Giving my GRE Oct 22 -- need advice from maestros

[creativelives]

Sorry this is my third post of the same message, but i was advised to post a separate thread. Just so thrilled firstly to find a discussion group. I was trying hard, but guess I was just using the wrong search words.

I have lots of questions, so could KAUSHIKR, MANOJBHAVE, SEENYDESAI, and XAERO please respond (and any otehrs who've taken the test in october):

1. Do the first 5 questions count the most in your opinion? All test guides insist they do. what do you think?

2. If so, what were the first five questions in verbal like? any RCs?

3. How many RCs did you guys get and how long? I know that seeny got three RCs of 35, 80, 30? others?

4. When did the 10 minute break come? after the first verbal?

5. When to Stop a Section : Princeton Review and Insider's Guide to GRE CAT (v.good, btw) both insist to either stop after having reached the minimum requirment of questions (24 in verbal, 23 in math) or to guess very selectively, because they say that after this point, the scores dont change much at all, at the most +-30. Kaplan, on the other hand, says that severe penalties are allotted for any unanswered question. What is true? i do face a time shortage sometimes. what strategy should i follow?

6. A Princeton Review diagnostic exam (on their CD) gave me my score changes with each question. I got the first 5 questions of verbal correct and i had a 700 (starting off with 550). My sixth question was wrong and i got a 670. I ended with a 710, after having reached 720 on my 24th question. I finished answering 29 questions. on math, i had a 450 wheni got question 1 wrong and then with question 5 & 6 wrong i ahd a 500. The between #7 & #24, i got #14 and #22 wrong and i got an overall score of 740 though. do you think that this diagnostic exam must be incrementing/decrementing scores in a manner similar to the actual CAT?

7. like a fool, i did my powerpreps as the first step to my practice when i started two months ago. i got a score of 630 in verbal and 710 in math. and this is without very little prior practice or skills. what do you think? is this a reliable score? what does it prophesize?

8. i am worried about my vocab. i have prepared about 800 flashcards and i am learning about 200 word roots, but i feel with every practice exam, i dont know so many words (esp in antonyms where this is a huge disadvantage). any ideas?

9. what are the other new topics in math? somebody mentioned parabola?! where do i learn that from? it's not covered anywhere.

10. i need to get at least a 750 in both. verbal and essays are probably more important because i am applying for the humanities /social sciences. but when i took the VERY HARD tests of 800score.com, i got a 530 and 590 -- way below what i normally get...that freaked me out! are these tests at 800score harder than normal?

i know i have inundated u guys with questions, but i would really appreciate your help.

THANKS A MILLION

[Erin]

Whew! A million questions. Let me try to answer some.

Originally posted by creativelives

1. Do the first 5 questions count the most in your opinion? All test guides insist they do. what do you think?

No, and I quote ETS: "It is not true that the first questions are worth more than later questions." Or something like that. I have this in writing from ETS.

[Erin]

Originally posted by creativelives

5. When to Stop a Section : Princeton Review and Insider's Guide to GRE CAT (v.good, btw) both insist to either stop after having reached the minimum requirment of questions (24 in verbal, 23 in math) or to guess very selectively, because they say that after this point, the scores dont change much at all, at the most +-30. Kaplan, on the other hand, says that severe penalties are allotted for any unanswered question. What is true? i do face a time shortage sometimes. what strategy should i follow?

In general, quality beats out quantity. Try to answer correctly as many as you can. If you have to give up one to five questions by doing this, you'll probably be better off. My little brother took the GRE a few months ago and got well above 700 on the three sections, and did not answer all the questions on the Analytical section (now gone forever...).

A lot of this stuff is a judgment call. Nobody can tell you the best thing to do. If you see a question, and you think you can beat it, go for it. Otherwise, move on.

[Erin]

BTW, in most discussion groups, questions with short answer get the most responses.

[seenydesai]

1st 5 questions i got were antonyms and sentence completions but my friend got 2nd ques as rc(80 lines).
So it can be anything.

in my case 10 min break came after the awa(45+30 min)

its good if u prep properties of conics.I did from higher secondary book.Its not difficult to get them from any higher std. geom. book.

Best of luck!

[creativelives]

erin,

a question. if ETS claims that the first 5 questions indeed do not count more, how can they also claim that the computer decides the student's general level in the beginning, and then zooms in onto a more specific level? doesn't a general level imply a greater score range than the specific level.

i am guess what they mean is that if you get the 10 questions right and the remaining 20 wrong, then your score can go below your previously 'decided' general level. in other words, the general level holds as long as you do reasonably well on the other questions.

what do you think? every guide, incl. Princeton Review, Kaplan and Insider's, profess that the first five questions are decisive.