That said the questions have a slightly different “flavor” than the ETS questions, but overall the logical structure is similar. Lots of questions to practice logical reasoning should definitely help test day. Those questions have stood the test of time, in forums where such things are debated ad nauseam. These questions were drawn from Manhattan’s GMAT product, which is a good thing. book may struggle with the inference questions on the GRE. My big concern here is that students who only practice inference questions from the 5 lbs. When I employed the MGRE logic on the ETS inference questions, I could make a case for why the credited answer wasn’t correct. Whereas the latter want you to be able to formulate big-picture inferences, I found that the MGRE questions were very literal and specific about the inference questions. I also felt that the inference questions on Manhattan were very different from those written by ETS. Doing a smattering of verbal practice from this book might not hurt much, but relying solely on this book for verbal would be a big mistake. The passages (save for a couple of exceptions) just don’t merit the structure of those found on the actual test the questions and answer choices following each passage are also without the subtlety contained actual test questions. The quality of questions here is higher and, except for the fact that the difficulty assigned to the questions is not consistent, the questions themselves more closely parallel what you’ll see on the actual test. In both the TC and SE questions, there is an exception to what I’ve stated above: the verbal practice sets at the very back of the book. This is but one example in a sea of subpar questions. For example, one question was simply worded but one of the correct answers was “bootless”, a word so obscure that it would most likely never show up on today’s GRE. Synonymous sentences oftentimes did not result (‘to bedazzle’ and ‘to flabbergast’ create two totally different meanings). However, the SE questions in this book were noticeably inferior to their TC counterparts. That is you won’t have to decipher what the blanks have to be based on the context instead, the word that goes in the blank is the only possible word given the answer choices. So despite the plethora of questions, many of the questions in the TC section feel more like vocabulary exercises than actual GRE questions. However, some questions are nothing more than really basic level sentences, e.g., (It was very outside, and so John was sweating), followed by ridiculously tough words (this is something Kaplan does).Įven questions that are written in sophisticated prose don’t mirror the algorithm (for lack of a better word) used on the real GRE. In terms of convoluted structure, there are sentences that parallel what you’ll see on the test. Thankfully, much of the obscure vocabulary that marred the previous edition’s questions, especially those found in the MGRE Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence guide, are gone. There are a few things that Manhattan GRE doesn’t include in the creation of its Text Completions that could make you miss questions on test day that you might otherwise have answered correctly.
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I still don’t think that Manhattan GRE has figured out the formula for writing GRE-like verbal questions in the ETS vein. I can’t say the second edition is a marked improvement over the previous edition in mirroring the actual test, and this especially goes for verbal. So, is the new material more representative of what you’ll see on the test? I’ll break down my answer by section.
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The implicit assumption is that the more closely material hews to the real deal, the more effectively you can practice (and, by extension, the higher you can score). At the same time, as a test taker, you should only use prep material that comes as close to the original as possible. I think it is safe to say that no publisher will be able to create a test that, at least to experts, is indistinguishable from the actual test.
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Intro to Manhattan GRE’s 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems I’ve broken up the review into Intro, Verbal (which is broken down by Verbal question types), and Math so you can hone in on the part that is most pertinent to you. Such a massive book, clearly calls for a massive review. The second edition of the 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems contains over 2,000 practice questions, including hundreds of new ones, while the questionable questions, as it were, have presumably been axed (more on this later). Manhattan GRE (MGRE) is one of the best study sources for the GRE. By Chris Lele on J, UPDATED ON September 17, 2021, in GRE Books