327 on GRE- Could have done better but will rest now

[destinationMIT]

Hello all,

Been active here for almost 2 years now. Finally took the GRE yesterday and scored a 327(Q-168, V-159). Though not very happy with the score as I was targeting 330+ but I don't have the mental stamina to prepare for the gre again so most likely won't be retaking it.

FWTW, start early and finish early. I see a lot of people rushing in the last 30 days before their application deadlines to take their GRE.

 

Prep strategy: I prepared seriously for 3 months and primarily focused on verbal preparation. Initially, I thought of joining a classroom test prep but once I took the initial diagonstic test, I realized that I should be able to manage it on my own. I had though started focusing on vocab on my own almost a year back

 

I relied on the ETS Official Guide to understand the type of questions well. Nothing can come as close to the actual gre as the questions in this book. Everyone should get it. The only problem is that there are very few practice questions and I wish they had more.

For verbal: The OG verbal questions are the best. Apart from that, GRE verbal grail is great for practice. I was struggling with reading comprehension questions. Went through gre grail rigorously and was much more in command of RC. For vocab, I used 45 day gre vocab book and did 1 vocab exercise per day. Apart from that, I also did barron's gre both for verbal and quant.

 

For Quant, I found the practice questions in Manhattan 5 lbs book to be quite useful.

 

Extra: I read op-eds in newspapers daily and would then ask myself questions like “What is the primary purpose of this op-ed” “What is the function of para 3” etc. Doing this really built up my mental stamina to read long passages and helped me tackle GRE questions better.

 

Practice tests: I relied on powerprep II and Manhattan tests. These gave me enough practice to prepare myself for the actual test.

 

Actual day test: The actual test was quite close to PowerPrep II tests. The difficulty level was quite close so it didn’t feel any different except for the pressure of the test day.

 

It's been pretty long since I have been preparing so will relax now for a week or two. Will start with school selection research after that.

Thank you all who make this community great and resourceful. Let me know if you have any questions.

[anothernovice]

Hello destinationMIT,

 

I'm currently prepping for the GRE, my date's set for the 29th of June. I'm scoring a 305 - 310 [when I individually add the verbal & quant scores] on the Manhattan Prep tests.

 

Like you I'm focussing on Verbal as well.I think I've got a good grasp over my Quant section. I need to increase my Verbal score. Would you recommend any (free) online sources for this? Buying the Verbal Grail book would stretch me thin here :(

 

How did you prepare for your AWA? Was there any other site where you could get your submissions graded?

 

Also, would 6 full tests from Manhattan Prep be enough for practise (considering I have 2 months) or must I purchase some from Kaplan or Barron's?

[destinationMIT]

Hey..not sure what free sources are there online for verbal prep. I think anything that is free won't be that great..look at gre prep as an investment that you'll make to get a great gre score.

I frankly didn't prepare much for AWA. 6 manhattan prep tests alongwith the powerprep tests should be enough i think

[destinationMIT]

Started the application process for Fall 2016. The next steps after GRE is probably as nerve wrecking as preparing for gre..too much work