A month left and I suck at math

[Clay Made]

So the GRE is practically around the corner and I seemingly cannot stop sucking at Math. Even general concepts seem to get lost for me. The biggest obstacle I think is that the little techniques given by books just do not stick in my head and I end up screwing up questions.

I'm using Manhattan GRE. I'll give you an example. I'm doing the problem set questions in those books, and even for the somewhat 'easy' questions, I end up getting like 12 out of 20, when I need to hit something like 18 out of 20 really to have a realistic shot at my school choices.

What can I do? Really worried I may end up with a really low score (practice test thus far has hit 154Q)!!!!!

EDIT: I'm a reapplicant and my scores last year were better but they didnt hit the aid targets I needed so retaking.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Clay Made

[Fresh Brew]

I'm in the same boat as you as far as sucking at math and having a GRE around the corner. I've found Magoosh's free math ebook and mygretutor.com's breakdown of the math section to render all the formulas in an accessible fashion. Also, quizlet has flashcards from people who have taken the test that have all the formulas posted. Quizlet allows you to quiz yourself as many times as you need so that you can grasp the concepts.

[zecone13]

I got a 170 on it and I don't really remember having to use any formulas on it aside from very simple things like arc length = radius * angle, sum of angles in a triangle = 180, and other formulas out of HS geometry. There was nothing even approaching law of sines/cosines. What formulas are you guys memorizing? I think the biggest tip for the quantitative section is to read the question carefully, as they liked to throw in tricks which would make it such that an answer that would be 'a' is now 'neither a nor b' because of a change of 1 word. It was more about catching tricks and finding patterns than it was about testing math, which was pretty dumb.

[Fresh Brew]

Standard deviation, probability, linear geometry, data analysis, permutations, quadratic equations, square root, dividing fractions, etc. Memorizing it all is a pain. Haven't got around to the quant section on Powerprep yet.

[bamafan]

There is usually a question or two on a normal distribution. No thinking needed, just memorize what each standard deviation is %-wise.

[Clay Made]

I got a 170 on it and I don't really remember having to use any formulas on it aside from very simple things like arc length = radius * angle, sum of angles in a triangle = 180, and other formulas out of HS geometry. There was nothing even approaching law of sines/cosines. What formulas are you guys memorizing? I think the biggest tip for the quantitative section is to read the question carefully, as they liked to throw in tricks which would make it such that an answer that would be 'a' is now 'neither a nor b' because of a change of 1 word. It was more about catching tricks and finding patterns than it was about testing math, which was pretty dumb.

Congrats on your score! Its more a case of forgetting formulas and tricks and eventually giving up on the problem. Some I can salvage through general artihmetic but math is not my strong point. It is a little reassuring about your last part but I feel I am missing some key things, especially when I go back and review my answers.

I'm finding it hard to consume the information.

[dendy]

I thought all the little math tricks in my review book (I used princeton) were completely stupid and nonsensical. Like they suggested plugging in the suggested answers or random numbers instead of actually solving algebraic equations, which ended up just confusing me and slowing down the whole process. I had more luck just falling back on the math skills I learned in class, but I guess that won't help if you don't remember them. I ended up with a 164.