GRE math newbie!

[Casserine]

Hi folks,

I'm planning to take the Revised GRE early next spring, for applications in Fall 2012. I'm a English lit person and I've been advised by a few different sources that PhD admissions staff in English departments don't bother looking at the quantitative result, but I don't know whether just to trust these sources completely or not. I'd like not to do atrociously on the maths section, even if it won't hinder my application I'm sure it won't help it.

I haven't done maths in 4 years, since leaving secondary school. I was fairly ok at it back then, not a maths whizz, but competent. However, the break from it has wiped a lot of maths out of my head!

Can anyone recommend a decent book to study for the quantitative section in particular? I've heard Barron's being mentioned a lot, are they also good for the revised GRE?

Cheers!

[Cosmos]

I recommend the Princeton Review book. It is excellent for Quant, you won't see anything on the GRE that you didn't see in that book.

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

I am not saying my advice is worth anymore than anybody else's. However, I can answer this question from two different perspectives. I've taken the GRE twice in the past three years, and I regularly tutor students in the GRE. The first time I used Princeton, it was ok. Then I spent the next year tutoring students with the Kaplan book. I used it to prepare myself for the test the next time around and improved my math score by 120 points.

Two reasons why I endorse Kaplan- one, their 100 math concepts section in the back of the workbook is the GRE math bible; and two, they do not try to teach you gimmicky puzzles to de-code (I just cannot conceptualize the 'cracking the GRE' methods).

PS- I do not work for Kaplan. I am an independent tutor and one of my first student's gave me his Kaplan workbook after he took the test. It helped me as a tutor and as a GRE student a lot (Wow, was I dreadfully unprepared when I first started tutoring- looking back on it, I had no business charging those first few clients money...I've gotten a lot better...).

My #1 peice of advice- if you are only going to give math a half-hearted effort, don't bother. That extra time would be better spent securing your 160+ in verbal. My #2 peice of advice- master the math concepts (1-100) BEFORE you try practice questions... My #3 peice of advice- when doing the practice questions, the 'gold in the hills' comes from the practice questions' answers, not the practice questions themselves...

...others may disagree, and they may know better, but my clients and I have had success doing it my way...

Goog luck

[Casserine]

Thanks both of you for your help!

What's the deal with reporting scores? I don't know yet which schools I'll be applying to next year so I didn't enter any names for ETS to send scores to. Is it okay if I just do the test, receive my own scores, and let the schools know afterwards?

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

Yeah that's fine, but now it costs you $23 a pop. On test day you can send 4 for free (maybe they'll still send your first four for free). I had four sent on test day, requested four more reprorts after I got my results and then a last one just a few weeks ago...

[lordvader]

Manhattan GRE's workbooks are really good

[peter_parker]

I'll help with some honest advice, because I like to help the humans every so often.

I had a month to study for the math gre, and I hadn't taken a math course in 5 years.

In a panic, I bought 3 books: Barron's revised GRE, the official guide to the revised General Test, and Nova's GRE math prep course.

The first two books, although heartily endorsed by others, were trash. Any book that tries to teach you "tricks" when you can't answer a question is absurd. How about you learn how to answer the question?

Most of the tricks came down to measuring angles with pencils or eyeballing angles or other nonsense.

The third book: NOVA's GRE math prep course, was gold. It contains about 5X the content of the other two books.

I will say this. In my experience, NOVA's book was overkill. It was like training for the Major Leagues and then going down and playing pee-wee sports when actually taking the test.

That being said, I scored a 168 on the test (1 wrong, I believe). I was pissed because I wanted a 170, but even moreso, because all the test problems were so easy, I was shocked I got even one wrong.

I didn't study for the verbal at all but got a 166; I guess luck may have played a role as I was familiar with a lot of the vocab words on the test. Even if you recognize 4 our of 5 vocab words, by process of elimination you pretty much know the right answer.

Back to math: Nova's book covers any and everything that might possibly be on the test. It also breaks down question types in each chapter (the chapters are like algebra, exponents, coordinate geometry,etc.) to easy, medium, hard, and very hard. Their difficulty ratings aren't always accurate, but they are very useful.

Some of the 'very hard' questions are really, damn hard. And you honestly won't find any on the test, but it helps you cover your bases if you want to knock the test out of the park.

Like I said, it's overkill, but it's the only book you need. Honestly, you can probably finish the book and it's problem sets in ONE WEEKEND if you do nothing but live and breathe that book for two full days.

But since you have so much time, you can probably space it out more. I wouldn't do it too far away from the test though, I think it's best to practice and train the month before the test leading into it, especially the few days before the test (as exercises).

[svcalvary]

Yeah that's fine, but now it costs you $23 a pop. On test day you can send 4 for free (maybe they'll still send your first four for free). I had four sent on test day, requested four more reprorts after I got my results and then a last one just a few weeks ago...

I sent one report on test day and it was free. Weeks later I sent three more reports and was charged $23 for each!

[-hermes-]

I'm an artsy through and through, and I used Barron's -- I found it pretty comprehensive.

Princeton Review is ridiculously simplistic, and I wouldn't recommend it. The GRE is definitely much harder. I suggest taking an ETS practice test to get a better idea of what the content is like, and where you stand in relation to it.

[Tabes]

From what I understand, the acceptable range for the math scores for many humanities programs is fairly low. At least, that's what I'm banking on... :/

[crazygirl2012]

The first two books, although heartily endorsed by others, were trash. Any book that tries to teach you "tricks" when you can't answer a question is absurd. How about you learn how to answer the question?

I have to disagree with you on this point. For those of us who aren't good at math, it is best to try the "tricks." Not all of us can just learn to answer the question. Math does not come easily to me (compared to everything else academic, anyway) and no matter how much I study, I can't look at a math problem and know what to do with it, even if it's simple like GRE math. Most people I know can read the question and figure out how to answer it. For those who can't, don't discount the strategies entirely!