Aurelius

This was posted a while back and Psychology may not be around anymore, but I am taking the paper based test in Korea in October and was curious to know how difficult was the paper test? Was ppbt more difficult than powerprep or 10th edition? There are a lot more questions on the paper test, so I imagine there is a lot difference in difficulty as the test progresses. If the original poster or anyone else has an opinion on this, I would like to know. Btw, congrats on the 1550!

Very strong score. It's up to you but I would not retake...especially since you don't need to overcome a low gpa or anything. You're in the clear zone and your application will be considered closely. 1390 GRE is not a liability. From what it looks like, you should get into good places. As for Duke, you're well above their incoming average: http://gradschool.duke.edu/about/statistics/admitchem.htm

This severe imbalance in scores is going to pose a problem because it shows you didn't prepare for the verbal, but that you have the intelligence to score much higher....270 means you must've guessed your way through most of the exam (and got unlucky). The bottom line is, it won't fly. One main reason is that to be competetive at a good school you should have a 1200 combined, no matter what discipline you're moving into. Either retake the exam and prepare for the vebal, or go with your GMAT score. Shoot for around a 500 on the verbal and you'll be in good shape with a quant score at 790. This, however, is just one piece of advice...

bridge I'd use = "worthy of" To be exemplary is to be worthy of imitation; to be redoubtable is to be worthy of regard. The eye catcher is A if you assume exemplary and immitation are opposites, but there is no bridge to support it.

In this context it could also mean "unbending" as in the opponent won't back down from the challenge.

I agree with this. You definitely have nothing to worry about at all, since the vast majority of schools either use the latest score or your best score and, in your case, your latest is your best. I would also note that your first score is really quite good, especially as a combined score (1410). Although it should be noted that graduate programs do not (or at least are not supposed to) pay attention to combined scores the way undergraduate schools look at combined sections of the SAT. Also, the only way that your first score 610 verbal is in any way "low" is if you are applying to top programs in the Humanities that put emphasis almost exclusively on verbal section (largely ignoring the quant) in which case 610 might be something of a liability. Yet, the verbal section of the GRE is far less important than other aspects of the application in such programs. Again, this is irrelevant though, given that your current 730 verbal, in the 99ile, allays fears about the ?? program you may be applying to because it's high for every single program out there. If you're going into engineering, 730 verbal is irrelevantly high -- though might help you if you're competing for university wide fellowships. The same goes for you 800 quant if you're applying to say, history programs since the combined score does come into play for these fellowships. While I am quite certain that your 1530 will most likely be the score that's looked at by both the program and the grad division, I don't think you'll much advantage for fellowships over anyone else scoring 1300 +, nor will a 1600 person have much advantage over you. I'd say with scores as high as yours, I bet the only way you'll be screwed is if some aspect (other than the GRE) of your applicaiton is weak.

"But in the current version, it largely depends on plain vocabulary." I think this statement needs qualification. At the lower and all the way up mid to high levels) of GRE verbal ability, one's score depends on vocabulary almost entirely for antonyms and analogies and sentence completion. However, above around the 90%ile, how one fares on the reading comp is questions is pivotal for figuring out where one will fall within the top decile of the verbal section -- especially considering that how one does on the vocabulary based reasoning items will determine the level of difficulty for reading comp passages. I think the current GRE Verbal is good test of verbal ability for native speakers, but unfairly penalizes non-native speakers and so perhaps a newer version of the test in '11 will help even things out for everyone.

What was your breakdown on the quant/verbal for when you took Powerprep? It's not surprising that your verbal dropped on test day, but it is surprising that your math dropped so much. I say this because at the lower and mid levels of verbal section it's all about vocabulary and a lot depends on how you do on the first 10 questions and if you get questions wrong in a row or if you get one right, then one wrong -- all this will effect your score a lot, depending on you how you do. The quant is a bit different because there's not one type of question you have to master to get to a certain level but rather just gradations of difficulty. If your math score was in the mid 600's or 700's in the PP, then chances are you have the basics down and you're getting harder questions wrong. But on test day, maybe your nerves got the best of you which threw you (and your scoring range) off. I'm not sure of the perfect solution. Lacking that, I'd suggest going through all the vocabulary words in big book and studying not only the meaning but how they connect with the antonyms as well...and then study why the wrong "distractor" answers are wrong. It sounds like in additon to learning vocabulary you also need to work on strategy...you might want to try Kaplan along with PR. Learn how to create strong bridges with the analogies which will help shake off most of the wrong answers. Anyway, better luck on the retake.

Does anyone know how the Kaplan CATs compare to the real GRE? I scored 1290 on one and I'm aiming for 1400 or higher (taking the GRE in August). The questions seem very hard, both tricky and obscure.

The answers are not official and there are some wrong solutions. My suggestion is only to pay attention to official GRE answers and explanations (especially for many of the analogies, which can be tricky).

You have a very good score, but I can understand your disappointment based on how it relates to necessary requirements for your program. Check out the Amazon reviews before you go for a Kaplan guide. They are known for making a lot of errors and repackaging questions from one book to the next. I'm pretty close to you on math practice scores and working to get my quant score up over 700. You most likely have the basics down. I think you need to be able to answer a medium-hard or hard question on the CAT on question # around 5-10 that will beam you up, get you to where you need to be. To do this, you (and myself as well as others who are at our level) need to handle the hard geometry questions and probability or anything else funky or generally unfamiliar. A lot of people with 800 on the quant talk about guessing on the last few problems...so I think the key is to really make sure you're giving each questiion your all and not giving up too early on early problems. Running out of time is a natural fear, but if people who get 800 are guessing at the end of the section on the last few problems, then that should say something about how to proceed.... Check out mygretutor.com...I signed up. This seems to be a good website for practing questions. I'm using Syvum as well. Also, if you need tutorials on specific topics use online videos....there are tons of them, most of which are free. Mathtv.com is one....though these sites are most helpful for traditional review of the content and not test taking practice.

"Actually, I got a 700... and when I checked out the diagnostic it turns out I got all but 1 of the RC questions right. The vocab did me in on the other ones... (I'm a native speaker, and read a lot... but that doesn't always help in the GRE vocab). Each to their own I guess." If you missed vocab early then that's probably what took your score down. If you got say, 4-5 wrong then could be 750 or 700, depending on where you got them wrong. The main difference between the 97 and 99%ile is boosting quant and verbal combined score (important for fellowships) and ego. It's not important for schools that look at quant (engineering), it's not important for schools that weigh quant and verbal equally (sociology/psych), and it's not important for schools that only pay most attention to the verbal score (Humanities programs). That said, I understand the urge to want to hit closer to 800 than 700, but that's just egoism. Consider that at 700 one is already over 2 standard deviations above the mean of GRE test takers (who already average 1 standard deviation above the general population in "verbal reasoning" ability). This is not to discount the importance of verbal scores, but to discount its importance at the very top percentiles. And ironically enough, a school that pays attention to discriminating a verbal score at the top percentiles to the exclusion of other parts of the application, is most likely not a highly ranked program (though surely there are exceptions).

Great score on both sides and congrats on raising your quant. As for the 720 verbal, imo you shouldn't be disappointed at all, one iota. It's a great, enviable score (98%ile if I'm not mistaken). It seems where one falls between 700 and 800 score on the verbal comes down to: How you handle the RC's under pressure and luck with process of elimination on those questions. That's it. My guess is you were not terribly lucky but then, maybe not entirely unlucky either.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll try for it, but just be happy to hit 700 or higher, especially considering I'm taking the paper based test that has 76 questions overall. If I get 11 wrong that's a 700 per ETS...on power prep I get between 3-5 questions wrong out of 30 and that's usually the RC's and maybe one wrong or 2 wrong on another question type. But with big book I usually get between 10-15 wrong. It'll be interesting but I doubt think that powerprep cat predicts paper based tests all that well. I plan on buying the 10th edition GRE practice tests from ETS and those tests will probably tell me a lot. As for math I'm studying Nova MATH bible and Barron's...I'm pretty bad at math (especially with the way GRE tests it) but will put in maximum effort on this side as well.

Regarding the RC's, I have improved a lot by practice. The methods the books advise are imo pretty good, especially Kaplan's method of topic, scope, authors main reason for writing as well as paying attention to the whole structure. My suggestion is you practice taking notes for at least a month to get in the habit of paying close attentiion to what you're reading and reading actively. The problem is that taking notes takes up too much time so on the real test you need to be taking notes in your mind as you read instead of writing them down on paper. It's good to practice without taking detailed notes before the test after having a lot of practicing taking notes. Taking notes are the "training wheels" so to speak. They are important because they train your mind to read the passage in the way that one needs to read passages for standardized tests like the GRE. On the first read through, the most important questions you need to ask are why is the author writing this and try to see where they are coming from -- to describe, to convince, etc. Usually the only way to answer detail questions is to go back to the passage after you read the question, so it's no use paying attention to details that you will forget on the first read through. This means that after the first read through you will be able to answer some of the "main idea" and "tone" and "structure" questions, but probably not inference or questions that involve specific details. For me (as for most people scoring above 600 on the verbal), Rc's are the hardest part of the exam and I know will make or break me when I take it in June. I do think practice makes a big difference and the best way to practice is too look for the same things over and over again when you first read so it becomes second nature. This ensures you will get at least half the questions right. Sometimes, the questions get so difficult that the only way is to do process of elimination and hope for the best.

Hello, I have scored 740 on PP1 and 760 on PP 2 on the verbal section. On Big Book verbal test I have scored between 630-710 on 10 tests based on the grading scale that ETS gives on their website for paper tests. I have also scored 720 on a "korean" test that is a former ETS test with questions that seem more in line with power prep than big book. I have scored 760 on a Barons practice test. My goal is to score 700+ on the verbal. The difference in scores between big book and power prep has mainly to do with getting a few wrong here and there, especially in the analogies section, which I ace on power prep but struggle with on bb. I find that the big book analogies are difficult to grasp between 2 answers that could possibly be right whereas on powerprep I almost always see the logic of the right answer right away. Sometimes I stumble on big book vocab (enough to pull down my score) but almost never on pp. As for sentence competion I do well on both types of tests but want to do a little better...as RC, typically I get 2-4 wrong out of 11 on pp or big book...I want to improve this as well, though I'd be happy with 2 wrong on each section. Here is my conundrum. I am taking a paper/pencil test rather than a computer based test and I have no idea whether the analogies on the paper test will be more in line with power prep or big book. I imagine the former but am not sure.... ETS says they create tests and then write new ones for paper admin, so it makes me wonder what they'll be like. I imagine they have to be a bit easier than power prep since on paper one is given only 30 minutes for 38 questions in each section. I am applying to a Hum. program so am more concerned with verbal than math, but I am studying for the quant as well & have good books for that. I will continue to use big book for verbal prep but am concerned that I am scoring below 700 on these tests, even though my powerprep is where I want it to be. I wanted to know if anyone has had similar experience in their prep or the opposite experience or whatever.