michelle_d

Last time I took the GRE was July 2014. I was currently enrolled part time in a post-bacc program at that time (still am) and did effectively no prep outside of keeping up with school. Background: I have a BA in History earned in 2007 and the post-bacc program I am in is for a BS in Economics. I wrote 161V/157Q/5.0AW. At the time that was 87%/68%/93% on percentiles for each component. Verbal has always been stronger for me but 161 was lower than my last attempt on the old GRE (equivalent of a 164). My Quant went up from the old GRE but not to where I wanted it. My AW was the same. I am taking it again in the fall (Sept/Oct.) and have decided to formally study and drill between now and then. It's obvious to me that my vocabulary is degrading the longer I'm out of a writing based program, so I am using Magoosh's flashcards to drill in vocal. I'm following their 6-month study program for those able to do advanced math to review all question types. I'm reviewing problems I have trouble with like geometry, and some algebra I don't use often. Haven't really used geometry since 9th grade. I'm also using an iPhone program called GRE Writing to log some practice writing under the time limits again. I'm aiming for a combined V/Q of 335 or better. I want AW as a 5.0 or better more just as a personal preference. My first time ever taking the GRE, back in 2008, I wrote a 5.5 AW. I would love to meet or beat that this time. Senda273 mentioned a great resource for Quant: Khan Academy. They have math concepts all the way up to differential calculus and cover the concepts tested on the Quant sections well. Easily the best free math practice I've found.

For those who are looking to study math concepts to prepare for the Quant. sections: Khan Academy is free and breaks math up by grade levels and concepts. I've used them to review calculus before and they've been really helpful. They have a lot of algebra and geometry available, and have videos demonstrating most concepts. Also, while not free, Magoosh recommends using older editions of the GMAT Official Guide, as their questions are comparable to GRE. You can literally find copies of the 2013 GMAT Official Guide on Amazon for $0.01. Shipping is another matter.

I agree that juggling grad. school with a sport may be difficult, and the cost of the program is a factor. It is also true that most MBA programs I know of are intended for people with work experience. Are you also 100% committed to this as your career path? I ask because I am finishing up a post-bacc degree this year, 10 years after my original BA because between those two programs saw my idea of my ideal job change radically based on work experience. Had I gone on to a MA/MS right after college in 2007 I likely would not have been as happy as I am now that I have had time to fully consider the options open to me in my original field and my new field. If you are fully certain of your career path, I would recommend possibly looking for MBA holders via LinkedIn or your school's alumni service, and getting their opinions on the matter. As MBA holders, they can give you a good perspective on the use of the program straight from undergrad and the likely work load you can expect.

I'm ramping up for another go at the GRE (the old scores expire before I'll be able to use them.) Definitely look for reasons to use the words. Reviewing flashcards in line at the grocery store tonight, "parsimonious" came up right as a man in front me was arguing with the cashier over the price of a gallon of milk. He had the price for the half-gallon. Took all 5 gallons back to switch them out for half-gallons. Never had the literal definition of a word walk past me before.

My husband and I have had to do long distance a few times since our marriage due to my active duty status in the military. We lived together for about 3 years before our long distance periods began. First was 2 months of basic training, then 4 months of A-School on the other side of the country. After that was about 1.5 years when I was stationed in Detroit and he found a job back home in New Jersey. We've made it through all of that. Now we're facing a possible 4-5 year separation because my dream MPhil/PhD Economics program is at Oxford. His focus is on logging the years at his job to get vested in his pension program. It's hard to do long distance, and that wouldn't be any different for school. I will be honest that the gradually increasing nature of my and my husband's time apart is what makes a school separation something we can consider without too much anxiety. We've been sort of worked up to it. It's important for you each to have a social network outside of each other. Time that you now spend together will feel empty if you don't develop other people to spend some of that time with. I didn't have that kind of network in Detroit when my husband left for NJ and it made that 1.5 years horrible compared to the training environments where my class was automatically my social network. By the end of my time there, I had started going out with a few other women from work, and it completely changed the feeling of the separation on my end. It wasn't fun, but it was tolerable. Try to both have common experiences despite separation. See the same movie so you can talk about it later, or read a book together. My husband won our Infinite Jest challenge, but before I had to throw in the towel, we were trading opinions on the book, offering theories back and forth as to what the heck was going on. That felt closer than sitting around saying "I miss you," over and over. We were also both involved with a couple friends in an attempt to write a web series (video production is a hobby for both of us). We ran the sessions via Skype because I was in Michigan, my husband was in central New Jersey, and our friends were in Queens, NYC. We kept our documents in Google Docs that we all had access to. Seeing not just my husband but my friends every week that way was incredibly helpful. Having an ending in sight is huge. In Detroit "I just have to make it [insert appropriate number here] more months," became my mantra. It was the light at the end of the tunnel. By the time I leave the CG and finish a PhD, my husband will be vested in his pension system and we can reevaluate where I look for work or where he is willing to move to at that point. I'm confident we can survive 4-5 years of separation by making it a point to visit each other once per year for a couple weeks. He is near his large family here in NJ. I will have a class to integrate into at school. That gives us social networks. We're both voracious readers, so we'll keep that up. And if I'm in the UK I'll have incentive to go out and explore in part so we can spend his visits to me doing fun things. I hope my experience so far in the military is helpful to those of you facing a separation due to school location. It is difficult, but it is doable.