GRE: Advice

[aridneptune]

I just took the GRE yesterday:

 

169V

168Q

 

I'm very pleased with my scores and I thought I'd share a bit about my study strategy in case it helps anyone.

 

(1) Resources:

Manhattan Prep 5-Pound Book of GRE Practice Problems. Strategy guides are not useful for me. I just want a whole lot of problems. This book was very useful and quite similar to the actual GRE. It also lets you access the GRE Challenge Problems online, which are good practice for difficult math questions.

 

Nova GRE Math Bible: You can get this for free online. I think it's ~ 800 pages, but well worth it.

 

ETS PowerPrep: Must-do.

 

Kaplan GRE Premier 2014: Comes with 6 practice tests and a couple hundred practice problems online. I like their interface.

 

majortests.com: Their practice sets predate the Revised GRE, but they're still useful.

 

Free practice GREs from Manhattan Prep and Princeton Review online. Particularly the Manhattan practice test.

 

(2) Start studying early. I probably started about 3 months before I took the GRE. At the beginning I mostly online practice sets, then started doing practice tests around a month and a half beforehand. Starting early really lets things sink in.

 

(3) Two weeks out, try to do 3 practice tests per week. This really isn't that difficult: do one on Saturday, one on Sunday and one during the week.

 

(4) Don't stress. Seriously. It's not productive.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to post or PM with questions if you like.

[RCtheSS]

Thanks for sharing this! I actually just moved my test date back from October 18 to December 9 to give myself more time to study. I have the complete set of Manhattan Prep's eight strategy guide books and the ETS Official GRE book. So far I've taken three of Manhattan's practice tests and my scores are decent:

 

T1: 158V 154Q

T2: 160V 157Q

T3: 157V 156Q

 

But I'd prefer to hit the 160+ mark in both sections so I'd feel at ease about admissions' chances. Just signed up for Magoosh's online prep course as well, so here's hoping I can reach my goal in ten weeks.

[aridneptune]

I spent <$40 total: about $15 for the Kaplan book and $18 for the Manhattan 5-Pound Book. The value-added of something like Magoosh or the full Manhattan guides was low for me. I'm not saying they're not worth it, but if anyone is looking to save money my method worked well (in my case, anyway).