Gave my GRE on 25 November got 1390 (Q790, V 600)

[muaztrek]

Finally done with GRE, hurray. Got 790 in Quant and 600 in Verbal. Given the fact that I am working full time I am pretty happy with the score. Should have gotten 800 in quant but I guess 790 will do okay for Econ and Agri Econ grad application. I had been planning to give my GRE for eons!!!!

This forum was extremely helpful when it came to quants. Posts by Goldust Grekickboxer and others were really helpful, so thank you guys. In the last few days before GRE i used to spend at least 2 hrs a day in this forum.

In terms of verbal I was expecting 500ish since english is my second language and frankly speaking i simply did not have the courage to go for Barron's 3000 word List. So i was pleasently surprised when i got 600.

I got two verbal sections and in the second one the last question was the experimental verbal question that ETS has introduced since nov 2007.I basically read Barron's high frequency word and two section of Arco's WORD. I believe what came in really handy was the means of making educated guesses. There are plenty of stuffs in the net that advice you on how to make educated guess when it comes to Antonyms and analogies. For me, IMO, those tips were really helpful.

Another thing that I did was to register in lots of free online forum like Literature Online, Philosophy forum and economics forum. These forums were an interesting means for improving my analytical abilities. Not only were they enlightening and fun but I also believe that the interaction with other forum members enabled me to sharpen my logical side. Some might use this method as an interesting means for developing ones analytical talent.

Powerprep, as everyone suggest, is the nearest thing you can get to the actual test. I gave two tests on powerprep and got 800 in both cases and 530-540 in verbal. So I guess the notion that GRE quant is gradually becoming tougher has little currency, although in spirit of "Analytical writing" section one could argue that i do not have sufficient sample size to make such claim, lol.

The analytical section was typical. In the quant my mistake was I took 20 mins to solve the first 10 questions, over-cautiousness resulted time crunch in the end. Thankfully I did not panic that much. This is another good advice, whatever happens Do not panic (I know easier said then done) .

Now that GRE is out of my way, I will start applying to some of the agri econ dept in US and econ dept in Canada. Hopefully all will go well.

[kkaman]

Congrats dear!
I'm also applying to grad school in economics ,which schools you applying for?
I have exam in couple of weeks and have loads of quant material but not sure which questions are relevant(i don't want to waste my time doing irrelevant stuff). Any suggestions?? Thanx!

[vasoolraja]

Congrats Muaztrek!!! You were talking about "educated guesses" in antonyms and analogies. Could you please give me the link to those websites that can train me in educated guessing?
Thank you.

[bkc]

Congrats Muaztrek!!! You were talking about "educated guesses" in antonyms and analogies. Could you please give me the link to those websites that can train me in educated guessing?
Thank you.

Ya Muaztrek.......we need that link......pls help.......

[Wanna1600]

Yep Mr bond - please share the link and watch Quantum of Solace

[ironeye]

Congrats muaztrek!! ... Excellent score for someone working full time... I'm in the same situation since i have a demanding full time job.. would be really grateful if u can help with a word of advice... my test is in two weeks, i really liked the fact that u have ditched Barron's 3500 list and still managed to get a very decent score in verbal.... what i did so far is that have i gone through ALL the barrons 3500 list, but still 50:50 at best plus the math review... what do suggest to do in the final 2 weeks for verbal??? focus on the high frequency list plus The GRE Big Book exams?? and what did u do for math?? Regards,
Ironeye

[muaztrek]

For quant my suggestion is go through Nova and Barron, you dont need anything else, IMO. Study 12 hrs in weekends. If you have 2 weeks, that means between 24 to 48 hrs of solid time.

1)If you are going for Econ or Engineering stuffs, forget Verbal for the moment. I mean in any case you can't become great in english in 2 weeks but in case of math it is very much possible.

2) If you have even more time constraint and cannot even spend 48 hrs on math then i would suggest read ALL the tips of all the sections in Barron and do the 5 test at the end of the book. Then go to 800.com download the 5 free test & do them. If you get 600 or 640 don't worry, their system is weird and penalizes you way more than GRE does. So dont look at the score, just practice. You can do some of the maths of the sections where you have problems, if you have time constraint. Like may be go through the probability section of NOVA and Barron and do the exercise.

3) I found the software by NOVA Extremely helpful. The software has an analogy and antonym section which explains how to make educated guesses. Try to get a hold of this software, the link:
GRE Prep Course Software

4) For wordlist you can check out the following link:
Word lists for Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Verbal Vocabulary

I dont remember everything about analogy and antonym but from whatever i remember here goes:

Antonyms:

Put the word in Context

Change the word in to a more common form, eg taciturn means silent but if you don’t know the meaning then change the word to “tacit” then you know it must mean something along that line.

Test positive and negative feeling of the word (REALLY HELPFUL)

Check for Suffix and Prefix

Avoid trap of easy words (ETS is not going to check your ability with easy words like Champion hence Champion must mean something else, so if you have “winner” in the list probably it’s a trap)

If some of the words in the list have positive feeling and so does your question then drop those as you are looking for a word with a negative vibe.


Analogies

Create a sentence that links the two word

They could be synonym, antonym, part of a class (eg limerick: poem), lack of ( Stupid: Intelligence), intensity (Happy: Ecstatic), Cause Effect ( Gravity:Fall), Worker Tool (brush: Painter)

The thing about guesses is knowing that 1) there is only one answer 2) the more choices you eliminate from the list higher the probability of getting the correct answer. So if you find good similarities between few choices then eliminate them because there can only be one answer. So even if you can eliminate only 2 choices, that increases your random chance from 20% to 33%.

Avoid Trap. Like in analogy they might give something like Government: People and may be the answer is Management: Employees, there is a good chance they will have a choice like Monarchy: President. So knowing that a trap might be there could be helpful.

ironeye, In two weeks you can make it. It will be hard but it is VERY MUCH POSSIBLE. Focus on Math and start Verbal may be a week or 5 days before the test.

kkaman, my list includes UBC Queens UFT, MSU (Agri Econ), W Madison (agri) and Ohio. Just focus on Barron Nova and take those powerprep & 800.com test


Hope it helps

[vasoolraja]

Muaztrek: Thank you so much for your kind response. I feel inspired and enlightened about various aspects in attacking the exam. Your message is a great help to many of us like me who are planning to take the exam!!!

[thesanjeeva]

i have my gre on 9 dec. thanks for thy post. I am referrring Barron , Nova and ets tutorial. I don't feel good to spend time on bigbook, although I should do. Thanks.

[ironeye]

Hey muaztrek!!
thanx so much for the response... sorry if i wasn't clear in my last msg, but i did a considerable amount of preperation so far.. abt 6 weeks or so, BUT with a full time job, and MOST of this time was spent on Barrons master word list ....which i felt not as producyive as i would have hoped.... i'm going for a public policy degree so i'm afraid i do need a pretty decent verbal score!! ... the good news is that i managed to take one week off work so i would have a solid 9 full days to prepare .... anyway... thanx again for your tips... talk to u later...
Regards.....