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In this post, I will try to compile a list of the most popular and best GRE Prep books currently available on the market. Choosing the right book for preparation will go a long way helping to achieve a 320+ score. On the other hand, selecting a down standard book can completely throw you off and can result in disastrous results. The main concept to understand it is very hard to make a GRE standard question. Not every Math or Verbal question is a GRE question. ETS follows a very strict standard while designing a GRE question. How well the book authors can replicate that decides the usefulness and quality of the book.
The purpose of this post is to help you choose the right book from the useless ones.




The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test, 3rd Edition
Official GRE Quantitative / Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions, Second Edition - Must Have
Published by the creators/owners of the GRE. Must have for the advantage of having access to real GRE questions but will need Strategy/Study guide to build up math/verbal skills and test-taking strategies.
Strengths:
1. Real GRE questions
2. The questions, both quant and verbal, in the book are still pure ETS original material. The best and probably the only thing you need for the best score.
3. The contents are well organized per se.
4. The practice questions follow actual GRE test patterns - great to have one's ear trained, esp. in verbal
Weaknesses:
1. NO new questions
2. The book does not contain any strategies or helpful tips.
3. The math concepts review section is fairly good but should be improved and enriched.
4. Some of the topics like Parabolas or Absolute value Graphs are missing from the math section.
Other Notes: Full Review 05/04/2017.








The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test, 2nd Edition
Published by the creators/owners of the GRE. Must have for the advantage of having access to real GRE questions but will need Strategy/Study guide to build up math/verbal skills and test-taking strategies.
Strengths:
1. Real GRE questions
2. 4 fresh practice tests. (CD attached in the book)
3. Very good for basics.
4. The practice questions follow actual GRE test patterns - great to have one's ear trained, esp. in verbal
Weaknesses:
1. The book does not contain any strategies or helpful tips.
2. Explanations are a bit lacking.
3. Mostly low and medium difficulty questions. Not very helpful to a person aiming to get above 320.
4. Some of the topics like Parabolas or Absolute value Graphs are missing from the math section.
Other Notes: Full Review








Manhattan GRE Math & Verbal Strategies Set 2018
Strengths:
1. The strategy they teach is almost score-proof;
2. Their practice material almost always - if not always - is the one that most closely resembles the original material provided by the author of the official exams, being GMAT GRE or whatever you could imagine;
3. Their tutors score in the 99% percentile score;
4. Their offer to the students stretches to the best, in every aspect.
Weaknesses:
1. The books have nothing new in regard the previous Manhattan Prep GRE Set of 8 Strategy Guides - They are equal under every aspect.
Updated review 10/26/2018












Manhattan Prep GRE Set of 8 Strategy Guides, 4th Edition
Not to be over-zealous but I would say the most comprehensive self-prep money can buy
Strengths:
1. Very in-depth overview of every GRE subject in 8 dedicated guides (each is 100-200 pages long)
2. Includes access to 6 new online practice tests with explanations.
3. Hundreds of additional targeted practice questions available online (get free access by using the codes inside of each book)
Weaknesses:
1. Requires Official Guide for best results (additional practice questions)
2. Manhattan GRE’s focus on tough vocab, however, may unnecessarily intimidate students and, paradoxically, leave them unprepared for the actual exam.
Other Notes Review of Manhattan Prep GRE Set of 8 Strategy Guides, 2nd Edition
Updated review 10/17/2018








Cracking the GRE Premium Edition with 6 Practice Tests, 2019
Strengths:
1. Straight to the point.
2. They explain what might come in the GRE and try to teach you the ETS mindset
3. Practice exercises are challenging.
4. Sound strategies to tackle Math and Verbal section are given.
Weaknesses:
1. Has many spelling and numerical mistakes.
2. Doesn't explain much theory, only some i.e. math principles. They just explain how to solve the problem. Their approach is that they will only explain what comes in the GRE. For me it's better to have a solid theoretical explanation.
Other Notes Updated review 10/20/2018











GRE: Practicing to Take the General Test 10th Edition
Strengths:
1. This is a version of the old GRE. Still, these are questions created by the writers of test, so the traps are classical GRE.
2. The Reading Comprehension passages are still tough and make for good practice.
Weaknesses:
1. The strategies and exercises at the beginning of the book, and the explanations the 10th edition provides for one of the tests, are without exception awful.
2. Lots of practice, but not much else.
Other Notes: Full review















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Venerable Mentions





Barron's 6 GRE Practice Tests
Strengths:
1. Practice Questions are very much in actual GRE standard.
2. The reading passages can be quite challenging, though the questions tend to be more straightforward and less tricky than actual GRE questions.
3. So for practice, the questions are helpful, but to really hone one’s chops one would be better served with Manhattan GRE online practice tests or Magoosh.
Weaknesses:
1. Text Completion and Sentence equivalence questions are not upto the mark of GRE.
2. Some of the passages are very dense and difficult. Others are quite straightforward. Some passages are far, far longer than anything you’ll see on the GRE (800 words vs. 450), and even these passages have only three, not the requisite four, questions.
3. What does this all mean? Well, the test is not really well standardized. To exacerbate this situation, even the TC/SE questions are not of similar difficulties throughout the sections. So sometimes you’ll get a very difficult section with a super long reading passage and other times you’ll get a much easier section.
Other Notes Barron's 6 GRE Practice Tests Review
Brand New Review 08/01/2017