Older/Non-traditional students

[ashny]

Are there any older students out there who have taken the GRE exam and what was your experience in learning the math part?

I understand that GRE math is based on Grade 7-12? high school maths and being out of school for a long time would mean that we would have forgotten most of the maths.

As a 43 year old who went to high school in another country I have never even heard of some of the concepts (like absolute values for example) and am now studying it for the first time.

I had a 'breakdown' this weekend as I was studying from Magoosh and could not even get a single answer right in the quiz/test section. I have read statistics that only 3% of people over 40 take the GRE exam.

If you were an 'older' student when you took the GRE, did you find it difficult,? Do you think the test is learnable? 

I have always been a very bright student who has scored top marks in my academic career, but the GRE maths is making me lose my confidence.

[avflinsch]

I doubt that it is 3% of people over 40 take the GRE exam, but rather 3% of the people who take the GRE exam are over 40.

Anyway, I was one of that 3% - I took the GRE a few weeks before my 52nd birthday. I probably could have scored better if I had actually spent more ime reviewing for the exam, but I did well enough on the verbal and quant sections to get into a master's program, and the scores were high enough that I did not retake the exam before applying to a PhD program.

What I did notice was that the exam seemed to zero in on what my weaknesses were in mathematics, so my advice would be to concentrate on what your weak areas are before taking the exam.

 

[koab79]

I am not as old as you guys but I am sure I am 1 std over the mean test taker. I think the kicker will be the processes speed required to do well. I think you are on the right track with magoosh. It is really effective, I would listen to videos to and from work and get refreshed on material I long since forgotten. If you just do the custom practice for time every night you should be good. The best feature is to have them shoot back questions you got wrong.

I would do few sets over the course of a week, watch the explanations then take another mock section with just the ones i got wrong. A few cycles of this will improve your confidence. The key is building that speed and eliminating the careless errors. 

Also don't worry about the score predictor, I out performed the two times I took the test.  

[stereopticons]

I'm 28 and hadn't taken a math class in over a decade when I took the GRE. I had a little trouble relearning/remembering some concepts (combinations and permutations would. Not. Stick.) but did well. Magoosh is helpful. I used Kaplan. The strategies vary. Kaplan teaches how to take the test while Magoosh tends to teach the actual math, so you might try both. 

Also agree with not paying attention to the score predictor. I way outperformed it. 

[meggied]

I used Magoosh and found it extremely helpful. I took notes while watching the videos and then answered the end of section questions. Before the exam I did timed practice tests and found them extremely helpful. I agree with stereopticons though, the score predictor definitely was low. I think the most beneficial aspect of Magoosh is the level of difficulty of the problems. When I was actually taking the exam I was shocked at how easy it was. I finished all the math sections with plenty of time and ended up getting a 170 on the quantitative section. 

[Gadgette]

The thing that frustrated me with the math on the GRE was that it seemed to be more needing to learn tricks to getting the right answer than it did learning the math. I used Kaplan and ended up yelling at my book more than a few times.

[catling]

Non-trad here (30). I just took the test this month and I was amazed that I did better than all of my practice tests. Magoosh videos definitely helped me because for some concepts I basically had to start from 0. Magoosh practice problems made me feel terrible tbh and seem much harder than the actual test, so don't freak out if you're not getting them all. I think the best practice for me was the official ETS quantitative book, because it breaks down the kind of 'test logic' the ETS wants. I also bought one of the manhatten books (word problems) because that seemed like my weakest area. It had some pretty different strategies than Magoosh and I think that was helpful for me.

ALSO... make sure you bring some kind of sugary snack for the break. I could just feel my energy sapping just when the problems started getting hard.