GRE Tips?

[lhmhtd]

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So I will be a 1st time applicant this cycle- YAY! I am taking the GRE July 19th for the first time. Since my GPA is fairly average for a vet school applicant, I'm hoping to nail the GRE. I generally do pretty well with standardized tests, and I've been studying here and there with the ETS and Princeton books. I am taking a pretty heavy class load right now, so can't devote gobs of time to studying for the GRE (instead I am devoting gobs of time to studying for these hellacious classes!). Anyway, does anyone have good advice or tips regarding the GRE? Did studying help, and if so, how did you study? Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[KCgophervet]

I just studied out of one of the books they sell and that was the best course for me. Honestly I just went through the book and focused on how to take the test, what to look for, how to get quicker at answering, etc. I think the study books do a pretty good job of preparing you to at least have an idea of what you're going into. I didn't do any prep for the ACT or SAT and did pretty decently with those but for the GRE I'm VERY glad I did some prep with the book.

 

[Cyndia]

I personally bought a bunch of the practice test books and tried to do a practice test a week over the several months before I took it. I mostly focused on prepping for the verbal sections since the math was usually pretty easy for me, and so I also spent time learning more vocab. To be honest I really only devoted an hour or two a week to studying for it since I was busy with classes (and I definitely missed a week here or there), but it was okay since I started prepping so early. The only thing I regret is not trying a practice test on an actual computer - I did all my practice tests by hands so it did throw me a little bit when I was actually taking the test.

 

[lhmhtd]

Thank you!

 

[Dlisted]

I only had about 8 hours of preparation the first time I took the gre and scored the same as when I had months of preparation the second time I took it.

I've heard or read that the test is designed to be that way but a lot of people are able to improve their scores.

 

[Suomi]

I did not spend in a large amount of time studying. I bought one book for math GRE practice and one that covered all three subjects. I also bought a vocab GRE book. In terms of studying, I familiarized myself with the format and style of questions. However, I did not have much time to actually study out of the books. Most of the books have a few pages in the back with the most important/used vocab terms/definitions and the most important math formulas/skills you should know. Focus on the info in the back, rather than going through each painstaking problem in the books, and I bet you'll do fine 🙂

 

[WildZoo]

I would start out by taking a practice test to figure out which parts of the test you need to focus on. No need to spend hours trying to learn a ton of vocab if you're really good at the verbal section of the test. And I would practice on a computer if you can, since that's how the test would be administered. Try taking it the way you would be taking the actual test, so you get a feel for what it will be like. For example, I didn't plan on taking breaks during my test, so I practiced without them too.

Once you figure out which sections you need to work on, start studying those. You can buy a book but there are also a bunch of free resources out there on the internet. My GRE Tutor is a pretty good site - lots of practice problems and study plans depending on how many weeks you have until your test date. I would try to do another practice test at least once a week so you can keep track of your improvement and where you still need work. Good luck!

 

[lhmhtd]

Great tips! I am taking it earlier than planned so that I can retake it if need be. Quantitative is probably going to be where I struggle most so I'll spend more time studying for that. Math is not really my thing anyway and I haven't taken a math class in a couple years. Yay for standardized testing....

 

[dovelover]

I ended up cramming for the GRE because I was too busy, after rescheduling it once because I didn't have time to prep for it. So, long story short, start early. I wouldn't even try memorizing the ridiculous vocab words, but reading the test taking tip sections in the prep book was helpful (I think I used princeton review). When I took my first practice test I realized that I had completely forgotten how to (efficiently) do a lot of the basic math in the few years since I had last taken a math class, so reviewing that info was important to. Also, I don't know if they still do it with the new test, but when I took the old version they had a bank of all the possible essay questions on the GRE website. There are a lot of them, so I wouldn't waste your time trying to read them all. But reading through some and brainstorming some thoughts on them was helpful to get a feel for what to expect. One of my essay questions was actually very similar to one of the ones I had practiced on.

 

[beatles1964]

I took the GRE twice. I won an 8 week prep course through Kaplan, but I foolishly thought that by attending the class once a week, and not spending much time studying on my own, I would be fine. I had gone on vacation to the Caribbean the week after finals finished up, took my GRE books with me with some great intentions to study while there (HA!...right). Needless to say, that didnt happen, and I sort of bombed the test 3 days after I returned home. I rescheduled a 2nd round as soon as I got home from the testing center for 2 months later. I spent that time taking a bunch of free pratice tests I found online (just google "free full length GRE practice test"), both untimed and timed until I got faster at figuring out how to attack each question. The GRE is more about how efficiently and systematically you approach questions, not so much testing your knowledge of impossible concepts youve never seen before. Personally, I'm not a reader, so studying hundreds of vocabulary words ive never seen before was sort of a lost cause. I decided to study the "most frequently used GRE vocab words" and found this helped quite a bit the 2nd time. As for math, I studied the formula page in my Kaplan book, and did a bunch of practice problems. The the night before the test, I read the math summary in the back of the Kaplan book which listed all the types of math concepts I would be expected to understand along with cooresponding formulas and examples. I'm so glad I did this because there was a multipart question I wouldnt have known how to do if I hadnt read that summary section over last minute.

 

[SummerTheLynx]

The one piece of advice I would wish someone would have told me is know your trig stuff backwards, forwards, front and back. At the end of my last math section, I started to get some fairly tricky trig problems, that had I prepared better for it, probably would have gotten correct. Other than that, give yourself a minute to plan out your essays. You will do great 🙂

 

[crazycatlady]

..

 

[superkelpie]

The one piece of advice I would wish someone would have told me is know your trig stuff backwards, forwards, front and back. At the end of my last math section, I started to get some fairly tricky trig problems, that had I prepared better for it, probably would have gotten correct. Other than that, give yourself a minute to plan out your essays. You will do great 🙂

whoa whoa whoa I thought there wasn't any trig on the GRE?

 

[SummerTheLynx]

whoa whoa whoa I thought there wasn't any trig on the GRE?

I mean I definitely had trig problems, not sure if that changed in 8 months...

 

[grrrr121]

Just going to put this here if anyone is looking for GRE prep. http://www.groupon.com/deals/benchprep-72-denver

If there's a better thread to put it in, by all means repost. $19 for a prep course is a pretty good deal

 

[BuckGirl262]

There is no trig (Sin, Cos, Tan) on the GRE, a ton of geometry though.