nahjahrul

learn to understand his thick accent. Lol? I know it's not favorable, but not listening to it is denying yourself some easy exposure to GRE words.

with RCs, the only thing I can tell you is to not try to read it through and rely on that. Don't be like, oh I know the answer, unless you're 100% positive that's the answer. Like some books tell you, RCs are essentially a treasure hunt for the right answer. And if you don't know the answer, try picking the answer that has the phrasing or wording that is closest to the sentence or paragraph where the answer should be found. I didn't have too much trouble with the RCs, so it is hard for me give improvement advice about it. However, being an avid reader is sure to help especially during your down time. I have always read the the whole article first and followed it carefully to be sure I knew what they were talking about. If I couldn't picture what they were talking about, at the very least I would know what the subject of each paragraph was about.

Hi, I'm currently in the midst of change in my academic field. I graduated in Econ and Literature, but I'm planning on pursuing a degree in physical therapy. I just took the GREs with a score of 1510 and UCSF's PT program really caught my eye. However, as I have not completed any of the prerequiste courses needed for the program, I really have to ask which avenue should I take to to completing this units. UCSF has stated that they would accept community college credit for most of their prereq courses except physiology and anatomy, but I've heard that overall it is simply just better and more acceptable to be taking all of the prereq courses at a 4 year institution. This option means that I would have to take those classes probably at UC Berkeley extension which is a great deal more expensive. I was wondering if anyone else had the same question or if anyone could provide an answer or view as to my situation. Is the higher price tag of taking prereqs at four year institutions worth their supposed higher acceptance? Or has someone gotten in a good program with alot of CC credits as their back drop?

Wow, it's all over with. What a huge sigh of relief and I couldn't believe the score when it popped out. I was so scared for the quantitative section because so many of the questions seemed either too easy (lol) or too confusing to solve without taking a big chunk of time. But the scores, when it was all said and done was v 730 q 780! If you'd like to know what I did to prepare, I have to tell you that I took about 6 months in its entirety, but by no means do I think that this inordinate amount of time is necessary to achieve the score I got. I was just really inconsistent with my study plan in the beginning and probably lazy and scared of the material. Anyways, the first time I took the GREs, I got 1310 680 v 640 q, so you can see that I took a huge improvement in the math section. My list of study materials: Barrons: use the book and be sure to do be able to do all the math sections then use the CD for CAT practice under time constraints Nova Math Bible The Big Book Barrons Audio Verbal section with the indian professor Barrons Wordlist Mcgraw Hill: I just printed out the three practice exams at the end for a little extra practice Here's the study program I used, and I think if you follow it rigidly, you could get a pretty high score in as little as a month or two. Woke up at 8:00 - 9:00, took a walk and listened to the verbal audio. Each section is about 45 mins, so it was a nice 45 minute walk. I took a little notebook with me, and wrote down all the words I didn't know, or forgot, or perhaps a definition/context he used that I wasn't familiar with. When I got home, I wrote those words down in a bigger notebook, and put down definitions. Then I put those words in a separate sheet of paper that I would look back at throughout the day. People have suggested 20-30 words, which is somewhat manageable, but I retain 15 words alot better than 20-30. Overall, the audio program is right when it recommends that you listen to it 3-5 times before taking test, because alot of the words, you won't be able to retain, but being to hear them over and over again gives you that sixth sense for less familiar words on the GRE. I honestly, think the verbal section is really about familiarizing and also letting go of preconceptions. What I mean by this is that I realized a huge chunk of the verbal section is sentence completion and antonymns. Well, I used to think sentence completions were like, ok, how can I put words in here so it makes the most sense. This isn't true at all, you must pay strict attention to the words being used within the sentence and seeing how the answers could relate back to those key words and the overall sentence. At the same time, you must disregard for when a sentence sounds weird; understanding this put my verbal score over the 700s because I would ignore answers purely on the basis that I wouldn't construct a sentence this way, but this is exactly why the verbal section messes people up. The same is true for analogies, concentrate strictly on a bridge, and if you cannot find a good bridge, then use parallels. If a word has a neutral word followed by a positive and negative word, you can eliminate all answers that don't have a neutral word, and from the answers you can guess what the bridge is. I also did about two tests worth of the GRE big book a day which amounts to four verbal tests. I printed out my own answer sheets with 38 questions printed 6x throughout the page so that each page could hold 3 tests. I would mark the ones I got wrong and give myself a score. Again, you cannot make improvement with only one test, but you must be able to chart your overall progress. You can find the conversion for GRE scores on the 500-800 scale online. I noticed that I would usually miss an average of 8 questions and then keyed in on why I missed those, did I just not know the word? or do I know the words but missed out on the bridges? etc. I also kept a notebook for SC and analogies for all the missed ones. Before, I started any big book exercises, I would review the notebook and what I got wrong, just to get myself familiar with the mistakes. Math is hard for me, I'm a double major in humanities so to be able to sit here and say I did very well on math is still pretty unbelievable. But in terms of math, I would recommend to go through the powerprep math review as the first step. After that, go through Barrons and Nova's math sections. This should take about three weeks at a steady pace to get a foundation for the problems. Then go through the Barrons CD with the learning mode so you can time yourself and review what you got wrong. I also used Dr Rajus and this forum to great length because it gives variety in problems. The key for doing better in both sections in my opinion has very much less to do with your overall comprehensive knowledge in my opinion and has much more to do with your accuracy, which is why I recommend spending a great deal of time writing down the problems you got wrong in a place that is really accessible and redoing those problems before you study each time. This will not only give your brain a little warm up, but also give you confidence and redoing the problem will smooth out the kinks in your brain. When it comes to the GREs, if you are unable to do a math problem, it is really indicative of lack of depth in some math concepts. Therefore, it is crucial to discover not only why you missed the problem, but to repeatedly do those problems again and figure out the way that would make the most sense for you to do the problem. What I mean by this, is that there are several problems in Barrons or NOVA that explain the problem a certain way, but those approaches seem very odd to me, and instead I took the time to fashion out how I would solve the problem. Like ok this is what the problem is asking me, and I know this this and this, and these numbers are the relationship to this which means this.... etc. So you need continously do the problems you missed over and over again to fill out the void in your head. You can't do what I did at first, which is either to say, ok I'll just do what the book says once and leave it at that, because if you find out you don't think like the book, then a similar problem that uses the same concept will give you trouble. Additionally, you have to be able reason conceptually within yourself. For example, on distance problems where two people are running and you have to find the time where one person starts, the book might set the variable t as the second person running, but I don't like this approach and so I set the variable t as the first person running and I also remind myself of this on the paper I'm working at. In addition, if you don't have concept errors, then it is most likely accuracy errors which again, needs to be remedied with careful attention because getting a question wrong for something you shoudl've gotten right is even worse. Accuracy errors can usually be remedied by taking a slower pace. For example, I have the tendency to do alot of arithmetic caculations in my head, but I found that this was a bad approach for someone like me not too well versed in math, because although the arithmetic might be simple, if you can't do it with near 100% accuracy as shown by your mistakes evaluation, then simply don't rely on something you don't need to do. Take the time, write the arithmetic out and do it slowly. It might seem elementary for you to write out that you need to carry the 1, but do it if you're not a strong math person. Also, another big problem for me was that I forgot which variable stands for what or what I need to solve for. Some problems such as two people growing and asks you how old a person is going to be in some year from now. Now I have had the problem of solving for a variable in those problems, but the variable stood for the starting age, not the age after some years. So I would box in what my answer needs to be which is starting age + numer of years =..... Overall, doing the problems I missed in both verbal and math over and over again each day as my warm up really helped me settle in with the questions that I thought were "tricky". I would recommend getting alot of blank sheets of paper, writing the missed problems down and then writing the answers down in the back and how to solve the problem along with any comments on why you missed it last time. You will discover that alot of problems which you burshed off and said, oh I'll get it right the next time, will come back and pose similar problems. Those problems are the ones responsible for your score.

thanks. I like what you have laid out. It is very good advice, working on my tests right now

I just got done taking the GREs and my score was 670 V 640 Q. I actually don't think the Q really measured my knowledge that well, I've gotten 710 and higher on powerprep, i think I just freaked out. But nevertheless, I am now at a 1310 and I would like to reach a score of 1400+ for Grad School. I have very poor skills in time management and effective planning so I'm begging anyone out there for some advice or anecdotes as to their own personal study plans that got them that 1400+ score. Just to get an idea, I have already done Barrons quant, powerprep, and NOVA math bible. I don't think I retained the ideas especially the math ones all to well. Suggestions on how to do this would be much appreciated. You definitely don't have to answer these questions, but these are the questions that are going through mind right now specifically for those who have achieved a 1400+ score 1. How much time (hours) did you put into the GREs one month before taking the test 2. How did you spend your time when you were studying 3. Specifically, how much time and by what methodology did you take to revise missed problems and review them? 4. How do i get better at handling the different math questions they're asking me without getting freaked out? 5. How did you prepare for the quantitative question section? A BIG THANK YOU to any information people can provide. I feel really bad about getting a 1310 and i'm loathing taking the test again, but i want to be absolutely ready when i take it again the 2nd time.