jdnels81

Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I searched for this question online and found this forum. You guys helped me, so I'd like to help others by relating my experience. I started studying for the GRE all the way back in 2012. I always thought I was good in math, so I hadn't bothered to study math at all for about 9 months. Then, I tried a practice test with manhattan prep and found out that my verbal was just fine, somewhere around 164, but my math was horrible, at 155 (and I'm an engineer, wtf?) So I started studying math very diligently. I studied much of Kaplan, and learned a few tricks, and then tried a test from ETS PowerPrep II. I scored a 159. It looked like I hadn't improved at all. Next, I took a math course from Kaplan specifically designed to get an "elite" score. I thought I was doing pretty good. I also studied Princeton Review, took their math tests, as well as many tests from Mahattan Prep. My scores were varied, and sure enough, one week before my actual test, I took the second ETS PowerPrep II test and scored a 162 in both Quant and Verbal. This was pretty good, but there were questions on that test that had me sitting there for far too long trying to figure out, and I wanted to make the "average" score or better for successful applicants into MIT, Stanford, etc. This is where Magoosh comes in. Knowing I needed something drastic, and only one week before the test, I bought the Magoosh package for $100 and studied for a solid week, (including a full weekend). At first, the Magoosh problems would stump me. But after a little bit of time watching their explanatory videos, taking notes on problems that stumped me the most, and all that practice, I definitely improved my speed, comprehension, and accuracy. Here are my stats: Kaplan: (unsure, the course expired, but I recall the average being somewhere around 161 for quant and 163 for verbal) Mahattan Prep Average: Q159, V161 Princeton Review: Q163-164, V:163 Magoosh Score Predictor: Q158-163, V155-160 PowerPrep II first test: Q159, V163 PowerPrep II second test: Q162, V162 Actual Test: Q166, V164

Well, my scores are all over the road. At first I looked good, but then my Kaplan tests showed a negative trend. So I did some review on some math tricks, but my last test did not show much traction. Kaplan MST1: 166 Q, 158 V Kaplan MST2: 156 Q, 160 V Kaplan MST3: 161 Q, 162 V By contrast, we have Barron's CD1: 165 Q, 160 V Manhattan Prep 1: 166Q, 158 V I'm not too concerned with the V score, but my Q score needs to be, I believe, 163 or better. I am riding that line very dangerously close to that, and I'm a bit below that. I consider the Kaplan MST2 score a bit of a fluke, but the 3rd one I actually tried. I feel that Kaplan is definitely harder than Barron's and Manhattan Prep, for one they throw in that fake test, and for two the math questions just "feel" harder to me. I feel like I'm blowing the test out of the water with Manhattan and Barron's, but Kaplan is just killing me, I don't know why. I'll try a Powerprep one next.