this saturday is the day i fail the gre

[powerlifterty16]

What's up? I graduated college one year ago, and too scared of taking the GRE, I have been sitting on the couch. Sure I did some off and on studying, looking through flashcards which never managed to stick in my brain, or trying hard to learn the rudimentary 9th grade math, that I suck at, or even not feel worthless when I can't focus on the boring reading comp passages that make 0 sense to me.

 

I decided a few weeks ago to study a  little harder, and 2 days ago, i set my test date for this saturday. I regret doing that, and wish I could reschedule and not pay 50 bucks. I really wanted to reschedule the test for 2 weeks from now, so that I could really hammer some things down. Tonight i found magoosh's flashcards, and the words seem to be sticking....although you never know....I studied 250 out f the 1000....and wanted more time to finish all of them......but ill have to do it some way.

 

The math section is where im going to be screwed I think. Doing practice problems, I am pretty much lost on a lot of them.

I used an old guide from sparks notes to preapre because the 2013 kaplan book was a fail. Ill link what I used, maybe you guys could tell me what you think?

luckily I had a 3.7 or 3.8 gpa froma very good university....but I honestly believe I don't deseve to go to grad school if i can't pass a simple gre.....what's the point?

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/gre/chapter2.rhtml

 

btw, i had a question; If  I do well on verbal, and poorly on quant, can i send schools only the verbal, and just retake and send new quant scores? im anicipating doing poorly on both, but idk if ill get any right for quant ha
 

Edited October 2, 2013 by powerlifterty16

[aridneptune]

Yes, you can choose scores from sections of different tests.

 

A few pieces of advice:

 

(1) Stop stressing - it is not productive.

(2) If you're taking the test this Saturday, you need to start doing practice exams now. Do the free Kaplan and Manhattan practice exams. Do the 4 ETS PowerPrep (this is free) practice tests. Search online for other free practice tests.

[GeoDUDE!]

How are you going to fare when you are in graduate school and you fail at something difficult? Dealing with failure is pretty much key to getting through any program. Every graduate student fails at some point in their career, some just start early by sucking on the GRE.

[powerlifterty16]

I had taken a practice test a long time ago, maybe back in january. I didnt do too well, and I have decided that I'm not going to take another before saturday's test. I just don;'t want that bad number to be engrained into my head.

 

I am normally a pretty good essay writer, but I don't see how it's possible to write a solid essay in 30 mins. I dont know if I'll finish, let alone do it without maing any typos and have enough time to improve. On the practice test I was typing so fast(im a 2 finger typer) that I made so many typos.

 

I seem to lack common sense when it comes to math. Some things I have brilliant common sense and can do problems in my head, but then others, I just can't figure out. I guess my only hope is to do poorly on the first section, and then when im placed into the lowest tier for quant, i have to hope to get them all right....and not get a terrible score.

 

I thought I was a pretty astute individual when it petains to English, however a lot of these reading comp passages(pretty much all) are over my head.

 

oh well, it is grad school for a reason. Like I said, I don't think I belon in a program that doesn't require gre scores. I think I need to earn my place.

 

I was in all of the top classes as a kid for math until about 7th grade when I was placed in pre algebra(the top class everyone else was in regular math) and it was WAY too hard for me. I got like a 40 average i nthat class, and then passed with a b or something in 8th grade. I then failed algebra 1 in 9th grade lol....

In college I was a lot better in math. I took the highest level non credit math which is a combo of pre algebra and algebra  i think. I went up to a college algebra/trig class which was mostly trig with some alg 2 thrown in. I then too ka pre calc class, but dropped out bc the teacher was awful and it was too hard. I have very mild aspergers(undetectable unless I tell you of it) so rote memorization of concepts helped me to succeed....but understanding them was more difficult.

Edited October 2, 2013 by powerlifterty16

[aridneptune]

Listen, the secret to doing well on the GRE is simple: practice. You want to go into the test and be a robot. You don't want to get clever or cute in solving problems or writing essays. You want to know how to answer the question because you've seen 50 questions like that in your practice tests. Choosing not to do practice tests is a terrible idea.

[powerlifterty16]

Listen, the secret to doing well on the GRE is simple: practice. You want to go into the test and be a robot. You don't want to get clever or cute in solving problems or writing essays. You want to know how to answer the question because you've seen 50 questions like that in your practice tests. Choosing not to do practice tests is a terrible idea.

I just dont think it will be good for my morale to see a 130 verbal and 130 math lol..im freaking out enough as it is!

my plan today was to go to barnes and noble and get manhattan prep math....i failed at looking at all the magoosh cards, only studied 650 words out of the 1000....dont have any more time. it was definitely a dumb decision to schedule the test for saturday, but ive been stalling so long that  i said might as well try. I also studied all of september with the sparknotes math lessons, but that is for the old guide so idk how relevant it will be..talked about primes, lcf, lcm, gcf, factorials, permutations.....not that it matters i doubt ill know how to apply this stuff lol.

[powerlifterty16]

ill consider the practice test though....maybe tomorrow night idk.

[obviousbicycle]

While I agree that knowing that you won't do extraordinarily good isn't good for your morale, but you MUST try to get used with the format and structure of the exam. I have a friend who did poorly not because she wasn't good, but it was because she got herself confused on the test day: "Are we done? Wait, why is there another section of verbal? I thought I've done both sections already?"

 

After all you have set in your mind that you will "fail" the GRE (I didn't say that you will, but you mentioned it yourself) so you shouldn't be too demotivated if your practice test scores are not great.

[powerlifterty16]

While I agree that knowing that you won't do extraordinarily good isn't good for your morale, but you MUST try to get used with the format and structure of the exam. I have a friend who did poorly not because she wasn't good, but it was because she got herself confused on the test day: "Are we done? Wait, why is there another section of verbal? I thought I've done both sections already?"

 

After all you have set in your mind that you will "fail" the GRE (I didn't say that you will, but you mentioned it yourself) so you shouldn't be too demotivated if your practice test scores are not great.

im vaguely familiar with it because  i used powerprep in the past, but ill check it out again tomorrow. I do have it in my mind ill fail, but i know im very intelligent and im hoping that  i can pull this off.

Hopefully i know the vocab on the text completions too....there really is no strategy when you have no idea what the answers mean.

 

i went to barnes and nobles  and bought a manhattan prep algebra book and a manhattan prep geometry book..each is about 200 pages, do you think i have time to read one today and one tomorrow? im not a big reader(bad i know lol).

[powerlifterty16]

What's up? I graduated college one year ago, and too scared of taking the GRE, I have been sitting on the couch. Sure I did some off and on studying, looking through flashcards which never managed to stick in my brain, or trying hard to learn the rudimentary 9th grade math, that I suck at, or even not feel worthless when I can't focus on the boring reading comp passages that make 0 sense to me.

 

I decided a few weeks ago to study a  little harder, and 2 days ago, i set my test date for this saturday. I regret doing that, and wish I could reschedule and not pay 50 bucks. I really wanted to reschedule the test for 2 weeks from now, so that I could really hammer some things down. Tonight i found magoosh's flashcards, and the words seem to be sticking....although you never know....I studied 250 out f the 1000....and wanted more time to finish all of them......but ill have to do it some way.

 

The math section is where im going to be screwed I think. Doing practice problems, I am pretty much lost on a lot of them.

I used an old guide from sparks notes to preapre because the 2013 kaplan book was a fail. Ill link what I used, maybe you guys could tell me what you think?

luckily I had a 3.7 or 3.8 gpa froma very good university....but I honestly believe I don't deseve to go to grad school if i can't pass a simple gre.....what's the point?

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/gre/chapter2.rhtml

 

btw, i had a question; If  I do well on verbal, and poorly on quant, can i send schools only the verbal, and just retake and send new quant scores? im anicipating doing poorly on both, but idk if ill get any right for quant ha

 

on page 80 of the manhattan prep algebra workbook..not sure if i could finish all 170 pages =(..have to do the geometry book tomorrow..but im happy to report this is all stuff ive learned with the sparknotes book.

[powerlifterty16]

ok so it turns out there is really only 120 paes of lessons and the rest is practice problems...so i will finish the lessons today since ive read up to page 103 already. tbh sparknotes covered alot of this.

 

tomorrow im doing the geometry probs in manhattan prep which prob will go from 11-150....and then ill prob try to cram in some practice probs from both books and check out the powerprep that nigh or the morning of the test....i do need sleep though...my test is at 12 i should have made it later so i could sleep in, but wasn't expecting to have to cram.

im determined to do decent though. id like to get a 310 on the gre, i think that's a good enough score to get into my school of choice(which is the same school i got my undergrad degree from)

[obviousbicycle]

haha I love how you sort of liveblogging about your progress. Fyi I'm taking the test this Saturday as well (also at 12!) and I'm freaking out too. I took Powerprep II today and I found the quant section 2 questions really challenging. Kinda demotivated a bit but I can't do anything except keep on practicing.

 

Like you, I'm aiming for a 310 too. We can do this. But don't forget to get enough rest!

Edited October 4, 2013 by obviousbicycle

[powerlifterty16]

maybe we are taking it at the same place

i remember when i first took the powerprep test in january, i did a lot better in the second sections so i assume i failed the first and got the easier sections.

[powerlifterty16]

What's up? I graduated college one year ago, and too scared of taking the GRE, I have been sitting on the couch. Sure I did some off and on studying, looking through flashcards which never managed to stick in my brain, or trying hard to learn the rudimentary 9th grade math, that I suck at, or even not feel worthless when I can't focus on the boring reading comp passages that make 0 sense to me.

 

I decided a few weeks ago to study a  little harder, and 2 days ago, i set my test date for this saturday. I regret doing that, and wish I could reschedule and not pay 50 bucks. I really wanted to reschedule the test for 2 weeks from now, so that I could really hammer some things down. Tonight i found magoosh's flashcards, and the words seem to be sticking....although you never know....I studied 250 out f the 1000....and wanted more time to finish all of them......but ill have to do it some way.

 

The math section is where im going to be screwed I think. Doing practice problems, I am pretty much lost on a lot of them.

I used an old guide from sparks notes to preapre because the 2013 kaplan book was a fail. Ill link what I used, maybe you guys could tell me what you think?

luckily I had a 3.7 or 3.8 gpa froma very good university....but I honestly believe I don't deseve to go to grad school if i can't pass a simple gre.....what's the point?

 

http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/gre/chapter2.rhtml

 

btw, i had a question; If  I do well on verbal, and poorly on quant, can i send schools only the verbal, and just retake and send new quant scores? im anicipating doing poorly on both, but idk if ill get any right for quant ha

 

what bothers me is when i do a challenging problem , get it right, but because of the units, the answer is different.

For instance, I did a quadratic word problem about a guy throwing stones off a building, and I had to calculate the time it took to fall. I got two solutions(typical of quadratics), and I felt proud of being able to do it. One of the solutions was negative, and the answer key says because time can't be negative, you should use the other answer.

i would have chosen both on the gre

[powerlifterty16]

too lazy to do the last few pages...going to close the lapop and finish up and get to bed.

[obviousbicycle]

haha. I'm not sleepy so I guess I'm going to do some practice questions. I'm taking Friday off from studying so I just have to get all my prepping done by tonight.

 

Good luck!

[powerlifterty16]

thanks! i woke up earl so did a little geometry, but it's frustrating that i made a dumb mistake

 

i had a question btw...I know some gres have an unscored research section and some have an unscored verbal/quant extra section. Is it correct, that the ones who are lucky enough to get a gre with the research section have an advantage? they can just skip the research section because it is identified as a research section. The ones with the extra quant/verbal are at a disadvantage, especially f it comes first....does the research section also come first?

[VioletAyame]

How are you going to fare when you are in graduate school and you fail at something difficult? Dealing with failure is pretty much key to getting through any program. Every graduate student fails at some point in their career, some just start early by sucking on the GRE.

 

That is wise and funny and awesome at the same time. From now on I'm just gonna think of failing something as getting a head start on my grad school career!