What to Look For

 

If you’ve chosen to study on your own, you must realize that there's a distinction between study and practice. Study is when you learn the methods for tackling GRE questions. Practice is when you sit down and practice those methods. The best move is to buy one, and only one, commercial test preparation book, complete it, and then practice the methods you’ve learned on practice Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT) provided by ETS downloadable for free -- Click Here. You'll need to make a decision on which commercial GRE test prep book you pick – but pick just one and stick with it.

 

Don't concern yourself with whether or not a book has ‘better’ methods than the others. Instead, you should be concerned about how well a book teaches someone who is self-studying. For many people, learning something from a book, without a teacher, can be a difficult experience. If this is true of you, then you may want to seek out a book which guide you through the material well.

 

What NOT to Do

 

Buy more than one commercial GRE test prep book. Going through more than one book won’t help more. Indeed, it will actually hurt, as you’ll spend too much time learning methods and not enough practicing. Pick one and stick with it. Once you’re done, practice like crazy on practice GRE CATs.

 

Buy textbooks from someone who took a live GRE preparation course. The books are designed for classroom use, not self-study. As such, you’ll be confused and frustrated. Even if the student took copious notes, the text is still not designed for self-study, and, as such, will teach you little. Many students assume that the national test preparation companies teach methods in live classes not taught in the retail books. This is not true. The methods in the live classes and the books are usually very similar.

SHOULD I TAKE AN ON-LINE COURSE? 

If you want more material than is found in a retail book, but don't want to spend the time and money on a live class, then consider on-line GRE prep class options . These courses provide essentially the same content you would find in a company's live course, except via video or text. These courses have the obvious advantage of great flexibility -- study when and where you want. Of course, the obvious negative is that you don't have a live teacher. Most of the on-line courses provide you with an e-mail contact if get really stuck, though.

 What To Get For GRE Self-Study  

 

1- Commercial GRE Preparation Book. See our GRE Prep Book Comparison Charts.  

2- Practice CAT exams from ETS, downloadable for free - Click Here.   

 

How To Self-Study for the GRE  

 

Step 1- Complete a commercial GRE prep book. Use the methods, no matter how insignificant those methods may seem.  

 

Step 2- Practice on ETS-produced GRE CATs first, other simulated GRE CAT exams second.