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Let me start by saying that I am a GRE tutor, so it wouldn't be to relevant for me to post any information on "how I studied for the GRE," but I thought I would just post a few thoughts about the exam. I took it back in August, but since I just recently received my score I thought I would share a few observations... My perspective might be skewed, but although the test is supposed to be section adaptive, I didn't really notice the sections get noticeably harder. This was particularly true of the Quant section, the section that I thought would have a more obvious shift once I was facing the "harder" section. So prospective test takers should not read into the level of difficulty of the questions on a section....just do your best on don't think about that. Given that I have so much experience with the GRE, I took only one practice test prior to my exam, and that was really only to get familiar with the new features of the exam (skipping and marking questions, etc.). I must say, however, that on my first section (Verbal) I did not manage my time as well as I could have (given the opportunity to skip around and come back). I corrected that on the rest of the test, but I would urge other test takers to really practice with the new features (figure 4 or 5 practice tests at the least) so that you can learn to manage your time wisely (every question is worth the same amount, so it doesn't make sense to spend undue time on a question that you are struggling with). As I had expected, the vocab that was tested on the Verbal section did not consist of extremely difficult words. There were one or two words that I didn't know, but if you look at the sentence equivalence and text completion questions in the Official Guide you will see that it is really more about the reasoning aspects of those questions than about vocab (and this is really in line with the new direction that the GRE has taken). Some of the vocab that you see in the test prep books that are on the market is way over the top. For example, the ManhattanGRE book, which is a good book in some ways, uses words that are way too obscure and difficult in its drills. Even at the medium level, most of those words are just too hard and are unlikely to appear on the test. I'm not saying that you shouldn't study vocab, because there will be difficult words and vocabulary is relative anyway in that some people really have a very limited vocabulary and will need to some serious studying. I just wouldn't worry too much about some of the most difficult words that you see in test prep books, etc. and I would try to focus a little more on the critical thinking skills that are required on the Verbal questions. Finally, a word about the Writing section. I just recently tutored a person who felt that he had underperformed on the Writing section. After working with him, I realized that one problem was that he wasn't really following the directions. Be aware that a new aspect of the revised GRE is that the Issue and Argument essays have a variety of different "instructions prompts" and that the test makers expect you to read those carefully and follow the directions. So if the instructions tell you to consider the ways in which your point of view might be challenged, you should make an effort to do so. Anyway, hope that feedback helps....good luck to all of you prospective GRE test takers!

Yesterday, ETS sent out this press release (ETS Expands Test-taker Friendly GRE® revised General Test with New ScoreSelect(SM) Option -- PRINCETON, N.J., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --) announcing a big change in score reporting for GRE test takers. Starting in July, using a new feature called ScoreSelect, you will no longer be forced to report all of your GRE test scores to schools. Moving forward, test takers who sit for the GRE more than once will be able to choose to send only their best test scores with their applications. Here is a blog post from my company, Manhattan Prep, covering the specifics of this ETS announcement: GRE News: ScoreSelect (and how it helps you) | Manhattan Prep GRE Blog I hope this information helps! If you have any questions, please let me know! Best, Taylor