Cracking the GRE with DVD, 2009 Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation) by Princeton Review Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cracking the GRE with DVD, 2009 Edition (Graduate School Test Preparation)
Book Review: Much better than Kaplan
Summary: 5 Stars
I had the old version of this book, but a few weeks before taking the test, I decided I should get a more up-to-date version so I purchased the new Kaplan edition. I ended up working through both of them, and I felt that this one offered a lot more tricks and techniques. Now I wish I hadn't wasted my money on the Kaplan prep book.Book Review: NOT the right book for math prep, good otherwise
Summary: 3 Stars
DISCLAIMER: I am NOT violating my commitment to privacy to ETS. Read carefully: the following information makes NO mention of specific GRE questions, nor of categories of questions, nor of ANYTHING related to specific test content. Rather, it compares what I believe to be the test's difficulty to this particular book. So, ETS, don't whine: you're not being cheated.
This book provides excellent preparation for the GRE General Test as a whole. It is particularly strong on the verbal and analytical sections. However, its coverage of quantitative contents (math/algebra/geometry) is greatly underdeveloped and seriously troublesome.
The strengths of "The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE" lie primarily with its techniques to, well, CRACK the GRE. It suggests very many tips that apply to test-taking in general and to the GRE in particular. For example, can you eliminate up to three possible answers (out of five) just with ballparking, or with a little bit of common sense? The book tells you how. Can you answer a question about a word that you have no idea what it means? Sure! How do you write an essay on a topic that you have never heard before? Again, the book tells you how.
Also, the verbal workout section is quite strong. Many words on my GRE exam I had learned from this book. I might have been lucky, but I don't think so: this book's word bank is impressive and thorough, yet easily accessible.
Where this book SERIOUSLY lacks is in the math/quantitative section prep. The questions on my exam were NOWHERE near the sort of questions, or even topics, that this book contains. Only after getting very many questions wrong did the test "adapt" to me and started giving me easier questions, as per standard procedure. I ended up with a score that I did NOT like.
Truth be told, my quantitative score was still higher than the national average, but let's face it: the national average is LOW. Like, amazingly low, retardedly low. You get 200 points just by writing your name. To score as high as I did (which would be a barely passing grade in college) is nothing to brag about.
I blame this primarily on this book, which gives A TOTALLY UNREALISTIC IDEA OF THE QUANTITATIVE/MATH QUESTIONS FOUND IN THE ACTUAL GRE. Once again, the verbal and analytical parts are just fine, great, fantastic. But this is a serious shortcoming, and if math isn't your forte you should definitely look elsewhere.
Book Review: No DVD attached.
Summary: 3 Stars
Fast service, unfortunately, the DVD was not attached. One of the reasons, I purchased this book was the DVD.Book Review: Not Worthless But Close to it
Summary: 2 Stars
I new prior to purchasing this book the the quant section was less than great. My main purpose for the purchase was to get access to the 4 CAT tests available online.
In all fairness, the book did not say that these 4 tests would be different; however, one would assume as much. Thus, imagine my surprise when I got to the 3rd CAT test and noticed the EXACT SAME questions. Extremely upset I decided to make the best of it and see some different questions by intentionally answering questions wrong that I previously got correct. WOW, was I surprised when no matter how many questions I got wrong the exact same questions as before continued to follow. I guess the sages down at Princeton Review forgot that CAT stands for "Computer Adaptive Test" because there was NO adapting to anything.
As other reviews have stated, the verbal portion is pretty good--hence the 2 stars instead of only 1.
Book Review: Practice Questions prepare you well for actual test
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the Dummies book, but after taking practice tests (with the PowerPrep software from the ETS website), found myself not doing so well. I bought the Princeton Review book purely for its practice questions. The Princeton Review had great review questions in the back - extremely close to what the actual test is like. I did the practice questions in the back, and memorized the vocab, in 3 days, and made close to a perfect score. If you're one of those people who like to be over-prepared, GET THIS BOOK! The test will seem easy after you've studied with this book.