<p>Hi everyone. I've just finished my first year of college, and I thought I should start studying for the GRE. What are some good prep books for the GRE? I'm aiming for at least a 700 on both sections. I don't think I'll have much trouble with the Quantitative section, but I know I will for the Verbal.</p>
<p>If there's any correlation between the GRE and the SAT, would I get the same scores if I had a 600 on Critical Reading, 750 Math, and 8 essay for the SAT?</p>
<p>I found the Collegeboard's Blue Book very helpful for my SAT prep. Are there any books like this one for the GRE?</p>
<p>You say that you're worried about verbal but not quant - are you going into science/math/engineering? These technical fields really don't care much about your verbal score. You should know that a 700 on verbal is extremely high (96th percentile), and breaking just 600 is considered good for these fields. A score in the 500's is perfectly acceptable for a native English speaker. </p>
<p>Also, you really don't even need to begin thinking about studying for the GRE for another two years... The test simply isn't important enough to study more than a few months. It carries rather little weight in your overall application. </p>
<p>Students typically see a significant drop in their GRE verbal score compared to their SAT verbal score. I think a drop of around 100 points is fairly common.</p>
<p>when you say that verbals don't matter as much in science/engineering/math, does that include the top-notch grad schools like MIT and Harvard too? What kind of scores would I need to get into those?</p>
<p>as someone who teaches the GRE, let me say that you shouldn't worry about the exam until your senior year in college, to be honest. and maybe not even then. there is a real advantage in working for a little while before going back to school. when you are ready, though, i'd advise looking at kaplan, princeton review, barron's, and arco...get the common vocab from all 4 sources (worry about barron's 300 most frequently used word list, not their massive several thousand word list, which is just overkill), which will give you about 600 words. use kaplan and PR for math and verbal strategies. and kaplan and barron's have the best sample tests - they're harder than the real thing, but very useful. PR and arco have very easy tests, in my opinion.</p>
<p>So anyone have an answer to the original post? I am about to start studying for the GRE and I am wondering what book I should get. I know for the SATs that it seemed like Up Your Score was clearly the best review book. Is there any type of book like that for the GRE that is clearly better than the rest?</p>
<p>First, wait until you finish junior year, then download the PowerPrep package from ETS, take a timed test, and see if you need any help at all. The tests are effectively identical to the real thing.</p>
<p>If you have any weakness, follow fp06's advice. I agree that Barron's practice test was significantly harder than the real thing, particularly the Quant section.</p>
<p>I don't think any one book is particularly outstanding.</p>
<p>Finally, remember that the GRE is a very small part of your total application package - nowhere near as important as SAT is for undergrad.</p>