St0chastic

Hello all. I studied for about 5 weeks and definitely noticed an improvement as I answered more practice questions and got a sense of the logic ETS uses. I took three of the practice tests the day before the actual exam and one of them the morning of the exam. Powerprep I: 168 V/ 170 Q Powerprep II: 166 V/167 Q (I was interrupted halfway through the test and was pretty distracted, so I made a few careless mistakes). Official Guide Paper Test 1: 170 V (I actually missed two questions though)/170 Q (I missed two questions due to sloppy math but the score conversion table still counts this as a 170) Official Guide Paper Test 2: 168 V/170 Q Actual Test: 170 V/168 Q (I'm 99% sure I know one of the questions I missed. It was a super easy combinatorics problem that I made a careless mistake on, but I didn't realize it until a few seconds after time was up for the section) When I first started studying I was missing 5-10% of the verbal questions. After doing all of the official practice problems and practice tests, I started to identify how my own reasoning was different from ETS'. What helped me most was learning to think of all of the questions from the perspective of the test maker. It's useful to ask things like "If I were writing this question, which answer choice would I designate to be correct and what trap answers would I write?" and "What aspect of understanding is this question testing?" This helped me make fewer mistakes on the test. For the quant, I just did a load of practice problems. Magoosh + Khan Academy + Official Guide + Official Practice Questions Books + Manhattan 5 lb. Book + ETS Math Review is the combo I used. If I had another couple of weeks to study, I would have focused on learning strategies to minimize careless errors, which is my biggest weakness when it comes to math. Also, even though I spent a lot of time becoming proficient at speedy mental math, on the test I ended up double checking most of my answers with the calculator because under stress my brain does stupid things (like thinking 15 x 6 is 75 or that 23 x 2 is 56).

I know, right? It's too bad being a student isn't a career.

If I were you I would go through one of the Magoosh math sections and then spend an hour or so doing practice problems for just that topic. So maybe today you can start with arithmetic and fractions, tomorrow you can do percents and ratios + integer properties, the next day do algebra, and so on until you get to statistics. Also, be sure to watch the videos at 1.5X speed so you can cover more with the time that you have. Two or three days before your exam be sure to do the official practice tests to identify your remaining weaknesses and get a sense of pacing. When doing the practice tests, make sure that you skip and mark the most difficult questions so that you have enough time to answer all the easy and medium ones. If you have time left at the end, you can attempt the hard questions.

With only 10 days to go, I would focus on quant as I think it's easier to improve in math in a short time span. Prioritize the following: 1. Word problems (age questions, motion, average speed, multiple travelers, work, growth and decay, mixtures, sets and venn diagrams, sequences, sums of sequences, etc.). 2. Algebra (simplifying and multiplying expressions, FOIL, factoring, difference of two squares, factoring quadratics, solving equations, eliminating fractions, solving two and three equations using elimination/substitution, absolute value equations, function notation, operators, inequalities). 3. Percents/fractions/ratios (percent increases and decreases, sequential percent changes, simple and compound interest, combining ratios, ratios and rates, converting from fractions to decimals and vice versa, mixed numeral and improper fractions, etc.). 4. Data interpretation (i.e. reading graphs). 5. Geometry (lines and angles, triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons and regular polygons, circles and circle properties, arcs, sectors, volume, surface area, converting to different units of measurement, etc.). 6. Statistics (mean, median, mode, weighted averages, range and standard deviation, normal distribution, quartiles and boxplots, percentiles). 7. Exponents (negative and fractional exponents, laws of exponents, square and other roots, simplifying roots, etc.). I wouldn't even worry about probability or combinatorics problems as you don't have much time to review these topics and there only a few of those questions on the test. You should be targeting around a 155 in quant IMO. If you review the basics of the above concepts and do a couple hundred practice problems, this should be doable. Just make sure you master one area before moving on to the next one (or at least get to the point where you can answer all medium difficulty questions for that area correctly). ETS' Math Review might also be helpful as that's something you can go over quickly: https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf It might also be worth getting a subscription for Magoosh. Feel free to use the Manhattan books you already have if you feel that they work for you, but the Magoosh lesson videos really helped me master the foundational quant concepts when I was studying for the test. Magoosh also has over 500 practice quant problems broken down by topic and difficulty level. Even if you don't subscribe to Magoosh, check out their free Math Formula ebook: http://magoosh.resources.s3.amazonaws.com/Magoosh_GRE_Math_Formula_eBook.pdf Also, see if you can find anyone to cover your TA work for ten days. I took a week off work to study for the test and did math problems 12+ hours a day. I think that this helped me do well on the test.

@ihatechoosingusernames My problem is that my interests are very diffuse. I am interested in multiple areas of psychology, and so I feel like I'm being disingenuous if I say I only want to research "insert super-specific academic topic here." My background is more in cognitive psych/cognitive neuroscience, so I'm at a disadvantage applying to I/O programs where many of the applicants will already have extensive experience in the field. To be honest, I wasn't even considering applying to I/O programs until I learned more about the field a few months ago. My test scores are pretty solid (170 V/168 Q; 830 Psychology subject test), but my GPA is a little on the low end (~3.7) , so my admittance chances mostly boil down to whether my research experience is considered acceptable. Right now I'm just learning as much as I can about each program and advisor so that I can present my research experience as being compatible with the program in my SOP. The more I read about the application process the more I realize how important "fit" is.

Hi FranzFan, I took the GRE last Friday so I thought I would chime in with my two cents. As with you, math is not my forte. With around a month of intense review, I was able to score a 170 V/168 Q despite making some silly careless mistakes on the quant section (this is why you should always double check your work, especially if you are error prone like I am!). Here's what I did: --The math content on Khan Academy from arithmetic through Algebra II. --The Magoosh lesson videos, two times. --All of the Magoosh practice problems + many of the problems on their blog. --All of the math problems in the Manhattan 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems. --The ETS Math Review: https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf --The problems in the Official GRE Guide and Official Practice Question Books: http://www.amazon.com/Official-GRE-Super-Power-Pack/dp/0071841814/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446570522&sr=1-1&keywords=official+gre --The official practice tests offered by ETS. After doing that many practice problems, you are bound to improve your mathematical problem solving. The key is learning the different problem types and then just learning to identify those problem types on the test. Through sheer rote practice, you will eventually be able to solve 95% of GRE problems effortlessly. Then it's just a matter of honing your execution so that you don't make careless mistakes while working out the problems (this is my weakness). Also, when reviewing the answers to practice problems, make sure you understand the approach taken in the solution. By watching the Magoosh answer videos to their practice problems and reading the Manhattan solution explanations, I learned a number of tricks that helped me solve problems more efficiently and/or gave me a deeper mathematical understanding. I did this for all problems, including those I answered correctly. Of course, the best thing to do is see what the average scores of admitted students are for the programs you are applying to. If your score is in the target range, you may not need a higher score. Especially with an Oxford degree and 5 years of work experience, you might already be a competitive enough applicant that a middle-of-the-road quant score won't matter...but I can't speak for admissions committees. All I can say is that if you do retake the test, make sure that you master the math concepts and then do thousands of practice problems until you can solve them in your sleep. Some might say this is overkill, but in my opinion that's the only surefire way to significantly improve your score.

That's a great point. It's definitely a case of diminishing returns the more you study. To eke out that final 1-2 points might take as long as improving the first 5. Nevertheless, with grad programs being as competitive as they are, every bit helps. In just a couple of weeks you can substantially improve your vocabulary, and in around 100 hours you can greatly increase your problem solving speed. IMO it's worth taking the time to do that unless you're scoring 340 on your practice tests. Another thing I forgot to mention--think of the GRE as a game. If you are able to have fun studying, you will learn the material more readily and you won't procrastinate. In my mind the test was the final boss.

Hi all. I took the GRE last Friday and wanted to recap my experience in preparing for it as well as offer some advice for those who are taking it. These are just my own amateur opinions and I have no hard data to back up any of my claims, so take this with a liberal helping of salt. I’m the kind of person that never feels wholly prepared to take an exam, and so I put off taking the GRE for months. With application deadlines looming, I finally scheduled my exam for late October. My verbal skills are fairly strong (I aced the SAT Critical Reading in high school) and I’m an inveterate logophile, but I have a tendency to make lots of careless errors on timed math tests. Given this, I focused most of my time and effort on bolstering my quant skills. Around a year ago (I was originally planning on applying to grad school last year but decided I wasn’t quite ready), I watched all of the arithmetic, pre-Algebra, Algebra I and II, and Geometry videos on Khan Academy at 2X speed to refamiliarize myself with the foundational quant concepts on the GRE. I also made sure to work all of the problems in the videos for myself (before Sal solved them) and complete the practice questions on the Khan Academy website. It probably took me around a month to work through all of this content. I highly recommend going through the Khan Academy math content first to anyone who is even a little rusty on your middle school/early high school math. My only caveat is that Sal actually goes into more detail on some topics than you need to know for the GRE (e.g., he covers geometric proofs), so if you’re short on time don’t necessarily feel compelled to watch each and every video. That having been said, I’m of the philosophy that it’s always better to know too much rather than too little, especially as this can solidify your mathematical understanding and number sense. About six weeks ago, I started studying for the GRE again in earnest. After researching the different prep resources, I decided to use Magoosh. Over the course of about four weeks, I watched all of the Magoosh lesson videos and solved all 1100+ practice problems. I then re-watched the math videos a second time (I was really nervous about the quant section—as you can maybe tell, math is not my forte!). I also worked through every single math problem in the Manhattan 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice problems, including the advanced quant problems at the end of the book, and made sure to read the answers/explanations for all the problems to ensure that I was solving them in the most time efficient way. I read through ETS’ Math Review PDF (https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf) and worked through the problems therein. I also did all of the problems in the Official GRE Guide and the Official GRE Practice Question Books (http://www.amazon.com/Official-GRE-Super-Power-Pack/dp/0071841814/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446570522&sr=1-1&keywords=official+gre) about a week before the test. The Magoosh blog is another great resource, made even better by the fact that it’s completely free. The challenge math problems in particular are great as they are IMO harder than most of the questions on the GRE. If you can solve those, you are ready for the test! The day before the test I took 3 practice tests (the two Powerprep ones and one from the Official Guide book). Somewhat foolishly, I took another practice test the morning before my exam. If you do nothing else, make sure to take these official practice tests! In particular, focus on how long it takes you to finish each section. In my case, I realized that I was able to complete most of the math problems a lot faster than I thought I was able to. This allowed me to relax a little and spend more time double-checking my answers which probably helped me avoid making too many careless mistakes on the test. To review vocabulary, I used the Magoosh vocab app, the book Fiske Word Power, and an old Kaplan SAT Vocab book I had lying around with 500 words. I also watched all of Magoosh’s Vocab Wednesday videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/MagooshGRE/videos). Whenever I encountered a word I couldn’t define formally, I looked it up and added it to a vocab list I made on quizlet.com. Whenever I was waiting for a bus or had a few idle minutes, I used the Vocabulary.com app to review GRE words. My vocabulary was already pretty decent, but I probably got an extra 1-2 answers correct on the test from the vocabulary review that I did. In the end, I scored 170 V/168 Q. I was actually really mad at myself for missing one of the quant questions; it was a really easy combinations problem that I made a silly careless mistake on but didn’t realize it until about 10 seconds after the clock had run down. I don’t want to come across as ungrateful though, I’m actually really happy with my score! I would have never predicted that I would do better on verbal than quant as on two of my practice tests I missed 1-3 verbal questions and aced the quant. I guess that goes to show that there’s always going to be some variance in your performance from test to test. Also, it’s really hard not to make any careless mistakes when taking a stressful exam, so don’t beat yourself up too badly if you don’t get a perfect score even if you manage to on the practice tests. So to those of you out there who are like me and aren’t natural math whizzes, take heart! If you take the time to learn the foundational math concepts and do enough practice problems, you will eventually get to the point where you will instantly know how to solve 95% of GRE quant problems. If you pace yourself and think through your answers carefully and double check your work, you shouldn’t make more than 1-2 careless errors on the test. Here are some more general tips: --Don’t put off studying for the GRE like I did! While you can certainly get a good score with less than a month of preparation, to maximize your chances of getting the score you want, give yourself at least 3 months to prepare. If I didn’t have to apply in December, I would have spent another month or two studying before taking the test. --For the quant, learn and become familiar with all of the math concepts before doing any practice tests/practice problems. Of course, math is not a spectator sport—you learn by doing! If you use Khan Academy and/or Magoosh, attempt all of the problems before the instructor solves them. If you miss a question, makes sure you understand how to solve it and try to identify why you missed it (i.e., what in your thought process led you astray). --Avoid using the calculator as much as possible when solving practice problems. If you do this, you will get very good at mental math which will shave precious seconds off of each question. --Learn the shortcuts for solving problems quickly. For example, there’s a useful trick that helps you solve all of the easy and medium difficulty work problems in seconds (http://magoosh.com/gre/2011/dont-get-worked-up/). There are also some things you should just know so that you don’t have to calculate them/figure them out on the test: prime numbers (I memorized them through 113), Pythagorean triplets (3/4/5, 5/12/13, 7/24/25, 8/15/17), squares of all integers though 20, cubes of all integers through 10, powers of 2, 3^4, 5^4, the formula for calculating the area of an equilateral triangle, how to find the diagonal of a cuboid, factorials of 1-5, etc. --Make use of more than one resource. Use books, apps, websites, blogs, Youtube, etc. --Don’t make the mistake that I made and not practice writing essays! Don’t try and write the perfect essay (or you’ll fall prey to “perfect word syndrome”), just learn how to consistently write something that could score a 4.5 or 5 in 30 minutes. That should be good enough for the vast majority of grad programs out there. Remember, these are very formulaic essays and not Pulitzer Prize submissions. Learn the formula and master it. --If you are limited on time, prioritize the topics that are tested most frequently. Here’s an infographic by Magoosh that can help you prioritize your study time: http://magoosh.com/gre/2012/breakdown-of-the-most-commonly-tested-gre-quant-concepts/ So don’t sweat it too much if you didn’t get around to mastering combinations/permutations problems. There probably won’t be more than two of them on your exam! I hope this information is helpful to someone! Also, a huge shout-out to Chris Lele and Mike McGarry of Magoosh (I swear I’m not a shill). You guys rock!