How much can the Magoosh 7 day trial help me?

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

I'm taking the GRE again in two weeks and I'm intrigued by Magoosh's one week free trial. How much of a boost could this thing give me? I took the GRE once without any kind of preparation and I got a 157Q/160V, and I just want to get the quantitative up a little bit. Do you think a week of studying with this thing would be enough to push me past 160 if I'm starting from "nothing"? Or is there a better way?

[TheBumChikiBum]

Give Mocks. Period. 

Powerprep.Manhattan mocks etc. Do not learn new concepts now. Too late for that. Just give the mocks and get into the groove. Take that 1 week trial if it gives access to tests also.

Best of luck.

[anonymous052709]

Magoosh is really good for getting an idea of the things you need to work on and getting a projected score for verbal and math by answering 50 questions at your own pace. I would do this before you take a full length test like the Manhattan Prep test. Your scores may be a little higher than they will be on the real test because of the comfort and lack of stress and the time. BUT, you can email Magoosh and get a one week extension after the one week trial for $49, and that was totally worth it for me. It is a great place to use practice and get things explained that you get wrong. Use their free GRE common words vocab APP too.

[anonymous052709]

Learning how to take the test (how much time to spend on things, how they can trick you, when to trust the questions, what kind of proof to look for etc is one BIG part of doing well. It eliminates those mistakes you make from losing time or being confused about the questions, or using bad strategies. To fix this I would recommend Princeton Reviews Crash Course for the New GRE book.

For the rest, memorizing formulas and knowing vocab will get you furthest in a short amount of time. Try Magoosh's free ebook of math formulas: http://magoosh.com/gre/2012/gre-math-formula-ebook/ 

and also Use that Vocab app I mentioned if you have an iphone or android

[GREMasterEMPOWERRichC]

Hi StrongTackle-BacarySagna,

By your own description, if you barely studied the first time, then we don't have much information on what you need to focus on to improve. While taking a FULL MST (including the essays) will give us some data to work with, taking lots of practice MSTs is probably not going to provide the solution that you're looking for. If you continue to handle the Quant section in the same ways that you did before, then your score will likely stay the same.

1) Do you have the flexibility to push back your Test Date?

2) When are you planning to apply to Grad School?

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

[StrongTackleBacarySagna]

Hi StrongTackle-BacarySagna,

By your own description, if you barely studied the first time, then we don't have much information on what you need to focus on to improve. While taking a FULL MST (including the essays) will give us some data to work with, taking lots of practice MSTs is probably not going to provide the solution that you're looking for. If you continue to handle the Quant section in the same ways that you did before, then your score will likely stay the same.

1) Do you have the flexibility to push back your Test Date?

2) When are you planning to apply to Grad School?

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

Two weeks is pretty much as late as I can take it. Deadlines start December 1.

 

The reason I didn't do that well on quantitative is because I blew through the first section, then on the second section I got cocky and took my time with a question that I didn't know how to solve. I ended up running out of time and not answering four or five questions. I'm trying to decrease the likeliness of that happening again

[GREMasterEMPOWERRichC]

Hi StrongTackle-BacarySagna,

One of the amazing 'tools' that you can take advantage of on Test Day is the 'flagging' feature - which allows you to flag a question so that you can come back to it later. "Trading" all of that time to try to answer 1 question at the cost of not answering 4-5 others is a TERRIBLE trade. You have to be mentally prepared to quickly-guess-and-flag any prompts that seem to tricky for you, so that you can maximize your performance on each section overall.

If you're not mentally 'comfortable' with that idea yet, then that is something that you'll need to work on.

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

[cowgirlsdontcry]

1 hour ago, gre_349 said:

Wow! 1 week free trial huh? I have tried it out too, and I am not satisfied actually. Although, the 1 week trial has provided me much info, still there is missing. 

I have also checked Preped's free practice tests. They don't have a time limit and they have variety of free practice tests. But, it is better than not doing practice tests right?

I took the GRE back in 2014 and I used Magoosh. It worked well. I don't believe any of the programs work on a quick basis. You have to practice, practice, practice. Go through Magoosh's review of answers. It helps you understand why certain answers are correct. That is the secret to taking the GRE (or any standardized test) whatever program you use. Keep practicing until you understand how/why. When you understand that, you can answer any question the GRE throws at you. I put in 2-3 hours a day the summer before I took the test. You don't have to be a genius to score really highly. If you want to raise your score by 10 points that's the only way to do it. I wanted to be over 90% and I got it. At that point, if you have the GPA, the WS and SOP need to come into play. Get good recommenders and have them critique your WS/SOP. Edit, edit, edit until you feel you have reached your limit at that particular point in time. There's always better, but sometimes it has to wait until we learn/understand more.

[JohnKim]

Trial Periods or free tests are provided to help us, GRE Takers, assess the practice tests they provide. If it would quite do well with our needs.

I have been using the following because all of them provides some free tests and trial periods:

1) Preped

2) Kaplan

3) Magoosh

4) Princeton

[Travis James]

Magoosh is a good start to prepare for GRE. However, there are newly developed test prep programs now. Everyone should look for something new