Practice GRE scores vs. real GRE scores

[cwr]

I used Kaplan's Premier GRE 2016 book/software (provided by a research program I did over the summer). Did practice problems out of the book and took one computer-based practice test through this software.

Practice test score: 167 Q / 159 V (QVQVQ)

Actual score (3 October): 168 Q / 165 V / ¿AWA? (VQVQV)

Hours studied: ≤20 (I was spending 6 to 12 hrs/day for 5 weeks on the Physics GRE, so I neglected to pay much attention to the General)

Observations: 

• Taking at least one practice exam of the type you'll see on exam day (computer or paper based), especially for someone preoccupied with studying for subject tests (e.g. math and/or physics, where the subject is much more important than the general), is crucial. This may seem obvious, but I have friends who have tried to take it cold because they couldn't find authentic practice exams. 
• Understand that, assuming you're 1) taking the computer-based and 2) aiming for a high score, your second half of the exam will be hard! I actually took a bit of a mental break on my experimental section because it noticeably easier. If that was my actual second verbal section, then my score would have been too low to report anyway. Sure enough, a harder verbal came in the 6th section and I knew it was genuine and to focus on it. 
• Math questions in study books ≠ math questions on 2nd half of the GRE (for anyone in the ~165+ range, that is). This was the biggest thing the practice test taught me. I took a few paper-based practice sets out of the Kaplan book and would get 39/40 or 40/40 in roughly 1/2 or 3/4 of the allowed time. Your test day experience will be very different from these practice sets if you're shooting for a perfect quant, and you need to be mentally prepared for this. (I gave myself a little mental pep talk before the 2nd math section of my actual exam, because I knew this section would be challenging.)
• This might be a matter of personal preference, but take all the allotted time on a given section! If you finish answering and checking your answers with ≤5 minutes left (e.g. on the first quant and verbal sections), don't skip the remaining time. If you're sure of your answers, take a break and just relax. I was one of the last people done when I took the exam, presumably because everyone else rushed through. I don't know why you would willingly force a brisker pace upon yourself – if anything, use the remaining time to review the questions a second or third or fourth time, rather than forfeiting it. 

Takeaways: 

1. Second-half quant questions for top-end scorers are much harder than questions I found in review books or online.
2. Knowing what difficulty your second-half questions will be will help you spot (and take advantage of) the experimental. 

[TheBumChikiBum]

 

1. Second-half quant questions for top-end scorers are much harder than questions I found in review books or online.
2. Knowing what difficulty your second-half questions will be will help you spot (and take advantage of) the experimental. 

Ahhh. Sir. Test is adaptive. If you perform better on the first section, you are bound to get a tough second one. If you don't perform well on first one, you get an easier second one. That's common knowledge. Everybody know it. 

[cwr]

Ahhh. Sir. Test is adaptive. If you perform better on the first section, you are bound to get a tough second one. If you don't perform well on first one, you get an easier second one. That's common knowledge. Everybody know it. 

Wait, sorry, but I don't see how either of the two "takeaways" necessarily follow from the test being adaptive. That being said, you're right: everyone knows it's adaptive, but that wasn't my point.

My point with #1 was that you can't trust Kaplan's book questions to give an idea of the difficulty you'll see if you're in the 165+ range for quant, since these questions are at the level of a "normal" question. I'm saying that I didn't see a single question in the Kaplan book I had that was anywhere near the level of questions in my adapted section. 

My point with #2 was that knowing how you're scoring and what your adapted sections will look like can help spot the experimental, which (on both the practice and actual exam I took) was at an average difficulty (i.e. noticeably different from the hard questions from my adapted sections). 

I suppose I could and should have been clearer that this wasn't meant to be terribly insightful for someone who has been actually studying hard for the GRE; this was my experience in taking the exam after devoting ~20 hours of preparation using only materials that were freely available to me. Someone who has been studying for months out of multiple different books and used multiple different testing software won't learn anything from what I've said above, but someone for whom the subject test is more important and the GRE General was an afterthought might. 

[HYHY02]

Well, finally wrote the damn thing today, and since this thread helped me so much, I'll post my general experiences.

First of all, my scores from the various practice tests I've done. I should mention that all these were done within 2 weeks of my actual test day, so I covered most of the content I wanted to by the time I attempted these tests. I also never attempted the writing sections when doing these practice tests.

In order of completion:

Manhattan Prep Test 1: 161 V, (did not do the quantitative section)

Manhattan Prep Test 2: 157 Q, 158 V

Manhattan Prep Test 3: 153 Q, 156 V (I knew I did poorly on this one while writing it, was in a busy environment)

ETS Powerprep 1: 164 Q, 163V

Magoosh Practice Test 1: 159Q, 167V

ETS Powerprep 2: 164 Q, 159 V

Actual GRE: 161 Q, 161 V, AWA ??

Prep Material: Primarily Magoosh and the 8 section Manhattan Prep GRE material (only used the 6 math books, never touched the other 2)

My reaction:

When I started this whole GRE thing, I personally was aiming for a 160 in both Q and V, so I was happy I was able to achieve that goal. However, after all the hours spent, and going through hundreds upon hundreds of questions, I felt well prepared. It seems as though I fell somewhere in the middle of all my practice scores for my actual GRE Q and V. I felt a lot more confident about my Q after those PowerPrep tests, and really felt I could approach the 163-165 mark for both my Q and V with a bit of luck. My practice tests, particularly those from Manhattan, consisted of some dumb mistakes, and some misunderstanding of the questions (for whatever reason, I found the wording of data interpretation questions from Manhattan very confusing at times, which was never the case with Magoosh or the ETS guide).

However, during the actual test, I thought I was absolutely bombing it, particularly during the first Q section. It wasn't the questions themselves, but rather the time constraints which led to some rushed work and a few guesses, which sent my confidence plummeting. Do practice under strict timed conditions! The math was definitely more difficult than I was expecting based on the Powerprep tests (I breezed through these with 5 mins to spare on both 1 and 2, which definitely wasn't the case on the actual test).

I think the best way to sum my feelings is that if you told me that was my score before I wrote the test, I'd be okay and maybe slightly disappointed, but if you told me that would be my score right after I finished the test (thinking I bombed), I'd be very happy.

I contemplated for a bit about potentially re-writing, but I don't think those grades are going to hurt my application. Maybe they are not up to par with some of the top programs I maybe was planning to apply to, but I'm currently in a masters that did not require a GRE, and am in the process of finishing that this semester, so getting the GRE off my back is a nice feeling. Planning to write it again will only take time away from my grad work. I did end up sending those scores to 4 schools I knew I'd be applying to, simply to save on the extra fees you have to pay if sending them after your test. I think at the end of the day, I'm OK with these scores, and like I said, it's a nice relief to put these books away and get back to other important work.

Best of luck!

[mrmish]

Hi all, I took the GRE 10 days ago and I prepared for about a week. All my practice tests wouldn't be representative because I took the first powerprep before I started preparing, Manhattan test midway through preparations and the second powerprep just before test date. So here're my 2nd PP score and actual score:

2nd Powerprep (taken 36 hours before test): Q-168 / V- 161 

Actual GRE: Q- 170 / V- 167 / AWA- 5.0

Needless to say, I am quite happy with my test scores. I also would like to share some tips I think would be helpful to those preparing to take the GRE in near future. I don't see online GRE tutors usually discuss these points so I thought I'd share them:

* Do not aim for 170. A lot of people I know have screwed up by aiming for a perfect score. By doing so you become unforgiving to any possible mistakes which you detect while taking the test. And you freak out, making even more mistakes. It just snowballs. So aim for something like 165 or less, and give your best. Missed a couple of questions? Who cares? Even the top schools won't kill you just because of your GRE, once you have anywhere above 90 percentile.

* A lot of test preps are out there and you need to go through their strategies. But don't stick to just one prep strategy. From my experience I can say that not a single strategy set out there fits me perfectly. So I just followed several and came up with my own. Go through at least three different prep strategies and take the optimal (for you) methods from each until you feel confident with your performance.

* Stressed during the test? Good. Now use it to your advantage. But don't let it cripple you. Understand that your body's stress response makes your brain more alert thus making your judgements sharper and more fluid. I had never scored 170 in Q in my practice tests. But I was able to do this on the test day because I was more alert than ever and could see past the little traps and tricks GRE laid out for me in a few questions. So basically have some goddamn confidence in your body that's all!

* If you're not used to writing literary stuff then the AWA can seem like a nightmare, especially after looking at the GRE sample essays. Now I didn't get a 5.5 or 6, but it works just fine for me because I am applying for a Physics PhD. So if you can do with a 4.5 or 5, then (1) stick to the 5-paragraph standard writing templates most tutors offer, (2) keep varying your sentence structure to make up for lack of stellar vocabulary, i.e. assert, anticipate, negate, etc. Keep the flow interesting. 

Hope this helps some of you folks out there. Cheers! 

[cwr]

Hi all, I took the GRE 10 days ago and I prepared for about a week. All my practice tests wouldn't be representative because I took the first powerprep before I started preparing, Manhattan test midway through preparations and the second powerprep just before test date. So here're my 2nd PP score and actual score:

2nd Powerprep (taken 36 hours before test): Q-168 / V- 161 

Actual GRE: Q- 170 / V- 167 / AWA- 5.0

Needless to say, I am quite happy with my test scores. I also would like to share some tips I think would be helpful to those preparing to take the GRE in near future. I don't see online GRE tutors usually discuss these points so I thought I'd share them:

* Do not aim for 170. A lot of people I know have screwed up by aiming for a perfect score. By doing so you become unforgiving to any possible mistakes which you detect while taking the test. And you freak out, making even more mistakes. It just snowballs. So aim for something like 165 or less, and give your best. Missed a couple of questions? Who cares? Even the top schools won't kill you just because of your GRE, once you have anywhere above 90 percentile.

* A lot of test preps are out there and you need to go through their strategies. But don't stick to just one prep strategy. From my experience I can say that not a single strategy set out there fits me perfectly. So I just followed several and came up with my own. Go through at least three different prep strategies and take the optimal (for you) methods from each until you feel confident with your performance.

* Stressed during the test? Good. Now use it to your advantage. But don't let it cripple you. Understand that your body's stress response makes your brain more alert thus making your judgements sharper and more fluid. I had never scored 170 in Q in my practice tests. But I was able to do this on the test day because I was more alert than ever and could see past the little traps and tricks GRE laid out for me in a few questions. So basically have some goddamn confidence in your body that's all!

* If you're not used to writing literary stuff then the AWA can seem like a nightmare, especially after looking at the GRE sample essays. Now I didn't get a 5.5 or 6, but it works just fine for me because I am applying for a Physics PhD. So if you can do with a 4.5 or 5, then (1) stick to the 5-paragraph standard writing templates most tutors offer, (2) keep varying your sentence structure to make up for lack of stellar vocabulary, i.e. assert, anticipate, negate, etc. Keep the flow interesting. 

Hope this helps some of you folks out there. Cheers! 

Congratulations on some stellar scores! 

Do you feel like your GRE was a reflection of existing ability (e.g. high SAT score, AP scores, etc.) or did your prep significantly improve your scores? Any advice for someone planning to take ≤2 weeks to study for the exam and feeling burnt out from (or potentially still studying for) their Physics GRE?

I already wrote both of my GREs, but I'm trying to convince friends of mine to take it seriously and do well (a lot of them have the "as long as I get above a 160Q my scores don't matter" attitude). Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of meaningful advice to give them.

Also, since I'm assuming you probably wrote your pGRE in September, best of luck with scores coming out in a week! Do you know what subfield you're applying to yet? 

[mrmish]

Congratulations on some stellar scores! 

Do you feel like your GRE was a reflection of existing ability (e.g. high SAT score, AP scores, etc.) or did your prep significantly improve your scores? Any advice for someone planning to take ≤2 weeks to study for the exam and feeling burnt out from (or potentially still studying for) their Physics GRE?

I already wrote both of my GREs, but I'm trying to convince friends of mine to take it seriously and do well (a lot of them have the "as long as I get above a 160Q my scores don't matter" attitude). Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of meaningful advice to give them.

Also, since I'm assuming you probably wrote your pGRE in September, best of luck with scores coming out in a week! Do you know what subfield you're applying to yet? 

I saw your scores above and congratulations to you too! 

Although my SAT scores weren't that high all those years back, I think that prep definitely helped me here. I wouldn't advise anyone to start from scratch and prepare for GRE in one week's time. 

I sure hope your friends take it more seriously than that. As I understand 160+ is a safe place to be, however we're not up against any standards in the decision process, we're up against other applicants. Considering between 1-2% students get a perfect score on GRE (based on percentile) and ~700k appear each year, approx. 10k students get perfect or near perfect scores. From statistics of median GRE scores of those accepted in top schools (such as the one on Magoosh) Physics seems to be a subject with one of the highest. So my wild guess is anywhere between 5% to 15% of these 10k students apply to the top 20 universities for Physics/ Applied Phy. 

I took my PGRE earlier as I didn't want to keep all the tests for my last year. I am happy that I got a 990. But again I wish the scaling was a little steeper. I might have gotten more than 94 percentile. I wish you the best for your PGRE scores!

But in the end, these test scores are only a part of the application. I hope the rest of my application also holds up well.

Yes, I am applying to AMO with a focus on experimental Quantum optics/ QIP/ LOQC photonics etc. It actually crosses over to Applied physics in many universities. How 'bout you? 

[cwr]

I saw your scores above and congratulations to you too! 

Although my SAT scores weren't that high all those years back, I think that prep definitely helped me here. I wouldn't advise anyone to start from scratch and prepare for GRE in one week's time. 

I sure hope your friends take it more seriously than that. As I understand 160+ is a safe place to be, however we're not up against any standards in the decision process, we're up against other applicants. Considering between 1-2% students get a perfect score on GRE (based on percentile) and ~700k appear each year, approx. 10k students get perfect or near perfect scores. From statistics of median GRE scores of those accepted in top schools (such as the one on Magoosh) Physics seems to be a subject with one of the highest. So my wild guess is anywhere between 5% to 15% of these 10k students apply to the top 20 universities for Physics/ Applied Phy. 

I took my PGRE earlier as I didn't want to keep all the tests for my last year. I am happy that I got a 990. But again I wish the scaling was a little steeper. I might have gotten more than 94 percentile. I wish you the best for your PGRE scores!

But in the end, these test scores are only a part of the application. I hope the rest of my application also holds up well.

Yes, I am applying to AMO with a focus on experimental Quantum optics/ QIP/ LOQC photonics etc. It actually crosses over to Applied physics in many universities. How 'bout you? 

Thank you! I was happy to be done with it...

I see! I'm going to get on all of them after the October pGRE and make sure that, if they haven't already taken the General (or don't have a good enough score), they get to work. Your remark about competing against applicants, not standards, is very true and very important to remember – I'll remind them of this, because it's easy to say "oh yeah, I'm safe, cool" when in reality every little bit matters. While I am skeptical of the validity of the "median GRE" range reported for Physics programs at different schools on Magoosh – I remember looking at the methodology and having doubts – the fact that Physics applicants score very highly on the GRE is undisputed. I'm not sure if we have the highest average composite, but it's something like 3rd highest V and Q score and the disciplines ahead in both categories are nowhere to be found in the other. 

Wow! A 990; that's tremendous, congratulations! Are you a domestic applicant? I would guess that you are, given that you mentioned that you did take the SAT, and if so that's almost a ticket in anywhere! I'm hoping for something 900+, and my practice exams (together with my feeling on the September exam itself) lead me to believe that this is feasible, but I would be very surprised if I was anywhere near 990 – probably 940 or 950 is more realistic, but I would still be happy even with these. 

Do you have a good feeling about the rest of your profile? If your test scores are any indication, I would wager that it's pretty solid. Personally, I'm both excited and very nervous for the pGRE because it's the last variable in my application – I am very strong everywhere else, including letters, research, SOP, etc. and test scores were the last thing that could go wrong, so I felt some extra pressure to deliver. 

I'm trying for HEP-th/cosmology. I'm in HEP-ex right now (SUSY research) because my university's HEP-th group is quite small. I want to study BSM physics, inflationary cosmology (and alternative cosmologies), and a bit of pheno to make myself more marketable for post-docs in case the field doesn't evolve in the way I'm expecting it to. I'm also open to something like LQG, string theory, or QFT research but I don't know enough about work in these fields at this point to say whether I'm interested – simply curious. 

 

Best of luck in the application process! I'm slightly relieved that you're applying to AMO instead of HEP-th or gravity because it means I won't have to compete with you for a spot... because I have good reason to believe that I would lose that fight! 

[mrmish]

Do you have a good feeling about the rest of your profile? If your test scores are any indication, I would wager that it's pretty solid. Personally, I'm both excited and very nervous for the pGRE because it's the last variable in my application – I am very strong everywhere else, including letters, research, SOP, etc. and test scores were the last thing that could go wrong, so I felt some extra pressure to deliver. 

I'm trying for HEP-th/cosmology. I'm in HEP-ex right now (SUSY research) because my university's HEP-th group is quite small. I want to study BSM physics, inflationary cosmology (and alternative cosmologies), and a bit of pheno to make myself more marketable for post-docs in case the field doesn't evolve in the way I'm expecting it to. I'm also open to something like LQG, string theory, or QFT research but I don't know enough about work in these fields at this point to say whether I'm interested – simply curious. 

Best of luck in the application process! I'm slightly relieved that you're applying to AMO instead of HEP-th or gravity because it means I won't have to compete with you for a spot... because I have good reason to believe that I would lose that fight! 

Haha don't go on assuming that I have a perfect application. I would say I have very good GPA and test scores, but I don't have a strong research profile. Although I have interned for active research groups in AMO last couple of summers, and one of them should get me a good LOR, I don't have any publications and it's unlikely that I'll have anything by Dec. Looking back, I was probably a bit too laid-back on research. 

You seem to be way more focused with your research. So by the same token, I am glad we're applying for different subfields! 

Anyway, I'd suggest not to get worked up about all the little details. Past a certain point, I think what really matters is the compatibility of your application with the current needs of the department. So the decisions will be to a large extent unpredictable. The only thing I wish for is to end up in a place where I'm surrounded by people I'd find interesting and with an environment to keep me motivated. 6 years is a hell of a long time.

Again, I wish our applications the very best. Cheers! 

[Tinieblas.]

I studied sporadically for about 3 months, and intensively for the last two weeks of that.  I did a quick math review in the first month and then mostly focused on vocabulary building and reading comprehension.  I took 10 practice tests in all--the 6 Manhattan Prep ones, 2 Powerprep and the 2 paper-based ones in the GRE Official Guide.  I also paid for the "Score it Now" on the ETS website.

Manhattan Prep 4 Q-158 V-164

Manhattan Prep 5 Q-154 V-161

Manhattan Prep 6 Q-160 V-165

Powerprep 1 Q-160 V-168

Score it Now: 5

Official Scores:  Q-158, V-170, AWA-5

I was really surprised at the verbal score...I had never gotten a perfect score on a practice test and one reading section in particular seemed quite hard.  I would say that Manhattan Tests do seem to be a little harder, but I sometimes scored higher on the Manhattan Q than on the real thing.  Also, the Score it Now seems to be pretty accurate, as I got the same score on the actual test.  

 

I used:

ETS Official Guide (Only did the practice tests and verbal sections)

ETS Verbal Workbook

Gruber's (Good Math Review)

Manhattan Prep 7 and 8

Manhattan Prep's 5lb Book (Only the Verbal Sections)

Manhattan Prep and Magoosh Flashcards

A handful of readings from ETS's Big Book.

[gughok]

Kaplan Practice Test 1, timed (or whatever the free practice tests you get with registration are): 167V 169Q

Actual GRE: 170V170Q, waiting on AW

Study time: ~six hours (one hour looking through the free examples of each type of question the weekend two weeks before my test, plus the practice test eight days before my actual test)

The real GRE was definitely harder than the practice test, but I think I was taking it more seriously. The difficulty actually made it more stimulating, I would say, and almost fun.

[nevermind]

I used Magoosh and I didn't feel like the math preparation was particularly helpful. I started (too late) with the Manhattan practice books and made it through about 2 before my actual test date. The Manhattan books are BY FAR more comprehensive to actually reviewing math you've forgotten since high school. I feel like Magoosh doesn't really "review" but assumes you already know how to do the math, and then shows you the shortcuts to solving problems and saving time.

For verbal, I memorized the 1000 Barron's word list and reviewed the Magoosh flash cards on my phone. Then I used Magoosh to "learn" how test questions are phrased. I did a ton of drills, using the ETS Verbal Reasoning book until I was only missing a handful of "hard" or "Very hard" problems.

My Magoosh ranges were:

Quant: 151-155 predicted (I only practiced the easy and medium questions, so I think that skewed it.)

Verbal: 161-165 predicted

Practice test #1: 149 q. 166 v.

Practice test #2: 152 q. 161 v.

Overall, I felt like the verbal on the real test was easier than Magoosh, while the quant seemed harder (I knew I bombed the first section when I saw a lot of easy questions show up on the second section). My test was VQVQV which was probably optimal for me, though by the time I got to the third verbal section, I was starting to feel nauseous with anxiety. 

Actual scores: 148 q., 165 v.

I'm not retaking because my research is more qualitative than quantitative in practice. Who knows if this will be my achilles heel, but I'm pretty okay with it. 

 

 

[DrZoidberg]

I really found this thread helpful when I was studying for my GRE, and now that I have completed it I thought I would share my experiences in case anyone else might use it for their preparation. 

I am a non-native English speaker, as well as a physics/engineering major. So mainly I thought the maths part would be easy enough but I dreaded the verbal. Initially I studied a mix of the ETS Official Guide and Manhattan's 5lb book, shifting between the maths and verbal sections. Just while studying those two books I took the following practice exams;

                                         Q       V

ETS Paper test #1          162    156
ETS Paper test #2          164    163
                        
Kaplan          Free test    164    152 
Princeton      Test 6        161    156
Manhattan    Free test    159    158
Manhattan    Test #2      159    158
ETS PP         Test #1      164    157

After this I realised I needed to do something to boost my verbal score, as I was hoping to get at least 160. So I went ahead and bought the Magoosh premium, and I hate to sound like I am advertising for them, but that really made a world of difference to me. The video explanations were extremely helpful, in particular on the verbal sections I could develop a few strategies and generally felt a little more confident. So I did some more practice tests.

Manhattan    Test #3      161    162
Manhattan    Test #4      161    162
Magoosh       PT #1        165    159
Manhattan    Test#5       164    156

Three days before my test I downloaded the Magoosh flashcard app and do what you are probably not supposed to do; I spent two whole days just before my test memorizing 1000 words. As in relentlessly going over them until I knew the exact definition of them all. And then I did another powerprep test;

ETS PP        Test #2       163    166

I was a little surprised by this, and thought it was great but probably not particularly representative of my verbal score, seeing as I had never scored this high. Anyway, I studied some more flash cards and going into the test I had Q163/V160 as my minimum targets.

Actual GRE                        164    168

I was hoping to get a slightly higher maths score, but to be honest I think I was a little arrogant in thinking I was an engineering major and the maths should be easy, so even when studying I kept doing the same thing and didn't really bother to identify what I was doing wrong. On the other hand I was so worried about my verbal score that I scrutinized every question until I understood what the GRE is actually trying to test. Studying those 1000 flashcards over two days is probably the best thing I did. A surprising number of the words came up in the test and I had no serious doubts about my answers.

As for the different systems, the Manhattan online tests were only good for testing maths, as it was harder than the actual GRE, but still had similar questions. The verbal has nothing to do with what you will meet on test day, and they use low-frequency words which would be pointless to try to learn. As I said, I thought Magoosh was really good and if I did it again I would buy the package and download the flashcards from the very start. The actual test was not as difficult as I thought, although I did get three maths sections so it is hard for me to tell which ones I was being tested on. 

 

[ihatechoosingusernames]

I took the test for the first time back in October 2013, which was the first time I applied to grad school. My scores: V-158 Q-153 and AW-4. I was fine with it at the time, since I was right at (or just below) the mean scores of all of my schools. I didn't get that round. It also doesn't help that my GPA is also pretty average and I had little lab experience at the time. There was nothing that made me stand out. 

This time around I studied using Magoosh. I wasn't trying to increase my verbal score at all, but I needed to up my quant score. I studied pretty irregularly starting about 6 months out from the test. I studied at least 50 hours, and almost all of that was spent watching the videos. I can't say I like them, but they did seem to help. I would redo the practice questions that I got wrong, and that messed with my score predictor a bit.

My initial prediction range was V-157-162 and Q-152-157. The first Magoosh practice test I took about 2 months out from the test showed me with a V-155 and Q-152. Then over the course of doing a few more practice questions my score range moved down to a V-155-160, and Q-150-155. I was crushed and more than slightly mopey. It definitely decreased my desire to study. Why was I spending all this time on math if my scores were decreasing?

I kept going, though, and 48 hours before the test I took the Powerprep test just for the Quant. It showed me at 154. 

The day before the test I took a second Magoosh test and ended up with V-161 Q-155. I know they say to give your mind a rest the day before the test, but it was helpful to see which types of questions I was struggling with. I watched the video explainations for the answers, and then watched them briefly the morning of the test while I was getting ready. 

Actual test scores: V-164, Q-156, AW-??

The big thing that helped with my verbal scores was reading. A few months ago I saw a GRE tip that talked about how important it was to see words in context. I tried one those GRE vocab novels, but they were crap. However, I found that reading older yet engaging novels (like Sherlock Holmes) on a Kindle or Kindle app was great. You're able to highlight a word you don't know and see the definition right there. It also kept a list of all the words I highlighted so I could refer back to it if I wanted. I'd recommend a Kindle if you're in the market for one, but the kindle app is free. There are plenty of free e-books on Amazon and probably through your local library.

 

[AkashSky]

Alright!  Finally my turn to contribute to this.  I already wrote what I felt about the experience on my blog, so if you want to check it out here is the link

https://akashmsky.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/the-gre/

However, If you would rather read a TLDR, I'll put one right here.

First few practice tests: ~160 quant/ ~150 verbal (don't remember exactly what they were)

Kaplan 166/160 q/v

ETS #3 165/160 q/v

Actual Test 167/161 q/v  and I will update this as they give me the writing portion.

Edited October 23, 2015 by AkashSky

[Swans]

As a non-native speaker I was particularly worried about the verbal section, but with a lot of studying that ended up being my higher score. 

Practice scores:

Powerprep 1: V 164 Q 157

Powerprep 2: V 160 Q 157 

Magoosh estimations: V 157-162 Q 152-157

 

Actual test: V 163 Q 156 AWA 4.5

 

Nothing mind-blowing, but it seems high enough for my intended programmes and I prefer to focus on other aspects of my applications. If I won't have any luck I'll try to improve my Q and AWA scores in particular next year.  

[phckmaroon5]

Not active on this blog but found this thread helpful during my GRE studying.

Manhattan Prep was my main study tool. I bought the 12 books or whatever plus the 5lb practice book and all the vocab cards. I feel like Manhattan is regarded as one of the best in terms of studying materials but a couple of things to keep in mind if you're using them:

1) Their verbal practice tests contain far more difficult vocab words than you see on the actual test while the sentence structure in completion problems are usually overly simple. GRE sentence completion is more about knowing what the sentence is trying to convey than a vocab test.

2) In a similar way, the most difficult reading comprehension questions in Manhattan, while generally quite good, can focus too much on remembering very specific or convoluted details of a passage, whereas difficult actual GRE questions will focus more on reasoning and inference.

3) Math questions, while generally very good, can also suffer from the same issue. Data interpretation questions in Manhattan questions are hands down ridiculous sometimes. For example, there is a question that asks you to estimate a percent based on a quantity graph and both 33% and 35% are given as potential answers. What you end up doing is guessing between the two because your margin of error in estimation is (unsurprisingly) greater than 2%.

4) One of the greatest strengths of Manhattan math for me was learning to fully read and understand a question before answering. I would  often enter a wrong answer because the question was deceptively convoluted or because I skipped over a "not", "least", or "even". Manhattan punishes you severely for these types of mistakes.

Manhattan: 164q 163v average over 5 tests

Powerprep 1: 170q 169v

Powerprep 2: 170q 166v

Actual test: 168q 167v

[Parinaz]

Hi

I got 148 for verbal and 169 for quant section in Power Prep test 1 and on my previous practice test, I got from Manhattan website I got 154 for verbal and 166 for quant. Can anyone help me to figure out what to expect in the real test? 

[Psych_Law]

Hi

I got 148 for verbal and 169 for quant section in Power Prep test 1 and on my previous practice test, I got from Manhattan website I got 154 for verbal and 166 for quant. Can anyone help me to figure out what to expect in the real test? 

The Power Prep tests are much more accurate at predicting your actual scores. Most individual's actual scores will not very much from the Power Prep scores (unless you took the practice test in unrealistic conditions). 

[Rohanps]

My progress thus far (along with rough dates) has been:

26/9: ETS Paper 1 - 161Q / 164 V

3/10: ETS Power Prep Test 1 - 170 Q / 161 V

10/10: Manhattan Diagnostic - 167-170Q

17/10: ETS Paper 2 - 163 Q / 165 V

24/10: Manhattan Test 1 - 163Q / 160 V

29/10: Manhattan test 2 - 163 Q / N/A V (just took the quant sections)

 

As everything seems to be hovering around the low 160s, the 170Q Powerprep result still seems a bit of an oddity. However, I'm clinging onto that with some hope that I can get the 165+ that I need as I have the actual GRE scheduled for a couple of weeks from now. Will update with additional practice tests and actual results in due course.

[Fahad.Baloch]

I have my GRE on 2nd November. Really struggling with the verbal as being a non native I struggle with the convoluted vocabulary and on the RCs. Having said that my entire education has been in english but the GRE verbal is a whole next level which I can't seem to master even towards my 2nd GRE attempt. My main focus is on quant and here are my 3 mock tests so far

 

1. Manhattan Free Mock - V:156 Q:157

2. ETS PP 1 - V:150. Q:159

3. ETS PP 1 - V:151, Q:157

 

Now a point I want to make is that on the ETS PP mocks, I was getting around 17 to 18 Qs right on the first Quant section and around 10 to 11 on the 2nd which was a touch harder understandably. With just 2 days to go what should I do to get at least a 160 on Quant? I've done all the topics of 5lb books, their corrections, the Quant and Verbal sections at the end of that book. Also I've done the ETS OG as well. So what else can I do in these 2 days?

Edited October 30, 2015 by Fahad.Baloch

[greMS15]

My progress thus far (along with rough dates) has been:

26/9: ETS Paper 1 - 161Q / 164 V

3/10: ETS Power Prep Test 1 - 170 Q / 161 V

10/10: Manhattan Diagnostic - 167-170Q

17/10: ETS Paper 2 - 163 Q / 165 V

24/10: Manhattan Test 1 - 163Q / 160 V

29/10: Manhattan test 2 - 163 Q / N/A V (just took the quant sections)

 

As everything seems to be hovering around the low 160s, the 170Q Powerprep result still seems a bit of an oddity. However, I'm clinging onto that with some hope that I can get the 165+ that I need as I have the actual GRE scheduled for a couple of weeks from now. Will update with additional practice tests and actual results in due course.

Hi Rohanps,

I just started my preparation last week . can you please let me know what is Paper 1 test you mentioned here- 26/9: ETS Paper 1 - 161Q / 164 V . is it that PDF from ETS site?

[getoutofmyhouse]

I used Magoosh. 

 

Score Predictor: 

Q: 154-159

V: 160-165

Magoosh Practice Test 1: 163V/156Q

Magoosh Practice Test 2: 161V/155Q

Magoosh Practice Test 3: 161V/158Q

 

actual test: 163V/159Q

 

 

[TheBumChikiBum]

Hi Rohanps,

I just started my preparation last week . can you please let me know what is Paper 1 test you mentioned here- 26/9: ETS Paper 1 - 161Q / 164 V . is it that PDF from ETS site?

I don't know the about the online version. But when you buy the official GRE Guide, you get 2 mocks on the CD and 2 paper mocks written in the book. He is talking about the paper tests.

[Rohanps]

Yep, those are the tests to which I was referring