Essential Words for the GRE

by Philip Geer

Test takers preparing to take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) must command a high-level vocabulary to achieve a high score. This book is designed to teach the definitions of 800 words often appearing on the GRE while also familiarizing test takers with how the words are generally used in context. The book opens with a pretest that serves as a diagnostic, then presents the word list with extensive sentence-completion exercises. A following chapter discusses and analyzes essential word roots. The book concludes with a detailed post-test. Answers are given for all exercises and for all questions in the post-test.

Genres: Reference, Education, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Linguistics, School

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Pouria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used this book as an online course in memrise.com:
https://www.memrise.com/course/121215...
This book was my third priority for GRE and memorizing its words with memrise was much easier because of the available pronunciation and recurrent review tests.

[Roya · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many words, my mind feels numb.
But seriously, I feel like I have entered a WHOLE NEW LEVEL of existence!
Like, Seriously.
(one star's forfeited for the sake of too many inaccurate, even incorrect, definitions)

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Done, bitches!

[Yasmin M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finishing a book like this won't necessarily mean you know all the words. But I gotta say it's one great source for people who don't know where to start.

[Sarah A · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was very young growing up in the Philippines, one of the things I was fascinated of is the English language. Not to say I am proficient of the language. I simply like to learn new vocabularies, phrases, sentences, etc. So when I was studying for the GRE (and praying to tackle the new revised exam), I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This book teaches the important words you need to know in units of ten words each, along with their parets of speech, mostly commonly used definititions on the GRE, and illustrative sentences showing how words are used, and SO. MUCH. GOOD. STUFF! :) My only complain is that the book did not provide the pronunciation of the words. Other than, it is one of those books I would love to take with me everywhere I go. And I literally do.

[Mahin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tutor a variety of subjects in my spare time, so I’ve been reviewing test prep guides. This book is well organised and includes several vocabulary lists and exercises. However, I find that the vocabulary is rather easy, especially if you went to high school or college. I think students would be better served by curating their own vocabulary lists and using vocabulary.com than using this book.

[Fyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a pretty helpful book. I actually learned quite a few words and the exercises were worth doing. My suggestion would be to go through the book, marking words you know and don't know and going from there.

[DrewB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good words with very good exercises to learn them

[Moustafa Sheikh Debes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upgraded me to the next level

[Alexandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was extremely helpful to me. Even though a lot of the words in this book didn't show up on the test. Because there was about 8 questions that dealt with picking the right word, so the probably was very low anyways, I think it helped a lot. I did see some words from here on the test though!

I liked the way they set up the techniques for learning the words. They have you learn the words in about four different ways which really helps. You read the definition in sets of ten. Then match the definitions. Then use them in a sentence and finally you have to tell if the word makes sense in the provided sentence. I think this was a very useful way to helping remember the words.

I have the say I didn't use the Roots part of the book. I didn't have enough time to get that far. So I can't say if that was helpful or not.

Overall, I'm VERY glad I bought this book because it even helped me learn a lot of words I hear everyday but didn't know their exact meanings. So helpful.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource. You get out what you put in and this more than prepares you. However, while studying for the GRE, this wasn't as compact as it should have been for a supplemental resource. Too many words and some of the 300 highest frequency words didn't even have definitions in the book!
A fine tool though.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more effective than simply staring down a long list of words and definitions.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well my vocab is bigger. That was the goal. Goal met. I found a few typos that really kinda honked me off. Who proofreads books nowadays?

[Steppenwolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very geeky, but I'm getting a tremendous kick out of this book!

[Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

-Idiotically sorted alphabetically
-Erroneous word definitions

[Rajeev Kamboj]

its a very good book