GRE quant: strategies and material for a good score

[weirdwitch]

I have a 161, with was more due to lack of adequate practice than anything else, so could you guys recommend some good material (free or otherwise) that might help notch up the score?

[setsanto]

Grab any test prep book (I used Kaplan) and just do them over and over again. There's no trick, just spend 2 or 3 days doing problems and you should be fine.

[publicaffairsny]

You think a 5 point bump is possible over 2-3 days?

[Icculus]

Magoosh

[publicaffairsny]

I never pass up the option to pay for a service when free options are available. You pay for a reason and that's because its better! Great suggestion, thanks.

[setsanto]

You think a 5 point bump is possible over 2-3 days?

 

I think that if you're not getting 165+ scores after 2-3 solid days of studying, you're probably just not going to get there at all. You should be able to solve every problem they throw at you already, it's just a matter of practicing it so that the techniques are fresh in your memory.

[fantinity]

Just got 170.

If you have problems with theory, then read Manhattan GRE prep series (you can find it on torrents). They have several books on all topics that cover everything.

Then, you need practice. Magoosh got me 165 when I first prepared, but it's kind of useless the second time, because I've already solved everything there. I would say that the best thing to practice is practice tests. You can get around 10 full quant tests from GREtest Quant prep (not free), around 10 practice sessions from Kaplan CD (you can find them somewhere on torrents), and then just grab every GRE general book you can find, all of them have 1-2 practice tests.

 

To get 165+ you have to basically be prepared for any kind of question they throw at you, because there is not much time to think.

 

Upd: if you haven't tried magoosh it's probably the best thing for you. However, you also need at least some full practice tests for time management.

Also, try GRE Online Prep Course - practice GRE questions and improve your score!. It's kind of a clone of magoosh, but they have some good features. It is in beta version though, so only small part of the exam is covered so far.

[Mathew952]

Magoosh and the Manhattan GRE 5LB book got me to a 165, which I'm happy with (I have a 4.0, letters of rec from people published in Econometrica, honors, PBK, etc). If you have the time to retake, get the Manhattan Guides (come with 6 practice tests, the math is actually harder than the real deal on them) and the 5LB book and just drill yourself through them. It's a long, tedious slog, and you're basically memorizing math parlor tricks, but that's just the rules of the game unfortunately. You might also pick up the official ETS guide and the new ETS Quantitative guide. There's no substitute for real ETS questions.

Magoosh: Magoosh Online Test Prep

ETS Guide: http://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-Revised-General-Edition/dp/007179123X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407757557&sr=8-1&keywords=ETS+GRE

ETS Quant guide: http://www.amazon.com/Official-Quantitative-Reasoning-Practice-Questions/dp/007183432X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407757557&sr=8-2&keywords=ETS+GRE

Manhattan guides: Manhattan Prep GRE Set of 8 Strategy Guides, 4th Edition: Manhattan Prep: 9781937707910: Amazon.com: Books

Manhattan 5LB book: http://www.amazon.com/lb-Book-GRE-Practice-Problems/dp/1937707296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407757657&sr=8-1&keywords=Manhattan+GRE

 

EDIT:

Nova Prep also has a book of GRE math, but it's really better for just math skill building. It gives you a ton of really hard GRE-ish math to crunch through, but it's absolutely horrid for learning techniques.

[thuswindburn]

I'd suggest the Manhattan 5lb book. Drilling that guy got me up to a 169 the second time around. I had gone through about 2 or 3 others over the course of studying but that book was far and away the best.

[Shalom Ichthys]

I suppose that you know the tools, just that you need to be more scrupulous in checking the answers.