goal2016 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 (edited) Hello all, After a lot of ups and downs with my prep, took the GRE yesterday and scored a 332(V-162,Q-170). Thanks to all the awesome people here who made coming on the forum worth it. Firstly, let me remark that I'm not a genius and never have been at the top of my class. I'm just an average guy who slogged it off and got there through sheer hardwork. I hope this will give some motivation to those who think that only high achievers can crack GRE. What worked for me: I think what worked for me is my focus. I started my prep in January this year. Had less coursework in college and I thought that I would be able to focus given the lesser courseload. I also put everything else lower in the priority order during this time so that I could focus. I also knew that in case I don't score well in my first attempt, I’ll have the summer vacations to retake the exam. My schedule Here's my detailed schedule that will give you an idea about how I went about my preparation Week 1: Jan 12-18- Got my hands on the ETS OG. Got familiar with the test in the first two days. Then took the first powerprep II on Day 4 and analyzed it for the next 2 days. Spoke to someone who had cracked the GRE and made a plan for myself Week 2: Jan 19-26- text completion+ vocab from ETS OG and gre grail Week 3: Jan 27-Feb 02- Sentence equivalence+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 4: Feb 03-10- Reading comprehension+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 5: Feb 11- 17- Reading comprehension+ vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 6,7: Feb 18-March 2- Quant prep from nova gre Week 8,9: March 3- 10 : Practice from manhattan 5 lbs book Week 10: March 10-17- Reattempt of all questions i got wrong so far Week 11: March 17-25- Vocab week Week 12: March 25-April 1- Focus on all weak areas Weeks 13,14,15,16: April 2- April 30- Practice tests. Took 2 power prep tests, 6 manhattan tests and 1 kaplan free test Last 2 days of prep- Relaxation and a bit of studying Resources I used: I used a lot of resources but found the following few resources most helpful. ETS Offcial Guide to get a feel of how the actual questions on the tests would be like GRE Verbal Grail to master the verbal section which was the difficult part for me to master Nova GRE Math to get a good grasp on math concepts. GRE math is easy is no secret but getting familiar with all topics is important Manhattan 5 lbs book for rigorous practice once I felt confident in most areas. Helped me build the muscle for practice tests Manhattan 6 practice tests- Helped me take tests under timed circumstances and build the mental muscle need to ace the actual exam Prep Tips Here are some of things that worked for me and I hope will work for others. Tip#1: Don’t prepare alone. Prepare with 2-3 other people who are planning to take the GRE. You’ll be much more motivated to study hard if you have others with you Tip#2: Target Maximum GRE score: I see a lot of people asking here how much should I target on GRE as though by just knowing the target score, they will achieve that score. Forget all this and just target the maximum possible. Tip#3: Make it top priority: While you’re preparing for GRE, make this your priority no.1 in life. I’d skip a lot of events which were waste of time while preparing. Tip#4: Put time & effort: Time is a precious commodity so use it wisely. There’s no other formula for succeeding than putting in the hardwork. It PAYS OFF! Tip#5: Mindset: Don’t take gre as an obstacle rather take it as a challenge. If you take it as an obstacle, you will always think it is a burden, if you think it is a challenge that will help you grow, you will push yourself harder. To sum up, there’s no secret sauce to preparing for the GRE. Hardwork is the only thing that will pay off as it will pay off in every challenging thing that you undertake. Good luck all. Hope that you'd have found this post motivating Edited May 1, 2015 by goal2016 Arezoo, KBPsych, aznbeggerap and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebbsInferno Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Thanks for the tips man (or woman)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qualiafreak Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Wow you worked hard and it paid off! Congrats. Now I feel guilty for not working as hard -- I did 0 studying. Good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goal2016 Posted May 10, 2015 Author Share Posted May 10, 2015 I hope this time you work hard. It's absolutely doable as you can see through my story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qualiafreak Posted May 11, 2015 Share Posted May 11, 2015 I was actually lucky enough to do fine without studying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myriam Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Congrats ! This really enlightens me as I always considered that there are some people who are particularly good at GRE . But the secret is to really make an efficient schedule and also not ignoring the fact that you had enoug h time to prepare for it which was the thing I lacked... That's great, your method seems relevant and rational. I'll use it for this summer to retake the gre. Your post is really encouraging Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goal2016 Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Congrats ! This really enlightens me as I always considered that there are some people who are particularly good at GRE . But the secret is to really make an efficient schedule and also not ignoring the fact that you had enoug h time to prepare for it which was the thing I lacked... That's great, your method seems relevant and rational. I'll use it for this summer to retake the gre. Your post is really encouraging Yes, please don't be disheartened. Just work hard and push yourself to achieve your goals and I'm sure that you will get your target GRE score and get through your target schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenger11 Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 Thank you very much for this immensely helpful post. RC is proving to be a pain in the *** for me, can you please suggest what should I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goal2016 Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 RC is about understanding the question types, what type of answers are usually wrong/right in diff types of questions. For example, if the question asks you about assumption, a wrong answer might just strengthen the argument. Similarly, in primary purpose questions, a wrong answer would just give primary purpose of a paragraph not of the entire passage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diwakardahal Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Is two weeks full time study enough ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREMasterEMPOWERRichC Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Hi Diwakardahal, 2 weeks would be a rather short study period, but the amount of time that any individual needs to study will vary depending on his/her strengths & weaknesses and score goals. What is YOUR score goal? Have you taken any practice MST Tests yet (and if so, then what were your scores?)? GRE Masters aren't born, they're made, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genetix Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Hello all, After a lot of ups and downs with my prep, took the GRE yesterday and scored a 332(V-162,Q-170). Thanks to all the awesome people here who made coming on the forum worth it. Firstly, let me remark that I'm not a genius and never have been at the top of my class. I'm just an average guy who slogged it off and got there through sheer hardwork. I hope this will give some motivation to those who think that only high achievers can crack GRE. What worked for me: I think what worked for me is my focus. I started my prep in January this year. Had less coursework in college and I thought that I would be able to focus given the lesser courseload. I also put everything else lower in the priority order during this time so that I could focus. I also knew that in case I don't score well in my first attempt, I’ll have the summer vacations to retake the exam. My schedule Here's my detailed schedule that will give you an idea about how I went about my preparation Week 1: Jan 12-18- Got my hands on the ETS OG. Got familiar with the test in the first two days. Then took the first powerprep II on Day 4 and analyzed it for the next 2 days. Spoke to someone who had cracked the GRE and made a plan for myself Week 2: Jan 19-26- text completion+ vocab from ETS OG and gre grail Week 3: Jan 27-Feb 02- Sentence equivalence+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 4: Feb 03-10- Reading comprehension+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 5: Feb 11- 17- Reading comprehension+ vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 6,7: Feb 18-March 2- Quant prep from nova gre Week 8,9: March 3- 10 : Practice from manhattan 5 lbs book Week 10: March 10-17- Reattempt of all questions i got wrong so far Week 11: March 17-25- Vocab week Week 12: March 25-April 1- Focus on all weak areas Weeks 13,14,15,16: April 2- April 30- Practice tests. Took 2 power prep tests, 6 manhattan tests and 1 kaplan free test Last 2 days of prep- Relaxation and a bit of studying Resources I used: I used a lot of resources but found the following few resources most helpful. ETS Offcial Guide to get a feel of how the actual questions on the tests would be like GRE Verbal Grail to master the verbal section which was the difficult part for me to master Nova GRE Math to get a good grasp on math concepts. GRE math is easy is no secret but getting familiar with all topics is important Manhattan 5 lbs book for rigorous practice once I felt confident in most areas. Helped me build the muscle for practice tests Manhattan 6 practice tests- Helped me take tests under timed circumstances and build the mental muscle need to ace the actual exam Prep Tips Here are some of things that worked for me and I hope will work for others. Tip#1: Don’t prepare alone. Prepare with 2-3 other people who are planning to take the GRE. You’ll be much more motivated to study hard if you have others with you Tip#2: Target Maximum GRE score: I see a lot of people asking here how much should I target on GRE as though by just knowing the target score, they will achieve that score. Forget all this and just target the maximum possible. Tip#3: Make it top priority: While you’re preparing for GRE, make this your priority no.1 in life. I’d skip a lot of events which were waste of time while preparing. Tip#4: Put time & effort: Time is a precious commodity so use it wisely. There’s no other formula for succeeding than putting in the hardwork. It PAYS OFF! Tip#5: Mindset: Don’t take gre as an obstacle rather take it as a challenge. If you take it as an obstacle, you will always think it is a burden, if you think it is a challenge that will help you grow, you will push yourself harder. To sum up, there’s no secret sauce to preparing for the GRE. Hardwork is the only thing that will pay off as it will pay off in every challenging thing that you undertake. Good luck all. Hope that you'd have found this post motivating Goal, what were you scoring on your first practice tests? Just wondering how much that helped you. 10, 15, 20 points? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gellert Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 (edited) Is two weeks full time study enough ? Sure it is. I studied for just 2 weeks after I got back from a foreign country before my tests. 4 hrs a day, and didn't study at all the 2 days before the exam. I got a near-perfect score on the old test. I think the reason this worked so well for me really was because I just ... didn't freak out about it. I didn't have time to. I signed up for 2 exam sessions ahead of time so that I wouldn't be so nervous the first time around because I'd feel like I had a second shot at it before the test type changed and before due dates. For me, what would trip me up a lot was when there were multiple answers and you have to logic your way to the right one. Being relaxed made this sooooo much easier. Other random tidbits: don't drink caffeine day of test, even if you usually do. You'll have more than enough adrenaline. Also, smoke one cigarette before going in, as studies show nicotine enhances memory retrieval and other measures of cognitive performance. (Not to suggest you start smoking all the time, because that's stupid, but a single cigarette ever won't kill you. Alternatively, nicotine patch.) It's not the amount of time you have, it's how you use that time. Be planful about it, and don't overstudy. I'm sure natural test performance ability will play a role here too. ETA: This might not apply if you struggle with verbal, which takes longer to study and master. I was fine with verbal so I didn't study it at all, just quant. YMMV. Edited June 16, 2015 by gellert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soumya213 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 I feel the same for the Reading Comprehension part. The moment I feel i have got the answer right, guess what it comes out I have got it all wrong, no matter how hard I try! Given lots of time on reading RCs but no improvements till now, can anybody suggest some strategy for RCs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goal2016 Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 I feel the same for the Reading Comprehension part. The moment I feel i have got the answer right, guess what it comes out I have got it all wrong, no matter how hard I try! Given lots of time on reading RCs but no improvements till now, can anybody suggest some strategy for RCs. Firstly, have you learnt strategies like skimming, looking for why a particular paragraph is written etc? I guess you might be focusing a lot on what a para/passage says rather than why it says what it says. It's very important to figure that out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenger11 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Firstly, have you learnt strategies like skimming, looking for why a particular paragraph is written etc? I guess you might be focusing a lot on what a para/passage says rather than why it says what it says. It's very important to figure that out I realized that this was the problem with me too. Have taken the gre now and done well once i overcame this problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nehag Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Hello all, After a lot of ups and downs with my prep, took the GRE yesterday and scored a 332(V-162,Q-170). Thanks to all the awesome people here who made coming on the forum worth it. Firstly, let me remark that I'm not a genius and never have been at the top of my class. I'm just an average guy who slogged it off and got there through sheer hardwork. I hope this will give some motivation to those who think that only high achievers can crack GRE. What worked for me: I think what worked for me is my focus. I started my prep in January this year. Had less coursework in college and I thought that I would be able to focus given the lesser courseload. I also put everything else lower in the priority order during this time so that I could focus. I also knew that in case I don't score well in my first attempt, I’ll have the summer vacations to retake the exam. My schedule Here's my detailed schedule that will give you an idea about how I went about my preparation Week 1: Jan 12-18- Got my hands on the ETS OG. Got familiar with the test in the first two days. Then took the first powerprep II on Day 4 and analyzed it for the next 2 days. Spoke to someone who had cracked the GRE and made a plan for myself Week 2: Jan 19-26- text completion+ vocab from ETS OG and gre grail Week 3: Jan 27-Feb 02- Sentence equivalence+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 4: Feb 03-10- Reading comprehension+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 5: Feb 11- 17- Reading comprehension+ vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 6,7: Feb 18-March 2- Quant prep from nova gre Week 8,9: March 3- 10 : Practice from manhattan 5 lbs book Week 10: March 10-17- Reattempt of all questions i got wrong so far Week 11: March 17-25- Vocab week Week 12: March 25-April 1- Focus on all weak areas Weeks 13,14,15,16: April 2- April 30- Practice tests. Took 2 power prep tests, 6 manhattan tests and 1 kaplan free test Last 2 days of prep- Relaxation and a bit of studying Resources I used: I used a lot of resources but found the following few resources most helpful. ETS Offcial Guide to get a feel of how the actual questions on the tests would be like GRE Verbal Grail to master the verbal section which was the difficult part for me to master Nova GRE Math to get a good grasp on math concepts. GRE math is easy is no secret but getting familiar with all topics is important Manhattan 5 lbs book for rigorous practice once I felt confident in most areas. Helped me build the muscle for practice tests Manhattan 6 practice tests- Helped me take tests under timed circumstances and build the mental muscle need to ace the actual exam Prep Tips Here are some of things that worked for me and I hope will work for others. Tip#1: Don’t prepare alone. Prepare with 2-3 other people who are planning to take the GRE. You’ll be much more motivated to study hard if you have others with you Tip#2: Target Maximum GRE score: I see a lot of people asking here how much should I target on GRE as though by just knowing the target score, they will achieve that score. Forget all this and just target the maximum possible. Tip#3: Make it top priority: While you’re preparing for GRE, make this your priority no.1 in life. I’d skip a lot of events which were waste of time while preparing. Tip#4: Put time & effort: Time is a precious commodity so use it wisely. There’s no other formula for succeeding than putting in the hardwork. It PAYS OFF! Tip#5: Mindset: Don’t take gre as an obstacle rather take it as a challenge. If you take it as an obstacle, you will always think it is a burden, if you think it is a challenge that will help you grow, you will push yourself harder. To sum up, there’s no secret sauce to preparing for the GRE. Hardwork is the only thing that will pay off as it will pay off in every challenging thing that you undertake. Good luck all. Hope that you'd have found this post motivating Just starting off with my gre prep. Very helpful post. Planning to give a diagnostic test now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenger11 Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 Just starting off with my gre prep. Very helpful post. Planning to give a diagnostic test now. Do analyze the diagnostic test well. It'll help you give insights into what your weak areas are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamb Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Hello all, After a lot of ups and downs with my prep, took the GRE yesterday and scored a 332(V-162,Q-170). Thanks to all the awesome people here who made coming on the forum worth it. Firstly, let me remark that I'm not a genius and never have been at the top of my class. I'm just an average guy who slogged it off and got there through sheer hardwork. I hope this will give some motivation to those who think that only high achievers can crack GRE. What worked for me: I think what worked for me is my focus. I started my prep in January this year. Had less coursework in college and I thought that I would be able to focus given the lesser courseload. I also put everything else lower in the priority order during this time so that I could focus. I also knew that in case I don't score well in my first attempt, I’ll have the summer vacations to retake the exam. My schedule Here's my detailed schedule that will give you an idea about how I went about my preparation Week 1: Jan 12-18- Got my hands on the ETS OG. Got familiar with the test in the first two days. Then took the first powerprep II on Day 4 and analyzed it for the next 2 days. Spoke to someone who had cracked the GRE and made a plan for myself Week 2: Jan 19-26- text completion+ vocab from ETS OG and gre grail Week 3: Jan 27-Feb 02- Sentence equivalence+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 4: Feb 03-10- Reading comprehension+ Vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 5: Feb 11- 17- Reading comprehension+ vocab from ets og and gre grail Week 6,7: Feb 18-March 2- Quant prep from nova gre Week 8,9: March 3- 10 : Practice from manhattan 5 lbs book Week 10: March 10-17- Reattempt of all questions i got wrong so far Week 11: March 17-25- Vocab week Week 12: March 25-April 1- Focus on all weak areas Weeks 13,14,15,16: April 2- April 30- Practice tests. Took 2 power prep tests, 6 manhattan tests and 1 kaplan free test Last 2 days of prep- Relaxation and a bit of studying Resources I used: I used a lot of resources but found the following few resources most helpful. ETS Offcial Guide to get a feel of how the actual questions on the tests would be like GRE Verbal Grail to master the verbal section which was the difficult part for me to master Nova GRE Math to get a good grasp on math concepts. GRE math is easy is no secret but getting familiar with all topics is important Manhattan 5 lbs book for rigorous practice once I felt confident in most areas. Helped me build the muscle for practice tests Manhattan 6 practice tests- Helped me take tests under timed circumstances and build the mental muscle need to ace the actual exam Prep Tips Here are some of things that worked for me and I hope will work for others. Tip#1: Don’t prepare alone. Prepare with 2-3 other people who are planning to take the GRE. You’ll be much more motivated to study hard if you have others with you Tip#2: Target Maximum GRE score: I see a lot of people asking here how much should I target on GRE as though by just knowing the target score, they will achieve that score. Forget all this and just target the maximum possible. Tip#3: Make it top priority: While you’re preparing for GRE, make this your priority no.1 in life. I’d skip a lot of events which were waste of time while preparing. Tip#4: Put time & effort: Time is a precious commodity so use it wisely. There’s no other formula for succeeding than putting in the hardwork. It PAYS OFF! Tip#5: Mindset: Don’t take gre as an obstacle rather take it as a challenge. If you take it as an obstacle, you will always think it is a burden, if you think it is a challenge that will help you grow, you will push yourself harder. To sum up, there’s no secret sauce to preparing for the GRE. Hardwork is the only thing that will pay off as it will pay off in every challenging thing that you undertake. Good luck all. Hope that you'd have found this post motivating Great post. I'm starting off with my prep and this is very helpful. Hope to follow your advice and tips..And hope to reach your level Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent@GreenlightGRE Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I feel the same for the Reading Comprehension part. The moment I feel i have got the answer right, guess what it comes out I have got it all wrong, no matter how hard I try! Given lots of time on reading RCs but no improvements till now, can anybody suggest some strategy for RCs. RC is probably the one topic that takes the longest time to see improvement, since these questions are strongly related to your reading skills. When it comes to Reading Comprehension, I don’t believe that there’s one specific approach that works best for everyone. I always recommend that students spend some time experimenting with different strategies to see which one best suits their memory, reading speed and English proficiency. Having said that, when reading ANY Reading Comprehension (RC) passage, it's crucial that you engage 100% in the passage. So, rather than approach a new passage with dread ("I don't enjoy reading it at all"), try to feign interest ("Excellent! This passage is about stock market regulations in Peru!"). The better your engagement, the better the results. If you're interested, we have a free video series covering all sorts of Reading Comprehension strategies: http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/gre-reading-comprehension Cheers, Brent - Greenlight Test Prep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamb Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 RC is probably the one topic that takes the longest time to see improvement, since these questions are strongly related to your reading skills. When it comes to Reading Comprehension, I don’t believe that there’s one specific approach that works best for everyone. I always recommend that students spend some time experimenting with different strategies to see which one best suits their memory, reading speed and English proficiency. Having said that, when reading ANY Reading Comprehension (RC) passage, it's crucial that you engage 100% in the passage. So, rather than approach a new passage with dread ("I don't enjoy reading it at all"), try to feign interest ("Excellent! This passage is about stock market regulations in Peru!"). The better your engagement, the better the results. If you're interested, we have a free video series covering all sorts of Reading Comprehension strategies: http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/gre-reading-comprehension Cheers, Brent - Greenlight Test Prep Very helpful post. @Brent- What do you mean by engage 100% in the passage? Does it mean that reading the entire passage fully or being "ïmmersed" in the passage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brent@GreenlightGRE Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 I mean devote 100% of your attention to the passage, Otherwise, there's the potential of suffering from what I call the Sunday morning newspaper syndrome where you realize that, for the past minute (although your eyes have passed over the words) you have been thinking of other things. Cheers, Brent - Greenlight Test Prep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamb Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 I mean devote 100% of your attention to the passage, Otherwise, there's the potential of suffering from what I call the Sunday morning newspaper syndrome where you realize that, for the past minute (although your eyes have passed over the words) you have been thinking of other things. Cheers, Brent - Greenlight Test PrepOhkay. Gotchya now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenger11 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 What should be the strategy for learning vocab- is learning a vocab list + reading newspapers a good strategy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamb Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 I feel the same for the Reading Comprehension part.The moment I feel i have got the answer right, guess what it comes out I have got it all wrong, no matter how hard I try! Given lots of time on reading RCs but no improvements till now, can anybody suggest some strategy for RCs.Yes,mostly i get stuck between 2 last options in RCs. same applies to a great extent in sentence equivalence and text completion type of questions too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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