himawarigirl464

Hi auguste, congratulation to you! Did you actually memorized all those 3500 words? I tried to memorize all of them, but it was wayyyy too overwhelming. They became familiar with me, but on the real test, I was able to remember exact meanings of only certain words. I was not certain of most of words. All I could do was " oh I have seen them on the Barron's list, but now what? I guess that it can mean A or B" I was able eliminate answer choices down to two or three, but it seemed that I choice a wrong one. I scored only 450. I will retake it in Jan.

I totally understand how you feel. I had studied for over 10 months before I took the test last month. (since January). I memorized as many words as possible and took countless prep tests. But, my verbal score was only 450. I was scoring 550-600 on the prep test, but the real test was a lot harder and I was panicked. I wasted so much of my time for particular questions and I ran out time. I ended up guessing a lot of reading comprehension questions toward the end. Are you applying soon? If you have a little bit more time, I think you can retake. I will take it again in January.

:( I am applying for my MA in social science. I graduated in 2006, and in 2009 fall, I went back to community college and started taking some philosophy classes to get used to school and improve my writing. I explained my situation to my professor(He has PhD) and he understood my situation. So he expected me a lot more than other students. I had a final paper which was 10 pages. He allowed other students to use google and other non academic search cite. But, he expected me to read journal articles through university library and cite them. We had to choose one philosopher and analyze his or her theory by applying things we learned in the class and also from the research. I got A on the paper. I also have only one other paper from undergraduate which I did media criticism on one movie. This was about 15 pages. The problem is that writing quality seemed a lot better on the most recent philosophy paper than my undergraduate paper even though I got A on both papers. My husband who is a MA student said I should submit the most current and good quality paper even though it was from community college. What do you think?

Same with me. I was getting over 1300 on the prep tests, but the real test, I got 450 on verbal and 780 on quantitative. I was so shocked. I wanted to have at least 500 on verbal. I am majoring communication and I want to go to UCSB, but now I do not think I will get in. I am not a native speaker, and it was so hard for me to score around 600 on verbal. I will try one more time before the new test comes out.

I got 450 on verbal and 780 on quantitative. It is good that your major is more toward math. My major is social science ( communication studies ) and I really need to improve my verbal score to 600. I think that 3500 word list should help. But, you know what, I have been trying to memorize so many word for over 10 months and it is hard. I mean you can learn, but memorizing completely and being able to use them to answer on the real test is just way too much. I am thinking that doing more prep tests can be more helpful that memorizing words systematically.

:( I took the GRE on the 22nd of Oct. I got 450 on verbal and 780 on quantitative. Ok. I am not a natural science major. My major is communication ( social science research using statistics). I really want to go to UCSB, but my verbal score seems way too low. I do not have time to retake it since the application deadline is coming up. But, I want to retake it and score as high as possible before the new gre test comes out. I do not want to study for this every again and I want to keep my score for 5 years and use it for my PhD. How should I study to improve my verbal score to around 600 or more? I am not a native speaker and the verbal is insanely hard. I have been studying the barron's word list and other study books. I was able to eliminate three out of five answer choices, but I tend choose a wrong answer out of two other choices. Could you share some of your study strategies? I made a lot of flash cards, but it did not work out that well.

Same with me. I took the GRE on 22nd of Oct. I got 450 on verbal and 780 on quantitative. I am not a natural science major. I major communication studies and my emphasis is statistical research. So it was good that I was able to score high on quantitative. BUT, my verbal score was not good. I am not a native speaker, and it is hard for me to score as high as other native folks. I am not sure what I can do to score close to 600. I am planning to retake it in Feb.

Don't be so disappointed! The GRE is so much harder than TOEFL and hard for natives, too. I am not a native speaker and I got all my K-12 education in my native country. I scored over 600 on TOEFL, but my GRE verbal score was 450. I studied for almost 10 months, and this is what I got. I did everything possible. I am applying for UCSB and the website said the minimum TOEFL score was 550 for the department I am applying. If you have good TOEFL score, it should be helpful.

I do not think you need to retake it. Since you AWA is good and also 710 in quantitative is good.

I have a same problem. I studied all high frequency gre words, and I also studied Barron's 4000 words. The thing is that it was way too many words to memorize completely. So I think that all the words I studied from Barron's book did not stay in my brain permanently. When I got questions, I was familiar with the words, but I was not certain about the meanings. I was able to eliminate three out of five answer choices immediately, but I chose a wrong one out of two other choices.

I took my GRE last week and got 450 in verbal and 780 in quantitative. I am very disappointed. I have been getting 550-600 on prep tests, but the real test was harder and also I ran out time. I am not a natural science major, but I major social science and my emphasis is statistical research. I am planning to retake in Feb. I do not know what to do now. I am not a native speaker.

If I were you, I would try one more time and try to get 750 or more in quantitative. Since you are applying for PhD in electrical engineering, your quantitative score needs to be very competitive. 720 is competitive enough for MA. But, I am not sure if it is competitive enough for PhD. It depends on the program. Usually the program website posts average score for accepted applicants.

I have been preparing from Barron's Kaplan, online sources. But, still I feel like I have not done enough. I am planning to take ETC power prep.

Hi, I have been studying for the GRE since the beginning of this year. I have been covering almost all the sections of the GRE. But, still I do not have enough confidence. Since English is not my native language, the GRE verbal section is super painful. I have been memorizing Barron's 3500 words. I have only three more weeks to go before the test. What should I concentrate on the most? There are a lot of materials to be covered, but I have such a limited time because I work full time. I want to score at 1200. Hopefully close to 600 on verbal. Can anyone give me advice?:(