GRE practice tests

[ngower81]

I apologize if there is a similar post to this elsewhere on the site . . . if there is, I can't find it. I am scheduled to take the GRE general test soon, and I am wondering if anyone would share which practice tests out there most accurately predicted your GRE general test scores. Of course, I am excluding the test prep produced by ETS . . . which I would assume is the most accurate.

I am just wondering because my scores range drastically depending on which practice test I take. On some tests I score around 740-750 verbal (which is all I am really concerned with at this point), while on others I am scoring mid to upper 600s. So, I don't know whether to be confident or nervous.

[normajean]

I did 100 points better on both sections on the real GRE than on the practice test ETS gives you!

[engguy]

sounds like you're gonna do fine. since you're so far out front of the process, you can take it over anyway if need be. you should be confident.

i don't know which practice tests you're taking, but as i'm sure you know the computerized gre will weight the early questions much more heavily than the later ones in each section. that's why, i think, your scores could swing so far from one test to the next (and from practice to the real thing).

as a rule, i would say that you should consistently get no more than one or two wrong per practice section. and pound that vocab!

best of luck.

[searching4schools]

Edit postDelete postReport this postReply with quote Re: GRE practice tests

by searching4schools on Wed May 28, 2008 8:57 am

Ngower81,

I do hope that reading this post, you've already taken your GREs and you've aced them. I would just like to emphasize the point made by engguy, which is "you should be confident." Based on my personal experience, being nervous really works to your disadvantage on these CATs. When I was taking practice tests (and I took A LOT of those) I was doing really well - always about 700s on quant, 600s on verbal (although english is not my native language). However, once I got to the site, all this anxiety took over me and I basically panicked. I did everything wrong -- didn't take enough time on the first few questions, I was gauging how I'm doing while taking the test based on the questions they were asking, then I realized that I was getting really easy questions and so I would get even more anxious about the whole thing -- one, big, vicious cycle, to say the least. I ended up with V= 570, Q=620, a significantly worse than my practice tests. So now I'm actually considering taking them yet again (third time) but this time after a glass of wine.

Good luck to you!

[nowikissyou]

I'd say that the the actual GRE is less difficult than most training books (except the official ETS CD, whose questions seemed easier than the real thing), but the PRESSURE you have while taking it makes it look harder.

It's also important to take into account the CAT mechanism (adaptive), so unless your test material also provides a similar feel, you'll always be a bit off.

The Q section varies a lot between tests (and between test-makers), but the V stays pretty much the same. In fact, you probably found out by now about words-lists and how they contain the most commonly used words, etc.

Don't rely on your practice scores; even if you think you get good scores already, keep training. The more words you discover, the more you will remember on the test day.

Like the previous poster said, this is all moot if you aced it already