GRE Chemistry Test (REA Test Preps)

Rating:
Summary: REA not up to par.
Review: The problem with this book is relevance. The practice problems are not entirely reflective of the actual questions on the exam. If you wish to practice chemistry, than this book is fine; however, if you are preparing for the GRE Chemistry exam, then you will be sorely disappointed when you actually take the real exam, because the questions that you have been practicing on are sometimes not relevant. I believe that the publishers have republished corrected problems every few years, but have not recently touched base with actual problems from the real exam. Because of this, the questions seem to be outdated.

Rating:
Summary: REA's 2000 Edition is up to date and very helpful
Review: There are 5 comprehensive exams, each of which reflects todays GRE exams: 30% Organic, 30% Physical, 25% Inorganic and 15% Analytical. The 2000 version of REA's Chemistry GRE preparation booklet is an excellent review of both format and actual content of the Chemistry GRE.

Rating:
Summary: REA's 2000 Edition is up to date and very helpful
Review: There are 5 comprehensive exams, each of which reflects todays GRE exams: 30% Organic, 30% Physical, 25% Inorganic and 15% Analytical. The 2000 version of REA's Chemistry GRE preparation booklet is an excellent review of both format and actual content of the Chemistry GRE.

Rating:
Summary: Practice tests in this are easier than the real thing
Review: This book contains no test material from any bonafide chemistry GREs. Instead it contains material that is "based on the most recent GREs." Many of the subtleties and difficulties of the real chem GRE are lost in the translation. If you compare this with the other test-prep books that actually contain old GREs, you will see the difference in many of the questions. I feel sorry for anyone who uses this as their sole test preparation booklet. It is quite misleading. Although many of the questions in this book are indeed reflective of some the topics that are covered, it is not up-to-date and some newer topics are left out. The explanations accompanying the answers at the ends of each test are nice, but it doesn't make up for the significant mismatch in level of difficulty for many questions (although some are okay). The questions on the real thing are designed to be tricky. The designs of many of the questions in this book are simpleminded and too straightforward in comparison. It might be marginally helpful to you after you have gone through some of the other available test booklets (which I strongly recommend) as a review, but do not count on this as your main review book or you will be surprised in a bad way. 1.5-1.75 stars at best.
P.S. I scored in the 82nd percentile. My best advice: GET BOOKLETS WITH BONAFIDE PAST TEST MATERIAL

Rating:
Summary: Practice tests in this are easier than the real thing
Review: This book contains no test material from any bonafide chemistry GREs. Instead it contains material that is "based on the most recent GREs." Many of the subtleties and difficulties of the real chem GRE are lost in the translation. If you compare this with the other test-prep books that actually contain old GREs, you will see the difference in many of the questions. I feel sorry for anyone who uses this as their sole test preparation booklet. It is quite misleading. Although many of the questions in this book are indeed reflective of some the topics that are covered, it is not up-to-date and some newer topics are left out. The explanations accompanying the answers at the ends of each test are nice, but it doesn't make up for the significant mismatch in level of difficulty for many questions (although some are okay). The questions on the real thing are designed to be tricky. The designs of many of the questions in this book are simpleminded and too straightforward in comparison. It might be marginally helpful to you after you have gone through some of the other available test booklets (which I strongly recommend) as a review, but do not count on this as your main review book or you will be surprised in a bad way. 1.5-1.75 stars at best.
P.S. I scored in the 82nd percentile. My best advice: GET BOOKLETS WITH BONAFIDE PAST TEST MATERIAL