GRE Question

[queennight]

Hello!

 

I'm new to the forum (although a long-time stalker). I'm intending on applying to Ph.D. programs in the States after writing my GRE on June 4, and then the GRE English Lit Subject Test at some point in the fall. I'm currently enrolled in a Masters program in Canada, and have some minor conference experience. I'm a transfer student so I have some courses outside of the English realm, but all of my English Lit courses are relatively strong in terms of grades.

 

I'm currently finding that my scores are fluctuating quite a bit when I write the GRE practice tests. I've been studying from the Kaplan book (on the General GRE) and I've put a heavy focus on the Verbal section (I really have barely studied Quantitative at all). However, my scores are all over the place - one practice test I'll be getting around an 89%, and the next I'm in the high 70s. I've made lists of words to memorize, and I've found those have helped a lot, but I'm concerned about my Reading Comprehension, which I think is lagging me down.

 

I have about two and a half weeks left before the exam, and I'm aiming to break into the 90th percentile (which is even a low-ball considering the programs that I'm hoping to apply to: Duke, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and Brown - a girl can dream). My Verbal Scores have moved from: 156 to 159 to 162, which is hopefully a good sign, although on my last practice test I achieved the laudable score of 3% on the Quantitative Section. If anybody has been in my spot before, does anybody care to share any tips for how to improve their GRE verbals, particularly reading comprehension? I'm finding that the Kaplan book generally just states "read the New York Times or academic articles" which is something that I pretty much do in my spare time, so it's not enormously helpful. Actually, the section on reading comprehension seems to be more than a bit useless, so I'm not sure exactly what to do.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading!!

 

xx

[Space_Girl]

I recommend Magoosh.com. I studied with Magoosh for a little over a month while studying to finish my BA, writing a seminar paper and working (this is just to illustrate how much you can do with limited time, meaning two weeks could still be enough), and I'm very happy with my score. I also started out with Kaplan and didn't find them nearly as useful. Good luck!

[rachelann1991]

I scored a 167 (97%) on verbal doing a combination of things:

 

1) I went through the Princeton Review book and did the practice tests in there; I also made flashcards for vocabulary words using their "hit list," which I found INCREDIBLY HELPFUL! In fact, that was the driving force behind my score, I think.

 

2) Whenever I came across a word in a practice test or in general reading that I didn't know, I wrote it down, looked it up, and made a flashcard for it

 

3) I did the two online practice tests that the Princeton Review provided with their book

 

4) I did the ETS practice tests (offered free online), both the computer based ones and the paper-based ones

 

5) I'm very proud of this - I didn't want to purchase the ETS prep book and spend an extra $30-$50, so I went to Barnes and Noble, sat in their cafe for a few hours at a time, and used looseleaf paper to go through a copy of the ETS book that they had on sale Yeah, I'm cheap as hell . . .

 

I gave myself 8 weeks over the summer, and I went hard so I could do it one-and-done, since I didn't have the money to take it a second time! Best of luck!!!!

[queennight]

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I'm also pretty tight financially and can also write the GRE once, so I'm freaking out a bit about writing it. I've got the Princeton GRE as you recommended from my local library and I'm going to study those words in addition to Kaplan's (Princeton seems a bit more well-developed, tbh).

 

Thanks again for the advice! I'm going to take a breather today and then go hard for the next two weeks. Hopefully my reading comprehension will somehow magically improve from reading the New York Times daily, which is what I'm hoping for.

 

xx

[lyonessrampant]

Just make sure that any books you get from the library or buy used are for the new GRE.  It changed around 2010 (I think it was).  

[queennight]

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind.