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The GRE Test for Dummies, Fifth Edition

The GRE Test for Dummies, Fifth Edition

List Price: $16.99
Your Price: $11.55
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An excellent preparation for the GRE
Review: I used this book as my only preparation for the GRE, and found it invaluable. The GRE itself is serious and stressful enough, and it was nice to have a book that looked at it more light-heartedly and with a grain of salt. I took the computerized version of the exam, and was very happy with my results. In fact, before buying this book I had no idea what to expect from the Analytical section of the exam, and thanks to the advice and practice questions provided, my analytical score was an 800--a perfect score! If you feel you need more preparation than a book can provide, by all means take a preparatory course or get a CD-ROM, but I found this book to be more than adequate.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A greatly motivating style of humorous learning
Review: I was amazed at the ease of getting through the chapters in this book. The pace was great and she made learning and reviewing simple again. I took my GRE exam yesterday and felt like I was incredibly prepared. The hints, traps/tricks, and warnings were right on the mark. I was comfortable with the format since I knew exactly what to expect. I know the book really improved my score. I read it from cover to cover and did both practice exams too. I can even say I enjoyed studying. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the only useful GRE study book.
Review: If you are going to take the GRE, buy this book and no other. The author fills you in on all the tricks you need to know to score well on the GRE (and there are many), and does not waste your time with lists of 30,000 vocabulary words. Spend your time learning the structure of the test and how to avoid the traps, then learn the basic information. Her chapters on algebra and geometry are much more useful than Barron's or any other books I looked at, and her strategy for vocabulary makes much better use of your time than memorizing vocabulary. The only way the book falls short is in preparation for the unique features of the computer-based test. All the books I looked at fell short this way, even the ones that claimed to have sections on the computer-based test.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What if you ARENT a dummy?
Review: If you learned absolutely nothing in high school or college and now you are faced with the GRE but dont want to have to actually learn any of that silly verbal, math, or analytic stuff then this book is for you. It gives you heaps of tricks to be able to spot the right answer on easy and medium questions without knowing a single thing. However, if you want to score high on the GRE or you actually did learn something in school this book will probably be more annoying than helpful. The humor is obnoxiously cute-sy and the book itself is incredibly simplistic. Sure tricks and tips are useful but you do actually have to know some stuff to score high. The verbal section was annoying, the math review was decent, and after doing the analytic chapter in this book I found I had learned absolutely nothing (I learned tons more from a friend's Princeton Review book). I say spending the extra couple of dollars on a better book (or even better a software package) is the best "trick" to getting a higher score on the GRE.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must read!
Review: My first time taking the GRE was a disaster. I scored rather well on the SATs and assumed I would do the same in the GRE. Reality turned out to be quite different.

So, my girlfriend bought this book for me. I scoffed at first, but soon realized that it had what I needed. The book assumes that you do not have enough time to go over all three subjects in great detail, so instead, the focus is on common patterns for such questions. I think this approach is very effective because the alternative would be to review and review advanced vocabulary for months and months and still not know anything.

Speaking from my own experience, this approach has been very helpful. My Verbal score improved by 20%, and my math score improved as well. I practiced for the GRE by following closely this book, and using its review tests, and I believe it was time well spent. I hope you will pick up this book as well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Superficial
Review: Overall the book although written in a fun language didn't get me into learning more and I ended using it only for making the tests inside and not actually learning from it. I would recommend a book that is more concentrated on a preparation method and focuses more on tips&tricks and methods to master the GRE sections.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book is the best GRE-Prep I've used!
Review: The auther uses humor throughout the review and incorporates basic lessons to get you through this agonizing (but quite important) process. She talks to those who just graduated with an undergraduate degree and are (hopefully) off to grad school AS WELL AS to those who haven't sat in class for years. Each question she presents includes a full explanation, along with potential traps, tips and very useful strategies. The author really makes you interested in "studying" for the GRE and helps you realize there is a way to prepare for this test! The book includes all of the appropriate reviews for each section of the real test (analogies, antonyms, reading comprehension, real math, quantitative review, logic, etc...) plus 2 complete practice tests.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good book - except the logic
Review: The GRE for Dummies is a witty and fast moving book. The math and verbal sections provide excellent review for the exam. However, its flaw is the sample analytical section. I scored only 300 on Ms. Vlk's analytical tests. However, my scores are over 680 on the real exams published by ETS. Avoid these confusing and difficult questions that are not helpful for analytical preparation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Buy this Book!
Review: This book is extremely helpful, and the author's sense of humor makes the studying bearable. Also, the way the vocabulary is integrated into the entire book means you are learning it even while studying for other parts of the exam. The most helpful parts are the math reviews, I actually re-learned years worth of algebra and geometry without too much effort. Again, the best part about the whole thing is that the author actually has a sense of humor, the book is not nearly as dry as some of the others I bought.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Nice book, but doesn't really boost your scores
Review: This book presents the basic concept of the questions, but does not address the problem of perfect time management.

The V section is pretty good, especially the vocabulary (prefixes and suffixes). For getting the questions in reading comprehension right however, mostly it is simply a waste of time to read the whole passage.

The Q section is also pretty good, she well explains some shortcuts to avoid time-consuming calculations. But, she doesn't address the problem how to perform the most efficient calculations (break them up into fractions, cancel...), how to divide and multiply at best.
Probabily should be updated a little bit (I used the 4th Edition).

The A section is underdone. She presents some questions, gives some answers but doesn't explain how to detect the trap answers by the testmakers.
The logic games could be improved a little bit, but how to do them is basically up to the candidate. An engineer often has a more efficient approach than she has.

Conclusion: Nice book, not really expensive, but you cannot expect a very high score from it due to unsufficient time-management. For this, I would recommend additional preparation and lots of practice tests...to boost your scores.


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