Hello Preppers and experts.

A friend just passed me his old materials. It contains a copy of the 5 lb book. I know this book is supposed to be good but it is dated 2013. How relevant would it be for this year's prep?

Kunal

This prep book contains pretty much the same material as the previous edition. There are still errors in the book (see the review from the previous edition). The sample practice problems are OK, but not any better than other test prep company books. One deficiency which has not changed is an over representation of reading passages in the 'verbal reasoning' section that have as their content contemporary art. Evidently, one of the writer/editors was an art history major, so names like Donald Judd, Flavin, conceptual artists, etc., are over used, and since art theory contains its own peculiar vocabulary, the subject matter is quite circumscribed. On the other hand, the writing samples to provide readers with sample essays do not reflect the way the real ETS raters score the writing section, and the analyses of what makes a 'cogent' essay vs. an adequate one are long-winded, apparently written to show the perspicacity of the book's editors more than providing helpful ways of improving one's writing.