GRE test prep?

I used Barron's GRE and and The GRE for Dummies, personally, and I loved them.

Barron's has a very, very comprehensive math review and Dummies has tips and tricks that I used several times during the exam. After working through the Barron's stuff and learning the little tricks from Dummies (via making flashcards, which you will soon see that I ADORE), when I sat for the GRE the second time I ended up getting a 750 Q (up from a 570 two months prior).

For verbal though, I went through all of the practice sections' quizzes and practice tests' verbal sections and made flashcards with the word they were asking about and the correct answer on the back and memorized those. A lot of the word combinations in the books show up on the tests I found. I also made flashcards for roots, prefixes and suffixes, but used Dummies' list because the Barron's list was long and daunting.

As for the test change, I don't think it's happened yet...at least it hadn't last year. I've heard that they were scrapping the change entirely, too. But who knows...ETS is a strange and random entity.

I second the recommendation for Barron's. The math section is great. I didn't study that much for verbal because I felt like other than memorizing a million words I wouldn't be able to improve my score much, whereas I really needed a math review.

Taking practice tests helped me as well. There were several that came with the purchase of the Barron's book and another two from ETS when I registered. If you take it "for real" with no notes, no breaks, no distractions it really forces you to do those problems and get used to the timing.

bunnity said:

I didn't study that much for verbal because I felt like other than memorizing a million words I wouldn't be able to improve my score much, whereas I really needed a math review.

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My philosophy exactly. I have spent over 2 months focusing on the verbal section and have taken practice tests and my verbal score is still lame. I've decided just to focus on math from now on!

Has anyone ever taken any of the GRE prep courses? I used to teach the Kaplan MCAT and DAT ones, and the students reported score increases so I know it works, but I don't really feel like shelling out the $1200 for the GRE course.

Kaplan has an "Express" GRE class which is only $399 for four 4-hour long classes, 2 verbal and 2 math.

Has anyone done anything like that? Wondering if it's worth it...

firelily,

I did a GRE prep course (Princeton Review) and do think it was worth it for me - from initial practice tests to the actual exam, my total score went up ~200 points. I was studying for the GRE while taking a full courseload, and having a structured program helped keep me focused and not put it on the back burner due to my other classes.

My GPA was not as strong as other applicants', and I think having a very high (told in interviews) GRE score helped me get past any initial admissions decisions based solely on "numbers" - GPA, science GPA, GRE, etc.

It was expensive, but had I not done as well I probably would have been re-applying (also expensive!) so I think in the long run, it paid for itself.

Whether or not a prep course will help would depends on your strengths and weaknesses as an applicant, and how effectively you think you'd be able to study on your own.

firelily said:

Kaplan has an "Express" GRE class which is only $399 for four 4-hour long classes, 2 verbal and 2 math.

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i called about the express course, but the lady at kaplan said it was only offered in select cities (she only listed about 5 or so) and they weren't close to me at all.

i've read pretty split opinions on prep courses on this forum. some have said the courses have really helped, while others have said they courses didn't change the scores at all. idk, but if the express course was offered in my area, i think it would be worth trying.

cubs, I'm sorry they don't have an express course near you! I guess I'm lucky because there's one right near where I live.

feadog, I think you have a good point...my GPA isn't the best either, so I should probably do everything I can to compensate with my GRE. I'm going to take a practice test and then enroll in the Kaplan course if I'm not happy with the result. I only have 2 1/2 months to study, so I better do a lot now.

Thanks for the opinions, guys!

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Myself I just bought the Kaplan book, studied for 2 weeks over x-mas break, then took the test. I did fine (78th percentite cum) and did not see the need to waste the major $ for the classes. The books have several practice tests to take.

I love GRE for Dummies, that's all I used to study for a couple weeks before I took the test. I primarily used it for the math review as I didn't need much help on verbal

I've sorta always taken the approach that if you can score high in quantitative and get above 600 in verbal as a native english speaker, you're pretty well off. I've taken the GRE twice (wtf expiring after 5 years.....that's crap!), and the first time it worked great and got me into very good graduate schools, so I'm hoping it works the second time as well My math score the second time around was lower but was still pretty decent, so I think I should be ok.

Anyways, I thought the Princeton book was the best. The math covered more than the other books and had the little tricks that you only ever need to know for stupid tests like the GRE. I don't study for the verbal, so can't help you there. I would never have the attention span for one of those prep courses to be worth my time, but I can see how that could help someone who was rusty.

There was some new stuff on the test when I took it. Some weird stuff involving grids of boxes with words in it and reading questions that had answers that could be between 1 and all of the answers as correct. I just read the directions and it was fine.

If anyone needs some GRE books, I have a stack, mostly note free but maybe with some pencilings here and there. I'm tired of looking at them!

feadog, What are your stats? when you said 'your GPA not as strong' and your GRE scores helped, what are the exact numbers? Just wondering since your combined stats is a success, hence you are now a vet student.

Anyone know approximately how long it takes the ETS people to send you the practice CD after registering? I just registered to take the GRE in about a month, and I've taken all the practice tests that came with my Kaplan book and want some more ASAP

I would say it took a week, but it's been a while since I last registered.

Is it sad that I have 6 books for the GRE and I still feel like I need more? I keep hearing about Barron's word list, and Princeton Review this and that... could they really have anything not in these 6 books?? I don't want any more books!

ETA: feadog's stats are already posted in this thread.

HopefulAg said:

Anyone have any suggestions on books or other test prep materials to use?

I've taken it before, and got a 1200. Not a bad score, but not real great either. So I'm looking to do better this time.

Last time I used the Princeton Review Cracking the GRE and that worked well for reviewing the quantitative but I got kinda sunk on the verbal (640 Q, 560 V). Part of the problem is all the obscure words you have to know, but I have a Kaplan GRE vocab word set thing that I'm going to peruse over and hopefully that will help me out. But I'd like to do much better in quantitative (since I feel I can control my performance there much better than I can in the verbal section) so I'm looking for a better book to help me out.


Also, has the GRE changed yet? It's been 2 years since I last took it and they were talking about changing it but I don't know if they ever did.

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Hey There! Your scores are good! I found that Kaplan was my rock! I did some other reviews but Kaplan seemed to be my light at the end of the tunnel. I ended up with a 1510 after Kaplan So, not sure if it works for anyone but it was really comprehensive for me. So good luck to you! Your score right now is not bad at all, so good for you! Good luck in your future!

aspiringDVM said:

Anyone know approximately how long it takes the ETS people to send you the practice CD after registering? I just registered to take the GRE in about a month, and I've taken all the practice tests that came with my Kaplan book and want some more ASAP

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I registered over a month ago and still have not received a disk! My husband just took the GRE a couple months ago and I am using his disk (which was received after his test date). You can download the software from their website. I had a hard time loading it from the disk. I had to call and they told me to load the disk with my computer in safe mode. The download from the website gave me problems as well.