MYRNIST

I am a native speaker of English and have always read/written a lot, two advantages which I don't think most people on this site have (most Urch denizens seem to be from South Asia, and in quant-focused fields). So it's not quite as impressive as a non-native speaker doing so well. But thanks for the compliment!

Are you a native speaker of English? I ask because it changes my explanation.

Congrats! I totally agree on Nova, btw - that was by far the best quant resource I found.

Get used to it - I found RC on the actual GRE to be actually more difficult than the practice books.

Adcoms see both scores. People typically only retake the GRE if they want to do better on it the second time around (if you were satisfied with your initial score, you wouldn't retake it). So there is a strong expectation that you will do better on the retake. Yet, you did dramatically worse. That is a quite negative signal for adcoms. You are presenting adcoms with a negative trend in your academic performance - not getting better, getting worse. You can say that there were extenuating circumstances (your injury), and that might even be true, but it doesn't change the fact that you had almost a 25% decrease in your score when most people considerably improve it. There are going to be questions about your work ethic and commitment - not saying that's fair, just how it is. Basically, your 1260 doesn't make the 950 better, it makes it worse. It would have been far better to go from a 960 to a 1250.

My advice on studying: http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-finished-my-gre/134069-1570-800-verbal-770-quant-writing-pending.html samoe glavnoe - zubrit! postoyanno!

950 is really, really low for a PHD program. Without knowing the other elements of your profile, I'd strongly suggest taking it again, because you're going to be fighting an uphill battle in admissions with that poor of a score. Since it sounds like mental state during the test is an issue, I would do some research on "flow", positive psychology, and some other stuff that will help you not freak out during the test.

Old GRE; GRE General Test: On Test Day Revised: GRE Revised General Test: On Test Day

This is quite simple, as long as you know that D is NOT the answer (which you stated in the original post). It's C, "table." Table used as a verb means to remove something from consideration. For example, "we considered Plan A the best course of action for the company, but after learning of its many failures, we decided to table it." i.e. it is no longer being considered.

"hardly _____ kind of story, the ghost story is almost the paradigm of the form" The "hardly" before the blank, combined with the passage saying a ghost story is almost the paradigm (definition: "perfect example") of the form, means whatever is in the blank is the OPPOSITE of paradigm. You could think about it by re-arranging the word order to: "since it's a perfect example of the form, the story is hardly a _______ form." The word mostly closely opposite to paradigm is "debased" - look up the definition if it's unclear. "and _____ was undoubtedly one effect that Poe had in mind when he wrote about how stories work." We need to think about what, based on the information supplied in the passage, Poe had in mind about stories. The info we have is that they are a "haunted" (scary) genre, and some info about ghost stories (which are intended to scare people). So we can assume that Poe had scaring people in mind. The only choice that relates at all to scaring people is "goose bumps", which are the little bumps you get on your skin when you get either cold or very scared. The other two words have nothing to do with scaring, fright, etc. and so "goosebumps" must be the choice.

The GRE measures your ability to prepare for the GRE. That's it. There is a direct correlation between how much and how effectively you study for the GRE, and your score. Furthermore, the only universal, can't do without trait for all graduate schools, regardless of discipline, is a willingness and ability to study very hard and absorb lots of information, which as previously stated is what the GRE measures. Doesn't matter if it's Econ or Art History, if you are not willing/able to study a lot you will not succeed at grad school. Thus, the GRE is actually quite a good measuring stick for the single most important skill for graduate school. Lack of intelligence can be compensated for with hard work, a lack of knowledge of the field can be remedied through gaining experience, but nothing can overcome not studying hard. And keep in mind, the GRE is just one element of your package. GPA, courses taken, undergrad university, work experience, references, etc. all also play a big role and measure completely different things. It's not as if the GRE is the sole determinant of graduate admissions.

720 is a very low Quant score to get into a heavily mathematics based masters program like electrical engineering. Look at average Quant scores for the top 100 schools - it's usually in the high 700s. For a really good program (CalTech, MIT, etc.) anything less than an 800 probably isn't competitive. Even for just decent schools 720 is really quite low. I'd retake it if I were you - why can't you do so?

1) Majority of quant questions do not require any significant calculations. I found non-ETS practice tests involved FAR more calculation and associated need for scratch paper than the "real deal." I would not worry about it. If all else fails, maybe just write smaller? 2) What you described is a smart strategy - the first 5 questions have a disproportionate impact on your score (assuming you're taking a CAT), it makes sense to spend more time on them. Do more practice problems and learn "short-cut" formulas and tricks to speed up your solving time. 3) Easier than most practice tests. About the same difficulty as PowerPrep. 4) No idea. You need to deal with that anxiety before you take the test, or else your score will suffer.

Nova GRE Math Bible, by far. It covers every single possible topic that could show up on the exam in great detail, has lots of practice problems, and conveniently sorts them according to difficulty. Also, the answer keys are almost always right, which was not my experience with a lot of of the larger test companies' books - the answers they provided for math questions were flat out wrong. Not so with Nova. AND it gives very detailed explanations of how to solve a problem. All this applies only to the dead-tree book, I hear the CD is awful.

This is not the right forum to ask this. Also, there is a WEALTH of information on the forums already answering the questions you asked. I suggest reading and searching before creating a new thread - your questions are very common and have been asked/answered many times over. http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre/7119-how-gre-flounder.html http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre/11422-how-get-high-gre-quant-score-average-math-non-math-test-takers.html