Amstlight
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Posts posted by Amstlight
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How is a 159 going to keep you out of any program? You've taken it three times already and have a respectable score, I would just leave it at that.
I should be fine for some of the M S programs I am currently applying for but it's not enough for PhD programs [sigh]
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Lol,
I had similar experience with my GRE...
Except, I put the time and effort in the first time with Magoosh and Manhattan...
My practice scores...
ETS Power Prep: 156, 150Q
Manhattan Test 1: 161V, 148Q
Manhattan Test 2: 163V, 152Q
Manhattan Test 3: 157V, 153Q
Manhattan Test 4: 158V, 155Q
Manhattan Test 5: 158V, 157Q
Manhattan Test 6: 158V, 164Q
ETS PowerPrep 2: 156V, 150Q (what the hell happened here?!)
Magoosh Dashboard: 157-162V, 155-160Q
GRE actual test 1 after decent prepwork: 157V, 146Q
Took the GRE 3 weeks later without studying at all... because I was annoyed by the discrepancy in practice and actual GRE score.
GRE actual test 2: 155V, 150Q
So I'm a bit stumped on how to prep for it... but am applying for top-tier East Asian Studies programs... so will probably need a much higher score. Since it's too late this year to retake the test again... we'll see what happens with my application... but if I don't get in... I have a full year to work on my building my reading and math skills.
hey makingmoves
With the deadlines coming up within the next few weeks (not sure about yours), it's hard to plan a re-take. See how things go during this season and then decide. Unfortunately for me, I do not have a choice - even if I get into the masters program, I will still go for a re-take. Before that however, I need to refine my exam-taking strategy - yesterday for example I noticed a slight improvement in my anxiety/pressure management (As I know I need to score high in Quant, the pressure gets too high), I have a long way to go in learning to manage my fears. Also the problem could be that yesterday I ran completely out of time in my last quant section and this forced me to solve 6 questions in less than 4 min. I thought I was good with timing but it was probably due to the twisted questions that I ended up wasting too much time. I still need to improve on how to "let it go". Apart from that I need some more challenging GRE practice materials (beyond Magoosh) but I do not know where I can get them. Any thoughts?
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Today I've taken this dreadful exam for the 3rd time.
GRE scores so far:
1st attempt - V156, Q158, AWA 5
2nd attempt - V155, Q156, AWA 4.5
3rd attempt - V159, Q159, AWA (hoping for at least 5)
To recap - for the first attempt, I studied about 10 days in total, used Manhattan, Kaplan, Barron & ETS. For the 2nd attempt, I took a few months, prepared systematically; used Magoosh a lot, did all their quant questions, had an estimate of 159-164, but ended with 156, big shame! the day really went awful...
Now for the 3rd attempt, for quant I still used Magoosh and other resources that I found on google - there were a few topics I could not find any satisfactory materials on either Magoosh or any other test prep providers.
Manhattan practice test scores -
Test 1 - 164Q
Test 2 - 166Q
Test 3 - 166Q
Magoosh test scores
Test 1 - 164Q
Test 2 - 167Q
Test 3 - 167Q
Test 4 - 165Q
Magoosh quantitative estimate on dashboard 162-167...
Now the interesting bit:
I never prepared for AWA and verbal because I simply did not care about my verbal scores.
Especially today I was baffled to see my new verbal score of 159 with zero preparation ( I am not a native English speaker). It also hurt big time given the effort I put in the quant prep. Identical scores were the least I expected. I was hoping for a 163-165 range in the quant but this score continues to elude me.
Regarding the quant in today's exam, I had 3 sections, one of which was presumably experimental. In the light of what I've experienced today, I still stand by my belief that so far I do not know of any test prep provider whose quant material/prep questions actually match the real exam questions in both versatility and difficulty. In today's exam I would estimate the number of tricky questions at about 70-75%. Maybe I am unlucky and keep getting the toughies but I often noticed how even simple concepts were embedded in a challenging question format that I personally felt unaccustomed to, even after doing all the practice tests.
What next? Well, I reckon that for my master's applications this season my today's scores will probably do ( not sure, any opinions would be welcome), however, if I decide to pursue a PhD in the future, I will need a quant score of at least 165. Will I try again? Yes, I probably will, I simply cant let the GRE beast kill my future plans. At the same time I hope that in the near future there will be more prep materials on the market that can match the real thing. So far I am yet to see any.
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Can anyone access it?
When I click on the link http://www.kaptest.com/pages/practice
what I see is "page not found"... is it a temporary glitch?
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I think they understand that letters of rec are a pain to get submitted. I dont know anyone who had it easy with those.
And I know people who were accepted and funded with a single letter - not knowing until after admission that their 2nd letter writer never followed through. Most all admissions standards are in fact very flexible.. if you're a compelling enough applicant.
So they give no deadline for rec's, but they have their standard application deadlines and once that passes they'll start processing files and filling slots. Slots full? Doesn't matter if you're the most amazing person ever.. you're out. Not sure if they'll go through files by submission date or completeness, but yes, it's entirely possible they'll do a base-level review without any letters of rec and see if they want someone. Like i said, had a friend get admitted and funded with a missing letter and nothing ever said about it.
So try to get it in by a reasonable time but don't freak out if your letter writer is running late.
Thanks for clarifying this, it makes more sense now. And yes, it's painful to get all recommendations submitted on time.
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I've seen this on the admissions link of the university I am applying, and I find it confusing...
It says:
Application deadline: 01/15
Fellowship deadline: 12/15
Recommendation deadline: none
General GRE required: Y
I thought all materials needed submitting by one deadline. Can anyone shed some light? cheers
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Re: people who took GRE with Magoosh and their scores were unaffected
Damn, that really sucks to hear. What did you find to be different? What did you find difficult on the real exam based on what you learned via Magoosh? What were other questions or topics that you hadn't seen on Magoosh?
This worries me. I've been using only Magoosh for the past 3 weeks and my test is this upcoming Monday. My predictor range for Math is 152-157, but I've only done a little over 200 questions. When I took a diagnostic super cold with no prior prep a 4 weeks back, I got a 147 on my math part. I really want at 160, but I know it ain't gonna be easy.
With that said, I sure as heck hope my math improves in the exam on Monday. I only care abou the math part, because I need to show schools I'm not a doofus at quantitative reasoning.
I also have a exam 3 weeks after Monday. I wonder if I should stick with Magoosh or really tap into the Official Guide and Manhattan Prep 5 lbs book I bought recently.
Thoughts?
#stupidstandardizedtests
Hi
here are some thoughts although it's all a bit late for your first deadline
- I took my first test (not sure you read my previous posts) with just days of preparation and a hectic full time job. I was using Manhattan, Barrons and ETS to prepare. I did not know about Magoosh then. Scores 158Q, 156V, 5 AWA. No prep for verbal and AWA at all due to lack of time. I am not an English native speaker and was quite satisfied with my verbal score; I usually find the verbal sections more difficult.
- For my second exam, I took a break of several months to prepare - this time I had a part-time job and thus more time to study. I signed up for Magoosh, did all their questions; same with ETS. Magoosh gave me an average estimate of 163Q. I was very confident I would make it over 160 and perhaps even around 165. Alas, that was far from what transpired on the day - 156Q, 155V, 4.5 AWA. It was disappointing especially after putting in countless hours for Quant. Ironically I felt I knew so much more about approaching different types of problems, however, it failed to reflect in the results.
- In my opinion, luck plays a major role in this exam, it sounds silly, I know, but on an "unlucky" day most of the questions you see will be very tricky and that tends to eat away your time like crazy. I found myself going far too slowly through the Quant section because of that. I then ran out of time and had to make guesses for the last 3-4 questions. This did not occur to me in my practice tests.
- several questions involved material that I was not well prepared for - like parabolas, some statistics from what I remember. Here I found all material sources to be lacking... Also watch out the way ETS formulates questions; this differs from Manhattan, Magoosh or any other sources you might have used. During the actual exam it often happens that even familiar material can appear tricky or you see a question you think you know but in reality there's a trick in there that can easily lead to mistakes.
- finally, if you can relax throughout the test, then you will make less mistakes as you move along. I admit that this was not my case. Early on in the first section I was given a question I had never seen before and even though I managed to solve it correctly, it slightly threw me off track for the rest of the section. This might have ruined my overall scores. It's all in your mind, so if you can manage the situation calmly, you will be fine.
good luck!
do return and share your experience
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As I wrote elsewhere
sadly I did not improve, in fact it worsened.
First time: 158Q, 156V
Second time: 156Q, 155V
I found the actual exam much harder when I took it the second time around. I know that's not great news for you...
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I just retook the GRE. My former scores were 157 for the Math and Verbal section. Since I had not studied before, I was very confident that i was going to get a slight increase in the Math section (I only bought the Math section and I only care about it). I studied, not everyday, but I did study a lot and practiced a lot. Mostly I am a good student of Math, I took many classes at the Math department; somehow, I did the GRE today and I got 157 at Math and 159 at verbal. I did the verbal part so fast because I did not want to waste time on it, and somehow managed to increase my score and to have the same exact score for Math.
I feel terrible now, you might expect. I thought Magoosh had prepared me a little better for the Math section. I looked the logic, the exercises, and I even found the Math part to be easy at the moment of the exam (though I was so tired at the end). I was expecting maybe a 160, that would have been acceptable. Actually any increase would have made me feel better, but to get the same exact score after months and tons of practice seems just ridiculous.
I would not say I hate Magoosh, I still it is a great site, but I just do not have any personal evidence to back it up.
I totally agree with this post. In fact, my story is somewhat more tragic than yours. I have so far taken the GRE twice - first time I took it with a total of 10 days of preparation and a full-time job (40+ hours a week). I used to wake up @4 am to study before heading to work @ 8am. I was actually sure I would score really badly. My scores were 158Q and 156V. I thought, wow, if I could manage these scores with 10 days of studying, a few months will do wonders. So I signed up for a premium service with Magoosh and solved all their 500+ quant problems. Got the hang of it quickly and I felt much better prepared than I was before my first exam. Their practice tests gave me an average of 163 and I was certain this was going to be a smooth ride. Took the test again, this time the scores were 156Q and 155V. I never studied for the verbal because it did not really matter so much to me. That I was terribly shocked and depressed would be an understatement to say the least.
I do not regret purchasing Magoosh but I do not think it prepared me to face the actual test. The questions in the actual exam turned out to be far trickier than anything I had experienced on Magoosh website. Moreover, some of the questions I received were pretty new to me - ironically Magoosh say on their website that parabolas rarely if ever come up, well, I got 2 hard questions on parabolas. I was ill-prepared to answer them.
I have read that Magoosh has helped lots of people raise their scores, it's good to hear that. Sadly I am one of those people who cannot rave about it.
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Hi all
By now most of you have already taken the GRE, however I am looking for one of those late exam-takers who aim to score in the mid-high 160s ( particularly quant) and are serious about revising. It would be useful to exchange thoughts and approaches to some of the harder material. I seem to be doing better in quant than verbal at the moment, but I am actively learning vocabulary in the hope to raise my verbal score. I think I am a pretty decent essay writer so I could give you some tips on AWA if needed.
If interested, please PM.
GRE, the agonizing journey ...
in GRE/GMAT/etc
Posted
hahaha ..i can understand that. I wish you best of luck, if u're still looking for tips on how to get up to 159, PM me
)
I've realised in my case that staying within 155-159 range is relatively easy. The problem is pushing the score over this damn threshold. I still feel that coping with pressure/anxiety is my main problem since all my practice tests were in the 163-167 range... but I would welcome any suggestions/thoughts from GRE high achievers.