Need some guidance - taken the GRE twice and need higher scores

[waylonrobert]

I'm a bit lost at what to do next. I've taken the GRE twice and my results are:

 

1st Test: 153 verbal / 137 quantitative

2nd Test (40+ days later): 153 verbal / 139 quantitative

 

I was fairly happy with my verbal (limited studying for verbal), but not happy with my quantitative (in general I've always struggled with math). After the first test, I worked with a math tutor who re-explained concepts to me and allowed me to learn things I either forgot or had never truly understood. When I took the GRE the second time, I felt very confident about the quantitative sections, but that confidence quickly faded away when I received questions that either were not covered in tutoring sessions (we used practice tests as our primary source material and I was scoring well) or were completely foreign to me that I didn't even know where to start.

 

So my question is, what do I do from here? The program I am applying to requires a GMAT equivalent minimum of 500. Currently, my second test GRE scores convert to 390. All things being equal, assuming my verbal stays the same, I need to score at least 7 points higher in quantitative. If my quantitative stays the same, I'd need a 15 point bump. I'm not sure how that works and why the parity between those points values aren't closer, but that's what the ETS calculator tool is telling me.

 

I'm not keen to spend another $185 and spend more time studying only to receive a modest point bump. I've noticed a trend with the GRE quant sections that they seem to follow a particular "theme" with lots of questions in a similar area, which is impossible to predict exactly what you'll get on a given day.

[george_lit]

Hi - I'm taking the GRE this week and I bought half a dozen books to prepare for it (which was way too many). Out of all of them I found the Princeton Review book to be the most helpful. You also might look into whether you qualify for a fee reduction certificate (you usually get this through your school's financial aid office, but it's still possible to get one if you're not in school). Hope this helps.

[Guest |||]

If finishing books and having a personal tutor for the math section has not sufficed.  It might be worthwhile to higher a "professional" gre instructor or take a class

[Cesare]

I bought magoosh 2 days ago and I cannot testify if it will help me in the long run, but I am finding their video explanations great. However, their "hard" and "very hard" questions are wicked. 

[Quigley]

I agree with anxiousphd regarding magoosh - the videos were very helpful and the hard/very hard questions were actually harder than the math questions on both tests that I took, which actually messed with my head and hurt my confidence.  I used magoosh daily for 6 weeks prior to taking the GRE a second time, focusing primarily on math, and my math score stayed the same.