Barron's GRE Verbal Workbook Second Edition

If you are taking the new GRE's,this workbook will do the job. Do every problems sets in the book and you will be set and ready to go. It has a glossary of all the words in the back, you don't need to memorize every single word. Work your way through the whole book, time your practice exams, and look up every new word you encounter. My verbal scores increased significantly after. I recommend this over princeton review book, problems in the book are too easy compared to the real exam. Obtain this verbal workbook asap!

I used Barron's GRE study guide and Princeton Review's 2013 Cracking the GRE study guide as my main studying resources. I saw that my verbal reasoning scores from practice tests needed improvement, and purchased this verbal workbook to supplement the other resources. The extra questions and drills helped, and I attribute it to helping me score well on the verbal reasoning on the GRE. Although not a crucial resource, this book is helpful if you are looking for additional guidance.

These exercises can be frustrating if you haven't already finished Barron's "800 Essential Words." Both were written by the same author, and it seems that he makes the assumption that you have a strong familiarity with his "800 Words." Many of the exercises are dependent on the particular shades of meaning offered in "800 Words," and you might find the explanations confusing or otherwise contestable--as such, the two are really designed as a pair [and should be offered in one volume]. I would use this after extensive strengthening of your vocabulary and immediately before taking the official practice exam from ETS. I've also purchased Manhattan's text completion/sentence equivalency and reading comprehension and essay strategy guides. The mammoth dictionary in the back of this workbook is great, but as usual, you should always cross-check definitions in another dictionary (I use the "Concise Oxford English Dictionary" because it has IPA for pronunciation) for additional acceptable meanings and usage.

I really enjoyed using this book for studying for the GRE. It had a lot of practice problems for me to do, and it was always super interesting to read. I got a 162, but I really put in the hours and used a lot of studying materials to achieve it.

this book provided a lot of good practice. I used a general book and when i had problems in an area of verbal, i was able to refer to this book for more detailed instructions/strategies and have more practice.

I purchased several books to help me study for the GRE. My choices were mainly based on others' reviews.I began studying with "Cracking the GRE, 2013" by the Princeton Review. 'Cracking' had useful strategies for tackling the different types of problems, but didn't have a lot of practice questions. This led me to Barron's workbook. Also, because vocab is so critical, I purchased Barron's "Essential Words for the GRE".While taking this book's pre-test, I came across words that I did not know the definition of and wrote them down; a recommendation from the Essential Word book. 4 of these words were used more than once in the practice test. After I scored the test, I consulted the "Essential Word" book for the unknown words. 3 of the 4 words were not listed in the essential words -- remember these are by the same author. So my question is: if they are not essential words, why were they repeatedly used in a sample pre-test?My other complaint with this book is that I don't feel the Reading Comprehension Questions section is current for the new GRE. As you can see from the cover, Barron's claims "Most up-to-date review and practice tests currently available". The vast majority of questions in this book were something along the line of: Based on the information in the passage, which of the following is true (or not true)? The remaining questions are mostly vocab and a few interference questions. There are NO strengthening or weakening questions. Nor are there any resolve/explain (paradox) questions. According to the practice test that comes with the GRE when you sign up, these types of questions are on the new GRE. I would expect the most up-to-date book to contain the most up-to-date type of questions. I am so frustrated with the reading comprehension section questions that I decided to order The Princeton Review's workbook. I am hoping to find their questions more current.This Bottom Line:This book is useful if you want practice reading the types of passages that will be on the GRE. Again, I find the type of questions only mildly useful. Also, the other verbal section worksheets seem in-line with the practice GRE test.I would look for another workbook first; however, this book is better than nothing.

I am a math person so I wanted to get some hands-on practice for the verbal section. The book is concise and the examples are good. I do find them a bit challenging but then there is also a word list in the back which helps and I am using the words I stumble on to add to my study guide. I have not found one error in this book so Yipee

the question formats are mostly compatible with the actual test, but the questions are overall ambiguous in the sense that there might be more choices that make the sentence right. reading comprehensions are ridiculously long, much much longer than those in Official Guide, which seems to hard and sometimes a waste of time. It is not so accurate compared to princeton and kaplan.

Its a good for GRE preparation. It has lots of problems which provides good practice for the exam. I would highly Recommend the for those preparing for GRE.

Done well