GRE Tips

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LVT2DVM

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Im planning to retake the GRE General and Biology Subject tests in the coming months. If you have any tips or suggested review materials, Please list them here. There are many review guides out there, I am just curious which ones people found helpful or a waste of time or money.

I couldnt find another thread like this. If you know of one please paste the link.
 
for me, what worked best was not buying a specific book/study guide, but rather i would go to border's a couple times a week and just take a book off the shelf and do the practice tests. but, that was because what was most helpful in gneral for me wasn't tips/hints, but just doing practice tests over and over.
 
I think SDN's search function isn't working...I searched for GRE threads from before (I remember seeing some) and it returned no hits, not even this thread. Something is definitely amiss. You might want to bring this to the attention of a mod.
 
VAgirl said:
I think SDN's search function isn't working...I searched for GRE threads from before (I remember seeing some) and it returned no hits, not even this thread. Something is definitely amiss. You might want to bring this to the attention of a mod.
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It probably just won't register a query of three letters or below. Though it would be nice if they put that on the search page. 😛
 
What worked for me was spending the money for a kaplan on-line course. I had tried the books and my motivation just wasn't there to do well (and it showed on the first attempt). Apparently I need to spend money on a class to motivate myself to do well... 😛

It was expensive - I think I paid $600 for the on-line course a year ago. However, I think it was worthwhile since I raised my score 200 points... 😀
 
I personally liked the Kaplan GRE review books. I started off as a math major and have always been good at math, so I didn't really study for that. But the verbal part...I got a Kaplan "Verbal Workbook" and it was very helpful. It has plenty of practice tests and it takes each section individually and breaks it down with ideas on how to improve in those areas. It also has a vocabulary section that includes the '20 top used words on the GRE' and the 'top 200' and so on... I took the general GRE twice (first time I didn't study at all), and I raised my verbal score tremendously the second time around after using this book. If it is math you are worried about, I would only assume that the Kaplan "Math Workbook" would be just as helpful.

As far as the Biology GRE, I used a Kaplan "GRE Biology" book. I also used a lot of my old tests from science classes and made sure to know the main points on those as well. I found old Biochemistry and Genetics tests to be the most helpful...because a big portion of the test had questions on these two subjects.

Also, knowing how they score the GRE Biology test is helpful. I know that sounds silly, but it made a difference for me, so I feel it is worth mentioning. The difference between the first and second time taking it was mainly in my strategy for the test. The first time I went through and tried to answer all the questions, even the ones that I wasn't for sure on. And I started with the first page to the last without skipping around. But after seeing the way they score the test, my approach was extremely different the second time around. PM me if you want more details on this...

Good luck to you IF you have to retake it....but all the letters for this year haven't gone out yet, so keep your head up....this year may just be your year and you will never have to worry about the GREs again!!
 
I used the Baron's GRE books. They worked very well for me. I studied a lot on the math because, while I am a math tutor and made an A in calculus, I haven't done geometry since 8th grade. :scared:

Also, the people taking the GRE with you tend to be very good at math and not so much at English. I made a 770 on the math and it was only the 58th ish percentile. I made a 660 on the verbal and it was in the 90th percentile. 😱

I wish, however, that I had practiced writing a bit more. I made a 4.5 on the Analytical section and I definitely could have done better had I just written a couple of things first. Being a pre vet person means we get a lot of science courses, but few writing intensive ones.

Also, make sure you go to the GRE website and get the free software. It will help prepare you for the computer GRE setup (which is extremely different). It made me feel much more confident while I was taking it.

Hope that was helpful.
 
Steelmagghia said:
Also, the people taking the GRE with you tend to be very good at math and not so much at English. I made a 770 on the math and it was only the 58th ish percentile. I made a 660 on the verbal and it was in the 90th percentile. 😱
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A 770 on the math is not 58th percentile, it's still above 80th easy.

And it's not that people are BETTER at math than English, it's that the math part is ridiculously easy if you're at all inclined towards math and the verbal part has a bunch of obscure words that nobody uses in everyday conversation.
 
nyanko said:
And it's not that people are BETTER at math than English, it's that the math part is ridiculously easy if you're at all inclined towards math and the verbal part has a bunch of obscure words that nobody uses in everyday conversation.
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I disagree with the math part. I'm good at math, but I find the math section of the GRE to be rather convoluted and irrelevant. The verbal section is annoying though, but I've found that learning prefixes and suffixes (i.e. their latin roots) made the difference for me. The first time I did a practice test I got something like a 480 on the verbal. After doing a bit of studying and learning some prefixes, I am now getting 650+ consistently. Hopefully by the time I get around to taking the GRE I can get my verbal into the 700s. As for the math, I'm barely pushing 600, and my normal score is 580ish.
 
Barron's word book: 800 high frequency GRE words. It's compact and easy to use.

This was my bible. I worked through 50-100 words per nite for the weeks leading up to the exam. I never got around to the word roots section though- wish I had.

I read through each word in a 10-word section, yook the short quiz at the end of the section, made flashcards for those 10 words. Then I reviewed those flashcards 1X. When I'd made 50-100 flashcards, I'd go through them all noting the ones I missed. The next nite begin by reviewing the previous nite's cards and end by going through ALL the cards. Rote memorization is theoretically not the best way to go, but if it's crunch time and you don't feel ready, you gotta cram.

I hardly studied math at all. I did a couple of practice tests for math in the few days before which was a good refresher for techniques I was rusty on.

I jotted notes for 2 practice essay of each type and I read through the tips on writing the essays- I didn't spend very much time preparing for this section.

If you can navigate the powerprep software, I found it was useful for practice problems.

Ironically, I consider myself more of a word person than a math person... just reinforces the notion that the material on this test is somewhat lopsided... 😎

The BEST tip though: the morning of your test, review a couple of words (50 or so) and do a couple of math problems (10-20) to GET YOUR BRAIN WARMED UP. This really helped me focus and stay composed before the test.

My advice may be worth what you paid for it! But here are my stats, you be the judge.
Q:760 V:620 W:5.5


Good luck! 🙂
 
nyanko said:
Judging by the percentile breakdowns, the vast majority of test-takers would probably agree with me. 😉

It's middle school level math. This doesn't really jive with the level of the words in the verbal part.
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True, its middle school level math, but its NOT the type of math you see in middle school. *shrugs* Maybe my school system sucks, but I've NEVER had to answer some of the types of questions you see on the quant section of the GRE (mostly talking about the convoluted logic portions).
 
i didn't really study a book that much. I just did a LOT of practice tests. like one a day. i did any i could find. kaplan, barrons, there are some for free online.

my friend and i just went to a coffee shop four days a week part of the summer and did this. i scored a 790 in math and she scored a 740.

it's a matter of just knowing what to expect and being comfortable with the material. nothing really to "learn". you've seen it all before.
 
Just remember the sum of the internal angles of a triangle are 180 and a square is 360. From all the practice tests it seems like that should cover you for about half the quantitative questions.

I'm taking the GRE's next week and am quite excited about the quantitative section. Looks like a bunch of fun in my book. The writing and vocab on the other hand will be pretty painful.

Quick question though: The exam has on site scoring for the quantitative and vocab sections correct? And I assume you are allowed scrap paper during the exam?
 
david594 said:
Quick question though: The exam has on site scoring for the quantitative and vocab sections correct? And I assume you are allowed scrap paper during the exam?
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Yes and yes. The computer will spit out your V/Q score even before it asks you where you want it sent. They will provide paper and a pencil for you for scrap paper.
 
hey! I used the big kaplan book someone mentioned above and also the kaplan math workbook because I'm not so hot at math. I thought it was good for basic practice but isn't as useful for the higher score range questions on the GRE. The verbal sections of the big kaplan book were effective for me though I wish I'd studied the analytical writing section more thoroughly. If you're short on time I'd reccommend studying the techniques for answering the verbal questions rather than memorizing long lists of vocab. I actually got cocky and figured I didn't need to study verbal much until I got a 400 on a practice test about a week and a half before the exam. Though I could do little in that time to expand my very puny vocabulary, learning the techniques got me a few hundred extra points at the real exam. Practice adaptive tests are good too.
 
I used the Barron's book with that giant vocab section, and the CD with adaptive tests.

Memorized a hell of a lot of stupid words I will never see again in my life.

Guess what? Out of the hundreds that I memorized NONE of them came up on the test. ZERO. Not ever their "high frequency use" words.

That got me so pissed that I wasted a summer and not a single word I memorized was on the damn test. So I'm tempted to tell you: screw the verbal part, preparing for it is a waste of time. At least it was for me. 😡

What you can prepare for is the quant part and the verbal part that deals with reading a passage and doing the questions. The AW part was pretty easy, I didn't prepare and I got a 5.5. It's just writing 2 essays - I had to break down one of their arguments, and then defend my own opinion.

The barrons quant section was nice and I saw very very similar things on the exam. Know your triangles! After going through all their quant stuff I was well prepared.

I took the Biology GRE and did well -- better than the average at OKstate and that was all I was aiming for anways. I did not study for it -- I missed the registration date and had to wait to get in as a standby tester (I suggest you NOT do that!). I've been taking bio classes for the past 3 years so I felt fine taking it cold. I was familiar with most things on it -- but you need to brush up on your plant bio. I'm into ecology, so it was easy for me but I know a lot of other people weren't as familiar with that stuff. It's just a general overview of biology and nothing scary.
 
lailanni said:
I took the Biology GRE and did well. I did not study for it -- I missed the registration date and had to wait to get in as a standby tester (I suggest you NOT do that!). I've been taking bio classes for the past 3 years so I felt fine taking it cold. I was familiar with most things on it -- but you need to brush up on your plant bio. I'm into ecology, so it was easy for me but I know a lot of other people weren't as familiar with that stuff. It's just a general overview of biology and nothing scary.
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Man, I wish I had your test. The one I took in 2003 was 80% Ecology! Never took an ecology class in my life. Did okay, but not a competitive score thanks to the ecology parts. Ive been so reluctant to take it again but its a UGA must!
 
I'm preparing for the Biology test, too. I've been going through my biology book (I love my Cambell Biology text!) and highlighting whatever I think might be on the test, haha. I'll probably wait until I take genetics to take the biology test because it seemed like there were quite a few questions about genetics on the ETS practice test.
 
I only took the general test. I took a Kaplan review course which was very useful. The Kaplan books are great as well because they teach you HOW to take the test (which is what it necessary to do well!).

In addition, the Flip-o-matic (Kaplan vocabulary book) was great! I learned all the words and tons of them were on the test. I also bought a few other books just to take practice tests out of but didn't end up using them because all the other stuff I had was enough.

Take lots of practice tests in the same format as you will take the exam. I took the computer-based GRE so I only used the paper practice tests as section practice. It's very difficult on the computer vs. paper and I don't recommend doing mainly paper tests if you are taking it on a computer!

I've heard of people's scores ranging but my actual score was 120 points higher than my best practice test. I think you just get lucky sometimes. Good luck!:luck:
 
I know this is obvious, and not really helpful to anyone looking to take the test any time soon -- but just reading copiously for fun will build your vocabulary massively. I didn't study for the verbal at all and got a 680, with a 5.5 on the writing -- but I've been reading and writing for fun for years. So if there's any high school students or college freshmen reading the thread, that's likely the easiest and least-like-studying way to do well on the verbal GRE. You don't have to read just high literature to build your vocabulary, either; lord knows I read nothing like that unless it was required for school. But you'd be amazed how much seeps in when you are reading for your own enjoyment... and it saves you having to do a summer's worth of flashcards, hopefully 🙂

For the math, I did brush up on it because it had been a year since I'd had any math. I just took a practice test the night before and made sure I knew how to do basic geometry, as it'd been 9 years since I had it in high school. I got a 750 on that. If you've had calc and stats like you'd need for most vet schools anyway, you'll be fine if you just practice the old-school math that was a stepping stone for the more advanced math.
 
I took the kaplan course, and read two different GRE books. Basically the kaplan corse was exactly the same as the books. Same strategies, same vocab. All the kaplan course did, was motivate me (because I spent so much on it).

I recommend doing notecards for the english section though...It's a pain in the butt, but at least it's vocab you can use for the rest of your life (try using that mentality when studying, kind of worked for me).
 
Good point athenaparthenos. I'm not too worried about the writing section because in a previous life I was a history major. I've written so many research papers, book critiques, et al that I think my writing skills are at the very least slightly above average. I know many students who have gotten through college having only written 3-4 essays total.
 
All I can say is that the GRE is the bane of my existence. I'm definitely not one of those people who can take a standarized test without preparing for it somehow. I took the test more than once and exhausted just about every way you could think of to prepare for it: a private tutor, a Kaplan course, making flash cards, buying a flash card book, a book with study tips and practice tests, and taking online practice tests and quizzes.

Out of all of those study materials, I think the ones that helped me the most were study tips from the book I had and taking practice tests and quizzes. A private tutor or a Kaplan class is good for motivation, but in the end, only you can put in the effort to actually study for the test! The good thing about the Kaplan course is that they offer A LOT of study materials online once you register for the class, and I suggest utilizing every one of them.

I took the computer-based test, so the computer practice tests and quizzes were slightly more helpful than the paper-based ones. However, timing myself while taking a paper-based practice test seemed to be helpful.
 
lailanni said:
The AW part was pretty easy, I didn't prepare and I got a 5.5.
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Please do not go into it with this attitude, anyone reading this. I did and got a 4. Twice. A 4 is a bad score. I really don't think I'm a terrible writer - I got a 5 on the AP English composition exam coming out of high school and always performed well on writing assignments in classes. I have no idea how I got such an awful score both times, but I know I didn't prepare. If I don't get in this cycle I'm going to re-sit the exam and prepare for the writing with the online service they have where they'll score it for you to see what I'm doing wrong. I'm perfectly okay with my verbal and quant scores, but not the AW.
 
nyanko said:
Please do not go into it with this attitude, anyone reading this. I did and got a 4. Twice. A 4 is a bad score. I really don't think I'm a terrible writer - I got a 5 on the AP English composition exam coming out of high school and always performed well on writing assignments in classes. I have no idea how I got such an awful score both times, but I know I didn't prepare. If I don't get in this cycle I'm going to re-sit the exam and prepare for the writing with the online service they have where they'll score it for you to see what I'm doing wrong. I'm perfectly okay with my verbal and quant scores, but not the AW.
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I've had a similar experience. I go to an ivy league school and we do a lot of writing, and I scored very well on the SAT II and did well in all of my english/writing classes... but got a 4 on the AW twice. I have noticed some correlation of higher AW with lower scores on the other sections and vice versa, so I'm not sure what that means. I've also talked to some adcoms and many of them admit that they don't pay attention to the AW score because it's so unreliable. The other thing that made me feel better is that they send the essays you wrote along with the scores... so I know the adcoms can see that I CAN write an essay/make a cogent arguement.
 
nyanko said:
If I don't get in this cycle I'm going to re-sit the exam and prepare for the writing with the online service they have where they'll score it for you to see what I'm doing wrong.
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Don't waste your money on the ETS online service if you already know your writing score range. The online service does not provide individual feedback on your essays. If I recall correctly, a computerized score for each of your two essays is generated in a matter of seconds. You receive the numerical score on each of the two essays, along with the "canned" narrative critiques that correspond to each of the numerical scores (you can already look these up on the ETS site for free). I got a score of 4.0 on AW, too, whereas my verbal and math scores were quite high.
 
VAgirl said:
Where did you see this, out of curiosity?
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I haven't seen any studies on this or anything... just my own personal observations from those applying to vet school and not. Between my friends applying into grad/med programs and here, it's a decent sample size. Not sure what it's worth... I was just surprised.
 
The first time I took the GRE, I did it two weeks into spring semester of my junior year and studied for maybe 3 days beforehand. I got a 660 Q, 640 V, and 4.5 AW. Those were like 60th, 91st, and 53rd percentiles (somewhere around there, anyway). So that kind of sucked.

The second time, I took it at the end of the summer. All I did all summer was work at a vet clinic, renovate an apartment, and study for the GRE. A lot. I used I think a Barron's book (it has examples of answers for AW sections and their scores, plus quizzes with the answers but not with explanations).
Ended up with a 760 Q, 630 V, and 5.5 AW. Those were I think 86th, 90th, and 88th percentiles.
 
Let me say this, I hate the GRE!! I studied, and probably should have studied more, but I think overall I was just SOOO nervous about the test I couldn't think when I was taking it.

I took it twice, raised my score by 70 points...went from a 1020 to a 1090, but I got into vet school with a 1090, so if your score is less than perfect...don't be too afraid...however, I do have a 3.888 GPA. (so that might have made up for the low score).

my best advice...study as much as you can without losing your insanity, if it doesn't come out the way you want it the first time, take it again, and if it still isn't want you want, you could take it again, but I would focus on how you could offset the score (maybe extracirriculars, or get that 4.0 this semester or next semester.)

best of luck to ya!!:luck:
 
i'm going to sound really dumb posting this, but i did not figure it out until i was halfway through my online kaplan course. are you ready for my words of wisdom... you can NOT use a calculator on the math section!!!!!!!! yes, i am dumb enough to have taken half of my practice tests with a calculator. it's ok i ended up with a 760Q, 650V, and 4.5AW (did not study for the writing and like others assumed it would be fine since i am a generally good writer and made a 5 on the AP comp... oh well, it did not seem to really hurt me)
 
nyanko said:
Please do not go into it with this attitude, anyone reading this. I did and got a 4. Twice. A 4 is a bad score. I really don't think I'm a terrible writer - I got a 5 on the AP English composition exam coming out of high school and always performed well on writing assignments in classes. I have no idea how I got such an awful score both times, but I know I didn't prepare. If I don't get in this cycle I'm going to re-sit the exam and prepare for the writing with the online service they have where they'll score it for you to see what I'm doing wrong. I'm perfectly okay with my verbal and quant scores, but not the AW.
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I have a hunch they're graded quite arbitrarily.

I'm not sure why my score was so high, since I didn't do anything special.

I know some schools don't even look at the AW score. I wouldn't worry about it terribly. I was reading somewhere (I can try and find where after finals week) that the avg vet student score was around 4.5. If anyone else knows, please feel free to correct me.
 
lailanni said:
I was reading somewhere (I can try and find where after finals week) that the avg vet student score was around 4.5. If anyone else knows, please feel free to correct me.
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I know that is true for A&M (according to the student profiles for the last 2 years)
 
lailanni said:
I have a hunch they're graded quite arbitrarily.

I'm not sure why my score was so high, since I didn't do anything special.

I know some schools don't even look at the AW score. I wouldn't worry about it terribly. I was reading somewhere (I can try and find where after finals week) that the avg vet student score was around 4.5. If anyone else knows, please feel free to correct me.
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Everyone knows how I feel about the GRE, but of course it is important to do well on it while the schools think so.

The Analytical writing section requires basically a formulaic response. It is graded on a rubric and they expect you to have a certain length and specific features in your essay. The first time I took it, I got a 5, then the second time I got a 6. A 6 paper:

1. Is long enough to develop the topic.
2. Is concise, not redundant.
3. Supports all of its positions with valid arguments and facts (although the facts apparently need not be true.)
4. Contains 50-cent words, correctly used, that lesser writers would substitute clumsy language for.
5. Appeals to High-School English Teachers, who are the readers and therefore the audience.
6. Has no extraneous garbage, like facts that do not help the argument or tangential arguments.

A 5 paper, on the other hand, has more redundancy and less concision, and possibly less support for the argument.

A 4 paper lacks the finesse of the language and may have invalid arguments.

A 3 paper has "obvious flaws" which to a high-school teacher mean that they think a 12th grader would question the competence of the writer.

A 2 paper has serious weaknesses, which means that the reader might consider referring the writer to remedial writing instruction or ESL class.

A 1 paper is usually completely missing the point of the exercise, written in lolspeak, or something of that sort, i.e., it feels like your brother-in-law wrote it.

A 0 paper is a random set of characters or is written in a foreign language, or is irrelevant to the topic, like a poem or a fictional story.

If you're worried about your writing before you take the test, you might consider sending it off to the GRE Writing people who will help you understand where you need to improve. Also, since the standards used are basically identical to the SAT Writing, an 11th-grade Honors English teacher should be plenty able to tutor you up to speed.
 
My advice for the math is to finish the section. Don't hang up on a problem. Perfection is not the goal, because most vet applicants are not getting perfect scores. But, if you don't finish, the penalty is harsh.
 
I am not sure if someone has already said this, but if you read a lot, it helped me a lot (vocabulary inept) to underline the words that I didn't know and then look them up after every few chapters. It helped put the words in context. I ended up doing surprisingly well on the verbal portion (and trust me, I am not good with words).
 
veggirl said:
I personally liked the Kaplan GRE review books. I started off as a math major and have always been good at math, so I didn't really study for that. But the verbal part...I got a Kaplan "Verbal Workbook" and it was very helpful. It has plenty of practice tests and it takes each section individually and breaks it down with ideas on how to improve in those areas. It also has a vocabulary section that includes the '20 top used words on the GRE' and the 'top 200' and so on... I took the general GRE twice (first time I didn't study at all), and I raised my verbal score tremendously the second time around after using this book. If it is math you are worried about, I would only assume that the Kaplan "Math Workbook" would be just as helpful.

As far as the Biology GRE, I used a Kaplan "GRE Biology" book. I also used a lot of my old tests from science classes and made sure to know the main points on those as well. I found old Biochemistry and Genetics tests to be the most helpful...because a big portion of the test had questions on these two subjects.

Also, knowing how they score the GRE Biology test is helpful. I know that sounds silly, but it made a difference for me, so I feel it is worth mentioning. The difference between the first and second time taking it was mainly in my strategy for the test. The first time I went through and tried to answer all the questions, even the ones that I wasn't for sure on. And I started with the first page to the last without skipping around. But after seeing the way they score the test, my approach was extremely different the second time around. PM me if you want more details on this...

Good luck to you IF you have to retake it....but all the letters for this year haven't gone out yet, so keep your head up....this year may just be your year and you will never have to worry about the GREs again!!
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Hi, I was just searching and came across your post, but the forum says that it is not able to send PM's to you:

I'm taking the Biology GRE tomorrow!

I would love to know your strategy for the Biology GRE, and would be very grateful if you could let me know! Thank you!
 
LVT, I seem to recall from other threads that the GRE was a real PITA for you ... maybe consider a private tutor? It's expensive, but they can sit with you one on one and teach you all the little "tricks". At my local 4 year university they taught a class and the profs did private tutoring for about $50 / hour. If you did that twice a week plus studied on your own you should really make some progress.
 
For the vocab, I found a website like this one

http://studybeans.com/gre/vocab_list.html

and then just made a HUGE stack of notecards. It looks like a lot initially, but there are probably plenty of words you know already. I just went over then constantly for 2 or 3 months before the exam and it worked well for me 🙂

Good luck!! 👍👍
 
For all of you worried about the AW section, there is a site on the ETS GRE website with a pool of the topics for the both the "Issues" and "Arguments" sections. They actually take two of the prompts listed there and put them on the test. So if you have a lot of time before the test, it might be good to go through at least some of the prompts and actually write an essay. Or you could do what I did and just read through them to get a feel for the format of the questions and maybe brainstorm how you would answer them. The web address is kind of long so if you just google "GRE analytical writing topics" it should be one of the first ones.

For vocab, I found the Kaplan review book really helpful. They have a section that contains 200 of the most common words found on the GRE, so if you are studying at the last minute (like I did), it's a really great resource. Another helpful hint that I learned from studying for the SAT that I applied to the GRE (since I stink a LOT at the vocab sections) is to learn roots of words instead of trying to memorize individual words. So even if you come across a word that you don't know on the test, you might still be able to take an educated guess.
 
For those of you that have written the GRE general test before, how much time does one take to study for it to do well?

I'm writing the test this summer, I have about 6 weeks after my undergraduate exams to study for the GRE. I booked it early enough in the summer to have the ability to write it again (if I do not feel good about the mark I receive) before I apply to vet school this fall.

Also, I'm seeing that the recommended study material is to practice the test itself. Is there anything else? I have bought a study guide from ETS, what about Kaplan? They seemed to me like a reputable source.

Another thing- what would constitute a "competitive score"?
 
I'd shoot for at least a 1200.
 
swinks said:
For those of you that have written the GRE general test before, how much time does one take to study for it to do well?
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I didn't study at all, and just "winged it." I'm not sure how much studying would have helped me, but I don't think I would have done a whole lot better.
But, perhaps studying might increase your score just enough to make that final cut, so who knows.

swinks said:
Another thing- what would constitute a "competitive score"?
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This depends on what schools you are applying to, and if you are in state or out of state. For UC Davis class of 2012, the average score for those accepted was 1299 (588 verbal, 711 quantitative, 5.0 analytical writing).
You can view all of the statistics here:
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/studentprograms/class_2012/statistics_2012.pdf

You must also remember that you have to have the whole package, and GRE scores are only one component. If you are below average on the GRE, then you know you have to do better in the other areas to make up for this. But I agree with David594, 1200 is a low to mid competitive GRE score (As I said, below 1200 can easily be made up elsewhere, as many people on this site can tell you).
 
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calioutlaw1a said:
This depends on what schools you are applying to, and if you are in state or out of state.
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Well, I'm Canadian so I'm in no state. (As you could probably guess, I'm not really sure what that statement means).

However, if I could find a statistics page to the school I'm applying to, like the one you have provided the link, it would certainly be helpful.

Has anyone ever found stats like that for Canadian schools?
 
heavenfordogs said:
For all of you worried about the AW section, there is a site on the ETS GRE website with a pool of the topics for the both the "Issues" and "Arguments" sections. They actually take two of the prompts listed there and put them on the test. So if you have a lot of time before the test, it might be good to go through at least some of the prompts and actually write an essay. Or you could do what I did and just read through them to get a feel for the format of the questions and maybe brainstorm how you would answer them. The web address is kind of long so if you just google "GRE analytical writing topics" it should be one of the first ones.
Click to expand...

I did the same and I think it was helpful, because some of those topics are just stupid, and it would be a bummer to get one of the bad ones without having thought about it a bit beforehand.
 
I would also sit down at a book store and skim a book on the GRE writing section. A lot of people try to write essays for the sections as if they are similar, but the two tasks are pretty different. And some of the topics are pretty inane.
 
I am surprised to see no one mention Princeton Review?? I found this to be the most helpful of all the books I have read (both Kaplan and Barons). My brother used to work for them, and said taking a class or working with a tutor definitely helps (he knows from experience). They give you the straight-up method of learning the tricks needed for the math problems. If you can memorize those few techniques, I found that I could actually solve 99% of the problems (granted I tend to make stupid adding/multiplication mistakes!).

I have taken this test three times... the first two times I did OK...and the last I finally nailed after using the Princeton Review book. I basically gave up on verbal (because like people have said before, those hitlist words rarely ever show up). Just read books/newspapers, etc to just get you "thinking". I spent most of my time on the math, and practicing writing so I was comfortable with that.

When you go to take the test, wear those sound proof headphones so you don't hear anyone else typing/talking. Spend most of your time on the first few problems, and MAKE SURE you get those right. They count the most, and decide where your test will go. If you start to get towards the end, and run out of time, GUESS (it's better to guess than to leave blank!)

That's all I've got... sorry!
 
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