Reddit reviews Barron's GRE, 20th Edition

I'm going to let you in on a secret. I've also worked in exam prep. The vast majority of exam prep courses teach you a book. That's all. Nothing more. I tutored students for the SAT for years. Now I got the job because I scored high on my SAT I (1550 in the 1600 days), but we used two books: Barron's and the Official SAT Guide. When I had clients paying up to $180 an hour, 90% everything I taught was in those books. What you got by paying me in addition was someone who was also an expert on the book's techniques and could hand-hold you through them, and also spot what kind of mistakes you were making. But contentwise, books have just about everything you need. The list of things I taught that didn't come from the book were materials I made up myself. The only reason I got away with that was because I was with a small independent company that allowed me to do so. Big companies that offer courses (like Barron's and Caplan) don't allow it at all. Their tutors have a script that they teach from.

I took the GRE a few years ago and got a 1450 Overall + 6/6 Writing. What was my method? I bought this book, this book, and these flashcards. I worked both books cover to cover and all 500 flashcards until I'd mastered every single thing in them. Took a few hundred hours. If you do that, it works.

The GRE has changed substantially. (It's now a computer-adaptive exam; it used to have an "Analytical" section; it used to have analogies...) Can you use interlibrary loan to get a newer book? Or visit a different library in your library system? At worst, you could sit in Barnes & Noble and use a copy of their book.

Barron's (the newest one) is fine; I use it with students, and you can augment it with free websites and apps. But you're already paying over $200 to take the exam—another $10 for up-to-date prep material would be money well spent.

You can get the 20th edition (next-to-most recent) used on Amazon for $4 (includes shipping).