1320 (640Q, 680V)....Mr Wiggles is out of here!!!

[MrWiggles01]

The first time I took the GRE back in December of 2007, I took them practically blind and scored an 1180. If anything that was a complete gift, because I didn't take any practice tests and wasn't used to the CAT format, and I mentally melted down during the english section. To give you an idea of how bad it got--my mind was so disorientated that I could not focus on the RCs, so I decided not to read them and selected "C" for all of them figuring that I'd hit one or two correct (sidenote--do not use this strategy).

So, I decided to try something that most normal people would have chosen to do in the first place: study for the GRE. I initially tried to cram the studying in one month, but I started getting strange headaches that were GRE material specific. My body would only allow for 2-3 hours a day, anything more would result in a headache with mild nausea. Since I was limited in how much I could study each day, the prep ultimately took two and a half months.

I'll give you guys an idea on how my Power Prep scores compared to that of my actual scores:

PP1 700 Q, 590V
PP2 740 Q, 670V

Actual GRE: 640Q, 680V

I honestly was horrified with my quants score--considering I have a slight background in mathematics. However, I can truly say that my quants section was NOTHING LIKE POWERPREP. A lot of the questions seemed like they were from left field. It seems with the Power Prep that many of the questions can be answered in an intuitive fashion, but this was not the case with my quants section (which had a lot of intricate word problems).

Lastly, a special thanks to Goldust for answering all my pesky GRE questions.

[Goldust]

You're welcome, Mr. Wiggles. Congrats on your score. As I have always said, the actual GRE quants are DIFFERENT (not more difficult) than any prep you may do. Your experience should set an example to other test-takers to be prepared for such a Quants section.

[MrWiggles01]

Originally Posted by Goldust

. As I have always said, the actual GRE quants are DIFFERENT (not more difficult) than any prep you may do.

My quants prep included the following: barrons, Nova, PP exercises and plenty of extra BB quant practice. The funny thing is that I can definitely say none of this helped. Interestingly enough, my quants section was so bizarre that I could not provide someone with direction even if I wanted to! All I could say is that there was little to no emphasis on geometry, but a tremendous emphasis on convoluted word problems. However, I must admit that upon reflection, I most likely made careless errors attributed to mild test anxiety. Although my ego suffered a little bruising, and would reconsider retaking for an appropriate quants score, the score I recieved is well above what my programs are looking for. Sometimes you just got to take your lumps!

The english section, which happened to be my first section, was straight forward and similar to that of any BB test. My verbal went up 140 points, and I attribute that to learning the 3500 words and practicing BB tests (especially the reading comps). For people who are slower readers, the only way to give you the necessary time to focus on the reading comps is to spend less time on the antonyms and analogies--and that is accomplished through having an extensive vocabulary.