GRE Prep Course eBook

If you are studying for the GRE do NOT bother buying this book despite the price. There are multiple errors and the vocabulary section is full of easy words that will just confuse you.Mistakes include things that will mess you up on test day. For instance in the text completion section there is a question which includes indiscretions and peccadilloes as options for the same blank. You will see these words used together synonymously in many Sentence Equivalent sections. I also found many of the text completions to be confusing. For instance you can discern that you are looking for two words with opposite meanings "Although the buildings and streets of this small beach town appear _______, the property values are quite _______." However, the creators of this test have given you the options of expensive/reasonable or dilapidated/high... Or we could go into the spelling errors where sunscreen is developed in Tropical (not topical) or internal varieties, which absolutely does not work.Just to make the Math section more fun, according to NOVA 6, 8, and 10 are consecutive numbers.To sum it up, DO NOT buy this book even for the practice questions. Studying a book with misspellings, incorrect math, and wrong definitions isn't going to help you increase your test score.

This is an excellent prep book. First off the MATH section is first rate and has lots of problems that will help reinforce a number of frequently tested concepts on the GRE. The VERBAL section is not as good as the MATH but still has some very useful stuff. I found the RC's to be a bit vague and some of the explanations to the RC questions were a bit dicey and ambiguous but the technique that was suggested was sound and effective. The 4000 world list is also pretty exhaustive. I did not read the writing section at all - so no comments on the writing section. Overall I felt that this book helped provide some tougher material that helps one to feel like they are actually well prepared to tackle the GRE. This is also not a book with a lot of fluff (like Princeton Review books) - it is 600 pages of solid material. This book is geared towards students who are motivated - so it treats the reader as an intelligent college graduate. Some of the books like the Princeton Review are written for 5th graders - they lack the bite and the depth in the material and assume that their readers have a very short attention span and a very limited intelligence. Credit to the NOVA team for authoring a good text book geared towards college graduates. NOVA's online companion is definitely not as good as Kaplan's online content. Kaplan has the best online stuff. The ideal combination would be to own the NOVA text books and the Kaplan CD.

Though several other reviewers seem to find this book mediocre at best, I found that it was very helpful in a lot of ways. The questions seemed a lot harder than actual questions on ETS practice tests as well as on the real GRE, so when it came to actually taking the test I felt that everything was pretty easy by comparison. My score was much better after having studied this book than it would have been without it. Granted, I did come across some wrong answers in problem explanations, but very few when considering the sizable quantity of practice questions in this book.The Quantitative lessons were the most helpful to me, as they provided in-depth reviews of all the concepts that are likely to be encountered in the exam, with practice problems for each concept. The logic sections were also very helpful, especially when it came to practicing how to concisely jot down the conditions of a problem and how to draw the right kinds of diagrams quickly. Finally, the verbal section provided a good review, including a list of 4000 important vocab words. Unfortunately, the vocab definitions provided were extremely brief, and I found it necessary to turn to another study guide for more extensive definitions.Overall, though I didn't manage an 800-800-800 like some reviewers who used this book (I wish I could have gotten that score!), I did very well (well enough to feel no inclination to take the test again). I found that the only factor that lowered my scores at all was the fact that I had trouble finishing all the questions on the quantitative and analytical secitons within the time limits (damn those time limits! damn them to hell!). I was much better off for having studied with this book and I would recommend it to anyone, although I'm sure that most study guides are fairly equivalent. What really makes the biggest difference is the time and effort you're willing to devote to studying this or any other guide.

Pros:An excellent preparatory guide for those studying to take the Graduate Reentrance Exam. Reflecting now--after taking the "old" GRE CAT (Computer Adaptive Test)--I'm pleased that the book covered all major topics present in the exam via both thorough explanatory passages and ample practice problems.Cons:The electronic version lacks links in the problem/solution sections, which proves irritating and distracting as you cannot quickly "thumb" back and forth between problem and solution pages. Secondly, the rendering of some problem/solution content is.. funky. The intended presentation is usually clear, but nevertheless distracting.Overall: Great value purchase with drawbacks common to most electronic conversions. Highly recommended for soon-to-be test takers looking for an electronic copy of a respectable study aid.