GRE Prep by Magoosh

I can't say enough good things about this book. This was my first attempt at the GRE. I needed to make a 280 for my grad school program and passed with a score of 284 for quantitative reasoning and verbal reasoning combined. My school doesn't use the writing score, but I received a 2.5. The book was the only thing I used to study for the GRE. I studied for less than month, a few days a week for 3+ hours per study session. I'm 46 and had not had math in years and this book really helped refresh what I vaguely remembered and helped me learn what I didn't know, fairly easily. The explanations and examples were clear and concise. The exercises helped me test what I learned along the way. I also took advantage of Magoosh's free apps to test what I was learning, as well. I mainly studied the math portion and not much of the vocabulary or writing as I was confident in those areas. If you are needing a great study tool to get ready for the GRE and you are on the fence about this book, I would suggest that you purchase this book and see for yourself how great it is.If you study with this book and are fresh out of school, you will do much better than I did, so don't let my score be a reflection of the book or how well you will do. I didn't study as much as I could have, but I did get the score I needed.Good luck on your graduate school journey. I love graduate school. I'm studying clinical mental health counseling. I finished my first semester with 3 As and 1 B = 3.75 GPA

I used Magoosh to study for the GRE this past year and scored in the 99%. I absolutely loved using their resources and was surprised by how affordable it is. I bought all the typical books (Barron's, Kaplan, ETS) but didn't find a use for anything other than Magoosh.I would highly recommend subscribing to their online program. Each and everyone question has tutorials and a video explanation. There were a few questions I still didn't understand even with all of that so I simply used the "contact us" button on the bottom of the question and asked for an explanation of what I didn't understand. Each time someone responded to me within a few hours and cleared up my concern. It's like having a personal tutor on call.Magoosh has absolutely everything you need to ace the GRE. It will be up to you to decide how much you want to study and what score you want to go for. A nice thing about the program is they split up the different concepts so it's super easy to focus on what you need individually. They also rank the concepts in terms of difficulty and will tell you to not waste your time studying for questions that are super hard or time consuming if you are aiming for a 310-320 as opposed to a 330-340. But if you want that 330+, as I did, they will give you everything you need to get there.

I have been out of college for 18 years and I went to art school originally anyway (so math is not exactly my forte). I bought this book and read most of it in the three days before I took the GRE. While it doesn't cover everything on the exam, it's pretty thorough, and it's written in a way that's very engaging and easy to get through. Their free vocabulary flashcard app is also very helpful. One item of note is that sometimes their sample questions aren't as clear as maybe they could be, but then again, there were some questions on the actual GRE that I felt that way about, too. I also think that if math is not your strong suit (like me), a little bit more explanation of some of the math sections would be helpful.If I had given myself a full month to use this book (as they suggest), did 10 pages a day, took the practice tests, and use the vocab app daily, I would have done even better. But as it was, three days with this book still unquestionably raised my score. Thanks, Magoosh.

I'm a Harvard grad, 99% GRE scorer (337, 168 Q / 169 V / 5.5 AWA), and professional GRE tutor since 2002. Any serious GRE prepper knows that the GRE Official Guide The Official Guide to the GRE General Test, Third Edition and free GRE PowerPrep Software from ETS are the best places to start, but the problem is that the GRE Official Guides, PowerPrep, and Super Power Pack Official GRE Super Power Pack, while the very best sources of realistic GRE practice questions and diagnostic tests, do a pretty lousy job of explaining the GRE in terms that most students can understand.Overall, GRE Prep by Magoosh is an accessible, organized book. It provides lots of basic info on the GRE, many synthetic practice questions and explanations, links to online study plans, and references to other learning resources. However, it doesn't cover every area of the GRE--not by a long shot. The questions and answer explanations are helpful, but less than perfect--and most importantly, do not include real GRE questions. As far as cost, the physical book is perhaps a little overpriced at $20, so I would go with the Kindle version for $9.99.You might know Magoosh from its endless advertisements on NPR, or maybe from its online study programs for standardized tests. I am a fan of the company and its employees for the most part, although they are not as open to outside materials as they try to appear, which is why their study plans, while popular, are glaringly incomplete. (As a private company, of course Magoosh wants to steer you toward its own resources.) They also exude a bit of an amateurish vibe, as evidenced by their goofy videos and inconsistent/mediocre online educational content. Magoosh is a good fit if you are trying to go from 50% to 70% on the GRE, but if you are trying to go from 80% to 99%, then you will need a more serious book than this.Ultimately, though, this book is still far more helpful than any of the other GRE mass-market offerings out there, with the exception of the Manhattan GRE Series Manhattan Prep GRE Set of 8 Strategy Guides (Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides) and the Manhattan 5-Lb Guide 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems (Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides).As a private GRE tutor, GRE-prep author and obvious competitor of Magoosh, I can admit my bias here. Just because I know that I could do a better job (that is, if I weren't busy tutoring private students of my own) doesn't mean that I should be overly critical of their work. I must admit that McGarry and team are doing something right with regard to GRE self-study, and I admire their core principles as stated in the introduction, even if they don't always adhere to those principles. Throughout the book, they maintain a positive vibe and get straight to the point…but just remember that there are plenty of other helpful GRE materials out there that the authors don’t necessarily want you to know about. So long as you use this book as one of many resources instead of your *only* GRE Prep resource, you should find that it makes a helpful addition to your GRE prep library.For more information on my personal GRE prep recommendations, google "GRE Action Plan."