5lb Book

[samman1994]

Hello everyone,

So I have about 2 weeks to prepare for my GRE, and my verbal is already pretty decent, so I'm looking to improve my quant. Has anyone used the 5lb book for quant? And if so, how helpful was it? I suspect due to the time I have, I will only be able to use this book to help improve my GRE quant score (meaning I"ll be banking everything off this). My main problem is just learning quick shortcut techniques to help improve my test taking speed. How effective is the book in doing this? If you only had time for one resource, is this a good resource to invest that time into? Thank you ahead of time!

[Ppkitty]

I would say if your goal is to learn quick shortcuts, you're better off with the empowerGRE program or something like that. The 5 lb book would undoubtedly increase your speed over a longer period of review time, but that would be because you drilled incessantly, not because you learned tricks or shortcuts. 

[samman1994]

8 hours ago, Ppkitty said:

I would say if your goal is to learn quick shortcuts, you're better off with the empowerGRE program or something like that. The 5 lb book would undoubtedly increase your speed over a longer period of review time, but that would be because you drilled incessantly, not because you learned tricks or shortcuts. 

Is the empowerGRE program free?

[Ppkitty]

No, I believe it is around 50 dollars. I am enjoying using it for quant though, and I think it is worth it.

[samman1994]

3 hours ago, Ppkitty said:

No, I believe it is around 50 dollars. I am enjoying using it for quant though, and I think it is worth it.

Oh ok. I'm looking more into free (due to financial reasons), but thank you!

[rinvanf]

I got the 5 lb GRE book to study for my second round of the GRE (didnt study the first time and got 150 in verbal and analytical). The 5 lb book is more of continuous practice tests and doesn't seem to really to give any tips or shortcuts into taking the test. It is good practice though. 

[samman1994]

I've been using it so far, and you're right it doesn't exactly explain shortcuts, but it has really helped me narrow down where I'm slowest in my quant section. The answers section than explains the shortcuts, and I try to apply these shortcuts to the problem to try and solve them faster.