Mocha001

Same here. I was out of school for almost 3 years and then last year I went back to community college and took two philosophy classes. My class had 10 pages final paper. It was like a research paper, but not like super traditional one. My professor asked us to pick up one philosopher and analyze his/her theory based on lectures and journals. And then, I took one statistic class at local university in this summer and we did some papers, but those were only 4 pages writing and the rest of pages were just statistical data. I have one paper which I wrote at undergraduate, but I thought that submitting the most recent paper with better writing would be better even though it was from community college. What do you think?

I did numbers of practice tests and this is still the result I got. I took ETS's prep tests and I scored around 550- 600. But, again, the real test was a lot harder than I thought. There is no way I can memorize 3500 words completely. So I am thinking about studying Barron's 800 words completely and then, I should study FISKE book. I am not sure how much I can do, but it is better than nothing. I had studied words over 10 months. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed and those words did not stay in my brain so long. Now, I need to focus on particular parts and work strategically. Oh, And also I want improve my writing score from 3.5 to 4.5 or 5.0. Any suggestions? Just practice writing??

I want to improve my verbal score. I got 450 which was quite bad even though I am not a native speaker. Now, I am planning to retake it in January. I have about 2months and half to prepare. What would you do if you were me? Should I just focus on vocab? I do not think I have enough time to improve reading score. The bottom line, I want to score 550-600. Or just keep doing practice tests????

I am still applying for Fall 2011. I applied for UCSB and the deadline is Dec 1st. So I cannot retake it for UCSB. I do not think I will be accepted because it is way too competitive. I am also applying for two other schools and their deadlines are the end of Feb and beginning of March. So I still have some time to improve.

Well, since I got my BA from university in the US, I do not have to take TOEFL. I took it for 5 years ago and I got 600. I care more about the GRE verbal and AWA since it is what school really looks at. This is what I heard. Even though you have a high score on TOEFL, your poor GRE verbal score still affects. So I want to retake it and bring my verbal score around 600.

Hi folks, I love this forum. I really appreciate your comments. I took the GRE in Oct. I got 3.5 on AWA. ( I am not a native speaker.) I was super disappointed. I am used to practice technical writing since I study statistics and that is just a style. Now, here comes the GRE writing. I believed that I did not do so bad on the second section. The first section was the problem. I got a topic which was pretty confusing and I did not really get it. Now, I want to retake it in Jan or Feb. I have a co-worker who used to be a school teacher, and he said he can help me to write a typical college composition paper. How do you folks prepare for the particular section? Should I randomly start writing everyday? I have heard that reading a lot of good books help. But, as you can tell, I am not able to prepare for this test years. I have two months and half. Anyone would like to share???

I think I am a visual learner. The thing is that those alphabetical words order drives me crazy!! Organizing words based on meaning works better?? or negative words vs positive words? antonym vs synonym?

Oh my god you guys are super awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to get that Fiske book. That was exactly I was concerned. I have gone through Barron's 3500 over and over again. I was familiar with those words, but on the exam, I totally cannot remember exact meanings. All I could do was " oh I have seen this word, but well, now what?" It was like you have been though the same street over and over again, but if someone asks you the direction, you cannot explain exactly. I wasted a lot of time for stupid words, and I had to guess a lot of reading comprehension questions. Do you guys memorize words visually? or say out loud? or writing?

Hello. I try to memorize all 3500 barron's words. How do you memorize words? I am sure everyone has their own ways of doing so. Anyone wants to share?

I had the same issue. My writing score was 3.5. I am very disappointed. The question was much harder than I thought. I think I will retake it and improve my score.

If I were you, I would take it again. But, if you have good GPA, I would try to apply. The GRE is such an expensive test and time consuming. Good luck!

I took powerprep tests. But, the real test was a lot harder. I think it depends. The sentence completion was really hard, and I was wasting too much of my time.

Hi, I am sure I am not the only one who has this problem. I graduated in 2006. Since then, I have been working full time to support myself. I am finally ready to go back to school. Now, I am having a very hard time getting letters of recommendation. I took two classes at local community college with the same professor, and he is willing to write a letter of recommendation. I even spent 800 dollars in this summer to take one class through open university, but this professor was too busy to write it Her reply was full of hesitation. Now, I have two other professors that I have been trying to contact. They are part time professors who do not even have office. They agree to write a letter of recommendation, but I am not sure if I can depend on them. Should I also include a letter from my boss? My boss is willing to write it and he really knows that I have been studying during my break and lunch time, and also I am a hard worker in general. he is asking me what I want him to include in the letter of recommendation. Obviously he is not a professor, so he is not very familiar with my research or academic knowledge. ( I can show my academic work.) Any advice?

I just took the GRE on 22nd of Oct. Well, I was pretty disappointed. My verbal was 450 and my quantitative was 780. By the way, I am not a native speaker. But, I am not a natural science major. I am communication major. My focus will be statistical research in communication. I was scoring close to 600 on the prep. But, the real test was harder than I thought. Now, I want to improve my score to at least 550. I want to keep my record for 5 years until I apply for PhD. I never want to study for this test again, and I do not think I will do well on the new GRE. What should I do to improve my score 100 pt? Should I just keep memorizing words? I have studied every possible study book, but still I am not good at verbal section.