re-taking the GRE trying to hit 318 - 320 combined....

[PTswagger]

[FONT=Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Any Tips and or Study material to increase my score in the 315 - 320ish range?.

First time I took was in mid September: Verb: 152 Quant: 154 AW:4.5

[FONT=Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]PT schools I plan to apply to: CSUNorthridge, CSUlongbeach, CSUFresno, Chapman Univ, USC, St Agustine (san marcos), Samuel Merritt Uni, and UCSF........

University: CSU Fullerton (Fall 2010 – Spring 2014)
Major: BS in Biology, concentration: Cell and Developmental
CumGPA: 3.52
Pre-req GPA: not sure ptcas varies apparently

[FONT=Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Hours: ~ 100hrs Outpatient (from both private ortho practice, and outpatient medical center), ~10 inpatient (working on it still), Starting at a pediatric clinic in January

PS I just purchased the premium magoosh 6 month study plan for 99$ holiday discount !!

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[PTswagger]

applying in 2015-2016 cycle btw

 

[Jake from State Farm]

The more practice exams you do the better. When are you planning on taking it? I re-took the GRE as well because I needed to improve my quant score and I probably only put in one week of extra studying and saw my quant score go up 6 points. taking the test for a second time should bump you up a few points as it is for sure. Good luck!

 

[PTswagger]

well since I took it in September, I feel a bit rusty haha

I studied for about a good 3 - 4 weeks really hitting the books, no job no school. Right now I am volunteering in the morning at separate facilities and part time job in the afternoons, So i'm thinking of doing a more weekly approach as opposed to a straight 1 month burn out lmao.

I will probably take it when I feel extremely confident, thats why I bought the 6 month plan.

 

[PTswagger]

The more practice exams you do the better. When are you planning on taking it? I re-took the GRE as well because I needed to improve my quant score and I probably only put in one week of extra studying and saw my quant score go up 6 points. taking the test for a second time should bump you up a few points as it is for sure. Good luck!

well since I took it in September, I feel a bit rusty haha

I studied for about a good 3 - 4 weeks really hitting the books, no job no school. Right now I am volunteering in the morning at separate facilities and part time job in the afternoons, So i'm thinking of doing a more weekly approach as opposed to a straight 1 month burn out lmao.

I will probably take it when I feel extremely confident, thats why I bought the 6 month plan.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

haha understandable. I think the weekly approach sounds like a really good strategy and definitely will probably be more beneficial than cramming into a shorter time period. You have quite a while until the next application cycle starts so if you're already starting to study now and can study consistently I think you should be able to improve your score quite significantly! Not to mention that you already have a decent baseline score to begin with. For the most part, the schools I applied to had average GRE scores of accepted students that were at or around yours.

 

[scrawnyguy]

How do you like Magoosh? I was just about to post a thread about their program. They seem cheaper than most other programs so I'm curious how effective they are. My plan is to finish my last semester of school in the spring and then channel all of the time I spend studying on classes now to studying for the GRE. I hope to take it at the end of next summer.

 

[Rgvmed]

I scored a 320 on the GRE with the help of Magoosh. Actually, I should of scored higher but I felt like I got a really difficult third math section with lots of hard level coordinate geometry questions. Anyway, Magoosh is an awesome product. I simply watched all of their videos and did all of the easy and medium level questions to begin with. Each question has a video explanation. WATCH the video even if you answered it correctly, you may have missed a subtle detail that will save you valuable time come test day. To supplement Magoosh, get the Manhattan 5 lb big book of problems as well as their math books for each individual topic. This is the absolute best way to study for the GRE, trust me. two weeks before test day take the two practice online ETS powerprep exams. These are old test questions FROM the publisher. You could also buy ETS's math and verbal workbook which will also provide you with additional practice problems FROM the publisher. Good luck! I'm willing to sell some of my used materials if you would like, just PM me.

 

[Carson Ranger]

you only get a difficult third math section if you do well on the previous math sections.

 

[DesertPT]

you only get a difficult third math section if you do well on the previous math sections.

Yep. I crapped up my second math section, and then got a really ridiculously easy third math section which I killed, and that evened things out and my score still ended up being decent. I guess I'll never know which was the unscored pilot section, but I'm assuming it wasn't that third one lol

 

[Rgvmed]

you only get a difficult third math section if you do well on the previous math sections.

I know, I'm saying that I thought it was even harder than usual "hard" section. It was more difficult than any other "hard section" I had encountered. Go with Magoosh!

 

[DesertPT]

Also to the OP, GRE for Dummies was helpful for me. It is a very basic overview of what's on the GRE and doesn't go into much depth on anything (especially the math) but it depends how much in depth material you need. Even if you feel you need to study more in depth, I still think the Dummies book is helpful because it gives a good overview of what's on the test that is entertaining to read and can be gotten through pretty quickly. It would be a good warmup before diving into a more intense book. Kind of like looking over the powerpoints before going to lecture. I think a simple book first and in depth book second strategy could definitely work well for some people. I don't know if you are one of those people, but it's a suggestion. The dummies book is cheap on amazon and will only take you a few days to read through.

Be warned though, it has a decent number of blatant typos and a number of pretty noticeable errors. But I don't think it took away from the utility of the book greatly. It's not a super high quality book but it sure is a lot more fun to read than the more heavy duty books.

I like to recommend it to people not because of any particular greatness that it has. I recommend it partly because I think it could help prep people for more intense study, but mostly because I think a lot of people study for the GRE more than they need to. The dummies book is all about studying effectively and learning high yield tips, tricks and concepts. The GRE is mostly a test of your rational thinking abilities and your test-taking skills, not of your detailed knowledge in any particular subject. Sometimes memorizing a particular method for hundreds of different types of math problems is not as effective as brushing up on the basic underlying principles of algebra and geometry, and then going about each problem in whatever way makes the most sense to you. You need to study smarter not harder for the GRE, to use a cliche.

 

[engmedpt]

you can study your way up to 160 both sections pretty well. Its a test. Going higher than that though is difficult Ill admit. Fyi, knj clepped like a 168 V (saw on acceptance board) lol so Id take his advice.

 

[PTswagger]

awesome thanks everyone for the input !!!

 

[DesertPT]

you can study your way up to 160 both sections pretty well. Its a test. Going higher than that though is difficult Ill admit.

I'll agree that if you are just a naturally bad test-taker, studying content is probably not going to get you above a 160. I think you can gain a couple extra points by really studying up on test-taking skills themselves though. Again the Dummies book was more helpful for this than anything, as the content sections themselves were pretty high level.

Fyi, knj clepped like a 168 V (saw on acceptance board) lol so Id take his advice.

I'll say this: I actually studied for GRE verbal pretty minimally. I am just a naturally good writer and speaker of the English language and always have been. Please don't think I'm bragging at all, I am pointing this out for the record so people don't feel like if they "follow my advice" or study super hard they will get a 168. I also surprised myself with that score...my practice verbal tests were consistently like a 162-164. Anything above a 160 looks great on your app though. And you can get there with the right strategic studying.

Also, I have always had good test-taking skills. So like I said above, I think studying up on how to narrow down answers, use the roots of words to figure out questions on the verbal section, and just how to generally be a smart test-taker will net you more points than raw memorization of GRE vocab lists will. Certainly find the list of top 400 GRE vocab words, make some flashcards for the ones you don't know and spend a couple of days on them. But I think of the >100 vocab words I memorized before taking the test, 1 or maybe 2 showed up on exam day. So memorization is not high yield when it comes to the GRE. The same can be said about the quant section to some extent too.

The GRE is a test of your logical reasoning abilities, you command of the English language, and your test-taking skills, not a test of any particular content (other than high school algebra and geometry I suppose). So just keep that in mind while preparing. The old "brute force" method of studying that has gotten you through so many classes, where you just cram as many individual facts into your head as possible, is generally not effective for the GRE. The amount of minutia you would have to memorize to cover everything that could show up on the test is just too large. That's kind of the whole point of the test, and (while I find ETS to be a company of questionable ethics and the GRE to be a questionably important part of the application in many cases), that is why adcoms value it. Statistically speaking, students with crappy GRE scores are more likely to one day fail the NPTE (which is another test where some questions are on specific factoids, but others require you to apply a broad base of knowledge to new situations).

Hope that helps

 

[Don713]

i scored 320 after studying these.

http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Pre...qid=1419402472&sr=8-2&keywords=manhattan+prep

 

[SunGiant37]

I used Magoosh and Manhattan GRE. I also took a bunch of Kaplan Practice Test because I had an unused CD Rom. I studied for 3 weeks and probably did about 20 practice tests (minus writing sections). I got a 158V and 158Q but my writing was only a 4 because I didn't spend to much time on it.

If I didn't get into a school I'd mostly retake the GRE just to up my writing score but I found that Magoosh and Manhattan really helped me in that short amount of time where I was studying every waking moment.

 

[CalvinPT]

I got a Kaplan book, with 3 online tests and 1 in book test. I used it mainly for math and writing because I was pretty strong in verbal. i got a stack of 500 GRE vocabulary words from Kaplan to up my verbal score. Since my math score left much to be desired, I got the 5lb Manhattan prep book to prepare for specific question types. All in all I did okay, 159V(81%) 155Q(60%) and 4.0W(56%). I probably could have done better, but I really had a lot of stuff going on at the same time that I took my test... But I got into my #1 school so I don't have to retake it.

Honestly the hardest part about the test is the endurance. Trying to do well on the hard Quantitative Reasoning questions after more than 3 hours of test taking is just brutal. The 5 lb book is great to give you 'muscle memory' for questions.

Additionally a lot of the GRE tests out there are just copycats, I never actually took a REAL practice test before the test day. I found the questions to be similar, but certainly not the same as what I saw from Kaplan and Manhattan prep. So if you can find some real computer tests that should really help.