Essential Words for the GRE Third Edition

Two Sentence Summary: This is the single best test prep book I have used since high school. I strongly recommend it to anybody preparing for the GRE.This book helped me prepare for the GRE and expand on my academic/professional vocabulary. Words in this book, especially the ones marked with an asterisk (*) appeared on practice tests and my real GRE. These works have also been helpful in my graduate school work and professional career. I still keep this book in my office and reference it regularly. However, the book is only effective if you have enough time to move through the lessons methodically. It was very helpful to make a concerted effort to think in and use the words. Otherwise, I found that I quickly forgot them. The author makes a good effort at grouping words that have related meanings or etymology in the same sentence. For example, asperity and aspersion are in the same lesson. These words have similar meanings, but are different parts of speech. Grouping them helped reinforce the etymology and prevent confusing them.Due to the time it took to move through sections, if you have fewer than three months or so to prepare this book might not be the best use of your time. In this case something more direct, such as Barron's GRE, 21st Edition would probably be more worthwhile. Otherwise I recommend it to GRE test takers or any graduate students.

I originally bought this book to get ready for another exam that has verbal ability section. I thought it was amazing that it divides the words in units of 10 words, and you then get to practice those words with exercises.. I also noticed that I've started using these words in my daily life, which proves that it is a good book (for me at least, i'm horrible with memorizing, I typically understand and rarely memorize and learning new words has always been a challenge for me since english is my third language). I would definitely recommend it for those non-english speaking people, and you can always get it and use it to set a baseline, then get more advanced GRE books to benefit as much as you can.

I did not exactly use this book as it is intended as I did not do many of the exercises. However I will say that I found many of the words in this book on the GRE, which is exactly the point of purchasing it.

For the student who is studying independently for the GRE this is THE book for the word part of the test. You are given the definition in many ways then you match the word to the definition then you use it in a sentence and finally you see if it is used logically in a sentence. These words are hard, most you have never seen before so this book is critical for the GRE. It is set up just perfectly. I am so glad I bought it or I would have been shocked when I got to the test.

It is not that bad, but I think it does not contain sufficient exercises in it.

I got an almost perfect score on the verbal reasoning section by working with this book. English is not my native language and the exercises after each batch of ten words helped remembering. Also sometimes the definitions are not very specific when there are synonyms, but I was able to translate in my other language to better understand in what context use one or the other.

I've tried to study vocabulary from other books (Princeton Review's Cracking, Kaplan etc) but it's much easier to study for vocab from this book, since it presents advanced words with examples. However, if you want a high score in the verbal section, you probably should go beyond this book. It provides essential words, but it doesn't cover everything that might appear in the GRE

i thought this would have a vocabulary list/definition like the complete barron's has but instead there is more emphasis on exercises etc.