Essential Words for the GRE, 4th Edition

I just finished taking the GRE last month - I had only 3 weeks to study because of an administrative glitch, so I needed a good resource and some quick shipping (thanks, Amazon). For my overall study guide, I picked Princeton Review based on previous use of their products and the overall positive reviews, and I was generally very pleased with it and its ability to help me work through the entire test prep matter in 3 weeks. That said, I could not have achieved my verbal score of 770 without this book from Barron's. I'm actually not sure I would have come closer than 700-720....it's that good. A reviewer for the Princeton Review general guide recommended this Barron book and I must second that review and all other five-star reviews here. The word list is EXTREMELY comprehensive and the exercises and 10-word unit breakdown really help you learn. I wound up going unit by unit. For each one, I'd read all the words and definitions and identify the ones I didn't know (or didn't "really" know...maybe I had a hunch but not a clear sense). For those unknown words, I wrote them down in a notebook, with a definition in my own words and a sentence I made up myself (Barron's also has sentences which will help you understand the word better but I think making up your own definitions and sentences and then writing them down helps it sink in). After working through all 80 units (whew) I turned to the notebook list of "trouble" words and basically quizzed myself and had others quiz me in multiple rounds, where in each round I highlighted the words I still didn't know, until that list got smaller and smaller and then disappeared. It was a lot to do in three weeks but Barron's really helped me focus. Seriously - get this book and you will maximize your score. For people like me whose verbal and essay scores are most important, this book is really worth the time it takes to work through. Get it! Get it now! Good luck, everyone!

As a teacher, I can attest that this review book is effective in large part because of the layout of the book and the amount of practice that it offers each reader.Regarding the layout, the structure is quite simple: The book has 800 high frequency words divided into 80 units of 10 words each. The words are conveniently alphabetically ordered in categories such as the following: abate to abstinence, abysmal-affinity, etc.Then within each unit you will find definitions of all 10 words in addition to sentence examples with the key words embedded. All of this is followed by LOTS OF PRACTICE:1) A matching section2) A fill in the blank section3) A sense or nonsense section (Based on your understanding of the new vocabulary, you have to read whole sentences and assess completely if they make sense).At this point you, the reader, have read the definitions, seen examples of how they fit in sentences and completed three forms of practice.That's the equivalent of 5 levels of exposure and it's given to you in bite size chunks that you can digest within 10 minutes each. This level of repetition and exposure flat out works!In fact, this type of learning would work extremely well for some of the English language learners (students who struggle with English) that I teach, because they require much practice to truly internalize vocabulary. I suspect that if you are looking to cram and forget the words right after the exam then simple flash cards would be better suited. That said, I think that this book's structure and amount of practice make it a pretty fail safe solution to improving your reading comprehension score via vocabulary memorization.

It is a good book with each lessons with words and some synonyms and explanation. And also some sentences that try to make more sense the word meaning. With some practice questions that help you to have a better underestanding of the worlds learnt. The only thing that I was not happy was that there was no option to select a s3cond hand book or new book. But I have got a second hand book. It is nice and tidy but I expect a new one. But I am using that book to get ready for the GRE exam.

many of the gre verbal study guides out there have great info in them about analogies, antonyms and sentence completion. most also have a list of 200ish words you should know. the problem is that 200ish words won't cut it. you need way more vocab in your arsenal to get a ginormous verbal score. this book has an awesome list of very frequently used gre words. i saw so many on the test! the 800 essential words are broken down into 80 10-word units, each with a variety of short tests at the end - matching, sentence completion and sense or nonsense sentences.after a while, doing all of these little tests feels monotonous, but the gre is monotonous, and it is great practice to use these words over and over in a few different ways so that you know them in various contexts. one word of advice, it's wicked easy to cheat on the matching. so what i do is cover the definitions and just go down the list of words saying the meaning of each. if i can't define it on the spot - i mark that one wrong. that way i don't get lulled into a false sense of security thinking i can just save the hard ones for later (there's not matching on the gre, you know).i highly recommend this book!