GRE study books

[Ruby17]

Hello Everyone,

I was wondering what books you believe helped you with your studying for the GRE? Any you reccomend that helped you prepare? I keep reading reviews that some books are nothing like the exam. Also, what should I brush up on (for those of you who have taken it). What questions were the toughest?

Thank you so much for you your time! ?

[jamj]

I HIGHLY recommend the Manhattan Prep books. I found that the practice tests and questions in these books were incredibly similar to the actual GRE content. 

In terms of what you should brush up on, it depends on what areas you feel less confident in. For me personally, I only studied for the quantitative section (which is also what I found to be the most difficult).

Overall what I found the most useful was completing full practice exams to see where I needed to improve. If you understand a concept and do well on it then move on, focus only on the areas that need improvement.

Edited March 20, 2018 by jamj

[Bayesian1701]

I wrote an overview of books and practice test here that covers what I used to study and how realistic I thought it was.  There are similar ones if you search for ”advice” in the GRE subforum.

[plugandsocket]

Princeton Review! 

[Mirith]

I decided to apply to grad school really late (this January, basically) and so had to take the gre with minimal prep time. (Took the gre February 10). I used the 5 pound gre Manhatten prep book, because I just wanted practice problems.

As a linguistics major, I haven't done math in a few years! All the math looked familiar to me, but I was very rusty. I did a lot more math than vocab/verbal questions. 

I basically committed to doing an hour's worth of the book a day. Which is a goal I didn't meet, if I'm being totally honest. Keep track of how much time you're taking for each section!

I would say figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are by doing a practice test. Look at the score and how each problem made you feel -- were you guessing on that question or did you really know the answer? My practice test scores were about 153 ish for both sections, and actual scores were 165 v, 162 quant! (5.5 essay, which I'm super happy with. I included lots of counterpoints and referenced The Time Traveller I'm one of the prompts, so maybe that helped??). 

And do practice essays too. Again, hadn't done many timed essays since high school. I outlined the prompt, made sure my points addressed the actual prompt, and then started writing. 

Edited March 20, 2018 by Mirith
Clarification