GRE preparation thread

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scienceisbeauty said:
the triangles are my favourite part...they're all the same, and have such good rules to follow. I esp like them when the isoscles right angle ones. 1,1,root2
1,1,root2
You know thats how the isoscles do
1,1,root2
I think the isoscles' are cool
Click to expand...

Yes, the isosceles triangles are neat, but what about the 30-60-90 with sides x, x root 3, and 2x?
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30-60-90
they are fine and flighty
I just like them yes I do, x, xroot3 , and xtimes 2
you can like these triangles too

If ETS were grading on poetry composition - I'd fail miserably
I actually like these ones more, because when you find out the angle you can determine which side is larger, then knowing that helps you discover something else...
 
Hey everyone! I took another practice test today (Princeton Review) and got 510Q, 650V. Keep in mind that I've always gotten much lower scores on Princeton Review than on Power Prep and the real thing. :D
 
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Gooooooooooood Job Cara!
I see the improvement - keep it up, keep it up!
 
cara susanna said:
Hey everyone! I took another practice test today (Princeton Review) and got 510Q, 650V. Keep in mind that I've always gotten much lower scores on Princeton Review than on Power Prep and the real thing. :D
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Hey Cara that's great to hear! Keep up the good work. I'll take a practice one tomorrow and see if I can keep up with you...whihc princeton review test was it that you took? I always find test #3 on the princeton review to be difficult compared to the others.

2 weeks and counting until my test date. It's go time.
 
My mouth is going dry.. I so suck at math. I`m going to review my Barron`s book and try another practice test tmr
 
Thanks, guys! I hope that you see improvement, too :D

myelin said:
Hey Cara that's great to hear! Keep up the good work. I'll take a practice one tomorrow and see if I can keep up with you...whihc princeton review test was it that you took? I always find test #3 on the princeton review to be difficult compared to the others.

2 weeks and counting until my test date. It's go time.
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Interesting, because I took test #3! I'm thinking I'll take #4 early next week. I don't like taking Princeton Review's tests because their tendency to be more difficult disheartens me. :D

I didn't go up that much in quant, but my previous verbal score with those tests was 530 or so, meaning I went up more than 100 points. Granted, verbal was always my better section, but hey. Like I said, I was getting 400s quant on PR tests when I got a 600 on Power Prep, so I'm trying to take my scores with a grain of salt.

I take my test in about... three weeks. But, you know what, I'm not so terribly scared of it anymore!
 
cara susanna said:
I take my test in about... three weeks. But, you know what, I'm not so terribly scared of it anymore!
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*tears well up* AWWWWWWWW good job!
You are an inspiration

Remember after you take it -- contribute to tips and tricks! :p
 
cara susanna said:
Thanks, guys! I hope that you see improvement, too :D



Interesting, because I took test #3! I'm thinking I'll take #4 early next week. I don't like taking Princeton Review's tests because their tendency to be more difficult disheartens me. :D

I didn't go up that much in quant, but my previous verbal score with those tests was 530 or so, meaning I went up more than 100 points. Granted, verbal was always my better section, but hey. Like I said, I was getting 400s quant on PR tests when I got a 600 on Power Prep, so I'm trying to take my scores with a grain of salt.

I take my test in about... three weeks. But, you know what, I'm not so terribly scared of it anymore!
Click to expand...

I'm with you on not being scared of the test. I'm more scared of what is riding on my test score such as admissions. But today I woke up and decided to turn over a new leaf and just focus on the test, not what may or may not happen as a result of my score. I'm going to do my best and whatever happens at the end of the day will just have to stand.

Keep up the great work. :)
 
Thanks, you too!

I'm trying to think of each problem as like a fun little puzzle to solve. Like, just enjoy taking the test and having your mind challenged.
 
Some people tell me to focus on studying root words, but i am finding that much of the times, the root words dont work. For example, i will see a word on the practice test, identity its root word to get the answer, but the supposed root word turned out to not apply. The english language has too many exceptions to its rules!
Memorizing tons of vocab words so far is working out OK. I got a 450 for verbal on the practice, but it seems to me just learning more and more words is the key. I am also finding that by memorizing vocab words, i am learning some root words in the process.
Any advice from those who have taken the test with success?
 
I think that vocab is the key, but you also have to get the logic of the verbal section. My vocab wasn't the problem at all--I barely studied any words, but I was still getting in the 500s. The logic is as follows: make a defining sentence for analogies, try to fill in your own words for sentence completion and antonyms (I was always great at sentence completion so I didn't really need that info, but it's still good advice), and, for reading comp, be able to point to a section in the passage to back up your answer.
 
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hi everyone! i'm new to sdn, but i am taking the GRE on August 21st, so i thought i'd join the discussion. i registered for the test quite a while ago but never received the powerprep software in the mail. not until last night did i realize that it is also downloadable... haha i did the first practice test and got 700Q 710V. hopefully my real score will be that high! if what you all are saying is true, i should try a princeton review practice test.

how are you all practicing for the writing sections? the powerprep has the writing section, but it isn't scored. is there anything available online that will give an indication of your writing score?

i have a bit of advice to people who are buying study books: i have barron's, the ETS one, a Kaplan math book, a Barron's vocab book, and they are all good. however, i bought a GMAT/GRE math review book by McGraw Hill (it's yellow with red font) and took one of the practice tests inside. i started FREAKING OUT because there were so many typos in the test that the questions were a LOT harder than they should have been (some were impossible e.g. find the area of a triangle plotted on an x-y axis given NO points!!). and now i am looking at the review sections and they are pointless and irrelevant to the GRE. consider yourself warned!
 
alleycatpsych said:
hi everyone! i'm new to sdn, but i am taking the GRE on August 21st, so i thought i'd join the discussion. i registered for the test quite a while ago but never received the powerprep software in the mail. not until last night did i realize that it is also downloadable... haha i did the first practice test and got 700Q 710V. hopefully my real score will be that high! if what you all are saying is true, i should try a princeton review practice test.

how are you all practicing for the writing sections? the powerprep has the writing section, but it isn't scored. is there anything available online that will give an indication of your writing score?

i have a bit of advice to people who are buying study books: i have barron's, the ETS one, a Kaplan math book, a Barron's vocab book, and they are all good. however, i bought a GMAT/GRE math review book by McGraw Hill (it's yellow with red font) and took one of the practice tests inside. i started FREAKING OUT because there were so many typos in the test that the questions were a LOT harder than they should have been (some were impossible e.g. find the area of a triangle plotted on an x-y axis given NO points!!). and now i am looking at the review sections and they are pointless and irrelevant to the GRE. consider yourself warned!
Click to expand...

From what I understand, the real GRE is very similar in difficulty to the Power Prep tests produced by ETS.

As for your writing score, there is a website on the ETS website that will administer both writing parts and grade them instantly for a small fee. When I took a Power Score course, the instructor was a grader of the GRE AWA section and said it takes him less than 10 seconds to grade each one.
 
Power Prep is VERY accurate. The only score that was really off for me was verbal.

Princeton Review also offers essay grading, but they usually score it one number under what it would really be. And I'm not sure how much it costs. I wouldn't worry so much about the writing part; just follow the 5 paragraph format and you should be okay.
 
Hello! I was just wondering if anyone had any good recommendations for GRE CAT. I've already done powerprep and 800 as well as most cds that come with books. I was wondering if there were any other CAT simulations that can be downloaded or taken online (i don't mind paying). Name and website would be helpful. Thanks and happy studying!

I wish powerprep came out with more than one CAT test!
 
Princeton Review, Kaplan, and Barrons all have simulated CATs, but they're not as accurate in determining your score as Power Prep.
 
Well, unfortunately I had to postpone my test originally scheduled for August 9th. My boyfriend's grandpa died unexpectedly, and we had to go out of town for the funeral this past weekend. So, my new date is September 12. I have been scoring around 1200 on practice tests thus far (both Princeton Review and Powerprep), but hope to reach 1300 on the real thing.

Does anyone know, when downloading the Powerprep practice tests- if you download them more than once, are they different tests? Or is it just the same two each time?
 
same two -- would be nice if they were different, but ETS isn't that kind
 
Sorry to hear about the reason for your postponement.

Yeah, they're the same two tests, but you can get entirely different questions depending on how you do.
 
if you're trying to improve further there's 3 things you can do.
- buy more books from different companies so you can do as many practice as you can. ( try to do them with real test conditions)
- look at the questions that you keep getting wrong, if they're the same type/section, brush up on techniques for those sections.
- vocab, increasing ur vocab is a good way to improving your verbal score.
 
Well, there are more options available than that. I tried all of those things (minus the last one because verbal wasn't my problem) and my score still didn't go up.
 
If you buy too may books (like I did), it helps you nil because you feel a bit overwhelmed and don't give due attention to the book that you already have
I have every GRE prep book except for the ARCO book, but I dunno...I am going back to now and making fuller use of my Barron's book ...
It seems to be helping.
 
Hahaha, I bought tons of books and experienced the same thing. I like Barrons math section, but it doesn't help you if you don't have a solid math foundation.
 
Actually the reverse was true for me...I SUCK at math (Sucked?) anyway, the Barron's was the 2nd to last book I got, and I felt it actually helped me review the basic math concepts.
I tried an ETS practice test (from the 10th edition book) and I was getting so excited everytime I found one of those "tricks".

You know, I think I'm avoiding doing the computer practice tests (and actually even the paper based full practice ones) because I'm SCARED of what my mark will be.... I have still so many left to do...
 
Woohoo! I took the GRE today for the first time and am very pleased with how I did.

*BEFORE THE REAL TEST* I took 3 powerprep practice tests with the following scores:
V- 450 Q - 750 (before any studying)
V- 470 Q- 730 (before any studying
V- 590 Q - 650 (after a month of intensive studying)

end result: *REAL GRE*
V- 650 Q-690

I posted my practice test scores and real score to help you see the correlation from the two - take from it what you will!. For those of you studying, keep at it! It gets discouraging but as long as you are working diligently, it really is going to improve your score.

Good luck!
 
Great job and congratulations!

Hopefully my scores will look that when I retake the test this month :D
 
BamaPsych said:
Woohoo! I took the GRE today for the first time and am very pleased with how I did.

*BEFORE THE REAL TEST* I took 3 powerprep practice tests with the following scores:
V- 450 Q - 750 (before any studying)
V- 470 Q- 730 (before any studying
V- 590 Q - 650 (after a month of intensive studying)

end result: *REAL GRE*
V- 650 Q-690

I posted my practice test scores and real score to help you see the correlation from the two - take from it what you will!. For those of you studying, keep at it! It gets discouraging but as long as you are working diligently, it really is going to improve your score.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

3 powerprep tests? isn't there only one on the cd?? congrats on the scores!
 
bludreamz said:
3 powerprep tests? isn't there only one on the cd?? congrats on the scores!
Click to expand...

There are 2 on the power prep software and some others in the ETS book.

Bama - congrats on your score! If you have a moment, could you outline your method for studying?
 
myelin said:
Bama - congrats on your score! If you have a moment, could you outline your method for studying?
Click to expand...

Of course!

I studied for about a month and a week, probably 20-25 hours a week. After I took my first practice test, and seeing my abysmally low verbal score and very high quant score, i put the majority of my effort into studying verbal.


VERBAL
I spent 4/5 of my time on verbal, mostly memorizing vocabulary words. I used all of the words found in the Kaplan book, and all of the words in the princeton review book (this ended up beeing about 600 flash cards that I made on index cards). This is how i spent the majority of my *verbal* study time. I feel that 40-60% of the words on the verbal section were words from my flash cards that I would not have otherwise known the definition of. If not the root word itself, then there were at least some of my vocab words in the answer choices. It is also very, very important to learn the strategies that are given in the Kaplan/Princeton book for analogies and antonyms (I found their strategies to be identical). These strategies help you narrow down choices on your anaologies and antonyms even if you don't understand some of the words they give. For sentence completion, also use the Kaplan and/or Princeton strategies. At least that's what I did. I really didn't do anything in particular for reading comprehension.

QUANT
For quantitative I first studied the math review section of the Princeton book. It give a nice brief review of all the types of math that would be on the GRE. After reading the review, I did as many different types of practice questions as I could. If I got the practice questions wrong, I would note it and eventually I looked back on the types of problems I most frequently missed, which happened to be triangles and rate/change problems (mph, distance, etc.) This helped me narrow what areas of Quant I really needed to put more studying into.

These were my main strategies. I feel like the two books I have mentioned (Kaplan/Princeton) were very useful. I did not take a GRE course.
 
myelin said:
There are 2 on the power prep software and some others in the ETS book.

Bama - congrats on your score! If you have a moment, could you outline your method for studying?
Click to expand...


Thanks for letting me know, I am going to redownload it for practice as I don't remember it (I took it a a few years back)
 
Man. Is it just me or the loading slow. Took me forever to change this double post.

BTW- Date? Everyone wants to score with powerprep!! :rolleyes: sorry. That was corny.
 
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No problem! I actually have a date with power prep practice exam #1 so if you will excuse me... :lame:
 
Hope you guys don't mind that I join your forum. I need some mental support for GRE too!! I am a pharmacy student but I have to take GRE for grad school. It seems like they don't have the GRE forum like MCAT or PCAT on the internet.
I am retaking it next month!! My verbal is only 470. Math in 600 range didn't remember exactly. I need at least 1200! :)

I find the GRE reading too convoluted.!! I feel like I was reading a foreign langauge (well.. english is foreign language to me) Any non-native speaker like me can improve verbal in a short period of time like 3 weeks or so. I am debating whether I should just strictly concentrate on Math.
 
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I took another practice test today, and was very pleased with my quantitative score (660)!! The verbal is another story- I started my test, and was very distracted as I was at a coffee shop, and my phone was ringing, and I just didn't feel focused...end result was a 500 on verbal LOL. I had been scoring around a 600 for each other practice test on the verbal, so I'm considering my score today BUNK! Plus, I always do way better when I'm in an environment more conducive to studying. (Library vs. coffeeshop).

So, I'm thinking that if I keep studying hard, I will reach my target score of 1300! The questions I had wrong on the practice test most often had to do with parts of the review I have not completed yet. I'm going to study tonight and take another test tomorrow.
 
BTW, I retook a verbal section from a different test right after I was done with the first time through, and scored a 550. Now I feel a little bit better, even though I still need to increase my verbal (and quant) by at least 50 to reach my target score!
 
I too am increasing my scores on the practice exams. I posted my highest score today (540V 560Q) on power prep exam 2. My original target was 1350 and I'd be satisfied with anything over 1200. Still shooting for 1350 though.

I take the exam next Thursday at noon.

mplsgirl - kudos for your scores in a coffee shop of all places.
 
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BamaPsych said:
Of course!

I studied for about a month and a week, probably 20-25 hours a week. After I took my first practice test, and seeing my abysmally low verbal score and very high quant score, i put the majority of my effort into studying verbal.


VERBAL
I spent 4/5 of my time on verbal, mostly memorizing vocabulary words. I used all of the words found in the Kaplan book, and all of the words in the princeton review book (this ended up beeing about 600 flash cards that I made on index cards). This is how i spent the majority of my *verbal* study time. I feel that 40-60% of the words on the verbal section were words from my flash cards that I would not have otherwise known the definition of. If not the root word itself, then there were at least some of my vocab words in the answer choices. It is also very, very important to learn the strategies that are given in the Kaplan/Princeton book for analogies and antonyms (I found their strategies to be identical). These strategies help you narrow down choices on your anaologies and antonyms even if you don't understand some of the words they give. For sentence completion, also use the Kaplan and/or Princeton strategies. At least that's what I did. I really didn't do anything in particular for reading comprehension.

QUANT
For quantitative I first studied the math review section of the Princeton book. It give a nice brief review of all the types of math that would be on the GRE. After reading the review, I did as many different types of practice questions as I could. If I got the practice questions wrong, I would note it and eventually I looked back on the types of problems I most frequently missed, which happened to be triangles and rate/change problems (mph, distance, etc.) This helped me narrow what areas of Quant I really needed to put more studying into.

These were my main strategies. I feel like the two books I have mentioned (Kaplan/Princeton) were very useful. I did not take a GRE course.
Click to expand...

Thank you!:)
 
myelin said:
I to am increasing my scores on the practice exams. I posted my highest score today (540V 560Q) on power prep exam 2. My original target was 1350 and I'd be satisfied with anything over 1200. Still shooting for 1350 though.

I take the exam next Thursday at noon.

mplsgirl - kudos for your scores in a coffee shop of all places.
Click to expand...

Strange, that's almost exactly my real GRE score, only reversed. 540Q, 570V.

I haven't taken a practice test lately. I admit that it's partially because I'm scared of what my scores will be.
 
So, how often are people taking practice exams? Once a week? Once every 2? Twice a week?
 
I took a "practice test" actually it was pretty close I suppose...in my Kaplan book I got a CD that had a test for the verbal and a test for the math (4 sections of each and then 3 CBTs). I didn't do a CBT but did a math test and a verbal test
On the verbal I got of the 38 qs, 3 wrong and on the math 9 wrong of 28 or 21 something like that...
SIGH for the damn math. SIGH.
 
mplsgirl said:
So, how often are people taking practice exams? Once a week? Once every 2? Twice a week?
Click to expand...

I take practice exams once to twice a week. I always skip the AWA and just do V and Q.
 
I'm taking the GRE tomorrow at 12:30 central. Please send good vibes this way.:)
 
the best of luck!!! you've been working hard and you should be really proud of yourself!
 
OH praying that it's going well for you, and that you'll do as well (better too!) than you need.
((*keeps fingers crossed*))
 
Myelin: I keep checking this thread ...thinking of you this entire time....for hopefully things went well, and all is good.

For anyone: I HAVE A Q: Ok , so I did a practice test

On the practice test I got a 630 on the verbal...So I'm wondering how much I "killed" my score by getting the 1st and 3rd question wrong in the verbal section. If I had gotten the 1st and 3rd question correct, how much do you think my score would have improved? (I got the 20th question wrong as well)
Other than those 3 I got all the questions right...
 
Ok, I just got back from the testing center. I scored 130 points higher than my previous test. I did hit my goal of 600Q, but fell flat on V. The words weren't that difficult and some of them even looked familiar. I used the Princeton Review "hit parade" list only. I feel like the RC got me, as I always have a difficult time with them - mostly because they are very confusing. They will make a very convincing statement for something and half-way down the page say HOWEVER,...pair that with some lame-brain topic about 10th century caveman art in the southeastern part of Abu Dhabi and it just gets worse.

I was hoping to not get an experimental section but I did. It came at the very end when I was ready to go. It didn't say "experiemental section" but you can tell by the types of questions that it's not the scored section. Although, you should still take it seriously as you never know.

I'd say that the studying I did paid off for the amount of time and effort I put into it. If I had to do it again (which I hope to never have to), I'd focus more on reading comprehension and vocabulary words. For quant, I'd drill more problems from the ETS and Princeton Review books.
 
scienceisbeauty said:
Myelin: I keep checking this thread ...thinking of you this entire time....for hopefully things went well, and all is good.

For anyone: I HAVE A Q: Ok , so I did a practice test

On the practice test I got a 630 on the verbal...So I'm wondering how much I "killed" my score by getting the 1st and 3rd question wrong in the verbal section. If I had gotten the 1st and 3rd question correct, how much do you think my score would have improved? (I got the 20th question wrong as well)
Other than those 3 I got all the questions right...
Click to expand...

You are too nice. Thank you. I did think of my fellow SDN folks and close friends during the test. It was during the short break between the Q and V sections. :)

I'm not exactly sure of how the CAT works, but I think it's something like this. Everyone's score starts out at a 500, hence the first question is of medium difficulty. If you get it right, your score goes up and the next question is more difficult; get it wrong and your score goes down but the question gets easier. From what I understand, the test is "looking for" your general ability in the first 10 or so questions, which is why it is imperative that you do well on the first questions. Your score will be higher if you do well on the first part and bomb the last part (even don't finish) rather than doing poor on the first part and really good toward the end. Your score (630) is supposed to reflect your general ability, where you'd be likely to get a question of higher difficulty wrong but get an easier one right. You see?

To answer your question based on this knowledge, your score dropped below 500 when you missed the first question, went back up x amount of points when you got #2 right, and went back down when you missed #3. How many points is a mystery.

A word of advice, all that you really need to know is that you should focus on the first 10-12 questions and try your best on them. Spend more time of them if you need to. Beyond that, the mechanics of the test are irrelevant and more time should be devoted to studying than trying to figure out how the CAT works. I made this mistake!
 
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