Update: I've updated a few of the links to GRE practice materials.
If you're taking the GRE to get into grad school, take heart: the test is very similar to the pre-2016 "old" SAT. My list of recommend prep books, below, even includes manuals for the old SAT.
You survived the old SAT and did well enough in college to apply to grad school. With some practice, you'll do fine on the GRE, too.
Manhattan Prep is the gold standard when it comes to GRE prep. This is their very long, very heavy book of practice questions and complete answer explanations.
Pros
If you're taking the GRE to get into grad school, take heart: the test is very similar to the pre-2016 "old" SAT. My list of recommend prep books, below, even includes manuals for the old SAT.
You survived the old SAT and did well enough in college to apply to grad school. With some practice, you'll do fine on the GRE, too.
The GRE is a computer-adaptive test, and PowerPrep software is the only place you can find computer-based official practice tests.
Pros
GRE questions are tricky and constantly force you to double-check your assumptions. Only official test questions allow you to safely make the assumption, "The problem is with me and not with the way the question is written or with the answer key."
Since there are only two practice tests, I recommend taking the first one before you start studying and the second one once you think you might be ready to take the GRE.
Cons
The pre-July 2017 version of the software has a user interface that's laughably 1990's. I had to look multiple times to find the button that allowed me to review my answers. If you're still a fan of Windows ME and Mac System 7, you might be okay with this.
The post-July 2017 version is Web-based. I made an ETS account just so I could access the Web-based version of Practice Test #1, but as of June 14, 2017, my attempts to log in to my ETS account have failed. (There's no error message; I just get returned to the login page, where I have to type in my user name and password over and over again.)
This is the only place you can get paper-based official practice questions. The old 2015 edition is nearly identical to the 2017 edition I've linked to above, so check the prices on both before making your purchase.
Pros
This resource has hundreds of practice questions, far more than the practice tests in the PowerPrep software do.
Cons
The practice material is great, but you may find the strategies and answer explanations unhelpful.
Manhattan Prep is the gold standard when it comes to GRE prep. This is their very long, very heavy book of practice questions and complete answer explanations.
Pros
If you've taken a practice test and just want hundreds of questions to practice with, this is the book for you. They're not official GRE questions, but they're close.
Cons
This book is so thick that you might have trouble keeping it open when you practice. The actual GRE only gives you scratch paper to write on instead of a printed test booklet, so you have to manage your practice scratch paper, calculator, and Manhattan Prep book at the same time.
Errata (2nd edition)
Ch. 11, #18 (p. 453): The answer is (B). The book has the correct answer explanation but says the answer is (C) instead of (B).
Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides
You can buy all eight of Manhattan Prep's strategy guides as a package, but you only need to choose one of the eight to get the most important benefit: one-year access to Manhattan Prep's six computer-adaptive practice tests.
Pros
It's a lot cheaper to buy a $15 book than to pay $39 for the practice tests on Manhattan Prep's Web site. You can also try one of their practice tests for free if you create an account on their Web site.
Cons
Don't buy all eight of their strategy guides unless you have a lot of time to kill. Spend the majority of your time studying for the areas in which you need the greatest score gains.
Cons
This book is so thick that you might have trouble keeping it open when you practice. The actual GRE only gives you scratch paper to write on instead of a printed test booklet, so you have to manage your practice scratch paper, calculator, and Manhattan Prep book at the same time.
Errata (2nd edition)
Ch. 11, #18 (p. 453): The answer is (B). The book has the correct answer explanation but says the answer is (C) instead of (B).
You can buy all eight of Manhattan Prep's strategy guides as a package, but you only need to choose one of the eight to get the most important benefit: one-year access to Manhattan Prep's six computer-adaptive practice tests.
Pros
It's a lot cheaper to buy a $15 book than to pay $39 for the practice tests on Manhattan Prep's Web site. You can also try one of their practice tests for free if you create an account on their Web site.
Cons
Don't buy all eight of their strategy guides unless you have a lot of time to kill. Spend the majority of your time studying for the areas in which you need the greatest score gains.
This bank of GRE Quantitative practice questions contains accurate material and detailed answer explanations.
Pros
This book has the same format as Dr. Warner's SAT and ACT Math books. You can jump right in and start working without having to wade through preliminary reading.
The problems in this book are arranged by topic and difficulty level, so students who don't need any content review can jump straight to the chapters that contain what they want to work on.
Cons
Most of the content review is in the answer explanations, so you can't treat this book like a textbook. You really have to engage with the material to receive the maximum benefit.
Errata
On page 77, problem 79 has a graph drawn in such a way that it's unclear whether you should include (G) as a possible answer. The book's answer, AEFG, is still correct, however.
Nova's GRE Math Prep Course
This is the closest thing I've seen to a GRE Quantitative textbook. It's very heavy on practice problems, though, and the problems for each topic are sorted into categories (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard).
Pros
You can get content review here without feeling like you're skipping the hardest questions on the GRE. In fact, the questions labeled "Very Hard" are more difficult than the questions you're likely to see on the GRE itself.
Cons
This book, like any math textbook, is pretty dense. Expect hard work without any entertainment!
Cracking the GRE Premium
This is a decent all-around study guide. It focuses on strategy, not content review, which is advantageous if you have less than two weeks to study.
Its strategies for Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence are excellent. Unless your vocabulary is already post-graduate level, you're going need those strategies to help you guess on sentence completion questions.
Pros
The book's strategies are well-written and clearly explained.
Cons
The practice tests may not feel 100% like GRE questions to you. Some of them are worded in confusing ways, and the answer explanations are cryptic enough to leave you wondering whether the bewilderment is truly your fault.
The paper practice tests aren't computer-adaptive, so the book itself won't give you a diagnostic GRE score. You have to take an online test or use PowerPrep software for that.
The Official SAT Study Guide (2009 edition)
SAT Prep Black Book (2015 edition, Mike Barrett)
When the old SAT died in 2016, ETS didn't throw all of those SAT words away. It's using them on the GRE!
The old SAT's Critical Reading section is an excellent source of semi-official GRE Verbal questions. The old SAT's question types don't match up precisely with the GRE's, but since both tests were written by ETS, you can still use the former to practice for the latter.
Mike Barrett's SAT Prep Black Book provides excellent strategies and answer explanations for official old SAT Critical Reading questions. I recommend going through pages 39-118 in conjunction with the 2009 edition of the Official SAT Study Guide.
Flocabulary: The Hip-Hop Approach to SAT-Level Vocabulary Building
If you want to ace Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, you need to build your vocabulary.
I've said before that reading is the best way to build your vocabulary. That's definitely true for most standardized tests, including the post-2016 SAT, which test your knowledge of vocabulary in the context of longer passages.
The GRE, however, tests vocabulary using only one sentence at a time. You can get away with memorizing definitions and even with using flash cards.
That's why I'm recommending Flocabulary, which embeds the definitions for advanced vocabulary words into rap songs. Rhythm and rhyme have always made large amounts of text easier to memorize, and vocabulary definitions are no exception.
You can rip Flocabulary songs from the included CD onto your phone and then play them in your car. The Flocabulary book contains the lyrics to all the songs, definitions for the songs' vocabulary words, and multiple-choice practice questions.
Pros
This is the easiest way I've seen to memorize the definitions of words like myopic and recapitulate.
Cons
The stories in some of the songs don't feel quite finished. Phobia, for example, is a song about a guy who's scared to go outside because of a dilapidated house in his neighborhood. We get to the end of the song and never find out what happens to the house or whether the protagonist eventually rallies the courage to face his fear.
You're only going to get the superficial dictionary definitions of words, which may or may not help you in real life. You're doing this to get a vocabulary fix for the GRE, but you'll learn the words properly later by reading them in normal contexts, right?
The Yo Momma Vocabulary Builder
Instead of using music like Flocabulary does, this book relies on humor and silly imagery to help you learn word definitions.
Pros
Any learning tool that connects with preexisting knowledge in your mind is going to work better than flash cards. If funny works for you, go for it!
Cons
Like Flocabulary, the Yo Momma method divorces meanings of words from the ways those words are used in real contexts. You'll get a distorted, oversimplified understanding of vocabulary, but it might be enough to get you through the GRE.
If you're going to pick up a book, though, why not read something you're actually interested in and look up the vocabulary words in the process?
In practice, it's not just about studying and strategy. You have to have a strong enough vocabulary to successfully guess on all of the Verbal questions, no matter what words the test throws at you. Crutches like Flocabulary can help, but there's no way you can memorize all of the words you need in a couple of months.
Improving your vocabulary is a lifelong process, so the GRE may be less vulnerable to tips and tricks than we'd like.
Pros
This book has the same format as Dr. Warner's SAT and ACT Math books. You can jump right in and start working without having to wade through preliminary reading.
The problems in this book are arranged by topic and difficulty level, so students who don't need any content review can jump straight to the chapters that contain what they want to work on.
Cons
Most of the content review is in the answer explanations, so you can't treat this book like a textbook. You really have to engage with the material to receive the maximum benefit.
Errata
On page 77, problem 79 has a graph drawn in such a way that it's unclear whether you should include (G) as a possible answer. The book's answer, AEFG, is still correct, however.
This is the closest thing I've seen to a GRE Quantitative textbook. It's very heavy on practice problems, though, and the problems for each topic are sorted into categories (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard).
Pros
You can get content review here without feeling like you're skipping the hardest questions on the GRE. In fact, the questions labeled "Very Hard" are more difficult than the questions you're likely to see on the GRE itself.
Cons
This book, like any math textbook, is pretty dense. Expect hard work without any entertainment!
This is a decent all-around study guide. It focuses on strategy, not content review, which is advantageous if you have less than two weeks to study.
Its strategies for Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence are excellent. Unless your vocabulary is already post-graduate level, you're going need those strategies to help you guess on sentence completion questions.
Pros
The book's strategies are well-written and clearly explained.
Cons
The practice tests may not feel 100% like GRE questions to you. Some of them are worded in confusing ways, and the answer explanations are cryptic enough to leave you wondering whether the bewilderment is truly your fault.
The paper practice tests aren't computer-adaptive, so the book itself won't give you a diagnostic GRE score. You have to take an online test or use PowerPrep software for that.
SAT Prep Black Book (2015 edition, Mike Barrett)
When the old SAT died in 2016, ETS didn't throw all of those SAT words away. It's using them on the GRE!
The old SAT's Critical Reading section is an excellent source of semi-official GRE Verbal questions. The old SAT's question types don't match up precisely with the GRE's, but since both tests were written by ETS, you can still use the former to practice for the latter.
Mike Barrett's SAT Prep Black Book provides excellent strategies and answer explanations for official old SAT Critical Reading questions. I recommend going through pages 39-118 in conjunction with the 2009 edition of the Official SAT Study Guide.
If you want to ace Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, you need to build your vocabulary.
I've said before that reading is the best way to build your vocabulary. That's definitely true for most standardized tests, including the post-2016 SAT, which test your knowledge of vocabulary in the context of longer passages.
The GRE, however, tests vocabulary using only one sentence at a time. You can get away with memorizing definitions and even with using flash cards.
That's why I'm recommending Flocabulary, which embeds the definitions for advanced vocabulary words into rap songs. Rhythm and rhyme have always made large amounts of text easier to memorize, and vocabulary definitions are no exception.
You can rip Flocabulary songs from the included CD onto your phone and then play them in your car. The Flocabulary book contains the lyrics to all the songs, definitions for the songs' vocabulary words, and multiple-choice practice questions.
Pros
This is the easiest way I've seen to memorize the definitions of words like myopic and recapitulate.
Cons
The stories in some of the songs don't feel quite finished. Phobia, for example, is a song about a guy who's scared to go outside because of a dilapidated house in his neighborhood. We get to the end of the song and never find out what happens to the house or whether the protagonist eventually rallies the courage to face his fear.
You're only going to get the superficial dictionary definitions of words, which may or may not help you in real life. You're doing this to get a vocabulary fix for the GRE, but you'll learn the words properly later by reading them in normal contexts, right?
Instead of using music like Flocabulary does, this book relies on humor and silly imagery to help you learn word definitions.
Pros
Any learning tool that connects with preexisting knowledge in your mind is going to work better than flash cards. If funny works for you, go for it!
Cons
Like Flocabulary, the Yo Momma method divorces meanings of words from the ways those words are used in real contexts. You'll get a distorted, oversimplified understanding of vocabulary, but it might be enough to get you through the GRE.
If you're going to pick up a book, though, why not read something you're actually interested in and look up the vocabulary words in the process?
Essay Topics
ETS publishes lists of all the possible Issue and Argument topics.Going for a Perfect Score
In theory, you can get a perfect score on the GRE if you study hard enough. A perfect 170 in Quant is only 97 percentile, and a 169/170 in Verbal is 99 percentile.In practice, it's not just about studying and strategy. You have to have a strong enough vocabulary to successfully guess on all of the Verbal questions, no matter what words the test throws at you. Crutches like Flocabulary can help, but there's no way you can memorize all of the words you need in a couple of months.
Improving your vocabulary is a lifelong process, so the GRE may be less vulnerable to tips and tricks than we'd like.
