What can I really expect to see on Quant GRE

[lab ratta-tat-tat]

Hi all,

I know this is kind of late in the game but here we go- I am taking the GRE on Sunday, I have studied countless hours, purchased and reviewed many books and I have done my homework.

My Question is, what can I really expect to see on the Quant GRE? Will I see a majority of word problems, geometry, square roots, etc?

I just don't want to be studying my brains out with geometry and word problems, and show up and it be long division and decimal places.

I appreciate any input. Thank you!

[eklavya]

the questions are scattered evenly among the mathematical areas, so you can expect to see a nice mix of each type. as far as i know, too wordy questions aren't asked. if you have gone through all sorts of practice problems, you can expect the same.

[KirotBeiti]

I took the GRE a few weeks ago and the question types seemed to be pretty evenly distributed. Looking at my report on GRE Diagnostics, across the 6 categories they gave, the questions were split 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--now you can do the mode, median, and range!

I was generally satisfied with the type of questions I saw and didn't think any of them were too trap-like. The only category I really hated was "Data Interpretation" because I really don't think they test what they say the test--I suck at those because I'm slow at arithmetic, which they have you do to show you can "interpret" the data.

[cherubie]

It's pretty much exactly like those CAT exams you took (assuming they weren't from some obscure company), especially PowerPrep. You won't see a slew of geometry, or slew of word problems, (echoing the other repliers), they are generally mixed. So, if you're particularly week in a subject (say, geometry), make sure you brush up on it- don't count on not seeing them on the exam. If you do well on your math, you may see some "higher" math such as sequences, probability, combination, and statistics- but if you did your homework, I'm sure you already know this.

[shepardn7]

It was pretty similar to the PowerPrep for me. Know your triangle and exponent rules.

[cwe93]

GRE PowerPrep from the ETS website really is the best preparation (even with the countless number of GRE studybooks that are out there). Those CAT tests are almost identical to the pattern, structure, style, etc. (even has the same font!) of the real GRE. Doing those will give you the best idea of where you are. Good luck!

[lab ratta-tat-tat]

ETS power prep does not work on Macs sadly.

Also I registered a while ago and never got the disk they claim you are to receive. This actually happened once before, I registered and took the GRE (2 years ago) when I was a naive 21 year old. I must have missed the memo you get a disk to help you prepare. The morning I took the GRE I checked my mailbox and I kid you not, it was in my mail. No help since I had taken it that morning, Grrrr!!!!

I downloaded the booklets straight from ETS though which have helped immensely and I actually recall 3 of the math problems from this math booklet, on the test I took 2 years ago. Which is great.

Thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it.

[university99]

I got a 790 (91st percentile), and I wanted to cry as I was taking the GRE. I thought I was doing horribly, and I really had to guess on a lot of questions. Looking back, a lot of my questions weren't that hard, except the ANSWERS were tricky.

Examples:

-I had at least 6 questions based off of charts/graphs and the answers differentiated by the smallest amounts.

-I had a weird question that I had no idea how to answer about people's names and what could be formed out of them?

-Equation of a circle

-Weird question about a 3-d plane that described a shape that was made from all points equidistant from a single point that was intersected by 2 parallel planes (cylinder! took some thought..)

I also ran out of time on the last question and had to guess blindly without reading. In my experience, a lot of the practice books out there don't help you if you already have a good grasp of the material that people need to know to get a score in the low 700s. If you want a higher score, you're definitely going to have to know how to do more difficult computations that most prep books don't even include!

[university99]

I took the GRE a few weeks ago and the question types seemed to be pretty evenly distributed. Looking at my report on GRE Diagnostics, across the 6 categories they gave, the questions were split 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--now you can do the mode, median, and range!

I had no idea this existed! Thank you!

[history_PhD]

ETS power prep does not work on Macs sadly.

Also I registered a while ago and never got the disk they claim you are to receive. This actually happened once before, I registered and took the GRE (2 years ago) when I was a naive 21 year old. I must have missed the memo you get a disk to help you prepare. The morning I took the GRE I checked my mailbox and I kid you not, it was in my mail. No help since I had taken it that morning, Grrrr!!!!

I downloaded the booklets straight from ETS though which have helped immensely and I actually recall 3 of the math problems from this math booklet, on the test I took 2 years ago. Which is great.

Thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it.

There are computer applications that allow you to run Windows on a Mac. I have VMware Fusion; you do have to have a version of Windows though. It might be too late for you to deal with this now, but for future reference, it is nice to have access to a Windows OS on your Mac.

[t_macc]

I got a 790 (91st percentile), and I wanted to cry as I was taking the GRE. I thought I was doing horribly, and I really had to guess on a lot of questions. Looking back, a lot of my questions weren't that hard, except the ANSWERS were tricky.

do you know how many you got wrong? did you check the diagnostic report?

[university99]

do you know how many you got wrong? did you check the diagnostic report?

I got 5 wrong. They were all on difficulty 5 (wtf does this mean?) and they were questions 2, 7, 11, 26, and 27