apurvmathur

That's an awesome score mate!! Looks like I really am a foreteller ;) Cheers mate!!! :)

Thank you Tanzia! :) Okay. No problem mate listen, if you are thorough with the words then you can expect to crack atleast 550+ for sure in verbal after reading the Barron's word list. However, I want that you try and MAX out on your Quant score and aim for atleast 770+ - that way we take the pressure off from the verbal section a little bit. Also, you didn't mention your practice verbal scores so I don't really know how much you need to improve, but howsoever it is, rest assured that keeping at the word list is the safest thing to do right now.. and the only way to remember them well is to spend a lot of time immersing yourself in the world of words. And try out any which way that helps you personally to remember the word meanings - maybe it is reading them once or twice, maybe it is reciting them, maybe it is writing them down... whatever makes you remember the words well, follow that. I know how frustrating and disheartening this process of learning words can be at times... but keep at it mate, and you'll do absolutely fine. :) Cheers Tanzia, and all the best for your test! :)

Hey mate, I know what you're talking about. But listen, in the beginning stages of preparation you are bound to forget the words... there's no magical technique or anything that can be done to improve your recollection power, all that can be done is that you review the words as often as you can. And even then it might not seem that it is enough because you will be forgetting tons of words still... but the beauty of it is that in the end it all comes together.... you might be struggling with words even after revising it for the fourth time, but the fifth one will prove to be all that is needed.... Exponential growth.... So what I will advice you to do is nothing other than keep doing what you're doing and increase the frequency of revising the words and all your effort will be compounded in the end. Take care mate. All the best for your test! :)

Hey yaswanth thanks a lot mate! :) That's a great score in the Powerprep tests - you can expect your score to be atleast around the average of it i.e. to say approx 1420 if you just stay calm during the test! Barron and Kaplan tests scores are really good as well! You'll be able to review your scores in the kaplan test don't worry. There will be a new option on the upper drop down menu which says explain answers - select the section that you want to review from it. :) I'd say give the Kaplan tests... it will define the baseline and the minimum score you can expect on the actual GRE. A good score on Kaplan will really help boost your confidence, and help you gauge the areas you can improve upon.... and as it is, one test doesn't really take too much of a time, so you can still use the rest of the day focusing on vocab. :) All the best mate! Cheers! :)

Thanks a lot rafath! :) Firstly, I'd say to MAX out on your quant score. Try to score atleast 770+ or so in Quant so that a score of 530+ in Verbal will prove sufficient to reach atleast 1300 on the actual test. Secondly, to get to 500+ you would need a good reading of the entire Barron's word list. I am hoping you are well on way to do that. And even if you are and you're not getting a good score, don't fret because as I mentioned the score levels will most of the times improve in spurts and its not going to be linear. So just keep at it. There are a few ways to cram up the word list and many of my friends took a totally different approach than what I actually did. So just go with what suits you best. Some tend to just cram it up without having the need to write them out, others write down a word a couple of times to get it in their head. I personally wrote down the words I didn't knew. But I didn't cram them like we usually do. I jotted them down in a register trying to remember them as I wrote in it. Once I was finished with 5 word lists I'd go through them all once again - this time skimming thorough and just trying to cram them. After finishing the entire Barron's word list, I made another register in which I jotted down the words which I couldn't remember from the previous register and continued this process. This last week you would want to spend as much time doing the word list than anything - you need to slog for hours together literally, so much so that when you go to sleep you see the words falling down on the screen of your eyes matrix style ;). If you've a job or something like that, then take a leave for atleast 4 days because that's what its going to take. I would advice you to not try and cram many word lists on the first go. What I mean by that is, even when I actually crammed 15 word lists, it was sort of my first revision from the register in which I'd already noted down and skimmed the content atleast once - that is why I was able to do it... but on the first go it will turn out to be pretty crazy and hectic. I will chime in with more if something comes to mind. Cheers mate & All the best! :)

Thanks a lot sushain! :) Firstly, seeing your current score I'd say there's a good enough chance for you to score 780+ on Quant easily considering you've almost a month in hand. I'd say first try and figure out what all areas you're struggling with. If its a particular area such as probability/geometry etc, then you can focus on that a little extra for a while. I'd this book - NOVA's GRE Math Prep by Jeff Kolby which contained basic theory and sample questions for every topic - although I didn't pick it up, I had it in case I needed to reference it. But judging by the content I think it would be a good place to look for concepts if you're having trouble in any particular topic of Quant as its not too in depth and will basically be relevant to the actual GRE. Besides that, the best thing you can do is to try and solve as many sectional tests you can get your hands on - Barron, Kaplan, Powerprep. Make sure that every mistake you make, you try to check out the solution and strategy required to solve it. If its a silly mistake on your part, then note the types of silly mistakes you generally tend to make - you'll be making a lot of them and just being aware of it will help you to tread the water more carefully next time. Also, while giving the sectional tests, try to complete them atleast 5mins before time - that way you would significantly improve your solving speed and still have time to solve a difficult question or two on the actual test. That's pretty much all I can think of right now. Will post up again later if I think there's something to add to it. Cheers & All the best mate! :)

I really did start my preparation 3 weeks before. I didn't need to focus much on Math because I've an Engineering background and have that part handled quite well. The only thing which I wanted to hone was my verbal skills and I spent a major part of my preparation doing that. And yes, I really did try and cram up 15 word lists in a day but it was the second time I was going through with it. What I mean is, I tried to break down my learning procedure like this - 1. I jotted down all the words I didn't know from the Barron's word lists, one word list at a time, and tried to skim through them trying to remember it - my retention rate was 4 on 10 at best while doing this the first time. This took me approx 7-8 days as I went through them all. 2. I tried and cram the words I had jotted down in my register itself. This was you can say, my first revision sort of. This took me 7 days. 3. 7 days before the test I began my second revision in which I actually tried to cram up as much as I could and I did manage to cram 15 - although the next day I was pretty fazed out cuz I couldn't remember most of it. I understand your confusion. But just to make things clear I have no intention of seeking internet fame here, I am just trying to put out my experience so that others can benefit from it if they find anything of value in it - its meant especially for those who have like a month or so remaining for their prep and want to know if they can still get a good score - they can if they put in work, i myself used to study an average 8 hours a day. Also, this post was originally written for my friend in an email, but since it covered a lot of points and I'd been to this forum a couple times I though I'd chime in with my advice as well. But ofcourse its just advice, take it or leave it no problem. Peace.

Hey guys, I gave my GRE on 3rd June'11 and got a score of 1410 ( 790Q 620V ). I started my preparation roughly 3 weeks before the exams. In the first two weeks I studied an average 6 hours a day and in the last week I studied approx 12 hours everyday except on the day before the exam which I used to relax myself and studied only a little. Below is a very comprehensive guide to the things I did. -------------- Material Required - 1. Barron Book and CD 2. Kaplan Book and CD 3. PowerPrep Software (given by ETS themselves a few days before the test by post and also downloadable for free download at ETS Home anytime) (side note : Kaplan and PowerPrep might not work if your PC has windows 7. You'll have to simulate windows xp or something from virtual machine software etc. and it will be helpful if you create a power-iso images of these CDs so that you don't have to shuffle through them everytime you want to practice) Barron (most crucial) - Its word lists are mandatory. Its test practices are all okay, but not the main thing to rely on, only use them as good practice and don't evaluate your actual performance based on it. In my very 2nd test I scored 1400 after I'd scored 1240 in its previous test. Didn't even bother giving it again cuz in my Kaplan tests I was in 1300s during my first 2 tests! :D Kaplan - Helps a lot in verbal and in essays. Its most important function - 3 Full Tests in its CDs along with 12 sectional practices in quant and verbal combined. Give the full length tests during the late-middle and ending stages of preparation. The last Kaplan score will be the minimum you will score in the GRE because Kaplan's test are one tough cookie to crack. So, howsoever you score in both the sections, be assured that your total score will be atleast 30 points more in the actual GRE. Especially in the quant section. So make sure you do well in the last 2 Kaplan tests. I gave the starting two very early when I wasn't prepared and they were a nightmare. In the last one I gave, which was 2 days before the test I scored alright so it was a confident booster. PowerPrep - To be given only after you're almost on the end of your preparation and have finished with the word lists etc. It will have two full tests in the CD along with a few sectional practice questions. It is reputed for estimating how you'll fare in the actual GRE. Not true for me. In one I scored ridiculously low in math and high in quant. I scored the exact in quant in my actual GRE. In another, I scored high in verbal and okay in quant. I scored almost the same as verbal in my actual GRE. But, whatever score you get in it don't judge anything based on it. Kaplan is the main thing. Also, its verbal sectional tests are pretty brutal, so don't fret over it if you try to practice on them and score low. (happened with me and I was a little down because of them for a while, esp since it was the morning before the actual test!!!) ----------------------------------------- Verbal - (In order of execution and importance) 1. Barron's Word Lists 2. Reading the strategies given in Kaplan on how to solve ANALOGY & SENTENCE CORRECTION questions. Analogy question's strategy was a great help - 10/10, sentence correction - 8/10. 3. Kaplan's Word List given at the end of the book - not more than 100 words extra from Barron at max. (after finished with Barron) 4. Practice exercises of Verbal from Barron's given before the word lists begin. (important) ----------------------------------------- Quant - 1. DO NOT waste any time on reading theory unless you don't know the very basics as it will turn out to be a sheer waste of time. What you'd rather want to do is solve as many sectional tests you can given in the books and CDs. 2. My weak area was probability and P&C section. But I didn't need to worry because there were no tough questions that could come, only the most basic such as adding or multiplying probabilities, counting nCr/nPr in a question (not even circular p&c problems, but the most basic). That was it. 3. Another main weakness I'd was in solving the graph/data interpretation (DI) questions. But it was mostly miscalculation etc. and not trying to understand the actual question and doing it in a hurry. I used to try to solve the entire section within 25 mins while practicing, while it is actually for 45 mins, so doing it within 25 mins did improve my speed but I lost a couple of points in my practice tests etc due to silly mistakes etc... even if I'd spent time to actually put values etc I'd solve them alright but I just was in a hurry as if doing it before time was gonna help me score more points, typically impatient mentality I tend to have :D. Same happened in the actual GRE, did it way before time when I could have spent time on the one question I now know I marked wrong. 4. Again, take your time in solving problems, you'll have enough time so make sure you don't make any silly mistakes even while practice. I know I know, 45 mins is too much time during practice and one mistake during practice is alright, but reduce it to 30-35 max! ;) 5. Solve all the sectional tests you can get hands on - from Barron's, Kaplan, Powerprep etc. Also, the sectional tests in Kaplan, if you are getting the score of range 22+ on 30 consistently, then that's a good score believe me. It's minimum 700+ on the actual GRE. ----------------------------------------- Essays - Kaplan recommended. There are two essays that you'll have to write and these are the first two sections of the test. One will be an Issue Essay (45 mins given) that will require you to choose a topic between two and give your actual viewpoints in it. The other one will be an analytical essay (30 mins) that will require you to critique the argument that the paragraph has used etc. Essays in Kaplan are very well written but are of a level that isn't required of us so don't be disappointed reading them. It has an excellent strategy on how to write an essay. But don't go too into it - except the first step which states things like defining the topic, scope, conclusion, evidence and assumption of an essay, everything else is just normal common sense after that, but topic/scope etc things help to define a framework and will help to organize your points well. So just read through the strategies provided in it, and read a couple examples in it for getting the info on how to begin and end an essay - the language used to conclude etc. Example - getting sentences such as "The writer's assumption is in-conclusive" etc in the argument essay type thing etc ... Read it two or three types trying to look for things that you can use to copy-paste in your essays regardless of whatever topic you get etc and it will be all good because we can actually write sensibly, atleast okayish, on any topic if we are given 30/45mins. If not, practice a day or two on getting your essay skills alright. There are also a pool of essay topics mentioned on the official ETS website from which the actual GRE essays come from, so you can practice writing 2-3 essays from there. (I didn't do it though) ----------------------------------------- DON'Ts 1. Don't refer any other book/thing other than Kaplan and Barron. I wasted my time trying to remember words from flash cards for a while (which weren't from Kaplan etc but from T.I.M.E - which is a coaching institute for C.A.T exam for MBA in India, so I am not trying to generalize here). Although I did learn quickly from the flash cards, it contained a lot of useless words which weren't important for GRE so that was just a waste of time. 2. Don't waste a day by not studying in the last ten days. I wasted 2 very crucial days - got a good score on my first practice test, felt it will be a breeze and didn't do anything for two straight days. :whistle: 3. Don't study on the last day. Except going through the word list maybe if you want to, otherwise not recommended. I gave a powerprep test in the morning - hopeless! LoL. Also, I hadn't prepared for the essay except studied an hour or something a week before, so I had to devote my last day trying to figure out how to start and an essay well etc... but it didn't take me more than 2 hours (at max. including breaks Lol). But just to be thorough, practice a couple essays ATLEAST a week before. Also, whenever you give any full length test, be sure to write the essay and not be in a hurry to just check your verbal and quant score. I used to skip them but later realized that going through them was actually helpful. ----------------------------------------- Important Observations - 1. The most important thing is, that your improvement on the practice tests is not going to be gradual. It will come in spurts and your score will improve exponentially. You will get stuck in a score range for some time and then suddenly shoot up and be stuck up there. I was stuck in the 1300-1350 region for a long time. Then suddenly I started hitting in the late 1300s etc. Given this rate if I was given a day or two more, I would have made it consistent and could have even scored 10-20 points more on the test. But anyway, there's gonna be an exponentially increase in your score, and so expect a lot of spurts and being stuck on plateaus. 2. The most annoying thing while I was preparing was to cram up many words very thoroughly, but come back to them a few days later not having a clue what they meant. The word lists I learnt in the very beginning I still remembered them well, but around the 7-20 mark it was a haze. It was because I was cramming too much in too short a time. My maximum was 7 days before the exam when I finished 15 word lists in a day! It won't be that you won't have enough time to study... you'll have enough time but your brain will be saturated for the day if you try to cram up too much. That is why some extra days etc are ideally required to remember the words. ------------- Tests - 1. Start with giving the Barron's diagnostic test - ideally from the CD itself - you'll get a rough idea of what you'll need to do. During the middle of your preparation in learning words from Barron's etc, I'd say give the Kaplan's diagnostic given in the book..... or better, go to Welcome to Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, register there and give a test online for free. It's the same as the diagnostic almost, but it gave me great feedback. But because I'd already given diagnostic, most of the questions were the same so I scored over 1550 ;D! 2. Save the Kaplan & PowerPrep Tests for the last week before the exam. No need to waste them if you're not prepared thoroughly with your course. 3. Give your best shot in the practice tests you give and whatever score you get in them, analyze your weaknesses etc and work on them diligently. (sidenote: During the last few days, give tests from ETS powerprep software. Anything you score there is going to definitely be more than what you score in Kaplan. The verbal of it is going to be pretty accurate... I'd say the actual verbal score will be closer to the one in which you score more... and the same goes for quant... in quant you'll score better than you did in Kaplan and this would be a much more accurate evaluation of how you're actual score is going to turn out. ) --------------------------------- Additional resources - Check out this site for vocab - Homepage | Freerice.com. Time pass site for solving vocabulary questions. I used to go on there instead of facebook in the last few days ;) helped me relax and still stay a little close to the coursework. --------------------------------- My Scores in Practice Tests : 1. Barron's First Test (750Q 490V) Second Test (750Q 650V) 2. Kaplan First Test (750Q 550V) Second Test (700Q 600V) Third Test (760Q 620V) 3. PowerPrep First Test (700Q 650V) Second Test (700Q 550V) -- gave it when I was very sleep so even I didn't took it seriously. --------------------------------- Actual Test Day - I reached the test center about an hour early so that I would get enough time to relax and get acquainted with the surroundings etc. Once inside the prometric test center it was all taken care of and well managed by the staff. Just before my test started they gave me earmuffs to subdue the distractions etc - found this to be very helpful. On my first section - Issue Essay - I got a pretty general topic but couldn't write convincingly enough because I couldn't think of examples to back up my claim. On the second section - Argument Essay - I got an easy argument and nailed the whole essay basically. Third section was verbal. Started very cautiously so as to not make any mistakes in the first five questions. Got stuck on an antonym on which I spent too much time (not recommended). The RCs were a little challenging - one was easy, other was lengthy with tricky options, third was lengthy, tricky and had confusing options as well. Overall I'd to rush things in the end because I spent quite a lot of time in the beginning questions. (note : every word was from barron's although they wanted some alternate meaning which was not mentioned in the book, so that was one reason why I got stuck in the antonym question when I was trying to figure out by eliminating options etc) Fourth section was quant, which was pretty easy overall. I breezed through it quickly enough. It had one probability question and one P&C question - both basic in their nature. I actually got stuck in a number system's question and ended up marking it randomly because I didn't want to loose time. But in the end finished the quant section with 18mins to spare - not recommended, if you get stuck in a question and have a good speed in quant, then try to solve it somehow even if it takes an extra min or so. Finally I had volunteered for ETS for the extra section, it was a basic topic on which I wrote quite well in 20 mins. A few clicks later - 1410! --------------------------------- I guess that's what I have for now... or later! :D LoL Anything you guys want to ask - feel free to do so. All the best to everyone! Take care!