First post

[ocram81]

Hi to everybody!

My name is Marco and I'm a new member of this forum. I live in Switzerland and my mother language is Italian. I read a few posts in the forum and I found the atmosphere here good, so I decide to subscribe.

I'd like to take the GRE test in December or January and my objective is to score in the best 10% in the quantitative section. So it's time to begin the preparation !

I'm a little bit confused about all the possibilities around, and before investing my money in books and CD's, I'd like some suggestions...

Thanks in advance

Marco

PS: Did someone know these websites?

http://www.acethegre.com/ and http://www.gre-secrets.com

I don't believe in miracles (at least in this field) but maybe I'm wrong...

[Econ]

Hi Marco! First of all good luck. Secondly, I am not exactly the right person to advise you as to which material you should buy since my GRE is on the 29th of October. Nevertheless some of my suggestions are:

(1) Definitely buy the Barrons Book. It contains the 3500 words vocabulary that I believe is a requisite for getting a decent (>500) score in verbal. I am also an non-native speaker and I have a great difficult in the V part (my GRE Diagnostic was 330!)
(2) If you can find the BigBook by ETS. It costs a lot but it worths every penny. I tried to order it but they don't send it here. I purchased the ETS 10th Edition with the 7 practise tests. Generally, it is of paramount importance to study official stuff.
(3) It all depends on the amount of money that you want to invest and your preferences. If your budget constraint is not binding and you prefer to study hard, there are many other sources for you to practice. For instance, I called a guy here and he told me that it costs 700 euro to register to his lectures. I found this frauding and I decided to work on my own. I invested no more than 200 e and I bought several books and tests. By the way, two of my friends went to this guy and he gave them only the ETS 10th Edition as a practice material (that costs around 25 e). So, if you want to study hard...try it on your own. If you have some money but you do not want to pay a fortune for your preparation I suggest to try also Kaplans(not very good but classic), Princeston Review (again the same problem) and ARCO. All cost around 25-30$.
(4) To make the best out of your investment you need to diversify your portfolio according to your needs. For instance, you may be a natural math-talent, then go for books/material that emphasize vocabulary and etc.
(5) General with my very little experience I believe that in GRE the most important thing to do exante, i.e. before the test day, is to practice a lot. Thus, try to find as many as possible practice tests. I made the mistake to take many tests at the first month of my study and now I am a little bit scanty of them. So...try not to be very extravagant with them.
(6) The most important: Download the GRE ETS Software (free) Powerprep. Work on this thoroughly and diligently. Generally, I believe that all other softwares for GRE are not that good (Kaplan, Barron, ARCO, Princeston): bad scoring procedure and they lie when they say that they have CAT tests. The only true CAT is ETS Powerprep.
(7) The picture of the guy in the photo does not convince me at all! (kidding)
(8) For the Q section generally, I believe that there is a lack of good material in the market concerning Maths for GRE. Barrons again has the most comprehensive analysis and Kaplans has some useful formulas in the end of the book. Nevertheless if you have studied maths in the university you will find most of these preparation notes trivial. In maths the most important is to practice outside these notes (for example, take some GMAT probability questions or make your own questions as you study) and to build the proper test mentality. Most test takers that were longing for a 800 but took from 730-760 have this problem (it is not that they do not know how to solve a simple permutations problem)
(9) The best 10% in Math is 800/800 (92%)...so we have the same problem as I am applying for Econ PhD and only a perfect score will put us in the 90s.

Anyway these are strictly my opinions and as I mentioned I am just a tyro in GRE. Maybe more experienced persons can assist you more.

[ocram81]

Hi Econ,

thanks for your quick reply. I'm also studying economics and I'd like to apply for a Master Degree in Economics in a good University for Economics (like LSE).

I think I will follow your advices buying the Barrons Book and, if I find it, the BigBook by ETS.

Defenitely 700€ for lectures are not for me !

I wish you good luck for your test!

Bye

Marco