How to GRE and My GRE Experience

Gave my GRE on 31st and also received the result instantly. If you are not too much familiar with the GRE format, there are three categories in GRE, i.e. Verbal (English), Quantitative (Maths) and Analytical Writing. You get the instant result of your verbal and quantitative sections. In my case, verbal score was worst possible you can get and quantitative was best possible you can get! Got only 360 (800) in verbal and 800 (800) in quantitative. Still not sure whether I will give my exam again or not but thought to share my experience with you all, who might consider to give the GRE in future. 

Things that I will write actually worked for me or I thought it might work better in this way. It doesn't mean that it will work for everyone. You can try in my way, but if you find that its not working out properly you should try something else. Read GRE experiences in TestMagic forum <http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/>. You might find better ways to workout. 

Lets start with the quantitative (maths) section, where my comments have some value :) Even though I got full score, but you should be aware that this is not very uncommon and fortunately many people are capable of getting this score. So you can get the same score too. But why people miss this score? 

- Most of the people can't cover it in the exam time. 

- There are tricks to solve big problems in shorter time, and many people are not aware of that. 

Honestly speaking, GRE maths are the high-school maths. Its all that everyone know and if there's no time limit then everyone are capable of getting a full score. So your main target for the GRE maths is to win against time. So I am suggesting how you can win against time. 

- Practice, No alternative of practice. Even if these are high-school maths, you cannot use calculators. So you should calculate every single and small calculations, may be even 3+8 = 11! You must calculate these in your practice. Because in the final day you have to calculate everything on your own and most importantly on time. I practiced last two weeks seriously and everyday I gave at least one or two tests from GRE Big Book. You have to give timed practice test. This practice time might vary people to people, but you should atleast practice regularly for last 2 weeks to 2 months before exam, depending on your control over maths. However, I am *officially* studying GRE for last one year, even though before my last two weeks, maximum time I spent on a day wasn't more than 1 hour! But I am making it clear that I was aware of what are the type of GRE maths, and had little practices too. I was also in a coaching, where I had good chatting, nothing more than that. One more point, don't go to a coaching. It's waste of time and money. 

- Sharpening the skills. I thought that I know all these things and I always thought that I don't need to check the tactics, I can easily solve the problems! This is what I felt when I saw the GRE maths questions and even tried few real tests. However, when I started practicing in full pace, my feeling changed! I cannot even solve all the problems in time. Sometime I cannot even solve some problems within 5-10 minutes, even worse, I can't even solve some problems. So week before my exam I started looking in to the Barrons for tactics. Believe me, it helped me lot in sharpening my skills, and I learned many minor tactics that really helped. Problem of high-school maths is, we feel we know all, and we ignore learning the tactics and this is the mistake we make. So don't ignore learning the tactics, learn and try to incorporate these in solving the actual problem. 

- Silly mistakes. This is what I was seriously scared of. I made many silly mistakes in my practice tests. But after sharpening my skills from Barron's in last week, I found that I can solve all the problem with 15-18 minutes in my hand but in the final result there are also minimum 2/3 silly mistakes. In GRE you cannot use the extra time of one section in another section, and when you answer one question, its over. So you can't even recheck and resubmit your answers! So, I thought to solve each of the problems twice, may be solve the same problem in two different ways! Just to double check! So you need to check the silly mistakes as much as you can and try to overcome. However, good thing is ETS tests you with the same type of traps. Try with extreme values, never assume anything if it's not stated specifically, check tricks from Barrons or others, you will just do fine. 

However in my final test it really didn't work out that way. I started with double checking the answers and solved upto 15 questions, I guess. I spent too much time in 2/3 questions (10-15 minutes+ for 2/3 questions that I was stuck into). Later I was in short of time. So I had to rush for 10+ questions and had to even solve few questions within 10/15 minutes. I was really scared that I might not score 800, however, it was a happy ending for maths. [You can even score a 800 with 2/3 mistakes I guess]. Bottom line is, you should be capable of doing all the maths in very short time too. You never know what to face in the exam day! 

Finally, resources that you need for GRE Maths: 

1. GRE Big book (by ETS) - it contains the real GRE test, even though the current tests are lot harder

2. GRE Barron's book - for sharpening the tactics and it really helps. 

3. Get a copy of GRE Math Review by ETS. Its available at <www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/GREmathPractice.pdf>

4. <http://www.urch.com/forums/gre-math/> for trying harder problems and if you are ever stuck with any problem then you can ask for help there. So its your free coaching teacher! 

I hope it helps for those who are interested in GRE. Now a short comment on Verbal (English section) from my side. There are no alternatives than learning the words for verbal! I repeat, There are no alternatives than learning the words for verbal! So, for verbal you need to learn the words. People who get a good score will smartly tell you, learn 3000 words from Barrons! But the problem is 3000 words is not a joke, I can't even remember 10 words. Honestly speaking learning 10 new words is not even easy, how can you accommodate 3000 words! However, I think I started in the right way to grab the words, even though it didn't work out properly. Let me share my experience and see if it work for you or not! Kaplan has a very good word list of 200 words only. But with every word there are 5-10 synonyms. So, if you learn the words with synonyms it is also easier for you to learn a new word and also you learn 5 other GRE words with the same meaning. You are saving your time, and you are actually remembering more in the same time. Following is what I suggest and I also tried: 

- Learn the top 350 words from the Barrons (High-frequency word list from Barrons) 

- Learn the top 200 words from the Kaplan with all the synonyms. 

- After that, learn any top frequency word list, you will get many words common and it will be easier to learn new words. 

- Start practicing with the real tests from ETS GRE Big Book. You will still face many new words. Whenever you encounter a new word, learn it. 

In this way, in the end, you will also learn 1500 - 2000 words. But it will be easier to learn the words and also not too boring! Another point is, learn the words randomly. If you learn the words alphabetically there is a chance that you will mix the meaning of one word with another. Finally you should try the tactics of each sections from Barrons or other books. 

Last but not the least, I am not the right person to suggest how to prepare for GRE verbal (A policeman telling how to be honest! :) I will suggest you all to take suggestions from other people who did really well in GRE verbal section. You can try at <http://www.urch.com/forums/gre-verbal/> or at any other places. 

Finally, I will conclude with a story. I read it somewhere and I can't actually recall from where. It says that if you take 20 monkeys to take the GRE test and 20 college students to take the same test, probability is higher for monkeys to get a higher score! Why? GRE traps you with the similar answers, so if you are not too good and confident then its more likely that you will get into the traps. However, if you just randomly clicks then you have better chance to score higher, at the same time its a probability of 1/5 to get an answer correct! You can't even risk your score by random choice!! So start spending time for GRE. 

Good luck with your exam. Nothing is free in this world, not even my long suggestions. I have spent 1 hour+ time to write this email and you should know it because YOU HAVE TO PRAY FOR ME. GRE is part of admission test, and an important part, which went very bad for me! But there are still a chance to getting into good graduate schools (I hope)! Just pray for me so that everything go in the best way, if I need to give the GRE second time, pray for me so that I can get a better verbal score and also the same quantitative score. Pray more so that I don't even need to give the exam second time. :)  

I have also written your script of what to pray! What else do you want me to do. Pray on your behalf!! You have to do it on your own. 

Take care. 

Naushad

GRE How To

For last few days I am trying to prepare myself for GRE, but still
the preparation is horrible! (I have one more week to change the
world!!!) However, I found a very good test preparation forum, test
magic for GRE ( http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/ ). This forum is
really great and helpful. I wish I have the time to prepare myself in
a better way! (I think, I will have time! I might need to sit for the
exam again.) However, If you are interested in GRE or any other
standard exams then you can check that forum for help.

I have pasted one very useful guideline for GRE in this email. I was
thinking to suggest people something in this way. I mean, the
strategy of vocabulary building is really excellent here, and now,
before my exam I was thinking this should be the best way to attack
the vocabulary and the author here describe exactly the same way.
Wise people think alike! Difference is one get 610, and another (me)
is trying to get only 400!

Hope it help. If you have further query, DON'T ASK ME! Man, I am not
the right person to ask about GRE. But ask in that forum ( http://
www.urch.com/forums/gre/ ). It is really a great place and there are
many people to help you.
Best wishes and Good luck.
Naushad

Other than the article pasted below, there are few more introductory
articles that might help you.
http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/53991-my-gre-experience-bit-advice-
take-grain-salt.html
http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/11422-how-get-high-gre-quant-score-
average-math-non-math-test-takers.html

And finally
http://www.urch.com/forums/gre/7119-how-gre-flounder.html

Theres this problem with us CS people who love LINUX. We love How-Tos
too  hehe. Heres a much needed HowTo for GRE? Cmon Erin, this one
deserves to be made a sticky ))))

Regards,
Ali

***

I have decided that GRE is the road for me, but how to go about
actually treading it?

I feel so free today. After a lapse of some three months, I finally
feel a tension lift off my shoulders. Gave my GRE (800q and 610v).
Was hoping to cross the 700s in verbal but I am happy nevertheless.

How to start you GRE preparation? Well I started preparation for GRE
around three months back, and this was the very same impasse that I
landed in.

Q How to prepare? Why just follow the posts on TestMagic of course.
Q Where to prepare from? I'd recommend in order of preference
(difficulty from challenging to a bore): Power Prep, Big Book,
Barrons, Kaplan and maybe Princeton Review
Q What to prepare? How much time needed to prepare? Read on )

How much prep time?

Ok first of all, if you have the time available, I would suggest a
3-4 months prep time. Why? Well, since many of us come from
Engineering or Non-literature backgrounds, we do not get the
opportunity to built that large vocabulary set that ETS tests on. I
feel 4 months is a sufficient time to make up for that deficiency. If
you have a year at hand, thats even better. You really can ace the
dreaded verbal section with that much prep. 4 months is enough to do
the quantitative practice side by side too.

Vobabulary Building?

Ok, well and good. How to go about the vocabulary building? Well many
people have suggested many different techniques, and at the end of
the day, the one that will win is the one that suits you. I prefer
the flash cards, and making them myself. They don't have to be cards,
just get plenty of A4 size pages and and a paper cutter and start
cutting cards of the apposite size. Make plenty of them. You can
never have enough. And even after your GRE, you can still look at
them to jolt your vocabulary. Maybe your kid brother and sister might
use the same for their SATs or GREs or GMATs  or if they are in
good shape and you have no intention to humor the words further, you
can sell them for some quick bucks he he he. I am sure many people
would be interested hehe.

Now for the words. I'd suggest that you start with the Barrons 350
sth high frequency words. Go through the list once. Some words you
would know. The ones which you don't know, make flash cards for them.
It helps if you can put a definition and a short sentence, context or
phrase for the word too. Context is important for remembering the
words. It really makes the whole exercise worthwhile too, since you
would remember the words long after you have given the GRE too. Leave
some place on flash cards for future additions, e.g. synonyms you
come across, difficult antonyms for the words, confusions etc. Yeah I
know many of you would be "This seems like a lot of hard work", but
trust me: you will have a really powerful vocabulary at the end of
the day, which you can use to impress people in your otherwise daily
routine too.

Ok, coming back to the word lists, first do the Barrons High
Frequency. Some people go to cram the whole Barrons 3500 list. Ummm,
I have come across people who knew the whole list, but only this
list, and got words they were seeing for the first time. So in my
opinion, if you are short on time, diversify the word lists. I would
suggest you do the Princeton Review list next (around 350 words and
very relevant). Next do the Arco list (another 300-400 words). Ok by
now you have a decent inventory of words. Go for the Kaplan's List
now. It will help you learn whole groups of words. There would be
overlap, but you will encounter many new words too.

Another excellent source of words is the Big Book. It has some 27
actual administered paper GRE tests (2q and 2v sections each). Start
giving the tests asap, and while you are at it, learn the new words
from these tests. Remember these are the real tests, so you should
know these words. By the end of the 27 tests, your vocabulary will be
richer by another 500 or so words, not found in the previous lists.

Side by side, I'd suggest the use of some vocabulary building
software like Guru's GRE (freeware available and can searched for on
google.com). Its a nice easy way to learn new words. By now you would
have learnt many words. So I'd suggest that you take all the 51 tests
in Guru's GRE. You would know around 50-60 percent of the words.
Don't guess on the words you don't know. The good thing is that the
software remembers the words you didn't attempt. You can then
continue to learn those ones.

Number2.0 has a good vocabulary building online engine. I'd recommend
it wholly. Ok, now you can come back to the world of Barrons. I am
assuming you still have some weeks left before the test. Go through
the more common letters first like O, E, I, D, P, R, S, T, A, you
etc. you and D help a lot with a lot of antonyms as in usage like
dis- and un- which reverse the word. So you would be learning two
words with each word.

And yes make flash card for whatever word you don't know, in Big Book
or any other tests you take. The good thing with Flash cards is that
you can dally with them on the run, say waiting for your friends to
show up, or waiting for you meal in the office etc. Plus another good
thing with flash cards is that you can "shuffle" them and "mix" with
other sets of flash cards and "isolate" the ones you need to work on.
Shuffling helps to break mononity and you get to see a new assortment
of the order in which the words come. Mixing helps to do the same.
Isolating the words you don't know allows you to concentrate on those
words more easily and learn them. Plus flash cards allow you to look
at a word in isolation and identify it. I have heard that with this
technique, the minds forms a mental association with a flash card,
and whenever you see the word again, the neurons do some V = IR^2s
(thats the Ohm's law by the way ) and jolt your memory and volla
the meaning comes to you.

Verbal Section:

Ok, apart from the vocabulary building, the other piece of advice I
have for you in the verbal section is practice, practice and more
practice and time yourself while doing it. Do practice at a stretch
while your head hurts  . Take a power prep early on, infact I would
say that a dose of reality doesn't hurt you. So give the power prep
within your first month of prep. You might feel depressed the next
couple of days, but giving a Power Prep early on gives you a correct
and verisimilar picture of where you actually stand and how much you
need to go. So don't despair. Everyone does badly on the first few
tests. Why? Coz ETS really sucks at making tests. The test doesn't
check your intelligence or anything. It only sees if you have a huge
vocabulary, whether you can run against the clock and if you have
practiced or not. Thats it. That ladies and gentlemen, is the whole
truth behind the GRE. Timing and pacing yourself, keeping a cool
head, a good vocabulary and practice. You can signifantly improve
your scores from those first dismal power prep scores, even by as
much as 400 to 500 points. But practice and consistency would be the
key.

Get the big book. It costs a lot, but its every penny worth it. No
other book even comes close to the amount of practice that big book
can offer you. Give the verbal tests. The timing is stringent as
compared to the current GRE and that helps you to develop a good pace
for attempting questions. The reading comprehension is difficult as
hell, which is a good thing coz in the actual GRE the same is the
case. And its a good vocabulary building exercise too.

As far as verbal strategies are concerned, I would recommend in order
of preference : Kaplan, Barrons and Princeton Review. Princeton
Review is in my opinion too easy to get to those high 600 + scores in
verbal, but if its available, do try to go through all three.

Reading comprehension is a difficult section, and I would suggest
that you make it a habit to read the English newspaper daily
especially the editorials and columns. You can even subscribe online
to Washington Post, New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Plus its a
little expensive, but I really like the Economist for its strong
English. You can see all the GRE words here at work. Read, read and
read through those four months. The effects are threefold. First you
are improving your vocabulary. Secondly you are assimilating ideas
for your essays in AWA. Last but not the least, you are improving
your Reading Comprehension. When you read some passage, attack
it ! ... And no that doesn't mean that you start thrashing it around
with a flail  . It means scrutize it. What does it say? Whats the
main topic and theme? Whats the actual scope, and what does the
author hope to accomplish through this writing? Note the author's
tone. It is sarcastic, approving, neutral, disparaging or skeptic
etc. You will see that this exercise will increase your RC skills by
leaps and bounds.

As far as analogies and sentence completions are concerned, I would
again recommend the same three books plus practice from Big Book. And
yes power prep exercises are an absolute must. It would be equivalent
to sacrilege if you do not do them.

Quantitative Section:

Ok, not many of us Engineering students get the chance during
undergraduate to indulge in high school maths while we are bogged by
calculus and differential equations and stochastic processes and
transforms. So its natural your basic math skills could rusty. True
for other disciplines as well. If you are applying to Engineering or
Sciences programs, a good quantitative score is an absolute must. So
do not ignore quantitative. Start working on it from the earliest
possible time. Barrons has a very good Maths review plus tips and so
does Kaplan. The quantitative tests at the end of Barrons are more
challenging than any other book that I have come across. Do those. Do
the quantitative review from Power Prep as well, along with the
exercises. And yes don't forget the big book. TO start with, it is
difficult and a good source of practice. You need to do 30 questions
in just 30 minutes, and you can really learn how to pace yourself. I
would suggest you keep giving the tests from Big Book till you have
successively obtained some 8-10 800 scores. Then if you want, you can
give yourself a pat on the back and look elsewhere for more difficult
problems, say the TestMagic Forum (www.TestMagic.com) 

AWA:
Theres no better place than right here at TestMagic  … During the
run up to the GRE, try to write at least one essay per week to
brushen up those writing skills. During the last, make it a point to
go through the list of the issue prompts at least one. Just take out
a topic, think about it mentally and move on to the next one. You
save precious brainstorming time this way on the actual GRE.

And finally, once again, practice makes perfect. Theres no short cut
for it, no surrogates or substitute. If you have any question, I will
happy to answer it.

Regards,
Ali