GRE Test Prep

My studying focused on two topics: 1. understanding a strategy for taking the exam and 2. executing on the strategy by taking practice tests. Item 1 can be either intuitively figured out or found online for free (for example, you should spend more time on the first questions bc they impact your score more). Not sure where to find 2, but I feel like there are sources for old exams. Honestly, I would find the best source to provide practice tests that best replicate the real exams.

Manhattan books are a fantastic tool. Quality is very good and was a massive help when I took the exams. They have great depth to their chapters and have the added benefit of tons of online resources including practice tests.Highly recommend it but they are pricey at around $200 for the 8 books.

The basic Princeton Review book is great. It gives you programs to follow depending on how long you have to study. I followed the one month program and scored an 800 on the quant. And that doesn't have much to do with my math abilities as I scored in the 59th percentile on the quant split of the GMAT.

Magoosh is your best friend. Easily the cheapest and easily the best. Also, you must buy Kaplan b/c they have close to 2,000 questions. Honestly, don't look at it from a money perspective, either. These products could be the difference b/w a crappy school and a great one.

To echo what the first poster (HoldenC) said, you basically want to take as many questions as possible. Don't waste time doing "lessons" or "review" (unless you really don't understand the material) but just take question after question after question and eventually you'll learn to master the test. Whenever you are doing questions, you HAVE TO do them timed and never untimed. You have to get your brain operating at the right gear so you won't run out of time. If you practice just a quarter of your questions untimed, you won't be training yourself the right way.

For GRE math books I recommend: Manhattan GRE, Barron's GRE, and Nova GRE.

Manhattan provides the most depth and best overall instruction. The 6 online practice tests are also invaluable.

Barron's is a good source of difficult questions, and provides a few math tricks omitted from Manhattan -- you don't necessarily need the additional tricks, however, they're overkill.

Nova is a good book to drill math problems. You could also try Kaplan's "GRE & GMAT Math Workbook" for drill problems.

Then there's online video tutoring websites like grockit and magoosh.

For free video explanations to the official GRE Powerprep questions checkout this site: grequantum dot com/grepowerprep/ (I don't have enough points to post links yet).

xoxohth

Depends who you are, and what your background is. I took it back before it had a writing section (it had a logic problem "analytical" section instead). 20 minutes before the test I read through a list of the 50 most common vocabulary words. Ended up with a 2360/2400 (800Q, 800A, 760V).

If English is your second language, or if you aren't doing a numerate undergraduate degree then some more studying than this will help you.

thanks! it does seem like you took this a while ago, as they've removed the analytical section (always better to have one less section :)

Same number of sections (no writing when I took it). They transitioned to current format right after I took it (2002 if memory serves, just before I started PhD).