Countdown till GRE: Some final questions

[makingmoves]

I take the actual GRE this Friday, 11/15 at 8:30AM. I have a few questions for these remaining days.

 

I took a sixth timed Manhattan Practice last night and scored well by my standards: 158V, 164Q.

Since starting prep with Magoosh 2 months ago, I’ve gone from a low of 148Q to a 164Q.

 

These timed tests have occurred over the past month:

 

ETS power prep 1    156V, 150Q

Manhattan Test 1    161V, 148Q

Manhattan Test 2    163V, 152Q

ETS power prep 1 (attempt 2)   156V, 154Q

Manhattan Test 3   157V, 153Q

Manhattan Test 4   158V, 155Q

Manhattan Test 5   158V, 157Q

Manhattan Test 6   158V, 164Q

 

To make sure that the score wasn’t just a fluke, I went back to my original practice tests of lower quant scores to see if I could do those problems now. Turns out I could do them all with ease, and that I really have improved!

 

That being said, I have a few questions:

 

1)      My ETS power prep score differed vastly from my Manhattan Tests. How would you rank the Manhattan Tests as a gauge of the real GRE?

 

2)      Since taking this final Manhattan Practice Test last night, I’m feeling pretty confident. Given I have the test Friday, should I take one last practice? Since the ETS power prep score differed so greatly from my Manhattan test scores, I wanted to take the ETS 2^nd practice test to see how accurate my Manhattan test was. Should I even bother at this point? What if I don’t score as high and hurt my confidence? What do you recommend?

 

3)      A lot of the Verbal I get wrong are due to vocabulary. Should I spend these last few days drilling vocab/reading The New Yorker articles, etc?

 

4)      Quant-wise, I still run into issues with longer word problems/2 variable word problems. Should I bother drilling those at this point?

 

5)      When should I officially just stop studying altogether? Should I take a timed practice test the night before?

 

Thanks so much!

Edited November 12, 2013 by DTurcotte2013

[C_Chattra]

I have a similar issue and I'm taking the real test this Thuraday. Here are my Manhattan and ETS scores (quant only):

Manhattan 1: 157

Manhattan 2: 158

Manhattan 3: 159

Manhattan 4: 159

Manhattan 5: 163

Manhattan 6: 160

PowerPrep 1: 153

PowerPrep 2: 155

Looks like our scores are somewhat similar! I've heard that the PowerPrep mostly accurately reflects the real score (but I sure hope not!). To answer your last question, I think you should relax the day before instead of doing another test. Good luck!

[makingmoves]

And, I really don't understand the disparity between PowerPrep and Manhattan practice tests... Does Manhattan curve the score more? 

 

Also, do you think I should take that second PowerPrep Test tonight? 

Edited November 12, 2013 by DTurcotte2013

[C_Chattra]

My verbal is horrendous... Think below 150. I don't really understand the disparity either. I'm hoping folks who've done Manhattan and the real test could weight in. As for the second PowerPrep, I don't really know what to tell you since I scores lower than my Manhattan and that definitely lowered my confidence a bit...

[makingmoves]

Yeah, I'm also hoping others can shed light on this.

[socioholic]

I only took one practice test so I can't comment too much on that. My humble opinion:

 

#3- I used Magoosh vocabulary and found it quite relevant. I say yes, get as many words in you as possible.

#4- My issue was time. I knew all the concepts but I couldn't get through the section. I say yes, the more examples you see the better. If you have a time problem like me, I'd suggest just reading and figuring out how you would find the solution, not necessarily performing every calculation.

#5- I'd give it a day, but casually try to get some extra vocabulary in. get a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast, hit the gym if you can.

 

I didn't knock it out the park, but I studied for a couple weeks and hit my goals for reaching 160 (practice test scores were 155-ish)