RE-RE- taking the GRE?

[LTee]

For those of you who have taken it multiple times, is it possible to drastically increase your score by say 100 points ( in each section?) Basically, I took it for the first time with little to no prep, did HORRENDOUS, so I studied, or what I thought was studying, for it over the entire summer, and got basically the same score. It was pretty heart breaking, granted Im clearly not good at the test, and maybe need a new method of studying ( I used the Princeton Review Book). But statistically will I probably just score around the same if I take again, or is it possible to greatly improve my score?? Any advice?

[captiv8ed]

I raised my score by 180 points and a month of studying. It was all 180 on one section. I didn't study V at all because Q was where I needed the most help.

I used the GRE math bible and felt so much more confident on so many of the concepts. But at the same time, I think it was luck of the draw because the second round seemed just as harder or even harder, even though I had studied. So many of the questions (even early on) had me blind guessing. Even though I had learned so much, ETS still found a way to quiz me on the stuff I hadn't gotten down.

[ristastic]

I raised both of my scores by over 100 points by dedicating months to studying. I used Princeton Review and the Kaplan workbooks. I found that just drilling practice sets was the best thing for me, but I also think I got a little lucky on the Q section the last time around, I got a ton of geometry questions, which just happen to be my one and only math strength.

[mastermind1886]

I took a pre-test cold (no prep, nothing) and, by the time the official thing rolled around, scored about 200 points higher. Drill the vocab (as much as it sucks, those words do show up) and practice doing the math efficiently but diligently. Stupid mistakes can drive down your score hard even if you do know the material... that was happening to me in every practice test, even though they seemed easy, before I finally made myself focus hardcore.

[jacib]

For those of you who have taken it multiple times, is it possible to drastically increase your score by say 100 points ( in each section?) Basically, I took it for the first time with little to no prep, did HORRENDOUS, so I studied, or what I thought was studying, for it over the entire summer, and got basically the same score. It was pretty heart breaking, granted Im clearly not good at the test, and maybe need a new method of studying ( I used the Princeton Review Book). But statistically will I probably just score around the same if I take again, or is it possible to greatly improve my score?? Any advice?

I posted this somewhere else but for the vocab, learn it. I wrote this in another thread, but I'll repost it here:

"Don't remember what supercilious means, remember that supercilious means vainglorious means cavalier means haughty means insolent. There are shades of difference between all of them, but that doesn't matter. Remember that they all mean 'bold (-)/ arrogant' and that 'meek/humble' group is probably going to be their opposite. I have my students, especially the female ones, cut up the different sections of the list and put them around their room so they can passively study while they're looking in the mirror, picking out an outfit etc. and associate all the words on the list together and with a specific place. With some time and a thesaurus you can probably make your own lists like that. That's the best way to learn words fast. If you have more time, (like a year), check out the damn near comprehensive barron's list. Barron's is also really good because it give you all the possible relationships in the analogies section."

For further things, laconic, pithy, terse, and concise are all used quite differently BUT they all carry a sense of shortness that should be contrasted with loquacious, garrulous, and verbose.

As for the math, learn how to do the easier problems FAST, the little tricks, and that way you can spend more time on the long problems. Also, answer every question so work on pacing. If you think a question is going to take you more than two minutes to do, make an educated guess and move on. Your time could be used better elsewhere.

Lastly, I got (from a friend) that book of old GRE questions from the paper based test. They were really useful because it taught me more about time than anything else. I really learned where I should guess and move on in math and where I should guess the unknown word in verbal.