Tommy Wallach

Hey Himadric et. al., Focus on a smaller number of books, and learning them really well. I generally recommend you stick to ONE company's books if you can help it, outside of vocabulary building. Otherwise, you're going to confuse yourself, and overwhelm. I'd certainly like to pitch our books, which are a comprehensive 8-book set, but there are lots of other great resources out there. Don't overwhelm yourself with material however. The idea of having 5 books on GRE quant is insane (again, I view OUR books as really just ONE book, but we break it up into categories). The test is going to change soon, however, and then everything here will need to be updated. Also, Hellraiser, I love the idea of telling stories to remember words. It may look crazy, folks, but it really does work. (Be careful though, a lot of words were misused in there. You might have shoved in a few more than you needed!) Hope that helps! -t

Hey Oatmeal, Powerprep is absolutely adaptive. And yes, the GRE math section is on the easier side. A lot of books will bring up harder concepts, because it is CONCEIVABLE that these subjects will show up on the real test. However, you might not see more than one of them, and it may be easier than what you've studied. Still, knowing how to do harder questions only means you're that much less likely to struggle on the real test, and it also helps with speed. Also, whatever other websites tell you, trust me: Getting the first question wrong does not immediately mean you'll get a bad score (it's more complicated than that). And Himadric, taking a class is a totally subjective thing. If you feel entirely able to get all the necessary studying done on your own, then you're probably fine. However, a lot of people, because they're full time in school, or full time at work, or whatever else, find that they need a little bit of structure and discipline to help them study. For these people, a class isn't just helpful, but critical. If everybody could find the willpower on their own, there'd be no need for people like me! : ) -t

Hey Fender, They'll hold on to any material they get for an entire year before they throw it out. In other words, it's not AT ALL too early to send your scores. Once they receive them, they'll open up a file for you, assuming you are now applying. If you turn out not to apply, they simply throw the whole thing out after the application season. That said, you should also have plenty of time at this point to have them all sent later (but you actually pay for that privilege, whereas if you fill out 4 now, those come free). If you know where you want to apply, there's absolutely NO reason not to have the scores sent when you take the test. But no, you can't save the 4 for later. It's do or die. : ) Hope that helps! -t

Hey Lightning Rod, Yep. 800 score is no good. Always stick to the major players. I know it's nice to get free tests, but if you need more than that--trust me--pay for a class or self-study program. You want to be taking tests from Kaplan, Manhattan, maybe TPR (as well as the Powerprep tests, assuming you don't have a Mac!). Most other sites can't be trusted, because they don't have the resources to write big enough CAT pools with a realistic algorithm. As for books, any book that teaches you vocab is good. There's likely no such thing as a superfluous word--who knows what you'll get asked? That said, make sure you focus on the most important words first. If your book doesn't prioritize at all, that's a bad sign. Many other books will provide a kind of "hot list" or the most common words, and you can learn from there. Hope that helps! -t

Hey Healy, For what it's worth, no individual books will allow you to ace anything. It sounds like you're trying to bring your verbal score up. To do that, you need to have an organized way to learn vocabulary (flash cards are good), and should be forcing yourself to memorize somewhere between 50 and 100 words a week. Beyond that, don't take too many practice tests, and be sure that when you do take a practice test, you deeply study not only everything you got wrong, but even the stuff you got right (did you know what all the words in the wrong answer choices meant? did you cross out those reading comp answers for the right reasons? etc.). As for a minimum score, the best thing is to talk to the admissions departments directly, and ask them what their averages are for both quant and verbal. Don't make any assumptions if you can help it. Hope that helps! -t

See my other message! You're overtesting! Trust me! I see it all the time! Tests are not the best way to learn. They are a way to gauge progress. You should just be wolfing down vocabulary words (you used "nonplussed" incorrectly!) and running over the reading comp and math questions you've missed over and over. Obviously your big problem is verbal, not quant, so why do you keep taking quant sections over and over? You're wasting time! : ) -t

Hey Chwf, A few comments here. Your overall structure and length are great, and I even like your overall point. There are, however, a couple things you do wrong here that could hurt you. First of all, watch your grammar, a number of misused words and idioms makes some of these sentences difficult to understand. For example "People who are not socialized enough may also contribute a great deal to a thrive society." You mean "thriving," but there are a lot of word mistakes like this throughout the essay. Second, do not put two examples in one paragraph. Your first example paragraph is a bit vague, so you might have been better off putting one of your two examples there. However, there's a bigger problem. Neither of your examples have anything to do with socialization. Copernicus was an iconoclast (he wasn't afraid to tear down the idols of others), but this has nothing to do with his socialization, which is much more about interpersonal relationships than his opinions or theories. Similarly, your point about Van Gogh has nothing to do with his socialization, but with his paintings. I hope you hadn't decided on these examples early on and were trying to slide them in, but make sure you find examples that are DIRECTLY related to the topic at hand. Feel free to use a personal example if you can't find a famous one. Hope that helps! -t

Hola, The best way to work that out (if you've already taken the PBT) is to take practice tests online (Powerprep, Manhattan, Kaplan, etc.) and see what you're scoring. Obviously, ETS works VERY hard to ensure that the two tests ARE comparable (otherwise, it would be totally unfair to the people who take either the paper based or computerized test), so the truth is that you SHOULDN'T score better on one or the other. However, there are issues of comfort that have a possibly strong psychological effect. However, if you're hoping to exploit some aspect of the algorithm, I'm sure ETS is way ahead of you. That being said, your best next step is to take a practice test or two on the computer, and see how you do. Hope that helps! -t

Byrtis, Honestly, you shouldn't be taking as many tests as you're taking. At a certain point, it stops being helpful. It's sort of like playing a million games of chess without reading any books on chess. You're just going to keep losing, or, in your case, scoring about the same every time. Instead, take all those dozen tests you've taken, and create a master list of all the questions you got wrong. Study that baby really hard. Also, keep reading strategy guides and doing exercises and learning new vocabulary (make more flash cards, sign up for word-a-day lists online, etc.). At this point, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for tests anyway, and it won't help anymore. Hope that helps! -t

Hey Everyone, Make sure you're taking ONLINE, COMPUTER-ADAPTIVE tests to study. Nothing in a book will score you adequately. As for Crack, I don't know them, but I generally recommend you don't take tests from any but the major companies (Kaplan, TPR, Manhattan, etc.) to see how you're doing. While I'm glad lots of people are recommending relaxation, (and it's true that there are more important things in life than tests), if you're not getting the score you need, that means you should keep working! Take a real online, adaptive test and see how it goes. If you break 1500, go play some Dead Space 2. If you don't, use the results to figure out how best to direct your further study. Don't just work generally on different questions, focus in on your weaknesses. Hope that helps!

Hey Everyone, While I can't speak for TPR's algorithm, I can tell you that adaptive tests are very odd in how they are scored. You cannot depend on the number of questions you get right, nor does the beginning matter more than the end (this is an incredibly persistent myth, but it is NOT true once you break a certain score threshold, which is not particularly high). Also, TPR might be using their own scoring algorithm. However, I would generally trust it. If you missed a bunch of easy questions, the test very well may punish you harshly. Try another company's free test (everyone offers one, including my company) for comparison. -t

Hey Freek, For what it's worth, the University of California San Diego has an average GRE score for accepted students of around 1200. It's important that you speak directly with the admissions departments of schools you're interested in and get the word FROM THEM. Other websites can be very dangerous, particularly if they aren't officially endorsed by any serious body. Instead, talk to someone in the school. At present, your GRE scores a bit low for competitive programs, and that could hurt you, as the GRE is taken pretty seriously as an official test. I would thus recommend your taking it again if you want to be competitive. However, have a conversation with an admissions officer as soon as you can. Hope that helps! -t

Hey there, For what it's worth, I wouldn't make any decision about the formats based on difficulty. ETS works hard to ensure that the difficulty is about even. That said, if you're good at the GRE, the paper test will likely be slightly easier, and if you're not so good, it will be slightly harder (because it can't adapt to work with you). However, it is definitely worth noting that the computer based test is simply a better measure of your skills. If you can take a computer test, and the format doesn't freak you out, do it. It will give a better record of who you are as a test taker. However, if working on a computer totally weirds you out, and that ends up reflecting in your performance, you might as well go paper. However, I really wouldn't make the decision based on your hope that one will be easier than the other.