wishfulone

Thanks again for the advice and encouragement. I wanted to let you know that I scored a 5 on the writing section, which is exactly what I was aiming for. It went really ugly for my issue essay... I didn't feel comfortable with my topic and felt I was just spewing stuff without actually having a very strong, knit argument. My argument essay saved me, I think. I had 6 paragraphs for that one. Anyway, I am beyond relieved. Good luck with your endeavors!

Let me start by saying you guys have beautiful scores. Thank you for the advice!! I think 6 paragraphs would be ideal, but I can write at most 5 paragraphs. Do you remember roughly how many paragraphs you probably wrote? I don't know if it's better to have very developed ideas or more (but briefly touched) ideas. For example, 3 very developed ideas vs. 3 developed +1 weaker idea? I am a slow writer... Good luck, midnight! I'm sure you'll do just fine. Does the school you are applying to not take old scores into consideration? I wonder why you are worrying about the writing part if you already scored so well on it? I don't know what exactly the old test's standards were, but make sure you address the questions, too. I'm not sure I really answered it directly the first time.

First of all, I love how Princeton Review offers to grade your essay when you take their practice tests. The notes they gave me were actually very helpful. They also graded my essay within a day, so I highly recommend people to take advantage of the test. I wanted to know how other people scored vs. how they scored in the actual GRE to compare the standards. I thought I wrote a pretty decent essay for Princeton Review's test... It had some examples that was only superficially touched, but I still thought the essay was better than the one I wrote on the actual GRE. I didn't have actual concrete examples or a developed conclusion in the real one (I ran out of time). Both had "elementary" word usage. Princeton Review: 3.5 (post-GRE) GRE: 4 While we're act it, I might as well compare the rest of the scores... Princeton Review: 151V, 155Q (pre-GRE) GRE: 155V, 159Q So how did you do? And if anyone has any tips on scoring at least a 5, please send them my way! I have been studying intensely for this portion. My biggest fear is that, come test day, the prompt they will give me is the only one I haven't prepared for!

I feel that although you can improve on the questions in comprehension, you will not see that much improvement if there are words in the passage that you don't know. They can often ask you questions that just rewords something in the text. And if you don't know that word, you'll be like "where in the passage does it say [enter another word that unknowingly means the same thing]?" This is the main problem for me.

I did not do well on ETS's test in their first edition book. I didn't actually take it on paper though (so I wasn't able to mark on the test to help things). I used my computer. How did you guys do?

Anyone take Manhattan tests online? Do you know how they compare to the actual? I don't know how they scored me to be 157 verbal when I only got half the questions right. The second section was not harder but they did omit easy questions. I like Kaplan's but I don't know if it's worth the extra $20 I have to spend on practice exams when I already have 6 from Manhattan from buying one of their books.

This is interesting to me. I have read from others than the math was easier than ETS tests. What did you think of the verbal? I scored 157 on the first online test today, but I don't know how accurate it is since I only got half of the questions right. I felt the sentence completions were harder than Powerprep but the RC seemed to be easier to read.