Philosophy

We recommend starting with Meditations by Marcus Aurelius — it is written as personal journal entries, making it unusually approachable for a philosophy text. For readers who want something more structured, Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder offers a narrative-driven introduction to the history of philosophy. Check the reading level badges to find the right starting point.

Philosophy is arguably the single best genre for exam preparation. It builds argument mapping (tracing how a thinker moves from premise to conclusion), logical evaluation (spotting weak reasoning), and dense text comprehension (following sustained abstract arguments). GRE RC passages in particular frequently feature philosophical and academic writing of this style and difficulty.

Elementary: Accessible introductions — narrative or conversational philosophy (e.g. Meditations). Intermediate: Core works with guided structure and clear arguments. Advanced: Dense primary texts requiring careful re-reading and note-taking. Master: Highly technical philosophy demanding significant background knowledge and sustained concentration.

Read the full book whenever possible. In philosophy especially, the value lies in following an argument step by step — skimming a review gives you conclusions without the reasoning process that actually trains your mind. Our reviews help you orient yourself before reading and consolidate ideas afterwards; the mastery quiz then tests whether you can engage with the arguments at exam depth.

Philosophy texts require slower, more deliberate reading than fiction. At 45–60 minutes per day, shorter works like Meditations take 1–2 weeks, while denser texts may take 3–4 weeks. We strongly recommend going slowly and re-reading difficult passages — the comprehension gains from one fully understood philosophy book outweigh rushing through five.

Yes. Our quizzes are modelled on CAT, GRE, and GMAT question patterns — testing inference, author’s tone, main idea, vocabulary in context, and logical structure. For philosophy titles, we place extra emphasis on argument evaluation and identifying the author’s central claim, mirroring the critical reasoning questions that appear most frequently on these exams.