Done with GRE..Think I did well!!

[avenger11]

I took the GRE last week and scored a decent 330(V-162+Q-168,AWA-5.5). I know it took me a very long time to write this debrief, but I had to focus on other work immediately after the GRE. 
I thought that I must share my experience in the hope that it will serve to benefit others in whatever small possible way. 

How long I studied?
I studied a total of 4 months out of which the first month was on and off studying and the last month was focused prep. Studied around 2-3 hours on weekdays and 4-5 hours on weekends.

What Material I used?
1. ETS OG: Do I really have to talk about its importance. It’s a must have book for your GRE prep
2. Manhattan 5 lbs books- Comes with 6 practice tests that are worth taking apart from a number of practice questions that you will get in the GRE book.
3. GRE Verbal Grail: Since Verbal of GRE requires you to prepare with a focused approach, it is very helpful. Around 300 practice questions are there and  theory for RC is very good.
4. The 45-day GRE Vocab Book: One vocab practice lesson every day is the way to go. I did one new lesson every day and revised what I have done in the past. Finished it in dot 45 days.

Section Specific Tips:
RC: This section is the most difficult to improve. I think what helped me was I read at least a couple of articles from NYTimes, Economist, Atlantic etc. each day for three months leading up to the exam. Also, like I mentioned, I did OG GRE RC passages too. They tend to be more difficult but will provide you excellent practice.

Moreover, I think vocabulary is really important. Your command over vocab will go long way in improving your comprehension. For instance, if you run into words such as totalitarian, right/left wing and you know the meaning of those words you will instantly know what the author is going for. I would highly recommend you create your own wordlist of tough words from OG passages on quizlet. I never take notes for RC. I think it is a waste of time.

What I do instead is – read the first paragraph and first couple of lines of each paragraph and skim through the rest. Once I’m finished reading I go back to passages only for specific details questions that too only to cross check my answer. I think this strategy saved a lot of time.I essentially treat CR as mini RC. I read the passage really carefully and use Process Of Elimination to get at a right choice. Especially if you are at 99%ile POE will be immensely helpful for those tough passages. 

Vocab: This section is the easiest to improve. Initially I never timed myself. Instead I gave myself ample time to understand why a particular choice was right/wrong. I spent insane amount of time on learning from questions I got wrong.  
 

Microstrategy: I never try to anticipate a correct answer. Why waste your time and energy anticipating a correct answer when GRE gives choices? There are thousands of ways in which you can correct a wrong sentence. Are we going to run all those scenarios w/o reading the answer choices? I think it is just inefficient use of your time. 

Food, Exercise, and Sleep: 
Food- We all have our own unique bio-chemical identities i.e. we all know what foods give us sustained release of energy w/o making us full. I think it is best to avoid processed food, caffeine (red bull), processed sugar during the exam. I carried simple food with me for exam. 

Exercise: There is tremendous body of evidence suggesting benefits of exercise on brain function. I almost never missed daily 30 min brisk walks. I used to listen to wordlist or math tables during those 30 min.

Sleep: I think data on positive effect of sleep on brain function is quite conclusive too. Here is a great TED talk on neuroscience of sleep http://www.ted.com/talks/russell_foster_why_do_we_sleep if you are still not convinced. Consequently, I never cheated on sleep during my months of prep, however tempted I was. I’d highly recommend a 9-10 hours of sleep before the exam day. 

It is a long post so thanks for reading. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have for me. Good Luck!

Edited July 15, 2015 by avenger11

[goal2016]

IMO, it's a great score. Your prep shows you totally deserved it. All the best for your apps

[avenger11]

IMO, it's a great score. Your prep shows you totally deserved it. All the best for your apps

Hmm..thanks for the validation. i was somehow starting to think that i scored a bit less than what i'd need at top schools

[mockturtle]

Congratulations! "A decent 330" made me grin, that's very very decent 

Did it really take only a week for your AWA scores to be released? I'm so jealous...

[avenger11]

Congratulations! "A decent 330" made me grin, that's very very decent 

Did it really take only a week for your AWA scores to be released? I'm so jealous...

Yes, around 10 days... did you also take the gre recently ? And i do think 330 is good but not very high

[mockturtle]

Yes, around 10 days... did you also take the gre recently ? And i do think 330 is good but not very high

Yup! And I guess I spoke too soon, since my AWA scores just got released after roughly that amount of time, too.

What changed your mind?

[avenger11]

Finally decided to apply to 7 schools this year..2 stretch, 3 reach and 2 safe..hoping to make into one of them

[HermoineG]

 

 

Vocab: This section is the easiest to improve. Initially I never timed myself. Instead I gave myself ample time to understand why a particular choice was right/wrong. I spent insane amount of time on learning from questions I got wrong.  

Wow! Congrats. Its an amazing score! I wanted to ask you about this above mentioned sentence. What did you do to learn missed/wrong vocab questions?

[avenger11]

Wow! Congrats. Its an amazing score! I wanted to ask you about this above mentioned sentence. What did you do to learn missed/wrong vocab questions?

With vocab, it was simple. I wrote all the words that i got wrong in a small notebook and revised them daily or tried using them with family friends. That really helped

[lamb]

Using vocab with family friends is a very good strategy..a lot of times my peers help me correct the usage of the word. at other times, i am myself able to figure out where i went wrong

[avenger11]

Using vocab with family friends is a very good strategy..a lot of times my peers help me correct the usage of the word. at other times, i am myself able to figure out where i went wrong

Yep, no better way than this to improve your usage and contextual knowledge of new words.

[MelissaMonge]

Hello! I wanted to ask you where can I find those word lists and Math tables you heard during your exercise routines?

 

thanks and congrats!

[lamb]

Hello! I wanted to ask you where can I find those word lists and Math tables you heard during your exercise routines?

 

thanks and congrats!

I guess nobody spoke about math tables here. Wordlists you will find in any good gre prep book

[avenger11]

On 10/7/2015, 9:42:35, MelissaMonge said:

Hello! I wanted to ask you where can I find those word lists and Math tables you heard during your exercise routines?

 

thanks and congrats!

You don't need math tables for gre. also be selective in word lists if you have limited time to prep...

[lamb]

On 11/20/2015, 3:17:08, avenger11 said:

You don't need math tables for gre. also be selective in word lists if you have limited time to prep...

which wordlists do you recommend?

[gughok]

2 hours ago, lamb said:

which wordlists do you recommend?

I used the magoosh vocabulary builder app on my phone for a couple hours. It made the difference for me between the ~168 I might have gotten and the 170 I did.

[lamb]

On 12/4/2015 at 8:03 PM, gughok said:

I used the magoosh vocabulary builder app on my phone for a couple hours. It made the difference for me between the ~168 I might have gotten and the 170 I did.

Awesome..I think i'll download that...Thanks

[goal2016]

One bit I'll add here to the discussion is to try learning vocab through mnemonics, root word methods etc.

[PersonPeople]

Gre question: Which score should I report???

Most of my programs allow you to report two scores but the UCSB M.ED asks you to report only one score! The problem is I don't know which score would be considered "better" for this program. 

1) V: 167 (97%) Q 151 (45%) AW 5 (93%)

2) V: 167 (97%) Q 155 (60%) AW 4 (56%)

The first time I took the test I scored above 90th percentile in both writing and verbal, but below the 50th percentile in math. The 2nd time I improved my quant score significantly but messed up the essay so my scores in both are middling. My program is not really a math heavy program (social and cultural studies in education) but I'm worried that a below 50% could look really bad, on the other hand the first set of scores might make more of an impression because of the two sections above 90th percentile. What do folks think? Which score should I report?

 

Thanks!

[SLPgradstudent]

On 1/9/2016 at 5:53 AM, PersonPeople said:

Gre question: Which score should I report???

Most of my programs allow you to report two scores but the UCSB M.ED asks you to report only one score! The problem is I don't know which score would be considered "better" for this program. 

1) V: 167 (97%) Q 151 (45%) AW 5 (93%)

2) V: 167 (97%) Q 155 (60%) AW 4 (56%)

The first time I took the test I scored above 90th percentile in both writing and verbal, but below the 50th percentile in math. The 2nd time I improved my quant score significantly but messed up the essay so my scores in both are middling. My program is not really a math heavy program (social and cultural studies in education) but I'm worried that a below 50% could look really bad, on the other hand the first set of scores might make more of an impression because of the two sections above 90th percentile. What do folks think? Which score should I report?

 

Thanks!

That's a tough call PersonPeople, I think it depends a lot on what the program is looking for.  Does the program explicitly state which scores it considers most heavily?  The programs I applied to look at Verbal most heavily, then quant, then AW (I think), but I think it really varies by school and by program.  Then again, some schools use cutoff scores for one section (or each section).  If I were you, I'd do my best to get as much information as possible before deciding.  Maybe call the school and directly ask which scores they look at most and if they have cutoffs for GRE.  Again, in my programs, they generally say "above 50%ile GRE scores", but you have to check what your program wants.

If it were me, and I couldn't get any other info, I might go with score 2, just to have that higher Quant score.

[goal2016]

I totally agree with @SLPgradstudent. Go with the second score. Most programs will look at your quant and verbal scores. So the higher the better on both

[avenger11]

On 2/11/2016 at 2:52 PM, goal2016 said:

I totally agree with @SLPgradstudent. Go with the second score. Most programs will look at your quant and verbal scores. So the higher the better on both

Yes, AWA doesn't matter much to schools. Quant+Verbal matters more. Quant for STEM courses and verbal for humanities, liberal arts type of courses

[avenger11]

Started with applications for this year..Just realizing that so many other components apart from GRE go into making a successful application. My good GRE option just seems more like hygenie now rather than an advantage

[cheezy89]

That score is amazing!!! I could barely break the 150 mark. I'm gonna share your tips with people looking to get into PT