maple_leaf Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Hello all, I was just wondering how much time you are putting in per day/ per week towards your preparation of GRE. I am going to take my GRE sometime at the end of September. I am spending like an hour or two per day studying for GRE. I know I should be studying more but I am working full time and after coming back home at the end of the day, I just want to sleep :D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 I am glad you created this thread, I want to ask the exact same question. I heard something crazy like 12 hours everyday for 5 months... but i will not be able to put in that much because of other commitments... so can some one please help us? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 I have no life...I am at work, eating lunch on my desk and checking TM forums..yeh...How can someone study 12hours/ day for 5 months? I do not think I can do it even if I did not have this job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smileysquared Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 I would say 6-8 weeks would be sufficient. Practice is key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 I guess it depends on how important a high GRE score is for you, and how high you were scoring to begin with on practice tests. Personally I am taking the GRE on Monday, and I have been preparing for about 3 weeks, about 2-3 hours a day (but not every single day). I only found these boards a few days ago and they've helped me locate resources. My time went into reviewing the math (Barron's book), learning vocabulary (Barron's list, and also some lists I've found online), reading threads on this board and doing practice tests, such as 800score and big CD. So far my practice tests are in the 700 range which is good enough for me. Maybe with another 100 hours of practice I could get into the 800 range but it's just not worthwhile for me as my grad school plans won't change much if I get in the 700s or if I get perfect scores. Personally I think that anyone who is spending 40 hour weeks studying for the GRE has got their priorities out of order and they should be spending their time on more productive activities such as work or their actual courses. However, I'm a native English speaker so I can understand that someone for whom English is not a first language will need a lot more time to catch up in vocab. etc. Personally if I had to take this test in Hindi or Japanese or French I'd fail for sure. I'm blown away by the people who manage to get perfect scores on a hard test that is not in their own language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 I know that I can get 750-800 Q with a little bit of practice. But I am not a native English speaker. I can speak English fluently and my I have pretty good writing skills as well. However I think that the verbal sections of GRE are just brutal. I am just too overwhelmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayern Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 The thing is, whether the verbal score is important for the schools you are applying to. I have seen you posting your profile in the econ forum. If you are going econ, then you do not need to worry about doing well in the verbal portion, getting closest to 800 is the key. So, as you can see, the time required to prepare depends on person to person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oink Posted July 2, 2008 Share Posted July 2, 2008 Well i worked for 3 weeks about 5-6 hours a day :) got the results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 T If you are going econ, then you do not need to worry about doing well in the verbal portion, getting closest to 800 is the key. I know that the adcoms don't care much about the verbal portion ( when it comes to econ). But I have very little research experience, my undergrad college was not that good and my LORs are going to be from relatively unknown professors. So I feel that to make up for all those shortcomings, I should at least get a 1450+. I got only 1350 in my SATs. And GRE is way harder than SATs. I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and do my best. Thanks guys for all your advice and suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 2, 2008 Author Share Posted July 2, 2008 Well i worked for 3 weeks about 5-6 hours a day :) got the results Hey Oink can I ask you how much you got in GRE ( of course if you don't mind me asking you). Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 I know that the adcoms don't care much about the verbal portion ( when it comes to econ). But I have very little research experience, my undergrad college was not that good and my LORs are going to be from relatively unknown professors. So I feel that to make up for all those shortcomings, I should at least get a 1450+. I got only 1350 in my SATs. And GRE is way harder than SATs. I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and do my best. Thanks guys for all your advice and suggestions. hello maple leaf that's exactly my concern as well.. i really don't have that much research experience either... thanks for sharing... have u started preparing for GREs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 I wish I was a native speaker, although I have been studying English since I was 2 still not quite my native language.... Barron's word list seems like an impossible task... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 hello maple leaf that's exactly my concern as well.. i really don't have that much research experience either... thanks for sharing... have u started preparing for GREs? Hey I have sort of started studying for GRE. But I am working full time and I am opting to move to a better job. So its kind of hard to study as much as I want to. When are you taking your GRE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 Hey I have sort of started studying for GRE. But I am working full time and I am opting to move to a better job. So its kind of hard to study as much as I want to. When are you taking your GRE? I am thinking of taking it this November. But I am taking summer courses and will be picking up a few credits in fall as well, so I dunno how I'm going to manage everything... I am sure I'll find a way but for now... I am even scared to thinking that far. When are you taking it? and hey.. best of luck on our attempt to a new, better job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRE Phodu Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 For GRE preparation stratergies I found this site very useful GRE and Beyond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 4, 2008 Author Share Posted July 4, 2008 I am thinking of taking it this November. But I am taking summer courses and will be picking up a few credits in fall as well, so I dunno how I'm going to manage everything... I am sure I'll find a way but for now... I am even scared to thinking that far. When are you taking it? and hey.. best of luck on our attempt to a new, better job. I am taking it sometime in September...I am so scared : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 best of luck maple leaf! u still have time and i'm sure u'll do good. are you sticking to Barron's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 7, 2008 Author Share Posted July 7, 2008 best of luck maple leaf! u still have time and i'm sure u'll do good. are you sticking to Barron's? Hey Zonky, thanks...best of luck to you too. For now, I am just using Barron's. I am using Barron's for both Verbal and Quant. I reviewing the Quant sections and trying to learn the words in the Barron's word list (arrrghhh...). Once I am done learning the words in the word list, I am going to start practicing from the Big book and Kaplan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpalme5 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I studied about 20 hr a week for a little less than a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonky Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I studied about 20 hr a week for a little less than a year. less than a year.... do u mind sharing how long exactly or approximately? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicia333 Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi guys, I have scheduled to take the GRE in Sept, but I am rethinking if I would prefer to take it in early January of next year instead since the schools I am applying to have the earliest dateline of February. Do you guys think doing it in early January is not advisable? Please give your reasons. Thanks very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldman Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Do you think you could be ready earlier? Reason being, if you want to re-take you may not have the option. You have to wait 30 days between re-takes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicia333 Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi, I am rethinking of taking it in January of next year instead of this September because I initially thought the admission datelines would be much earlier. From what I have researched online, it seems like a lot of people say that the longer the preparation time the better. Ps: I am international student hence I am not sure if most people submit their applications much earlier or when the dateline approaches. What is your advise on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maple_leaf Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 Hi, I am rethinking of taking it in January of next year instead of this September because I initially thought the admission datelines would be much earlier. From what I have researched online, it seems like a lot of people say that the longer the preparation time the better. Ps: I am international student hence I am not sure if most people submit their applications much earlier or when the dateline approaches. What is your advise on this? I think January is going to be late for you. I agree with Oldman that you will not have enough time to re-take it ( if you have to). If you are an international student and you are expecting to get scholarship/funding, I would say that take your GRE in mid December at the very latest. When I was in HS and was applying to US schools, I ran into a similar problem. The school that was my first choice could not give me a full scholarship because both my recommendation letters and SAT scores did not get there on time ( the deadline was on february 15th.) The recommendation letters did not get there on time due to the bad international postage system. I re-took my SAT in January and collegeboard took their own time in sending out the scores to the school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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