GRE help

[sjk2016]

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Looking to retake the GRE for next year. Anyone have anything that truly helped them do well on the GRE? I've taken it twice and studied from a kaplan book.

 

[ptstudent408]

This is the book set from the makers of the GRE. I went through the books and got good scores the first time I took the GRE.

Amazon product ASIN 1260026396

 

[Brialvarado]

Magoosh is a little pricey, but really helpful if you like video explanations and a more interactive study tool.

 

[Chasingwaterfalls]

Magoosh!!

 

[WVPT]

Magoosh helped me bring up my 306 to a 315 in two months of doing a few practice problems a day.

 

[Dinked]

I mainly used Magoosh and a few other techniques went from 308 3.5 to 324 4.5 in ~6 months, putting in a couple hours a day. I needed to score really high on the GRE's because of my 3.38 cum GPA

 

[astarblaze]

Like everyone else is saying, Magoosh is pretty awesome. I found it super helpful, especially for math stuff.

 

[Skyris]

Another Magoosh here.

Also a lot of people neglect to prepare for the AW. Do some timed writing drills using the pool of essay topics from ETS website. Consider also doing 5 minute drills on a topic to come up with an intro paragraph/thesis/outline and points for an essay, which will help you brainstorm a good approach for the real thing. Every drill you do increases the likelihood you get the same or similar topic on the real thing (happened to me). I feel like even a little bit of this can go a long way.

 

[ralfloran]

If you don't want to pay for Magoosh, you can check this site out.

GRE Strategies & GRE Questions | GREPrepClub

I have used it throughout my prep (loosely studied from mid-July to end of August)
along with https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Problems-Manhattan-Strategy-Guides/dp/1941234518/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NRWB2DPFYS3K8FG6YTGZ
and scored okay (159 Q / 151 V / 4 AW). The questions in the Manhattan Prep book felt way harder than the ones on the exam, so don't be discouraged.

I checked the web for online exams. (I took one every week a month out from the exam date. Totaled 4 exams but I saw a huge score improvement so don't be discouraged! First practice exam was a 290 while my highest exam was a 312!) The ETS website offers two practice exams and they were the most similar compared to the questions on the actual GRE.

 

[sjk2016]

Thanks everyone for the responses!!! Ill definitely try it!

 

[wictorwictor]

Just like studying for any other class, you just gotta put in legitament studying time for the GRE. I used Magoosh, very helpful, they have a week trial, and periodically have sales. I got mine for 99$. The vocab was the most difficult for me so just set a few words a day and keep at it! Also magoosh doesn't have much in terms of essay help. But if you have friends that can read through your essays that have had high scores that will be also helpful. There are people on this forum and also the gre subreddit as well that are more than willing to help!

 

[tpath11]

Looking to retake the GRE for next year. Anyone have anything that truly helped them do well on the GRE? I've taken it twice and studied from a kaplan book.

I just used a Princeton review book and studied for 2 weeks, but I already had a good math background, so I spent most of my time on verbal, so i'd suggest spending much more time on your weaker areas. Taking online tests helped a lot since the test isn't on paper. Also one of my coworkers told me on the written part, write as much as you can, even if it is a little fluffy because the graders have a set amount of time to read it, so if they can't get through your whole essay, they will be more inclined to assume you get a better score. I tried it because I had nothing to lose (it was my first try) and I ended up with a 5.0 on the written, and I promise, i'm not even an average writer. Just try to make deep/ profound thoughts and write lots.

 

[ash5321]

The first time I took the GRE, I used the Kaplan books and studied some flashcards and only took like one practice test. I did pretty bad. I got Magoosh and improved my score by 10 points!! I used it for a month and it was very helpful. I took notes on all the videos and then would review those. I would also learn like 20 new vocab words a day. If you struggle with the verbal section, magoosh is really helpful because it explains how to break up the long paragraphs even if you do not know what some of the word mean. It also really helps explain basic math skills and then it builds on top of those skills as the videos go on. Highly recommend it!

 

[PTCruiser2016]

Looking to retake the GRE for next year. Anyone have anything that truly helped them do well on the GRE? I've taken it twice and studied from a kaplan book.

I used the kaplan book that had access to online resources and I also used a lot of free apps for GRE words for when I had free time on the bus. I also looked around on reddit.com/r/gre and sorted by top posts of all time to find a lot of good tips especially on the writing section.

 

[DPTwenty20]

I used Manhattan Prep 4th edition. It seems outdated, but I was able to get a decent score (152 V 151 Q 4.5 AW) while balancing a full-time job and completing PTCAS. It's broken down into 8 separate books (5 Q, 2 V, 1 Guide if I recall). It basically re-teaches you the basic math you need to know in addition to solving it in a GRE format. The last book is a guide which teaches how to take/solve the GRE itself. It really sums up the material and applies how to use that knowledge to do better/solve it faster.

 

[DPThopeful14]

Magoosh. I got a decent 311 on my first go-round after reviewing their videos.

 

[m.beach11]

I know this is a little late but the victor prep GRE podcast helped me so much! At the time I was driving about 20 minutes to school so I would do 3-4 podcasts a day to learn my vocab. It was super easy to study since it was time I already had carved in my schedule, and the guy who does the podcasts has some quirky ways of remembering words.