Warning for GRE Prep & prep. material suggestion required!

[Makhdumi]

Hey!

I dun know if this has happened with anybody else or not. I registered for my GRE at the last moment just to be in time for admissions. Took it a lill while ago today. Studied over last week through BARRONS GRE prep. book. And knew every word of its quant section.

I thought i wud take the practice ETS tests a day before the test adn das wat i did. To my surprise, not only questions format was some what different from BARRONS book, but there were lot more topics covered in ETS tests. Worked over night to cover the gap...but cud only muster 740 Q.

SO DO NOT DEPEND SOLELY ON BARRONS. ALso, does any body know about the prep. books that may target exactly wats covered in the GRE now-a-days? I think i ll retake it for an ace.

[jacib]

Hey!

I dun know if this has happened with anybody else or not. I registered for my GRE at the last moment just to be in time for admissions. Took it a lill while ago today. Studied over last week through BARRONS GRE prep. book. And knew every word of its quant section.

I thought i wud take the practice ETS tests a day before the test adn das wat i did. To my surprise, not only questions format was some what different from BARRONS book, but there were lot more topics covered in ETS tests. Worked over night to cover the gap...but cud only muster 740 Q.

SO DO NOT DEPEND SOLELY ON BARRONS. ALso, does any body know about the prep. books that may target exactly wats covered in the GRE now-a-days? I think i ll retake it for an ace.

Barron's has by far the most in depth verbal section, I only really glanced at the math part. However, I took the official ETS PowerPrep exams and the two on the Barron's CD and cannot recall anything on my real GRE that was not on those two. I think there was like only one standard deviation question, a topic that wasn't covered by Barrons, but it was ridiculously easy and basically all that it demanded was to know the most basic concept of standard deviation (to lower it, choose something in the middle, to raise it choose something that's an outlier). Overall I felt sufficiently prepared by those two things. What did you feel wasn't covered? Some questions I didn't like (I feel the chart questions are particularly stupid) but I felt like everything I'd seen before.

[genotype]

Hey!

I dun know if this has happened with anybody else or not. I registered for my GRE at the last moment just to be in time for admissions. Took it a lill while ago today. Studied over last week through BARRONS GRE prep. book. And knew every word of its quant section.

I thought i wud take the practice ETS tests a day before the test adn das wat i did. To my surprise, not only questions format was some what different from BARRONS book, but there were lot more topics covered in ETS tests. Worked over night to cover the gap...but cud only muster 740 Q.

SO DO NOT DEPEND SOLELY ON BARRONS. ALso, does any body know about the prep. books that may target exactly wats covered in the GRE now-a-days? I think i ll retake it for an ace.

I had a really good experience with the REA books for both the general and subject tests. I was becoming frustrated while I was preparing, because the material did have a number of spelling errors, and the practice exams were giving me lower scores than I would have liked. I ended up doing much better on the actual test, though, and I believe that the REA materials are actually more challenging than what you'll see on the exam. I would rather overprepare and be pleasantly surprised than the other way around.

Also, FYI I have been told by a professor with a lot of experience that adcoms will look to make sure your quant score is in the 700's, but beyond that it doesn't really matter. He said that many students get 800's, but that doesn't necessarily imply that they will be more successful in grad school. I think you may be better off with a decent verbal score and a somewhat lower quant, than a low verbal and perfect quant. And this info came from someone in the sciences.