Revised GRE - 2nd day

[missdvo]

Hi everyone,

I took the revised GRE on the 2nd day it was offered (Aug. 2) and unlike some other people who got Verbal for the "extra" section, I actually was given the Quantitative. That was actually Ok since the verbal seemed harder to me cause of so many tricky questions. The range of scores at the end for me was pretty low. I never do well on these types of questions and on one of the sections, I actually ran out of time (forgot if it was V or Q section) so had to guess on about 5 questions, which I'm sure totally helped to lower my scores.

I was just glad to get out of the testing center that I didn't write down my scores but was told from the proctors that I will receive my scores in 2-3 weeks.

Study charts and graphs if you're not good with those because I had a tons of those questions come up. I don't remember any Verbal "GRE words" that I studied from Princeton Review and Kaplan books coming up at all.

As for the writing, the issue topic was something like: government should not fund scientific research that do not have clear consequences, and the argument topic was something like: this one chemical that's also used as a food additive has been shown to lower headaches in this one town.

Take the Powerprep sample tests; they're almost exactly like what my test was like. Hope that's helpful to some of you & Good LUCK! Thank goodness my top choice university doesn't require GRE scores (they did away with them THIS YEAR!).

diana

[Timshel]

How much did you study for the verbal part of the GRE? You said very few of the words you studied showed up, which makes me nervous. I didn't do as well as I wanted to on the verbal, so I have been trying to learn more words, and I am scared that learning all of these words are not going to help me bring my score up.

[missdvo]

I studied the "top GRE words" from Kaplan (2010-2011 Premier edition), so that was about 180 words or so. I also looked at Princeton Review's "top words" but did not really study those (there were just TOO many). I took almost all of the sample tests in Kaplan, Princeton Review, & Powerprep. It helps to give you an idea of what types of questions will appear but on test day, nothing is the same. You should learn as much as your brain can hold...better to know some words like the back of your hand than try to memorize too much and forget all of them.

[Timshel]

Yeah, when I took it over the summer, I learned about 150 words, and I think one of them came up. This time, I bought the Princeton essential GRE vocab flashcards, and there are 500 words, and my goal is to memorize as many as I can from them, plus I bought some work books. The last time I took the GRE I got a 560 verbal and I need a minimum of 600 for my programs, so I feel like if I can just do a little bit better than before, I'm golden. I'm still super nervous though because now it's a new format.

[crater21]

Hey everyone,

Just getting ready to take the GRE next month. Quick question about the writing: on the ETS website, there is a pool of topics. Is that just a suggested list, or will the actual topic be chosen from among those in the list? The website seemed to suggest the latter, but I wasn't sure.

[orst11]

Hey everyone,

Just getting ready to take the GRE next month. Quick question about the writing: on the ETS website, there is a pool of topics. Is that just a suggested list, or will the actual topic be chosen from among those in the list? The website seemed to suggest the latter, but I wasn't sure.

After looking at the pools i noticed both of my topics were listed in the pools, so I imagine they choose from the lists.

[missdvo]

Yep, both of my topics were also from the pool...too bad I didn't get a chance to check them out. My friend took the old version and both of her topics were also from the pool so study those and you should score perfect on those!

[shreyag]

The ETS Powerprep Software has a limited number ,just 4 or 5 sample tests or even less, isn't it?? I am talking of the free software offered on the website...

[Insei]

Maybe I'm just blind, but I'm only seeing one practice test for the new GRE in the Powerprep II software. Where are you guys finding these other tests?

[crater21]

I also see only one test in the free software.

[MissHistorian]

Hi all, I'm taking the new GRE this September and, as a Canadian, the whole thing is completely foreign to me! For those interested (I was) -- here are the published topic pools: http://www.ets.org/g...lytical_writing (scroll down for "Issue Topic Pool" and "Argument Topic Pool.")

Edited August 8, 2011 by MissHistorian