Word Smart for the GRE, 2nd Edition (Smart Guides)

I bought this book last year, but only took the exam this year. Anyway, I took a practice test before studying and got a 590 Verbal and a 640 Quantitative...then used this book combined with "Cracking the GRE with DVD, 2008 Edition (Graduate Test Prep)." Since the math is the same level as the SAT, verbal practice is the only real way to up your score. I personally made flash cards of all the words in the word bank and skimmed the back section on prefixes, stems, and suffixes.

I'd say my strategy worked pretty well; my GRE score was 670 Verbal and 740 quantitative. You'll need about 2-3 months to really learn all the words in this book if you try to learn 10-20 words a day. It's worth it though. Combine that with practice tests you get from registering "Cracking the GRE" and you should be well-prepared. In fact, a...Read more

There are many different products out there for improving your GRE vocabulary: flash cards, text books, mp3s for your ipod, etc. This book is ideal if you're a person like me -- a person who never leaves home without some sort of reading material. Whether you commute everyday on a train, or you walk to the grocery store to buy your groceries, this book is the perfect size and weight.

I know most people like Barron's High Frequency GRE Words List, but I feel that the list is too short. Barron's books are also too big and clunky to carry around with you. And Barron's complete vocabulary list is a little too much -- I don't think it's realistic for most people.

I thought this book was the perfect length. It doesn't have too few or too many words. I also like the format of the book. The words are broken up into small sections of 10 or 12 words, and there's a short quiz at the end or each section. This allows you to learn a few words at a time, and the...Read more

I highly recommend this book as an additional guide to the "cracking the GRE" book, for improving GRE vocabulary. The book has many words frequently used in the GRE. The strength of the book is that each word is put in a couple of sentences to make clear its exact meanings which I found very helpful especially for the secondary less intuitive meanings which they like to use on the GRE. There are also helpful tips throughout, such as which words are likely to get confused. Also, some words's roots are explained which more than being interesting uses as a very effective mnemonic. Would definitely recommend to non native speakers who need to learn as many words as possible...good luck!