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Has anyone ever used the test-prep books "Official GRE Super Pack" by ETS? I've read about Princeton and Kaplan, and was wondering if anyone had any opinions these ETS books. If there's already a thread on this, I'd appreciate it eternally if you could point me in its direction. Thanks!

Hey guys, Currently I'm doing my master in economics and realized how important is math. I took only two undergrad business math courses (and did pretty poor in them since I thought it was useless). So I started learning it by myself and almost finished "introduction to mathematical economics" by Edward Dowling it was very good book I enjoyed it but I don't think it's sufficient since it was easy. What book do you guys recommend to be ready for phd econ classes? I wish if you can recommend a book that I don't need to look for other books after mastering it and hopefully it has sufficient applied problems since I enjoy them more than abstract math. Thank you so much

I'm ecstatic, and so grateful to members of Urch, who helped me solve the trickiest questions during my prep. Every time I googled a zinger, I'd be brought to this site, where I found encouragement, explanation, and lots of great resources. So thank you :D I'm a little miffed about my writing score being 5.0; I thought I nailed the writing section, especially the argument essay. After reading up on several stories and looking at admission criteria, I've decided not to ask for a rescore of this section (5.0 seems to be enough to get into any top program so if there are people out there like me, don't fret!). I devoted three and a half weeks to preparing for the GRE. My raw score (first couple of diagnostics without any prep) was in the low 1300s, so I wanted to share a few things I realized that helped me up my score substantially. I've always been fortunate to have a strong verbal foundation, and just had to practice a lot and do a few things to up the ante. The quantitative section took a lot of dedication on my part, huge amounts of practice...But the best thing in the quantitative section is that there is not a single 'difficult' question, they can all be solved systematically. Test Structure The GRE is a Computer Adaptive Test, and it can **** with your head if you let it. To ace the test, you must understand how it works. The first 15 questions in each section are absolutely crucial. They will largely determine your overall score. Spend a disproportionate amount of time on these questions. The GRE often decides your final score very early on in the test based on how you do in the first few questions. In the math section, I only answered 24/28 questions (ran out of time)- blind guessed my way through the last few and still got a 780. a. Everyone starts out with a 500-level (middle difficulty) question. If you get it right, you get 5 points, and move on to a 600-level question. If you get that right, you get 7 points, and move on to a 700-level question, for which you get 9 points if answered correctly b. If however, you get the 500-level question wrong, you move on to a 400-level question, which is only worth 3 points. If you get that wrong , you answer a 300-level question, only worth 1 point and so on...It's a slippery slope.... So make sure you focus on the first few questions and nail them... Books and Resources 1) Practicing to take the GRE 2) GRE Powerprep: Follow the steps to run it on Windows 7. 2 full length practice tests (save 1 for the last day) and many problem sets These are the two most important resources. They are written by ETS, who also writes the test, so they are completely relevant. Also, everytime I got stuck, I'd just google the exact question and it would be solved on urch. Doing every single test you can is the most sound strategy. Do at least 10-15 timed tests before the exam, they are really the only way you can prepare. Vocab Most of the super-difficult words (esurient, opprobrious, encomium, etc) can be learned, and I've found that flashbulb sentences work very well for these words. Think of something bizarre that you will remember, and link it to the word. e.g. Saturnine= morose gloomy Flashbulb: I'd rather be on Joyful Jupiter than Saturnine Saturn 2. The trickiest words in the GRE are actually fairly standard words that have a secondary meaning. The GRE often tests these meanings in the analogies and antonyms section, and these are the words that are most likely to confuse. The secondary meaning is often technical, or rarely used, or super-specific, so you're not likely to see it outside the GRE. There are also many technical words that you should become familiar with. e.g. rustle- one would think of the sound of the leaves etc. but rustle also means 'To steal someone's cattle' 3. Here is a pretty huge list of frequent analogies tested http://www.www.urch.com/forums/gre-analogies-antonyms/99034-list-frequent-analogies.html Exam Day The day of the exam, relax. Look over the analogies, don't do a test, it will tire you out. Take a cab to the exam, wear loose comfortable clothes, go commando, do whatever you need to do to be relaxed :) I was actually 10 mins late for my test but everyone starts at their own time, following registration, so you don't need to worry so much. Just make sure you're not ridiculously late and you'll be fine. Best of Luck. The GRE can be gamed, so play hard :)