GRE Math Workbook (Barron's GRE Math Workbook)

 (17 customer reviews)

As someone who is preparing to do graduate work in a field not related to mathematics, I can say avoid this book at all costs. There are several reasons for this, which I'll try to enumerate.

First, the formatting is terrible. Often times when looking up an answer all I see are a string of numbers compressed together. This has tended to cause confusion because the steps of the problems are not clearly demarcated and you often have to stare at and reread the information multiple times to avoid confusion.

Secondly, many example problems use concepts that have not even been presented in the book yet.

Thirdly, the problems presented after each section tend to be a good deal more complicated than the example problems given in the respective section. I've often found that obtaining the right answer often requires you to do a step that is not explained. I think in a book like this nothing should be assumed about the learner. I've spent the last several...Read more

If you are like me then you are not going to purchase just one book to prepare for the GRE, but you are likely going to work through several books from a variety of companies. As I write this, I have already worked through Kaplan's GRE Premier Edition and Princeton Review's How to Crack the GRE for the general idea of the test, and now I am turning my attention to the subject specific GRE books for further refinement. Barron's GRE Math Workbook was first on my list of such books, and I am happy to report that despite a few typos this book is well worth the time and the energy to work through it.

The two general review books I mentioned above from Kaplan and Princeton Review focused mainly on how to identify trick questions or how to implement peculiar strategies, such as dumping the possible answer choices back into the question statement to find the answer, rather than satisfactorily reviewing the math you are supposed to know to solve the problems directly. The great...Read more

I have not taken a math class in five years. Historically, I have always done well in math, but I definitely needed a refresher for the GRE. Barron's has a good reputation, and this book was just recently published, so I figured it probably had a good chance of being the most up-to-date. However, I was not expecting rampant errors throughout the book.

Before I even get to the real page 1, on page xi, there is a clear mistype:

"Chapters 3-6 review the all the mathematics..." -- Not a good sign.

Later, in an explanation on page 31, it states:

"As x + 3 < 0, subtracting 6 from both sides we see that x - 3 > -6..." Whoa, hold up. I'm pretty sure that the inequality sign doesn't flip when you subtract. I know that when you divide or multiply by a negative number, the sign flips, but in this case, I'm -fairly- certain that the sign doesn't flip. Maybe I'm just misremembering, but if not, this is a pretty glaring error.

Then, a mere...Read more