What is the best prep book for the new GRE?

[InquilineKea]

Princeton Review, Kaplan, or Barron's?

[beefmaster]

I got Kaplan and the Princeton math workout. I looked through a few of them and they are all essentially the same.

Depending on your strengths / weaknesses princeton do both a math and verbal workout which has tonnes of exercises to practice with

[tangerine82]

Manhattan GRE - they have about six different books - so you can work more closely on your weak areas.

[Khayzuran]

V: Kaplan's verbal workbook is quite good if you need work on it and offers good explanations. Also get their flashcards for essential vocabulary if you're interested in scoring high. While the new test doesn't reward memorization as much as the old one, I found that knowing the meaning of more words outright is still helpful even in in-context situations. I used both and my verbal went from high 600s during the practice tests to high 700s on the actual.

Quant: I heard Barron's had tougher math sections good for those aiming to score high, whereas Princeton Review gives a more basic overview. I don't have personal experience with either though.

[resource]

I didn't use Kaplan, so I cannot attest to that book.

I preferred Barron's over Princeton Review. The PR book helps develop some "tricks" to increase probability of guessing the right answer. This might be helpful if you are really struggling, but will not develop the actual skills needed to earn a high score. The Barron's book has a decent overview of the math concepts that will be tested and I think the sample questions are more accurate that PR's. One benefit of PR's book is that you get access to 4 online practice tests that simulate the length and feel of the real exam.

I'd also recommend the ETS book. It doesn't have much in terms of practice questions, but the questions are closest to the real exam.

[MayankM]

I referred to the Princeton review for the revised GRE.

In my opinion, it was spot on when it came to the RC's and essays. The math was pretty basic. That said, it was just right for the GRE. More important than the books, however, are the practice tests, in the run up to the GRE.

Also I'm reasonably good at cutting corners so I suggest you download Kaplan's GRE flashcards on your smart phone or iPod.

A few good free online tests are the ones hosted by Kaplan and Manhattan. The Princeton Review online test was pretty useless and the one by McGraw Hill was the pits. The power prep software is good too.

Last but not least, if you're hitting a road block with some of the math, try Khanacademy.com. It's especially good for the GMAT and it also clears up most of your GRE quant concepts.

All the best!

[johndiligent]

I wouldn't recommend the Kaplan workbooks. YMMV, but the Kaplan Verbal workbook had me completely psyched out. I scored pitifully on all the Kaplan Verbal practice tests and eventually just gave up on using them. On the actual GRE, I got 750-800 range, so there was no real correlation. The Kaplan passages are very poorly written and the correct answers virtually demand that you overstate conclusions that don't follow from the text itself.

The Math Workbook was similar enough to the sort of questions you get on the GRE, but if you don't have a background in math, like me, you'll find the explanations in the text fairly inadequate, so you'll constantly be going off to look things up elsewhere.

[Deenadragon]

I would recommend the Cliffs Notes GRE book. This is a really comprehensive book with many many practice problems. It also comes with a CD-ROM. The Official Guide to the GRE also has good practice problems.

Good Luck Everyone

[BrianM]

I wouldn't recommend the Kaplan workbooks. YMMV, but the Kaplan Verbal workbook had me completely psyched out. I scored pitifully on all the Kaplan Verbal practice tests and eventually just gave up on using them. On the actual GRE, I got 750-800 range, so there was no real correlation. The Kaplan passages are very poorly written and the correct answers virtually demand that you overstate conclusions that don't follow from the text itself.

The Math Workbook was similar enough to the sort of questions you get on the GRE, but if you don't have a background in math, like me, you'll find the explanations in the text fairly inadequate, so you'll constantly be going off to look things up elsewhere.

Do you mean the Kaplan math workbook?

I have been using all the Kaplan and Princteon Review books. I hope my scores on the kaplan practice tests and sets are representative of the test tomorrow!

I have found them useful so far...

[Bhavin]

Here's a recent article about the best GRE books for 2013 (http://magoosh.com/gre/2013/the-best-gre-books-of-2013/). Not surprisingly, ETS and Manhattan GRE are on the list. Hope that helps!