reshan12

Update: Official Scores: 161V, 160Q, AWA: 5.5 I must have been so nervous in the test centre that I read the unofficial results the wrong way around or it was scaled up and down (which is less likely).

This forum really helped me through my study so hopefully I can help others as well. Sorry for writing so much but there are some things that I found out so late in the piece which I wish someone had told me so I’ll share them in hope that people don’t do the mistakes that I did My practice tests, in chronological order, are as follows: ETS Official Guide Paper 1 - 313 Magoosh Practice Test - 154V, 155Q - 309 Princeton Review Free - 158V, 159Q - 317 Manhattan Free - 157V, 156Q - 313 Manhattan 2 - 158V, 160Q - 318 Manhattan 3 - 160V, 159Q - 319 Manhattan 4 - 158V, 158Q - 316 PowerPrep I - 156V, 162Q - 318 Manhattan 5 - 159V, 157Q - 316 Manhattan 6 - 160V, 160Q - 320 PowerPrep II (3 days before test) - 154V, 155Q - 309 Unofficial Scores: 160V, 161Q - 321 AWA: to come As you can see my scores jumped back and forth and I ended up getting my best score on the day of the test. I would put this down to over studying and not letting my brain rest as to why my scores did not steadily increase throughout the 10 weeks. My PowerPrep II scores almost made me cry but it shows what no rest and over-studying without breaks in the weeks leading up to the practice can do. I used Magoosh and Manhattan and the Official Guide to study as well as the free online PDF versions of the Official ETS Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions and Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions. Studied for 10 weeks with a break of about 2 weeks in the middle for Christmas and New Year I studied around 3 hours a day after work during the week and then 6-8 hours a day on the weekends. Advice that I learnt as I studied: - Focus on making a plan catered to your needs from the beginning. I used the Magoosh 90 Day Plan for the first 4 weeks before I realised that the plan was not for me as it was actually giving me anxiety about how much I didn’t know rather than helping focus on getting better. - I put off learning vocabulary until about 3 weeks before the exam which I would vehemently not recommend. I recommend to learn the Magoosh Vocab Flashcards and Barrons 1100 back to front from the start. Aim for 50-100 words a day and regular revision sessions (at least twice a week) because that was super stressful towards the end. Learning this early will make you nail most SE questions and some TC questions as well (in my experience) and make your practice test scores higher which will improve your confidence which is key. - Make sure you dedicate time to reviewing what you got incorrect and WHY you got it incorrect and keep revisiting the thought processes of why you are getting certain questions wrong and why your logic is incorrect. I only started doing this around 1 and a half weeks out from the test and it greatly helped me on the test. So doing it from the start will help exponentially. - Set aside 4-5 notebooks that are labelled and dated chronologically and that each serve a specific purpose (e.g. one book for important concepts, one book for important practice questions etc) so when you’re revising you’re not constantly flicking through the different books to find things like I was. - For the verbal component, I cannot stress enough how important it is to focus on the ETS content. In particular, how they write their questions and what they are looking to test in each question. I found this out 2 days before my test that there is a pattern to how they ask many of the verbal questions and once you realise this, you can mitigate the number of times you fall for their traps - For quant, in my actual test, it was heavily based on integer properties, algebra, geometry, and word problems and also of course, data interpretation, so make sure these are practiced to be completed quickly and practice that you’re able to test whether something is correct quickly and efficiently such as practicing “what if x was negative, what if x was a fraction, what is x is zero etc” - Make sure you practice keeping to a time limit from the beginning - Try and find others to study with or join a facebook group. I studied by myself and I joined a facebook group towards the end of my study and it was much more comforting and it helped me greatly to use others wisdom and ask questions about answers that may be explained superficially (such as the Manhattan answers) - Sometimes less is more. Try and take breaks in your study. E.g. have one day off a week. I didn’t do this and my brain became overwhelmed and super tired and stressed by the end of 10 weeks. Taking regular breaks can help your brain retain newly learned topics and assign them to long term memory. Also, I feel like I studied so much so many days in a row that I started confusing myself and it was actually a detriment to my results. It may seem like you're wasting time by resting or taking a day off but I promise you that it will be worth it. - If you’re using Magoosh, make sure you leave 200 questions for verbal and 200 questions for quant unanswered for the last two weeks so you can practice questions that you have not seen before. I blitzed through most of Magoosh questions early on in the piece and then I started redoing questions which gave me a false sense of confidence which translated to a plateau and eventual decline in practice test scores - Make sure when you go attempt the PowerPreps you are completely rested and attempt the test as if it were the real thing otherwise you will end up with results like mine which really throw your confidence - Not everyone needs to have a rested and chilled couple of days for the days leading up to the test. Many people recommend it but I think the way I scrutinised over the ETS Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions and Quant Reasoning Practice Questions two days before my test was what saved my score from not being terrible. Test Day: sleep well the night before, stay calm, be confident in your abilities, find ways to keep yourself engaged in the test throughout Rating of the practice materials I used: Magoosh Practice tests - too pedantic and difficult and as many others have said, they are difficult in the wrong ways as they test logic and reasoning that is not usually employed by ETS Questions - a great tool given how many there are as well as the video explanations. Well worth the money in my opinion for this alone. Videos - focussed on way too much unnecessary content which unless you are naturally gifted in maths can be overwhelming Manhattan Practice tests - I would only use these to build your test stamina and for the quant questions (even though they put too many difficult and long ones per section). The verbal is an absolute joke. Please take these test scores with a grain of salt and be sure not to be swayed by their incessant vocab testing because the test will maybe have 1-3 questions per section that are purely vocab based. ETS Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions This was arguably the best thing I used and I only found it online two days before my test, google: "ETS Verbal Reasoning PDF". I would highly recommend poring over this and really going into each questions, especially the ones labelled 'hard', in depth. As in, do a question and then meticulously deconstruct it to see and understand the logic that is being tested. It is a fundamental process to doing well and if I found it earlier I think my verbal scores would have been at least a few points higher. ETS Quant Reasoning Practice Questions A bit easier than you will find on the GRE in my opinion but it gives a good gauge as to what to expect. Make sure you complete the practice sets timed PowerPrep I I found it to be quite a fair bit easier than the actual PowerPrep II I found to be on par with the actual and therefore, a great assessor of where your weaknesses lie