on the GRE. You need understanding in addition to being able to marshall the basic equations.
* The problems are horrible. They're actually harder than the GRE problems, for a start. They test memorization rather than understanding. (Many GRE problems are actually pretty easy if you understand the underlying physics. Equations are frequently even unnecessary.)

In short, don't buy this book. You'll waste your money (the ETS book, which you can order when you register for the GRE, is a lot cheaper) and your time. And that's optimistic as you might set youself up to *fail* the GRE if you trust this waste of paper. So leave this page now!