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Originally Posted by supernkown
The fact of the matter is I feel dumb. I am getting scores of 350Q, 330V on the practice exams. Nothing seems to work. It is a bit disheartening..this exam. Then I come to this board and see such exemplary scores. I am a bit envious, but most of all I am embarrassed and I feel dumb.
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Don't feel bad, believe it or not that's normal to underperform when you first test the waters and see how the exam is. My first diagnostic test was about 450/450. I was aghast considering I was hoping to get a minimum of 1000 without any studying and having been out of school for 7 years.
This site has a lot of engineering people who naturally have an advantage in math. But I've also noticed that because there are so many folks that aren't native English speakers they score much less comparatively in verbal. They compensate by studying for months...which is really all you need: study time.
Take a look at the GRE Powerprep software. They have some data charts of what most test takers score based on their diciplines and education level. You'll find that 1050 is pretty much the mean average for up to graduate level and about 1150 for PhD's! So these people here scoring 1400+ are far above the norm and not what you should judge yourself by.
Btw, my girlfriend is a computer engineer and taken all the high level maths, calc 3, etc., but she doesnt remember much from geometry which is needed on the GRE. I haven't used geometry since 9th grade prior to review! So even math gurus like my girl can have problems without preparing for the test.
You just have to study. Even a couple weeks worth before a test can boost your score by a good 200 to 300 pts when you are batting 1000.