GRE Prep Courses?

[Mylez]

Hi again,

I know most of you are consumed with the interview process and application anxiety, but I was hoping to get an idea from anyone about where there are good GRE prep courses to take. I was recommended the GRE prep course by www.ed2go.com. Has anyone taken this course, or have any opinions on it?

I know that I need to brush up on a lot of things, most especially my math. I was signed up for an in-person class for then next two weekends, but that has been cancelled, unfortunately. 🙁

So does anyone have any recommendations or sites that have really helped them out?

Thanks!

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[verbal_kint]

I just used the GRE prep books. I found it most helpful to just do a bunch of practice tests.

verbal: do some practice to know what type of questions. For me, building my vocab was the biggest help. just learn a bunch of words and that's prob the best advice.

math: practice practice practice! The hardest part about math is just not getting tripped up by one question. You have to move fast and the best thing to do is practice. Know the types of questions and get comfortable doing them.

That's not much help, but if you can, sign up for a prep class that keeps you on track and forces you to study. If you have a little more discipline, the prep books are a good way to go.

hope that helps and good luck!

 

[zufuss]

My family got together and chipped in for a Kaplan Classroom course. It was an accelerated one. Two 3-hour classes a week for an entire month. Kind of expensive, but when there is that much responsibility to uphold I found it gave me the strive and determination to really work my ass off.

The biggest help was being able to review basic algebra and geometry I hadn't been over since highschool 6 years ago.

Also the 200 flash cards they provided me and the verbal section strategies were soley responsible for me going from a 520 verbal to a 740. My math went from like 580 to 680.

All in all the kaplan course was responsible for an improvement of over 300 points. Strangly my damn essay didn't go up a lick but whatever.

 

[chris03333]

I also took the Kaplan course and found it helpful(although I took GRE before the writing section so I don't know about that part.) It was expensive but well worth the price.

 

[Boxsterluv]

I found that the Kaplan courses were really expensive but the Kaplan prep book was really helpful. I actually found mine at a used book store and got it for quite a bit cheaper than what the new selling price. It has a CD with games and practice tests.. a bunch of little practice tests for just quantitative and verbal, then a few that were full-scale practice tests. I think the practice is what helped me the most; and using the CD did me a lot more good than trying to just read the book. Good luck!

 

[youthman]

The biggest help was being able to review basic algebra and geometry I hadn't been over since highschool 6 years ago..

Yeah I just took a practice test from kaplan and the math part killed me. It's all tricks. If you don't know the tricks you will never finish in time. I may be doing kaplan soon as ETS is changing the format of the GRE next year.

 

[birdvet2006]

I took the Princeton Review course. My family forked over the money for it (I am SO lucky for their support). It was once a week for a while, can't remember exactly how long (this was about 6 years ago).

It really helped with reviewing basic geometry and algebra - and I especially liked the little tricks they had to make you do these things faster. I was less stressed during the exam due to this.

Their vocabulary lists were great, but it would be nice if they provided you with flashcards like I hear Kaplan does. In 6 years, things may have changed though.

In the end, I didn't need the GRE (Glasgow, Murdoch and Melbourne didn't require it; these are the schools I applied to) - so I feel kind of bad that my parents forked up the money (we're talking $1000). 🙁

 

[mokadet]

I also took a Kaplan classroom prep course. I found it very helpful for many of the reasons people have already listed: reviewing topics you haven't seen or used in 6-10 years, flashcards for vocab, and tricks to help you get through the sections. They also offer an online course that is a little cheaper, but requires a little more self-discipline. I took the course during my junior year and definitely needed someone giving me distinct due dates and timelines, but I had a friend doing the online at the same time and the materials and resources are pretty much the same.

 

[PsychoLulu]

Also did the Kaplan GRE course, and found the online practices to be super helpful. However, I absolutely fall in the "need to be pushed with deadlines" category, and I can see how someone more motivated could easily study for the GREs by themselves with similar computer-based problem sets. I actually found some of the live classes annoying because there were some seriously slow people in my class, and their taking time away from the rest of the class to complain about the GREs and standardized test in general instead of learning the materials drove me crazy (a unique situation, I know, but class dynamics is definitely something to consider before forking over tons of money....)

Having said that, I'm also convinced that my high GRE scores were a big part of why I've been inundated with interview invites and acceptances, so this is definitely not an area in which one should be skimping!

Two other things that helped me score well:

a) www.dictionary.com has a great free word of the day service, and their words correlate highly to the top GRE words. In fact, I learned several words from the word of the day that were not part of the 200 top words, but ended up showing up in my real GRE!

b) The ETS website will provide you with sample "real" GREs to practice with -- make sure you get these and use them because they are as close to the real thing as you will get (layout of boxes/questions, bland color of screen, DOS type fonts, everything)! I also followed the MCAT prep method and just did practices weekly the month before, and even daily the several days before the real test so I could get in the mood of working with my timing. In fact, what I found particularly helpful was to schedule my GRE for the afternoon/evening, and do a full practice GRE (preferably the one from ETS) the morning of the real thing, so that I was fully in the mindset of the test, and would not have to take a few minutes to get "settled in" during the real thing.

 

[youthman]

that is great advice, thanks!!

 

[wishes]

Hey there.
I did not take a GRE prep course but I did study on my own. Regardless I would totally recommend the flip-o-matic GRE vocabulary word book (available at any major bookstore or online for about $12). This book was amazing. I took it everywhere with me and the words in the book definitely showed up on the test.
I also used the GRE prep book by Barron to study, especially for the mathematical portion. This book is not really special, but it is good and comes with a CD that is quite helpful.
When you register for the test, ETS sends you a CD that is really good. Make sure you register far enough ahead of time to utilize the CD as it takes them a while to mail it out.
Lastly, don't be afraid to retake the test if you need to. I did take it a second time and saw definite improvement.
Good luck!

 

[peppermintgal]

I strongly recommend taking the test a second time. I had a 10 percent improvement overall when I took it a second time. Would have done better if I remembered the words that I didn't know the first time coz they appeared the second time again and I didn't know them again. 😡

I found the Kaplan Prep book and this website www.number2.com to be useful.

Good Luck!

 

[LynnKat]

I didn't take a class and used prep books, and ended up doing pretty well. I took my GRE's at the end of the summer, right after I finished Orgo, and couldn't fit a course on top of everything (timewise and money wise).

Unlike most of my pre vet/ science friends, the verbal was easy for me, and the math was my downfall. Algebra, trig, stats, applied math, are fine. Timed math standardized tests are a nightmare, so while I also used the Barron's book, I needed to do a more in depth math refresher. I hadn't taken a math course in a long time, and didn't remember the tricks to the types of problems on the GRE. I used the Arco GRE/GMAT Math Review. This is probably too basic if you're a math person and I also needed to do the math section of the Barron's for testing strategies, but the review of the concepts helped me out a lot.

All in all, if you have time and money, definitely try a prep course, but I think if you need to go it alone there are definitely ways.

 

[PAThbrd]

I second the use of www.number2.com I used their vocab builder and several of the words that I did not previously know appeared on the verbal section. Running through words for 20-30 minutes for the couple weeks before I took the test probably added a few points to my score

I also used Arco's book i think... I checked it out of my local library, but I only used it for the practice tests (I think there were 6); I didn't actually work through all of the exercises. It was helpful to get the format and directions down for each section, but I dont think it greatly improved my score...