did anybody not study long and do well?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Just curious. Everything I see on here seems to be of the one perspective. People spent 6 months studying, did 2-3 retakes, etc. I'm wondering if there are any other perspectives. Like someone who studied 3-4 weeks and did well on the first take?

[LinguisticMystic]

I didn't study beyond just reviewing stuff for the quant section the week beforehand (haven't had a math class aside from statistics in 7 years!) and I think I did fine for my purposes. 164v 155q 5.5aw. I don't plan on retaking it when I apply to PhD programs (doing my master's now). I've always done fine on standardized tests, so I guess I just didn't bother with worrying much about this one either. I suppose that's my perspective -- lazy maybe!

[stoppinby]

I didn't study long, but I intensely studied for 4 weeks. That included taking 5 full-length practice tests from Kaplan, as well as practicing with Princeton, Cliff's Notes Math Guide, and Barron's math flash cards. I essentially had to entirely relearn math. I couldn't have even told you what an integer was before starting to study for the GRE.

Ended up with 168 V, 157 Q and 5.0 AWA.

It's all about honing a test-taking strategy. My strategy on test day:

1. For questions you're pretty sure you can get right: Take the time to make sure you don't screw them up with stupid, hasty mistakes.

2. For questions you know you will struggle with: Try to eliminate some answers, then take a best guess.

[emmm]

I didn't study either -- I was having trouble getting started with studying. So I took the GRE in June as a baseline, figuring it would force me to study to do better later in the summer. I never bothered retaking :-)

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Thanks for your responses. I always try to get a different perspective. This forum can be so doom and gloom sometimes. You'll scare yourself to death if you don't take what people say with a grain of salt. Wow, I just used a lot of cliches.

[R Deckard]

Re OP: Yes

[iowaguy]

I did 3,000 words worth of vocab between various flash card sets & computer word exercises. Raised my verbal 10 percentile points above my last GRE test several years ago.

IMHO, studying verbal takes much longer to improve your score than the math section...

Also "did well on the first take" depends on your definition of "did well". My goal was 95%+ for both verbal and quant so I busted my butt accordingly... I didn't want poor GRE scores to be any reason to hold back my chances of admission. This is a lifetime investment in education, the quality of school you get into will have an impact on the next several decades of your career...

IG

[kaputzing]

First time taking it after two weeks of studying: 170 V, 166 Q, and (shame on me) 4.0 AW.

My study method basically consisted of me going to the bookstore for 2-3 hours Mondays through Fridays for two weeks and doing as many practice tests as I could find on the bookshelves; I think I went through Kaplan, Princeton Review, Barrons, and one more that I can't recall. The day before the exam, I searched up GRE verbal flashcards on Google and went through some of the mini-games. It is not much different from the SAT, and if you are "good" at standardized tests, it's perfectly possible to walk in with little prep time and do well.

[process chemist]

On my first run of the GRE, I studied for roughly 5-6 months. I took the GRE and bombed the Quant section. Being that I am in the sciences, I knew I needed to retake. But I was a little depressed and some personal things came up, so I decided that I was going not going to study for the month of September, and take the GRE again on Dec 1. I took off September, and it helped my realize what went wrong on my first try, and then it all clicked. Studied intensely for the next 2 months, and rose my quant score over 100 pts (yes this is possible-in grad school currently).

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

On my first run of the GRE, I studied for roughly 5-6 months. I took the GRE and bombed the Quant section. Being that I am in the sciences, I knew I needed to retake. But I was a little depressed and some personal things came up, so I decided that I was going not going to study for the month of September, and take the GRE again on Dec 1. I took off September, and it helped my realize what went wrong on my first try, and then it all clicked. Studied intensely for the next 2 months, and rose my quant score over 100 pts (yes this is possible-in grad school currently).

I would call that the opposite of not studying much and only doing one take.

[ssk2]

Yes - I did reasonably well the first time (780/590/5.0) I took the GRE in 2010 after just four weeks of light study after work and on weekends.

Earlier this year I retook the GRE and spent four - five weeks intensely studying (in the my evenings and weekends) and did better - 165/165/5.5. The key differences the second time, aside from the increased intensity, were using better books and starting to learn vocabulary much earlier in the process. (I also used a vocabulary app called Painless GRE to brush up on lists while commuting to work.)

The three books I would recommend (I bought more but actually used these three) are:

GRE Math Prep Course (Nova's GRE Prep Course)

Essential Words for the GRE (Barron's Essential Words for the GRE)

The Official Guide to the GRE revised General Test (GRE: The Official Guide to the General Test) [Paperback]

Hope this helps!

Edited October 5, 2012 by ssk2

[Hanyuye]

Retaking it tomorrow. Work got in the way for the passed 2 weeks, overtime schedule and rebounded my study time. Now I can't decide whether to take it tomorrow or delay it in 2 weeks. I'm really frustrated as I'm an applied math major and can't stand timed-math tests. I actually have all the books a friend on this forum recommended, most of them are the ones mentioned above.

And those books really work well!

Edited October 5, 2012 by Hanyuye

[Eigen]

Didn't study much at all.

Took a couple of practice tests (the ones on the disc ETS sends you) to familiarize myself with the format.

Did well enough to get into all the schools I applied to, so I didn't worry about taking it again.

[sareth]

I didn't study at all for the verbal and did very well (>95%ile). Bear in mind that I've been doing crossword puzzles and playing other word games somewhat obsessively since I was very young... which I guess you could call studying? I spent a fair bit of time on strategy for the quantitative since I tend to be slow at math, maybe a few hours a week for a month or so. That score was lower, but good enough that I wasn't sorry I hadn't left myself enough time for a retake

I also took a couple of ETS tests just to get a feel for the format and the pacing.

[Chande]

I got 780Q/690V/3.5AW and the only studying I did was to take the practice tests on the ETS website to become familiar with the format. I got into 9 out of 10 schools so I can't imagine why I would have wanted to spend any more time than that.

[Hanyuye]

Sigh, sigh sigh....same score again. Have to retake it in November, 3rd time in 11 months. I just can't seem to grasp it on my own. Forcing myself to get tutoring/prep classes.

[kateausten]

I studied two weeks. One weekend with a couple hours each day of studying, one with 8 hours each day, and averaged about an hour on the weekdays (I was working a new, full time job). I got a 168V/164Q/5.5 which is much better than my practice tests were predicting. I probably could have done a couple points better if I really took the time to study -- I didn't study vocabulary, take a full length timed test, or write a practice essay at all -- but a saturday slot opened up pretty last minute so I took it sooner than expected to avoid a day off.

[Darth.Vegan]

So I studied for a solid 2 weeks. I ended up with 91st percentile on verbal but only 43rd percentile on quant. My difficulty with the quant came not from an inability to do the problems but with a difficulty in keeping that many different math concepts fresh in my memory at the same time with very little prep time. My verbal however improved from about 75th (156) percentile up to 91st (163) percentile within that time frame. My quant did improve as well as my diagnostic was very low, only 143 and my actual test was 150.

I should add, I didn't study flash cards at all. My vast improvement in verbal came just from getting used to dissecting the reading comprehension and strategizing through process of elimination.

Edited October 15, 2012 by xdarthveganx

[Usmivka]

I brushed up on math tricks for a few days so I could do the problems quickly (it had been years since I did anything outside of Matlab!). I also took the two practice tests that came from ETS when I registered, and a couple of "adaptive" tests from Barrons using my roommate's study stuff. 780V/770Q (I think, it might have been 10 higher but not lower--I did one of my practice tests the day of and don't remember which score goes with that vs the real test). I did not practice AW, and did poorly (4?), but no one cares about AW anyway. But I did do my prep (minimal as it was) a month ahead of time. If I had done poorly on the practice tests I would have had plenty of time to study.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Usmivka

[Mandlebaum]

I had no time to do any real prep so I just reviewed the quant section for 2hrs or so before the test. I managed an 800 verbal 790 quant but I've never scored low on a standardized test in my life. If you're usually pretty good at standardized tests don't worry too much.

[redsparrow]

I studied intensely for 3 weeks and I got 168V, 162Q on my first try. To put this in perspective, my last math class was in 11th grade 6 years ago. In HS, I got very high scores on the ACT (cumulative in 99%ile), but I [comparatively] did horribly on the SAT, twice. I got in the low 80s percentile-wise on both V and Q on the SAT on both passes. GRE being from the same company as the SAT, I knew I needed to study hard. I actually couldn't believe how well I did; I thought I was cursed for ETS' testing style.

[1Q84]

I just finished mine!

I studied really hard (because I had never done a standardised test in my life) about 3 months ago. Then, as it usually happens, life got in the way and I hadn't so much as touched my study materials until today.

I sequestered myself in the library for 4 hours before my test to brush up with my Princeton Review. I also did the free online Manhattan Prep test from their website (for a second time) just to get into the mood.

I got a 169 V and something abysmal like 140 something (which is to be expected) on Q. As a caveat, I don't fancy myself a genius by any means but I did major in Latin, which had me knowing 80% of Princeton Review's "Hit Parade" before I began studying. I still think it was my main advantage.

PS. I only used the Princeton Review book. Never used any other brand....

[tyther]

I started for a few hours everyday the week before the GRE and got a Q:164, V:162, AW:4.5.

[pbo]

I work fulltime, so I never even took a practice test, no time! just studied the math sections/memorized some vocab and got V: 164, Q: 152, AW: 5. Not too shabby, though I think my writing score is too low for what I know were super strong, structured essays. Ah well.