GRE Books

GRE prep books, even from the big prep companies, can be a mixed bag. They often have errors (sometimes LOTS of errors) and most contain problems and topics I’ve never seen on a GRE!

The two books I can wholeheartedly recommend are. . .

The 5 Lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems from Manhattan Prep

This book is chock full of good practice problems. The problems are grouped by subject. Struggling with prime factorization? Turn to that section for plenty of practice. (Each problem is fully explained.)

Or get the kindle version. After all, you’ll have to do all your work on scratch paper during the actual GRE. Might as well start practicing now.

BIG WARNING: The problem sets are arranged so that the first 20 or so problems are fairly easy. They are designed to make sure you have a handle on the concept. It’s only the last 5 problems or so that are actually similar in difficulty and feel to real GRE problems. DO NOT make the mistake of just working the first few problems in each section to see if you know how to do it. It won’t give you realistic expectations.

The Kaplan 2020 GRE Book

The Kaplan book has the best balance between clear explanations of techniques and plenty of practice.

Like all the books out there, it has its share of errors, but it has less than most. A kindle version is also available.

You can get the plus version, which has a couple of extra practice tests and some other offerings, like mobile access and videos, but, IMHO, all of that is not worth the extra money.

Free and Useful

Powerprep Online

The best GRE practice you will get is the FREE Powerprep tests from ETS. It’s kind of crappy software–you may have trouble getting it to work on your computer–but it gives you two full practice GRE tests that are just like the real thing.

There are also two more full GREs you can take online called Powerprep Plus. These will cost you around $40 each.

The Wordlist of the Top 800 GRE Words from Barrons

Start here for loads and loads of free GRE vocab words. This list is linked to a super-useful website called. . .

Wordnik.com

Wordnik is a great website for helping out with GRE vocabulary. Not only does it give you dictionary definitions from 4 or 5 different dictionaries, it also gives you loads of sentences where the word is used in context, as well as synonyms, antonyms, and more. It does all the heavy lifting for you!

Information and Materials from ETS

You can find everything that ETS puts out for GRE students here, including a list of all schools that accept the GRE, the official GRE bulletin, brochures, flyers, at-a-glance publications, and more! The Official GRE Test  Prep At-A-Glance includes lots of free practice problems and resources.

ETS recently released the newest Snapshot of the Individuals Who Took the GRE® General Test. It gives loads of info on GRE test takers worldwide who took the GRE between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016. Want to know what is the average verbal score for German females going into mechanical engineering or the average written analytical score for American males going into psychology? This will give you all that and more!

Are there any other resources out there you have found useful? Let us know in the comments!