What else can/should i do?

[Done]

Hey,

as i spontaneously decided to take the GRE and only had 6 weeks too prepare (3.5 left) it would be great if u guys can tell me what else I should/must do.

On the Harvard Homepage u can get some scores to see in which area i should score

(I picked Harvard bc it was the only universities I could find some numbers)

Average GRE Analytical Score: 4.00

Average GRE Verbal Score: 548

Average GRE Quantitative Score: 800 (I talked to some other Universities so i think sth around 750 is fine)

As i am also not a native speaker I guess they do not mind if my verbal and analytical score is 10-15% lower.

What i did so far:

-I got the Kaplan revised GRE Book and worked it through.

-I wrote some essays - just to get a feeling - and let them correct. (I think as i only need a 3.5 they are fine)

-I worked through the GRE Math stuff (there was a pretty long tutorial available)

-I learned the the Barron book with the word roots and 800 vocabs .

Do u think that is so far enough to get 500 points on the verbal part? ( I know it is hard to say but as i do not have any clue...)

For the math part I just bought the Kaplan Math workbook. I also have to admit that - as i teach a lot of math courses in university - i hardly had any mistakes on the Kaplan exercises.

So is one math book usually enough or do u buy more of them, and especially which ones?

Again i know that it is very hard to say anything about it, bc you do not know me; But i guess some opinions would help me a lot.

Thanxs for all the help!

[kaykaykay]

1. you can get a better advice about good points on the forum which focuses on your area of study. Average points can be misleading. Also non-native speakers are evaluated on the same basis as native speakers. The results board can be also very informative.

2. you sound like you are preparing well. I think at this point you should take some pratice tests to see if there are areas that you should focus more.

[Eigen]

To give you advice on score ranges, you really need to tell us your field. I'm assuming something in the sciences/engineering, but....

Don't expect a lower verbal score to be OK since you're a non-native speaker. If anything, I've seen expectations of slightly higher verbal scores from non-native speakers as a way of showing a good grasp of the language.

[Done]

To give you advice on score ranges, you really need to tell us your field. I'm assuming something in the sciences/engineering, but....

Sure: I am applying for an engineering Ph.D. program.

As my university is already ranked above the best schools in europe and top 30 world-wide, i only intend to apply for better or equal schools, as all my friends live here and I do not have to pay tuition, but i even get money. (I hope that is understandable and does not sound to cocky)

Don't expect a lower verbal score to be OK since you're a non-native speaker. If anything, I've seen expectations of slightly higher verbal scores from non-native speakers as a way of showing a good grasp of the language.

Thank your for announcing that. But i still have the opinion that average in the verbal parts is ok, as i apply for engineering and not writing. (Am i that wrong?). Btw: there were some really good schools which even told me:"screw the verbal part we are just interested in your math skills."

But i think this question relates to question one ;-)

2. you sound like you are preparing well. I think at this point you should take some pratice tests to see if there are areas that you should focus more.

As my prof told me to go abroad i am in the lucky position that i get 10 days of before i'll take the GRE (31st of oct). So my plan was to write one test every day. Would u already start now?

And thanks to both of u :-)

Edited October 5, 2011 by Done

[Eigen]

For a PhD in engineering, the verbal is actually more important than you might think. All future grants, publications, etc. will be a result of your writing skill.

It doesn't need to be really high, but it needs to be decent.

[Done]

It doesn't need to be really high, but it needs to be decent.

I agree with you. But that was the reason why i claimed that average should be fine?!

Would you mind to add some information to my preparation as you already attend a grad-school.

[Eigen]

I agree with you. But that was the reason why i claimed that average should be fine?!

Would you mind to add some information to my preparation as you already attend a grad-school.

It seemed like you were saying 10-15% under the average (or lower) was fine.

I'd say a 550-650 on the Verbal is a good range, and near 800 on Quant is what you should look for, given the schools you want to apply to.

I'm a bad one to ask about GRE prep, I think I took the two powerprep tests the week before, had decent scores, and then just took the GRE. I didn't do much prep at all.

[Done]

Hey thanks!

does anybody know how many mistakes i can make for this score-range? Like what is if i get 1-2 mistakes in the math part that means 1-2 out of 40 are wrong. is this about 750-800 or 650-700?

Just an estimation would be nice :-)

[Kitkat]

I wouldn't think it is all a matter of just how many that you get wrong, but also the level of difficulty of the question. Since it is an adaptive test (unless you are taking the paper based one, then it probably is a matter of how many questions you get right), the best option is try to get as many on the first section right. If you do really well on the first section, you tend to get a harder section on the second section, and there is I think a bit more leeway to get a few more questions wrong and still be able to get a good score. So what I am trying to say is that it is not at simple as saying, "I can only get 2 questions wrong".

My estimate is this(based on my power prep experience), you can possibly get 4-5 wrong on each section and be in a good area for engineering, but it all depends on the questions that you get really. Good luck!

[Done]

I wouldn't think it is all a matter of just how many that you get wrong, but also the level of difficulty of the question. Since it is an adaptive test (unless you are taking the paper based one, then it probably is a matter of how many questions you get right), the best option is try to get as many on the first section right. If you do really well on the first section, you tend to get a harder section on the second section, and there is I think a bit more leeway to get a few more questions wrong and still be able to get a good score. So what I am trying to say is that it is not at simple as saying, "I can only get 2 questions wrong".

My estimate is this(based on my power prep experience), you can possibly get 4-5 wrong on each section and be in a good area for engineering, but it all depends on the questions that you get really. Good luck!

hey thanks!

What do u mean by section. Math 1+2 or 4-5 mistakes on math1 and the same for the second one.

Because my problem is mostly that i do often not get what they mean. Like yesterday i did a math test (40 questions) and the 2 mistakes i had were both related to translation problems. The first was that i translated edge with corner and not side. (i mean now i know it but then there is another word) So a cube has 12 edges and not 8. And the second was that i did not know what a carven was. (It was a square, but i've just never heard of it!)

So to sum it up 1-2 mistakes (section 1+2) are fine?! (I'll do a prep next week to check my score...)

And do u also have an estimation about the verbal part?

[Kitkat]

Ok time for a correction to my previous post. The 4-5 wrong would 1) be for the verbal section, 2) would be for each section.

For math I would say that you don't want to miss more then 1 or 2 in the first section, and possibly about the same for the second section. That I think would get you the 750-800 range.

[Done]

Ok so to sum it up:

a) 1-2 mistakes overall (section 1+2) on the math part is fine for 750-800

4-5 mistakes on each section is fine for around 600? on the verbal part?

Thanks!

[Done]

Hey,

the math part is working pretty well so far, but I still have big problems with the verbal part.

So what I did so far was learning the 300 words from Kaplan, the 800 from Baron, learnt the word roots (btw I had 6 years of latin), but what else can I do?

So far I would say I have so many mistakes (4-9 per section), because of two reasons:

a) I just do not know what the words mean, so I can often rule out a lot of them but if two are left, 50% will still be wrong

Sometimes I get the whole meaning of the sentence understand all the words below and then I just pick the wrong one, because I think it makes the most sense. So what I tried once, I translated the question in my native language and asked a friend what he would take, and he took the wrong one too...

So far I do the verbal tasks in the 'new GRE' book from Kaplan

I still have two weeks left, so I would be thankful for every tip + where can I find more vocabs? I can usually do 50-100 new ones a day so 500-1000 more would be fine i guess.

Thanks!