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# The Official Guides to the GRE General Test 3rd Ed - Review

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The Official Guides to the GRE General Test 3rd Ed - Review [#permalink]  04 May 2017, 08:11
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ETS Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test 3rd Edition

Product details
Series: Official Guide to the Gre
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education; 3 edition (December 29, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1259862410
ISBN-13: 978-1259862410
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 1.4 x 9.9 inches

Disclaimer: in these latest editions of

• The Graduate Record Examinations Official Guide 3rd Edition;
• ETS Official GRE Quantitative / Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions, Second Edition, Volume 1.

there are NO new questions added from the previous edition of both books

With the preceding statement, we certainly could conclude the review of the latest edition of the GRE OG. But hold on; why ETS has released a new one OG if there is an obliteration of new contents ?? The answer is quite straightforward and might be enucleated in few points:

• 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.
• You’re new to GRE prep so it doesn’t really matter whether there are “new” questions; they’re all new to you.
• The content are well organized per se. It was in this manner, already, in the 2nd edition released somehow 5 years ago. However, now the contents are unfolded in the same exactly way as they were before but with a better looking and more flashy outer shell.
• From the previous point we infer that the changes are minuscule and this could be perceived as a disadvantage. Nonetheless, the positive side is that whether you wanna buy this edition in paperback (for now the edition is released only in this format) OR the previous ebook edition Official Guide to the GRE® revised General Test, Second Edition is exactly the same. To make the idea more clear to you: in the case of GMAT, it usually adds the 25% of new questions, equally shared between quant and verbal, to the new OG. The students tend to will both of the books with the consequence of a bigger expenditure. In the case of GRE is not that case. You can choose, and this is not a small detail.
• Broadly speaking, continuing a sort of comparison with the books released by the main competitor of the GRE: the official material released by GMAC is the best tool in your arsenal, they have an invaluable value for your preparation. However, is perfectly known that the material in the GMAT OGs are easier than the questions in the real test. Though, other variables come into the picture during the test day. On the contrary. the material provided by GRE in its OG is really close in its difficulty if not the same of the questions you do face in the official software PP and during the test exam. As a result, this is a huge advantage of the GRE cosmo.
Of course, not all is perfect in GRE land: something is obscure and dissonant. GMAT provides 1000 official pure questions and GRE, in comparison, 300 (take this statistic with a grain of salt: it is said just to give you a proportion of the official material released, respectively).
• A really strong point that I like of this new edition, NOT present before, is that at the bottom of every quant question explanation there is a reference to the strategy used for that specific question. In this way, you can pinpoint the question for the area of content and squeeze in depth the strategy provided to tackle that specific question-related content. This is quite useful. Take a look, for instance, to the comparison question at page 552, what is written:

 Quantity A Quantity B 0.5 % of x $$\frac{1}{2}x$$

Strategy 5 - Simplify an Arithmetic or Algebraic Representation.

This is not completely true, in the sense that other strategies come into play, tackling this question. Notions such as percent or comparing fraction are pivotal. It is not only a question of simplification.

• The math concepts review section is fairly good but should be improved and enriched. Of course, under this aspect, you would need a second book specifically made for this purpose. Just for brushing your rusted math, but having solid fundamentals, it is enough.
• The OG contains TWO full tests in the book and two computer tests (you can obtain the latters downloading the GRE® POWERPREP® II, Version 2.2).
• The explanations provided are fairly good, though a more in depth of WHY the other answers choices are wrong would be advisable.
• The strategy, the examples provided as a response to the Issue and Argument AWA in the section and why that particular essay is graded as 6, 5 and so forth is definitely the PLUS of the guide, overall. I would say almost perfect.
• The price \$ of the book is fair enough.

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Kudos [?]: 1141 [1] , given: 5440

ETS Official GRE Quantitative / Verbal Reasoning Practice Qu [#permalink]  11 Nov 2017, 01:37
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ETS Official GRE Quantitative / Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions, Second Edition, Volume 1

Product details
Series: Test Prep
Paperback: 368 pages / 256 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education; 2 edition (February 3, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1259863484 / 1259863506
ISBN-13: 978-1259863486 / 978-1259863509
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 0.7 x 10.8 inches / 8.5 x 0.9 x 10.9 inches

These two books are amazing for one simple reason: they contain overall 300 questions from ETS as extra practice, aside from the OG 3rd edition. Ther is no overlap between these questions and those contained in the OG.They are released just for the purpose: practice, practice and again above all practice.

These second editions are exactly the same as the previous one, so you do not need to buy them in paperback if you are more comfortable with the ebook edition.

Official GRE® Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions, Volume 1
Official GRE® Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions, Volume 1
_________________

Last edited by Carcass on 16 Nov 2017, 12:51, edited 1 time in total.
Updated
ETS Official GRE Quantitative / Verbal Reasoning Practice Qu   [#permalink] 11 Nov 2017, 01:37
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