The Official Guide to the GRE General Test 3rd Edition

It had been a couple of decades since I last took the GRE, and I gave myself only a couple of weeks to prep. This book was perfect. It took me through each section of the test, accurately and succinctly explaining what would be presented and how it would be graded. I needed a solid review of math in particular, and this book provided it. Well worth the price!

Helped me prepare for the GRE and I passed with a good score. The practice questions are just like the test, and the tips and explanations help you understand how the test works and how to approach the questions. Definitely recommend.

I won't pretend like I got a perfect score because I am not an idiot. My first time taking the test I got a 5 on analytical writing and 158 on verbal and 148 on quant. I focused too much on writing (I used Magoosh's GRE Essay Topics to gather certain go-to historical examples to use on the Issue task). Second time around (exactly 21 days later) I was able to get a 163 on verbal and 152 on quant. That was exactly what I was hoping for. I used ETS's GRE PREP Book and their Verbal Reasoning supplement. The supplement is only good in that it provides more questions made by the test maker.The main caveat here is that GRE prep books give you no real, solid, usable tactics to tackle certain difficult portions of the test. You absolutely need to use other prep books to learn the "secrets" of how the questions are worded, and ways to guess with more or less accuracy. GRE test prep books do not give away secrets, they just give you questions and some lame attempts at offering advice. However, you should rely heavily on these ETS resources because I was able to notice a real difference in the way question stems and possible answers were phrased from ETS and Kaplan. I simply do not think you should use one without the other. Buy this book, but don't take the test (if it actually matters to you and you aren't a verifiable genius) if you have not worked through another prep book like Kaplan, etc.

As a long-time GRE tutor, I urge you to get this book (or the previous version The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test, 2nd Edition).Here's an analogy to explain why: Let's say you're taking a class and studying for the final exam. The professor offers to sell you a copy of the previous years' exams. Sounds good, you think. But then you run into a guy in the hall who claims to be an expert on your professor's class. He offers to sell you a book with 12 exams that he says are similar to your professor's.Ok, do you: A. buy your professor's exams or B. buy the random guy's exams?Correct answer: A. Your professor wrote his exams! That makes them worth their weight in gold. The random "expert" might have tried to copy your professor's style, but he most likely went for QUANTITY over QUALITY.In test prep, quality matters. No matter what kind of GRE prep you use, authentic ETS GRE questions are most similar to the ones you'll face on test day, since they're written by the same people. There are hundreds of ETS questions that are unique to this book, so that's why you should buy it.Even though this book is 99.9% the same as the previous edition, I have to give it five stars. If this version has a low star rating, then some people will think it's not a good book and buy another company's book. They'll miss out on the opportunities this book provides for learning.Bottom Line: This book is well worth the price. It's an essential part of any serious student's GRE prep.You can find all my GRE prep recommendations in my study plans.

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The book has 2 LONG practice tests. With the new format of the GRE being shorter, this technically DOES provide 4 practice tests. The most accurate test was the first one I took. Scored exactly what I got on that test on the real thing. The book serves as an extra book for practice problems in my opinion!! PS— this book has DIFFERENT problems than the ones you get upon purchasing your test! (The online practice ones through ets)

To be honest I only studied with this for around 6 hours. Just wanted to familiarize myself with the question formats. I would say it helped me and I was able to score in the low 300s, but that is all I needed to get into the program I was seeking. I am sure had I actually invested some time into this I would have been able to do much better. This is a solid product and I don't think you would need anything else in addition. Their free tests online are awesome as well. I scored pretty much the same on the practice tests as the real test so I would say they are a good indicator of how you will perform assuming you don't take them over and over and just memorize the practice questions.

I bought this OFFICIAL book the same year I took the test. I was not aware that they updated the test in which the information in this book did not match the changes. It still has decent practice problems and study information but does not provide accurate info about the structure of the exam. I did not use anything else to prepare for the exam and did above average.If you were good at ACT/SAT you will be good at this exam (Pick up the book to get a feel for the format though)(Test is shorter now btw)