1570 GRE V:770 Q:800 AWA:Awaited

[Goldust]

Hi everyone! I just finished my GRE yesterday. These forums have been really useful to me and I thought that, irrespective of my score, I would post about my experience.

Firstly, a little bit of a background. I am in the final year of my Bachelor of Technology in Electronics Engineering. I am a non-native speaker of English, but I like to think that English is almost my first language. This was my first (and last, whew!) attempt at the GRE. I had been working at it on and off for over a year, but really put in some serious effort in the last month or so.

So, I had scheduled a 9 a.m. session and arrived nearly an hour earlier just to be safe. The staff at the test centre was very helpful and the whole thing ran like clockwork. Just one thing irked me. In my test centre, at least, we were not allowed to take anything with us; no pens, no watches, not even a handkerchief. I was just glad they did allow me to wear my spectacles.

I sat down in my carrel, and contrary to what I expected, it was pretty warm in there. Just a good thing that I did not wear any heavy clothing as advocated by most prep books. Moreover, if you remove any item of clothing, you have to exit the room and place it in your locker. In other words, you have to wear whatever you take inside. There was a pair of earmuffs on the table, for which I was glad as they COMPLETELY shut out sound, allowing me to think.

The tutorials started. Without the aid of a watch, I had no idea how much time I spent on them, but I estimate it to be around 15-20 minutes, 80% of which was spent in trying to compose myself (in vain). One thing which struck me was that contrary to what is said in Barron’s, you are not allowed to work on the scratch paper during any untimed section. Didn’t matter, because I hardly use the scratch paper anyways. Just a heads up though.

After the tutorials, there were quite a few background questions, like your major, your average scores, etc. Finally, at long last, the issue essay prompt came up. Both topics were prominent ones from the pool, having been repeated in various guises over and over again. I chose the one I felt I would be able to do more justice towards. Somehow, nerves wouldn’t let me think clearly. I feel that I didn’t do full justice to the topic and digressed quite a bit. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I managed to finish with 5 minutes to spare.

The argument essay was next. Now, in practice, I always finished the argument essay on the dot. Here, I read through the argument quickly, listed my points and began writing, Bad idea! Turns out the argument compared an incumbent and a fresh candidate, whereas I assumed that it compared two fresh candidates. When I realized this, I had around 10 minutes to go. I spent the rest of the time massaging my essay in order to make it more convincing. Nonetheless, I feel that I managed to point out quite a number of flaws in the argument. On the whole, however, I was less than satisfied with my AWA.

Next came the ten-minute break, which I took. Had a drink and stretched for a bit. Went back to my seat and waited for the break timer to count down to zero. I don’t know why but I was expecting a Quantitative section next. As luck would have it, the next section was Quants indeed.

I started out cautiously, quadruple-checking my first few answers. Gradually, as my confidence levels rose, I started working faster. I think it was here that I made my first mistake. On the 11th question, which was a DI one, I ended up looking at the wrong column in a table. Worse still, I realized this on the 12th question. However, instead of beating myself up about it, I tried to do the section as well as I could. That was when things started getting interesting.

You see, all the questions beyond around number 14, were surprisingly easy. In fact, there was one question which needed ABSOLUTELY no knowledge of mathematics. Any attempt to apply a mathematical concept would have resulted in a guaranteed wrong answer. Continuing like this, I finished my section with 10 minutes to spare. I felt that I had torpedoed my score, since the questions never reached a very difficult level at all.

After the one-minute break, I came across the weirdest Verbal section I have ever seen. It started out OK, with two antonyms, 1 analogy and 1 SC. Then came the dreaded RC in questions 5-6. Now, I know what people say. An early RC signifies a lower score. However, I was confident that I had attempted the previous questions correctly. Moreover, the passage itself was relatively difficult. Anyways, I persevered. And that’s where dread changed into perplexity. You see, I got a 25-line RC in question 5-6, a 40-line RC in question 9-10 and a 110-line RC in questions 13-16. Just over half the section, and 3 RC’s already! I had never experienced anything liked it. I approached the last 14 questions with 12 minutes remaining on the clock. Most of the questions were easy enough, and I did not get any more RC’s. Finished the section with around 9 minutes to spare.

On the whole, Verbal was not very difficult. Two of the RC’s were of a relatively high level, whereas one was of average difficulty. All but one word were from Barron’s. Even the unknown word was a verb form of the opposite of an adjective which was in Barron’s. I think I messed up a few questions in the RC’s and may be one each in analogies and SCs. Again, the easy level of the Verbal section disconcerted me.

After the verbal section, I was having nightmares of having to retake the GRE. I did not get an experimental section, but was offered a choice of attempting to do a Research section. I chose to do it and it was an Argument. I approached it as I had done all my arguments. 20 minutes into it, I realized this was going better than what I had done in my actual Argument. Angry at that thought, I exited the section without even checking my work.

A couple of screens confirming that I wanted to see my scores and voila! I was gob smacked by what I saw. I was so excited, I almost immediately went to the next screen. Selected the schools to receive my scores, confirmed them and left the centre. As I was leaving, I was handed a feedback form regarding the testing centre. I think I let my good spirits come in the way of my objectivity and gave the test centre top scores in all aspects.

So, anyways, that was my experience with the GRE. Any queries or comments are always welcome. I have one question though. Does anyone know how long does it take for the scorecards to reach the test-takers in India? After all, ETS does put a disclaimer on the two weeks that they quote.

[us_is_near]

Originally Posted by Goldust

Hi everyone! I just finished my GRE yesterday. These forums have been really useful to me and I thought that, irrespective of my score, I would post about my experience.

Firstly, a little bit of a background. I am in the final year of my Bachelor of Technology in Electronics Engineering. I am a non-native speaker of English, but I like to think that English is almost my first language. This was my first (and last, whew!) attempt at the GRE. I had been working at it on and off for over a year, but really put in some serious effort in the last month or so.

So, I had scheduled a 9 a.m. session and arrived nearly an hour earlier just to be safe. The staff at the test centre was very helpful and the whole thing ran like clockwork. Just one thing irked me. In my test centre, at least, we were not allowed to take anything with us; no pens, no watches, not even a handkerchief. I was just glad they did allow me to wear my spectacles.

I sat down in my carrel, and contrary to what I expected, it was pretty warm in there. Just a good thing that I did not wear any heavy clothing as advocated by most prep books. Moreover, if you remove any item of clothing, you have to exit the room and place it in your locker. In other words, you have to wear whatever you take inside. There was a pair of earmuffs on the table, for which I was glad as they COMPLETELY shut out sound, allowing me to think.

The tutorials started. Without the aid of a watch, I had no idea how much time I spent on them, but I estimate it to be around 15-20 minutes, 80% of which was spent in trying to compose myself (in vain). One thing which struck me was that contrary to what is said in Barron’s, you are not allowed to work on the scratch paper during any untimed section. Didn’t matter, because I hardly use the scratch paper anyways. Just a heads up though.

After the tutorials, there were quite a few background questions, like your major, your average scores, etc. Finally, at long last, the issue essay prompt came up. Both topics were prominent ones from the pool, having been repeated in various guises over and over again. I chose the one I felt I would be able to do more justice towards. Somehow, nerves wouldn’t let me think clearly. I feel that I didn’t do full justice to the topic and digressed quite a bit. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I managed to finish with 5 minutes to spare.

The argument essay was next. Now, in practice, I always finished the argument essay on the dot. Here, I read through the argument quickly, listed my points and began writing, Bad idea! Turns out the argument compared an incumbent and a fresh candidate, whereas I assumed that it compared two fresh candidates. When I realized this, I had around 10 minutes to go. I spent the rest of the time massaging my essay in order to make it more convincing. Nonetheless, I feel that I managed to point out quite a number of flaws in the argument. On the whole, however, I was less than satisfied with my AWA.

Next came the ten-minute break, which I took. Had a drink and stretched for a bit. Went back to my seat and waited for the break timer to count down to zero. I don’t know why but I was expecting a Quantitative section next. As luck would have it, the next section was Quants indeed.

I started out cautiously, quadruple-checking my first few answers. Gradually, as my confidence levels rose, I started working faster. I think it was here that I made my first mistake. On the 11th question, which was a DI one, I ended up looking at the wrong column in a table. Worse still, I realized this on the 12th question. However, instead of beating myself up about it, I tried to do the section as well as I could. That was when things started getting interesting.

You see, all the questions beyond around number 14, were surprisingly easy. In fact, there was one question which needed ABSOLUTELY no knowledge of mathematics. Any attempt to apply a mathematical concept would have resulted in a guaranteed wrong answer. Continuing like this, I finished my section with 10 minutes to spare. I felt that I had torpedoed my score, since the questions never reached a very difficult level at all.

After the one-minute break, I came across the weirdest Verbal section I have ever seen. It started out OK, with two antonyms, 1 analogy and 1 SC. Then came the dreaded RC in questions 5-6. Now, I know what people say. An early RC signifies a lower score. However, I was confident that I had attempted the previous questions correctly. Moreover, the passage itself was relatively difficult. Anyways, I persevered. And that’s where dread changed into perplexity. You see, I got a 25-line RC in question 5-6, a 40-line RC in question 9-10 and a 110-line RC in questions 13-16. Just over half the section, and 3 RC’s already! I had never experienced anything liked it. I approached the last 14 questions with 12 minutes remaining on the clock. Most of the questions were easy enough, and I did not get any more RC’s. Finished the section with around 9 minutes to spare.

On the whole, Verbal was not very difficult. Two of the RC’s were of a relatively high level, whereas one was of average difficulty. All but one word were from Barron’s. Even the unknown word was a verb form of the opposite of an adjective which was in Barron’s. I think I messed up a few questions in the RC’s and may be one each in analogies and SCs. Again, the easy level of the Verbal section disconcerted me.

After the verbal section, I was having nightmares of having to retake the GRE. I did not get an experimental section, but was offered a choice of attempting to do a Research section. I chose to do it and it was an Argument. I approached it as I had done all my arguments. 20 minutes into it, I realized this was going better than what I had done in my actual Argument. Angry at that thought, I exited the section without even checking my work.

A couple of screens confirming that I wanted to see my scores and voila! I was gob smacked by what I saw. I was so excited, I almost immediately went to the next screen. Selected the schools to receive my scores, confirmed them and left the centre. As I was leaving, I was handed a feedback form regarding the testing centre. I think I let my good spirits come in the way of my objectivity and gave the test centre top scores in all aspects.

So, anyways, that was my experience with the GRE. Any queries or comments are always welcome. I have one question though. Does anyone know how long does it take for the scorecards to reach the test-takers in India? After all, ETS does put a disclaimer on the two weeks that they quote.

Hey congos for the gr8 score!!
I agree that a general belief is that a early n a dreaded RC signifies that something's amiss, i may sound heretical but i think thats just another tainted belief. Nobody can accurately predict GRE algo however it would be interesting 2 knw how GRE selects the no of RC that hv 2 appear. In all the practice test that i hv given i hv been getting 3 RC's.

Coming to maths, i hv heard this time n again frm ppl in this forum n even amongst my frnd circle that GRE quants on actual test is tougher than ne other test u would hv taken be4, im not sure if other tests r a bit condescending, dya contest that thght?

I hv a test in a weeks time, ne words of wisdom?

Cheers

[Goldust]

Well, I have never heard of anyone getting more than 3 RC's in Verbal, though one of my prep books (don't remember which) said that you could get up to 4.

In Quants, I would have to say that even I had been told time and again, from engineering students mind you, that the level of Quants was far higher than anything ever encountered, and that it took the entire 45 minutes to complete. While I agree that the type of problems I got were very different from those I had encountered before, I would not call them tough. If you just thought through them before getting down to calculations, they were fairly easy. Most of them required some amount of common sense along with mathematical ability. And as I said, there was one question which did not require any mathematical skill.

So, if you have a week's time, just continue practicing a little bit. Best of luck!

[huzach]

can u list ur power prep and other softwares scores?

[huzach]

hi,
could u advice me, regarding how to prepare in order to retake the test, on my thread.
http://www.urch.com/forums/just-fini...-1080-gre.html (1080 in GRE)

how much had u scored in power prep tests?

huzach

[mailrachit]

i am taking gre in 2 months. can u please guide me.
i have done the word list once and i am now revising it.
what tests should i take & in what order.
btw congrats!! & thanks in advance

[Mervin2008]

Whoa,Amazing score.well done !!!

[Goldust]

Thanks a lot for the compliments, people. As requested by some, I thought I would post the materials I used for prep here. Note that I am only covering the Verbal and Quants sections here. All scores listed below are for software tests; no paper-based test scores are included.

PRINTED MATERIAL

BIG BOOK: Don’t leave home without it.

I only went through the Verbal sections, being warned against the absurdly low levels of the Quants sections. I strongly recommend that you complete all 54 Verbal sections in here. They are the closest you can get to the actual thing. They encompass a wide range of questions from the antonym of SEND (x RECEIVE) to a passage on maladaptive frailties (?!?). On average, I would get around 2-3 questions wrong per section. Undoubtedly, the best possible prep for the real Verbal section.

BARRON’S: Old Faithful.

Excellent all-round practice. The Quants section in here was the first thing I did in my overall prep. The 14 review sections in Quants are as good as anything I have ever seen. Great verbal section, and who can grouse against the Master Word List? My only complaints are a less than satisfactory AWA section and an unoriginal CD. The CAT on the CD could have carried a larger pool of topics. My scores for the CAT were:-

Barron's 1: V: 760 Q: 800
Barron's 2: V: 800 Q: 800

KAPLAN’S PREMIER PROGRAM: Pretentious.

A real let-down in my opinion. It seems that the writers wasted too much time in making the book neat and presentable. The Quants sections were absurd. Barron’s had better Verbal sections. AWA could have focused more on writing the actual essay. And what’s the deal with just one model test? Looks like the authors tried sacrificing quantity for quality and didn’t make it. The only good thing about this was the section on Grad school Admissions at the end of the book. It offers some solid advice on applying and securing admission to the college of your choice.

The CD, on the other hand, was a complete contrast to the book. The individual section tests were tough. Unfortunately, I never noted down the scores for those sections. The 3 CATs were great for attempting once. However, the scores were extremely pessimistic. The online companion provided monthly tests and an additional practice CAT. So, all in all, a good investment just for the CD and online facilities. My scores here were:-

Kaplan Online: V: 660 Q: 800
Kaplan CAT 1: V: 690 Q: 790
Kaplan CAT 2: V: 690 Q: 790
Kaplan CAT 3: V: 680 Q: 790

NOVA: Startling contrasts.

This book provided the most comprehensive Quants practice that I have ever seen. The Verbal section was pretty difficult and had some blatant errors. AWA sections had nice model essays, though focused a bit too much on grammar in my opinion. The best thing, though, was the number of tips provided for each section. The printed material was surely value-for-money.

The CD was another thing however. I couldn’t imagine that after writing such a great book, such an amateurish CD could be put forth. The questions were ripped out from the book, and the buttons to click in order to answer the questions were not in the place they would be on the real GRE. Moreover, the scoring scheme did not take into account the difficulty level of the questions. And worst of all, the geniuses did not even provide a score at the end of the test. They told you to double your raw score and look it up from a conversion chart. Now, the conversion chart had 10-point decreases in scores for single number decreases in questions. What this meant that getting a single question wrong in the Verbal section reduced your score by 20 points. Hence, my scores ended up being:-

Nova CD 1: V: 740 Q: 800
Nova CD 2: V: 740 Q: 790
Nova CD 3: V: 760 Q: 800

SOFTWARE ONLY

800TESTS: Monster!

I gave these tests so long ago that I do not even remember where I recorded my scores. My only memory of these tests was that the level far exceeded anything in other prep materials. Getting two questions wrong in Quants bundled your score down to 720! I always found a couple of words in the Verbal sections that I did not know. On the whole, it was OK as long as you didn’t place too much stock by the scores.
GRE BIBLE: Piece of sh*t.

This was the worst piece of prep software that I ended up having the misfortune of purchasing. Riddled with errors throughout! I remember reading an answer which said that the analogy was THIRSTY:QUENCH when in fact it was VINDICTIVE:REVENGE. Model essays were provided that should not have got more than a 3. The graphs in the Quants section were seriously flawed. And oh, you couldn’t even see which questions you got wrong at the end of a CAT, let alone review the. All in all, do not but it! My scores in the CAT were:-

GRE Bible 1: V: 800 Q: 800
GRE Bible 2: V: 780 Q: 800
GRE Bible 3: V: 800 Q: 760
GRE Bible 4: V: 800 Q: 780

POWERPREP: Master class.

The only complaint that I have was the limited number of practice sections in here (which far exceeded what most other software provided). It gave a real feel of the GRE. The reason, I believe, that I was able to stay calm on the real thing was because I was so used to this software. Besides, I believe that it gives a pretty good idea of how much you can expect to score on the actual GRE. The score-reporting by education areas and the Math Review guide were useful additions. Hands down, the best software I have used for my prep. My scores were:-

Powerprep 1: V: 790 Q: 800
Powerprep 2: V: 730 Q: 800

PRINCETON REVIEW: So-so.

I got hold of the CD around a week before my test. I just went through the alleged CATs. My scores are posted below. When I tried taking the tests again, the questions remained the same, so I am doubtful as to how adaptive the software really is. The questions were pretty standard. What irritated me the most was the inability to turn off the clock, which even counted down the seconds. Really distracting, when you are trying to read a passage. I wouldn’t suggest that you buy it, but if you can get it from a friend or someone, it may be worth attempting it.

Princeton 1: V: 720 Q: 800
Princeton 2: V: 720 Q: 780
Princeton 3: V: 800 Q: 800
Princeton 4: V: 720 Q: 800

TESTMAGIC FORUMS: The place to be.

I know that these forums don’t count as software. However, they proved really useful in the final month of my prep. The Math section is always filled with interesting problems obtained from various sources. So, you are assured of being exposed to a wide variety of questions. In fact, I got a couple of questions on my Quants section in the GRE right from these forums. Moreover, when you are unable to understand why a particular BB answer is correct, the Verbal section is the place to search. I even made a bookmark in Firefox for this site that allowed me to search for analogies and antonyms through Google. So, thanks a lot everybody.

These are all the prep materials that I can remember using. If anyone has any queries, please post them here. I will see if I can help.

[Bayern]

Two questions. Is the Quantitative section in the Big Book really of lower quality than the original exam? I find it surprising, because we do not expect huge changes in the standard of the exam over the years. The second question is, do you have any suggested order of doing the prep? such as Barron's first, followed by Big Book... something like that?

[huzach]

I always have the same query as Bayern's. Also, can u suggest the approach for preparing Quant section. as in which material to go thru and in what sequence?

wud appreciate a repy.