Jump to content
Urch Forums

Just passed it : Q166 & V155. My 1-month preparation


YannMK

Recommended Posts

Dear all (please excuse my english which is not optimal for the moment!) :

 

This is it! I've finally passed it and although I'm a bit disappointed with my Verbal score, I think by Quant is more than appreciable.

 

Some (boring) background info : 22 y.o., just finished my B.A. in International Relations, but with all the classes I took in Economics it is equal to say that I have a B.A. in Economics with some political science/history/law courses. I'm applying to some MSc degree in Econ (Link to full application profile : here) thus I needed to pass the GRE!

 


QUANT PART

 

At first I felt quite confident : I've always performed well in math classes and never had any math-related problems. And then I took some GRE questions in order to try my capacities and it is needless to say that I was a bit surprised by my non-knowledge ! Although I had very good grades in my Undergrad math classes, I was a very bad pupil back in high school (but a very good drinker) and didn't remember anything about, for example, geometry. Therefore, I scrutinized the Internet in order to know how to resolve this problem and Interned answered me (after hours of painstakingly research) : if you want to perform well on the Math section, buy the Manhattan GRE prep books (note : I'm not paid by them. But I sure should be.).

 

So I bought them. I have nothing to compare with so this review is biased, but definitely, it worked like a charm for me (my banking account disagrees). Now I'm not going to detail every step of my preparation, but here are some important tips :

 

1) Enjoy it. Have fun doing your maths and think of it as being a useful step in your life!!

2) Practice a lot. This is the only way to insure a good score (and minimize random effects).

3) Practice correctly. Don't look at answers. Always find the way the crack the problem by your own. If needed, go back to the theory, but DONT look at the answers. If you "exceed" your timing, again, don't look at the answers, crack the problems first and then look at what was wrong and what was right.

4) During the test : if you practiced enough, you should have 20 seconds at the end of each question to ensure that your methodology is right and that your result is plausible. Alternatively, you can try to prove you results in another way (e.g., picking numbers).

5) During the test : if you have no clue, pay attention to the proposed answers. It may contain information.

6) During the test : things can go wrong. Especially for the quant. Keep that in mind. IF you can't find the answer, just guess, mark and pass. If you practiced well, you will have time at the end of the section to review that question correctly, because you're so fast.

7) During the test, if you have a research section, don't pay attention to it and don't think about it. It happend. Things happens.

 

 


A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR THE QUANT (USING THE MANHATTAN GRE PREP BOOKS ; 1 MONTH PREPARATION, at least 5 hrs a day)

 

--> For those who haven't got the book set of Manhattan, here is how it is structured :

* 6 Math books

* X chapters per books ; for each chapter, theory with problems to solve and one problem set ;

* For each book, Y drill sets ;

* For each book, one easy, one medium, and one hard set of 20 "GRE-like" questions.

* 6 Practice Tests

* In total, something like 1000 problems

 

1) When I received the 8 books (6 of maths), I was excited. And that's the key. Enjoy it. First, say to yourself : man, when I'll be finish with that, I'm a going to be the new Great Lord of Mathematics ; and really, it is exciting to see your improvement. Second, know that's gonna be useful for the rest of your life. And it is. I've never calculated things so quickly. Third, say to yourself : these books are the best quality. If I manage to learn what they teach, I will perform well at the exam. Moreover, there are 1'000 problems to do, and I'm going to do them all!! (With joy).

 

--> In two weeks, I had finished all the theory review, problem sets and drill sets (not the "GRE-like" problem sets) in the six books. Do all exercices. No time limit. DON'T F*CKING LOOK AT THE ANSWERS FIRST! Even if it take you two days to figure out the right answer. Everything is in the theory in case you're blocked.

--> If you have it, also do the problem sets from the official guides (not the GRE-like questions).

 

2) At this moment, you should, and I believed it, had the required theoretic knowledge to look at real-GRE questions.

 

--> For every book, do the easy set of 20 "GRE-like" questions. You should try to these these sets in a timed period (35min.). If you have any trouble solving these problems, go back to the relevant theory sections. If you have the Official Guide, also do the easy set of 20 GRE-like questions.

 

3) Now you should be sure that the level of knowledge you have is enough to do a real test, and you know how the question looks like.

 

--> So do the first practice exam. It's going to be tough. Especially, if you do well in the first quant section, the second one will be full with hard questions and many of them you won't know the answers.

--> My score was Q160. Not bad. But certainly not good enough. Especially when you know that the marginal effort to increase one point rises exponentially.

--> Correct your first practice exam. Especially, pay attention to : 1) Every question you answered incorrectly. Don't look at the answer : find it. Then look at the real answer : if you are still wrong, then do a mental (or physical) note about what were wrong : theory? Misreading? Calculations? No insights (--> More practice! but hopefully you have tons more to do!).

 

4) Now you have a better idea of what the exam look like.

 

--> For every book, now do the medium set of 20 "GRE-like" question. Time yourself again. Same advices as before.

--> Do one more practice test. Mine was 163 this time. Nice increase, but still away of the objective (166).

 

5) Proceed with the hard GRE-like question sets. Those are tricky. Don't time yourself. I tryied too but always finished frustrated. Their problems (especially the geometry ones) are way more harder than whatever you'll see at the GRE.

 

--> BUT DO THEM ANYWAY!! They serve as very powerful tools to insure that your theoretical knowledge is good enough, and will help you to have the right "insights". Again, don't fall into the trap by looking at answers!! This is by no way useful. You HAVE the capacity to do them.

 

6) Now you can do the remaining 4 (+4 if you have the official guide : 2 paper-based, 2 on powerprep). Preferably, start with one official test. They are easier than the Manhattan (from my POW) tests and if you have a good score it will give you hope. If you don't score well then don't worry and keep on working.

 

--> Take the time to correct each practice test as we discussed before. This is actually how I learned the most things. Find your weaknesses. Here is the evolution of scores for me (for the 4+4 tests : m denotes manhattan, o denotes official) :

164o, 166m (surprise!), 164m (disappointment), 166o, 167m, 167o, 166m, 167o

 

So that at the end, I think that I achieved to "stabilize" my score around a certain mean of 166-167, and this is were I landed (although I would have prefer the 167 :P).

 

 

 


VERBAL PART

 

Well, I was a bit disappointed by my verbal score. Even if, as a foreign applicant whose native language is not English its not that bad, I still was sad about it.

 

Let's be honest : I focused on the Quant part and didn't spent too much time on the Verbal. This doesn't mean you shouldn't practice for the Verbal. You must ; and it will make you confident during the test day. What I did was :

*Reading both official and manhattan's book on the verbal section, did all problems. I don't think verbal strategies are very good in both books. I even think that strategies are not that relevant for the Verbal part. But that's my POV.

*Then I did all 10 practice tests (6 from manhattan 4 from official guide) and took the time to :

--> Correct every answer I did wrong, without watching at the answers (instead, find the definition&translation using English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com)

--> Review every question that are non-reading (even the one I did right), and try find the definition of every word I didn't know, and do a flashcard of it. Takes some time, but you learn words.

 

But that wasn't enough I guess. I think I crucially lacked three things :

*Motivation. I didn't even had a "goal" score. You should set one.

*Vocab. That's the main reason for my failure I guess. In two-blank questions for example, I almost always knew one of the two good answers, but almost never the second one. If you want a good score, there are no other solution but to learn vocab.. Stupid I know but this is it.

*Luck. My average score during my 10 practice tests was 158 (even if I keep only the 4 official exams : 157, 157. 159, 159), and my actual score (155) was the worst I had. All the reading questions were on subjects I didn't care/know about that much, such as 16th century litterature or classical music. That's just bad luck, it can happen. In order to fill this problem, you should find a way to motivate yourself to find these questions interesting. I failed to do that.

 

 


AWA

 

I don't have the scores yet, so I can't say how it was ; I usually found the "Analyze an Issue" task pretty hard, not because I lacked by ideas, but more because I failed to organize them correctly. I don't think I'll score high in this section, but if I think it is mainly a question of practice, and the internet is full with brilliant examples of essays (here is one : http://gre5dot5.wordpress.com/ ) ; what I usually did is just write an essay (in timed conditions) and ask the Internet God for other essays to compare with.

 

The "Analyze an Argument" is way more easy to my point of view : I just tried to follow the indications, and with a little bit of imagination, it is easy to destroy the argumentation presented in the text. Usually, I would follow the argumentation of the argument :

* Assumption/Fact 1 is biased because of X and Y

* Let's assume it was true. The author follows on Assumption/Fact 2 which is biased because of Z and W... and so on.

Also, the part in the Manhattan GRE prep material here is one of the few I found useful, explaining what kind of "flaws" you can expect to find.

 


CONCLUSION

 

1 month training is short ; I had about 6 hours per day (usually the night) to work on it, and during the rest of the day I worked as a research assistant, so a "brain-intensive" activity. To avoid headaches and keep motivation up, I did :

* Do some sports. I cycle to my work everyday. And two times a week, I went for a run. Helpful. If you can't run, walk!

* Eat healthy food, and a lot of protein. You brain is going to work a lot, and protein are the nutriments he needs to (re)construct himself. I also take supplementation in the form of Multivit (B-Complex especially), Vit. D, Omega 3, and BCAA (some important Amino Acids). For those more interested in health-related issues, have a look at the longecity forums (type it on google).

* Meditate. Best-thing-ever. 5 min in the morning, 20 min after work, 5 min before going to bed. And anytime when you feel you have a sort of "overwhelmed head/procrastination" syndrom (you think of many things at the same time, you procrastinate!). If you haven't meditate before, just have a look on the internet (here is one good starting point). For the first time, just take 10 min and find a peaceful place : sit in a lotus-like position, with your back straight (you can lean against something if needed), and focus on the respiration flow at the tip of your nose. Then, see how your "focus" diverge as numerous thoughts pops in your head. Try to keep your focus on the breath. You should feel relaxed after the session.

* Do work the week ends, but on sunday afternoon, find an activity that is non-brain intensive. Walking/Sport watching is a must.

 

That's it! Good luck to you falks. I'm done !

Edited by YannMK
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you for this insightful paragraph. It surely helps. I must say, you have very strong scores!

 

Dear all (please excuse my english which is not optimal for the moment!) :

 

This is it! I've finally passed it and although I'm a bit disappointed with my Verbal score, I think by Quant is more than appreciable.

 

Some (boring) background info : 22 y.o., just finished my B.A. in International Relations, but with all the classes I took in Economics it is equal to say that I have a B.A. in Economics with some political science/history/law courses. I'm applying to some MSc degree in Econ (Link to full application profile : here) thus I needed to pass the GRE!

 


QUANT PART

 

At first I felt quite confident : I've always performed well in math classes and never had any math-related problems. And then I took some GRE questions in order to try my capacities and it is needless to say that I was a bit surprised by my non-knowledge ! Although I had very good grades in my Undergrad math classes, I was a very bad pupil back in high school (but a very good drinker) and didn't remember anything about, for example, geometry. Therefore, I scrutinized the Internet in order to know how to resolve this problem and Interned answered me (after hours of painstakingly research) : if you want to perform well on the Math section, buy the Manhattan GRE prep books (note : I'm not paid by them. But I sure should be.).

 

So I bought them. I have nothing to compare with so this review is biased, but definitely, it worked like a charm for me (my banking account disagrees). Now I'm not going to detail every step of my preparation, but here are some important tips :

 

1) Enjoy it. Have fun doing your maths and think of it as being a useful step in your life!!

2) Practice a lot. This is the only way to insure a good score (and minimize random effects).

3) Practice correctly. Don't look at answers. Always find the way the crack the problem by your own. If needed, go back to the theory, but DONT look at the answers. If you "exceed" your timing, again, don't look at the answers, crack the problems first and then look at what was wrong and what was right.

4) During the test : if you practiced enough, you should have 20 seconds at the end of each question to ensure that your methodology is right and that your result is plausible. Alternatively, you can try to prove you results in another way (e.g., picking numbers).

5) During the test : if you have no clue, pay attention to the proposed answers. It may contain information.

6) During the test : things can go wrong. Especially for the quant. Keep that in mind. IF you can't find the answer, just guess, mark and pass. If you practiced well, you will have time at the end of the section to review that question correctly, because you're so fast.

7) During the test, if you have a research section, don't pay attention to it and don't think about it. It happend. Things happens.

 

 


A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR THE QUANT (USING THE MANHATTAN GRE PREP BOOKS ; 1 MONTH PREPARATION, at least 5 hrs a day)

 

--> For those who haven't got the book set of Manhattan, here is how it is structured :

* 6 Math books

* X chapters per books ; for each chapter, theory with problems to solve and one problem set ;

* For each book, Y drill sets ;

* For each book, one easy, one medium, and one hard set of 20 "GRE-like" questions.

* 6 Practice Tests

* In total, something like 1000 problems

 

1) When I received the 8 books (6 of maths), I was excited. And that's the key. Enjoy it. First, say to yourself : man, when I'll be finish with that, I'm a going to be the new Great Lord of Mathematics ; and really, it is exciting to see your improvement. Second, know that's gonna be useful for the rest of your life. And it is. I've never calculated things so quickly. Third, say to yourself : these books are the best quality. If I manage to learn what they teach, I will perform well at the exam. Moreover, there are 1'000 problems to do, and I'm going to do them all!! (With joy).

 

--> In two weeks, I had finished all the theory review, problem sets and drill sets (not the "GRE-like" problem sets) in the six books. Do all exercices. No time limit. DON'T F*CKING LOOK AT THE ANSWERS FIRST! Even if it take you two days to figure out the right answer. Everything is in the theory in case you're blocked.

--> If you have it, also do the problem sets from the official guides (not the GRE-like questions).

 

2) At this moment, you should, and I believed it, had the required theoretic knowledge to look at real-GRE questions.

 

--> For every book, do the easy set of 20 "GRE-like" questions. You should try to these these sets in a timed period (35min.). If you have any trouble solving these problems, go back to the relevant theory sections. If you have the Official Guide, also do the easy set of 20 GRE-like questions.

 

3) Now you should be sure that the level of knowledge you have is enough to do a real test, and you know how the question looks like.

 

--> So do the first practice exam. It's going to be tough. Especially, if you do well in the first quant section, the second one will be full with hard questions and many of them you won't know the answers.

--> My score was Q160. Not bad. But certainly not good enough. Especially when you know that the marginal effort to increase one point rises exponentially.

--> Correct your first practice exam. Especially, pay attention to : 1) Every question you answered incorrectly. Don't look at the answer : find it. Then look at the real answer : if you are still wrong, then do a mental (or physical) note about what were wrong : theory? Misreading? Calculations? No insights (--> More practice! but hopefully you have tons more to do!).

 

4) Now you have a better idea of what the exam look like.

 

--> For every book, now do the medium set of 20 "GRE-like" question. Time yourself again. Same advices as before.

--> Do one more practice test. Mine was 163 this time. Nice increase, but still away of the objective (166).

 

5) Proceed with the hard GRE-like question sets. Those are tricky. Don't time yourself. I tryied too but always finished frustrated. Their problems (especially the geometry ones) are way more harder than whatever you'll see at the GRE.

 

--> BUT DO THEM ANYWAY!! They serve as very powerful tools to insure that your theoretical knowledge is good enough, and will help you to have the right "insights". Again, don't fall into the trap by looking at answers!! This is by no way useful. You HAVE the capacity to do them.

 

6) Now you can do the remaining 4 (+4 if you have the official guide : 2 paper-based, 2 on powerprep). Preferably, start with one official test. They are easier than the Manhattan (from my POW) tests and if you have a good score it will give you hope. If you don't score well then don't worry and keep on working.

 

--> Take the time to correct each practice test as we discussed before. This is actually how I learned the most things. Find your weaknesses. Here is the evolution of scores for me (for the 4+4 tests : m denotes manhattan, o denotes official) :

164o, 166m (surprise!), 164m (disappointment), 166o, 167m, 167o, 166m, 167o

 

So that at the end, I think that I achieved to "stabilize" my score around a certain mean of 166-167, and this is were I landed (although I would have prefer the 167 :P).

 

 

 


VERBAL PART

 

Well, I was a bit disappointed by my verbal score. Even if, as a foreign applicant whose native language is not English its not that bad, I still was sad about it.

 

Let's be honest : I focused on the Quant part and didn't spent too much time on the Verbal. This doesn't mean you shouldn't practice for the Verbal. You must ; and it will make you confident during the test day. What I did was :

*Reading both official and manhattan's book on the verbal section, did all problems. I don't think verbal strategies are very good in both books. I even think that strategies are not that relevant for the Verbal part. But that's my POV.

*Then I did all 10 practice tests (6 from manhattan 4 from official guide) and took the time to :

--> Correct every answer I did wrong, without watching at the answers (instead, find the definition&translation using English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com)

--> Review every question that are non-reading (even the one I did right), and try find the definition of every word I didn't know, and do a flashcard of it. Takes some time, but you learn words.

 

But that wasn't enough I guess. I think I crucially lacked three things :

*Motivation. I didn't even had a "goal" score. You should set one.

*Vocab. That's the main reason for my failure I guess. In two-blank questions for example, I almost always knew one of the two good answers, but almost never the second one. If you want a good score, there are no other solution but to learn vocab.. Stupid I know but this is it.

*Luck. My average score during my 10 practice tests was 158 (even if I keep only the 4 official exams : 157, 157. 159, 159), and my actual score (155) was the worst I had. All the reading questions were on subjects I didn't care/know about that much, such as 16th century litterature or classical music. That's just bad luck, it can happen. In order to fill this problem, you should find a way to motivate yourself to find these questions interesting. I failed to do that.

 

 


AWA

 

I don't have the scores yet, so I can't say how it was ; I usually found the "Analyze an Issue" task pretty hard, not because I lacked by ideas, but more because I failed to organize them correctly. I don't think I'll score high in this section, but if I think it is mainly a question of practice, and the internet is full with brilliant examples of essays (here is one : gre5dot5 ) ; what I usually did is just write an essay (in timed conditions) and ask the Internet God for other essays to compare with.

 

The "Analyze an Argument" is way more easy to my point of view : I just tried to follow the indications, and with a little bit of imagination, it is easy to destroy the argumentation presented in the text. Usually, I would follow the argumentation of the argument :

* Assumption/Fact 1 is biased because of X and Y

* Let's assume it was true. The author follows on Assumption/Fact 2 which is biased because of Z and W... and so on.

Also, the part in the Manhattan GRE prep material here is one of the few I found useful, explaining what kind of "flaws" you can expect to find.

 


CONCLUSION

 

1 month training is short ; I had about 6 hours per day (usually the night) to work on it, and during the rest of the day I worked as a research assistant, so a "brain-intensive" activity. To avoid headaches and keep motivation up, I did :

* Do some sports. I cycle to my work everyday. And two times a week, I went for a run. Helpful. If you can't run, walk!

* Eat healthy food, and a lot of protein. You brain is going to work a lot, and protein are the nutriments he needs to (re)construct himself. I also take supplementation in the form of Multivit (B-Complex especially), Vit. D, Omega 3, and BCAA (some important Amino Acids). For those more interested in health-related issues, have a look at the longecity forums (type it on google).

* Meditate. Best-thing-ever. 5 min in the morning, 20 min after work, 5 min before going to bed. And anytime when you feel you have a sort of "overwhelmed head/procrastination" syndrom (you think of many things at the same time, you procrastinate!). If you haven't meditate before, just have a look on the internet (here is one good starting point). For the first time, just take 10 min and find a peaceful place : sit in a lotus-like position, with your back straight (you can lean against something if needed), and focus on the respiration flow at the tip of your nose. Then, see how your "focus" diverge as numerous thoughts pops in your head. Try to keep your focus on the breath. You should feel relaxed after the session.

* Do work the week ends, but on sunday afternoon, find an activity that is non-brain intensive. Walking/Sport watching is a must.

 

That's it! Good luck to you falks. I'm done !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Dear YannMK ,

 

Thanks for the sharing your experience. I am sure it will help aspiring students like me who are going to appear for the exam in about a months time.

 

And friend, you have got a great score. 321 can get you admissions at many of the top universities, so cheer up, you have compensated you Verbal score with the awesome Quants.

 

Wish you all the luck for the AWA score.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...