GRE Subject exams

[Roger H. Habeck]

I am busy taking tests for credit at Charter Oak. Doing fine so far, but
I want to take a couple of GRE's to move things along a little faster. I
have located a number of study guides and wonder if any one would
recommend one group or publisher over another. - Roger

[Lawrie Miller]

Best are the "Practicing to take the"......(Economics/Physics etc.) book
series from ETS, who produce the actual  GRE  advanced subject exams. These
are not study guides but past examination papers. They are THE best indicator
of what you know, what you don't know, and where you should concentrate
your efforts within the relevant discipline.

Most of the study guides from other publishers are of limited value. One
notable exception is the series from THE PRINCETON REVIEW called
"Cracking the GRE"... (Biology, Literature, Psychology). I've used the
psychology offering and found it useful. The study notes are directly applicable
to the GRE subject exam. The test questions are very close in level of difficulty
and in scope to that of the actual exam. There are full answers to the questions
in a subsequent section. Unfortunately, only 35 questions are included. So far
as I know the series only covers the three exams listed above; pity.

The Research & Education Association (REA) publishes a series of preparation
guides for all the subject exams. These usually contain more than one full mock
exam with answers (e.g. the mathematics book contains six full exams)  and
many of the books provide study notes. I found the study notes in the political
science guide quite useful. However, the level of difficulty and focus of the
questions did not reflect that of the actual GRE subject exam. This seems to be
a common trait in the REA series.

Other study guides from Arco and Barron's I found more a hindrance than a
help.

In summary,

ETS "practicing to take" series: MUST BUY
Princeton Review  "Cracking the GRE" series: BUY (if subject applicable)
REA "preparation for the GRE" series: BUY (with reservations)

Arco/Barron's: keep your cash, buy a pizza

The books can be found at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other retail outlets or
from  Amazon.com on the Web.

Finally, Regents College  produce reading lists for many of the GRE subject
exams. Unsure if these will be readily available to you though. Try nosing
around the website and maybe you'll get lucky.