GRE Prep - best materials? :)

[personalhelicon]

Hi GCers,

I know 2017 isn't over yet, but I think I know that I'm not getting accepted into programs this year (1r/0w/0a/3TBC). My GRE expires this year and so I need to take it again. Please tell me your best and favorite study resources and guides so I can kick this thing's ass (I'll be studying with a full time job, a broken foot, and a small baby, so I need all the extra help I can get). 

Thanks folks!

Edited February 18, 2017 by personalhelicon
Spelling mistake

[personalhelicon]

I should clarify - I'll be applying to Lit programs! My math skills are abysmal, but I'm led to believe that shouldn't affect me too much. Previous scores were 165/145/5.0, so I'm looking to improve the first and last a little. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

1 minute ago, personalhelicon said:

Previous scores were 165/145/5.0, so I'm looking to improve the first and last a little. 

Really? A 5.0 AW is excellent, and a 165 V is very, very good.

I recognize that you have to retake it because ETS is a horrible, money-grubbing, pointless institution your scores are expiring, but if you can achieve those same figures next time, you should be more than happy.



 

[positivitize]

I spent a week or two playing around with a GRE Vocabulary prep application on my iPhone when I had downtime at my job. I did okay (162) but I don't feel as if the vocabulary app helped much. The Verbal section felt more like a comprehension/speed-reading ability check than a vocabulary check, and I'm not exactly sure what you can do to get better at that, beyond consistently reading, thinking, and writing--especially if you are already familiar with the style of the question.

You can, on the other hand, improve the AWA by studying directly for it. Buy one of the ETS booklets and maybe register for an online class. The AWA, while it's supposed to measure writing ability, looks for a super specific pattern/approach to the essay that is easily replicated if you know the style the computer-graders prefer. I would not call that style "good college writing." If I sound bitter, it's because I went in there thinking I knew how to write and ended up pulling a 4, which of course prompted a month of researching why the AWA was wrong where I went wrong. If I'd had the formula to the AWA from the beginning, I would have done much better. It's worth paying for an online course if you want that 5.5/6; however, lots of departments are realizing that essays scored by computers are not necessarily the best way to determine an applicant's writing ability. It might not be worth it. 

[FeetInTheSky]

I used the 5 pound book and found it pretty helpful. The most important thing is to turn of fun that part of your brain that makes inferences when doing the reading comprehension and vocabulary and think as literally as possible. For the writing, it's best to just be formulaic. Five paragraphs. Three main ideas, one per body paragraph. Intro sentence and transitions. 

Basically I found it best to pretend to have the intellectual skills of an eighth grader with the vocabulary of an adult. I don't know if that advice works for everyone, but I got a good result. 

[yanicus]

The fact that the essay is machine-graded probably means that if you want to improve your essay score, being as formulaic as possible (ignoring all your training in how to actually write well) is probably important. It was definitely a bite-the-bullet thing for me but it seemed to work out okay.

[Musick]

Having achieved a perfect score... I can tell you, don't buy the materials. There are a handful of simple strategies I could fit into one post here that will destroy that test's "challenges".

[fuzzylogician]

53 minutes ago, Musick said:

There are a handful of simple strategies I could fit into one post here that will destroy that test's "challenges".

"I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain."

[Musick]

13 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

"I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain."

Wow. You totally caught the reference. I spent a bit of time trying to think of a clearer way to make the reference but then decided not to bother. But hey Fermat is dead and I'm right here making occasional trouble apparently.

So feel free to ask for my truly remarkable proof if you're looking to dominate the GRE.

[fuzzylogician]

I already got my PhD, thank you very much. And I didn't have a perfect GRE or GPA, but that hardly mattered. And I still try to call bullshit when I see it. 

[Warelin]

11 hours ago, yanicus said:

The fact that the essay is machine-graded probably means that if you want to improve your essay score, being as formulaic as possible (ignoring all your training in how to actually write well) is probably important. It was definitely a bite-the-bullet thing for me but it seemed to work out okay.

If I remember correctly, the essays are graded by machine and by a human grader. The average (rounded up? down?) of the two determines your final score. If there's more than a point difference, another human grader is brought in to determine the score.

[Musick]

10 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

I already got my PhD, thank you very much. And I didn't have a perfect GRE or GPA, but that hardly mattered. And I still try to call bullshit when I see it. 

Bullshit? Why do you think that? And yes funny enough, the particular type of program I'm applying to does not care one bit about GRE, and as long as GPA isn't particularly atrocious it doesn't matter either. That said, you know what they say about guys with big GRE scores. Big...

Edited February 19, 2017 by Musick

[personalhelicon]

18 hours ago, Wyatt's Terps said:

Really? A 5.0 AW is excellent, and a 165 V is very, very good.

I recognize that you have to retake it because ETS is a horrible, money-grubbing, pointless institution your scores are expiring, but if you can achieve those same figures next time, you should be more than happy.



 

Thank you!! I guess I'm just trying to improve my application in any way possible. It's hard to know what a successful application takes at this point!

Edited February 19, 2017 by personalhelicon
Sp.

[cypressknee]

I took the GRE for the first time three years ago when I was applying to MA programs without studying and did pretty poorly (I think it was something like 153V/141Q/3.5W). I'm not a very good test taker and tests in general are very anxiety provoking for me. 

I took the GRE again in November when I was applying to PhD programs and studied for about three weeks, and intensely for two. I focused only on the Verbal section because my advisor told me that humanities programs don't take math scores into account (which may or may not be true, but it justified my reasons not to spend time or energy relearning math). For the Quant section, I literally chose 'B' for all the answers unless by some miracle I remembered how to solve the problem, and for all the fill-in-the-blanks, I put "0" (because at least of the answers is bound to be zero, right?!?). Disclaimer: You should probably not do that on the Math section, but I really hate math and haven't taken a math class in almost 10 years.

Anyway, I ended up with a 162V/145Q/4.5W and I got into a top 20 program. Because I didn't have money to spend on test prep materials, I read ETS's prep guide and became really familiar with both the types of questions and the different types of answers. I took practice sections on GRE Prep and GRE Prep Club. Magoosh (which is a paid service) has some free guides and vocabulary lists that were pretty useful. I also found the /r/GREhelp subreddit to be useful. I studied for about an hour a day for two weeks, taking a couple of practice tests a day. And finally, in the week before the test, I took the two practice tests on ETS's heinously outdated software, POWERPREP II, which requires you to install Java. The ETS practice tests look pretty much identical to the real thing, and I found that the practice tests were more difficult than the actual test. 

I hope that's helpful! 

[TK2]

ETS's free stuff is pretty good for the AWA, from my experience - they put up literally all the possible prompts for both essays, so if you're mad enough, you could go through all of them. (I would try to choose one at random and write an essay-a-day for the few weeks before the test, and even did it a couple of times.) My recommendation is to study closely the ETS's guide and examples to what makes a good or a bad essay, practice writing a lot - focusing on getting a high wordcount and working out techniques for arguments that you can use for a lot of different prompts.

Overall, I think you do need a little bit of creative thinking and being able to imagine the situation they present and come up with some stuff to say about it. I got a 5.5 (and slightly mourn the 6 because I know exactly why I flubbed it) at least in part because I got lucky and had both topics actually be sort of relevant to my studies - so I had lots and lots to draw from, not to construct some rigorous academic argument, but just the ability to keep rambling on the topic and coming up with more and more angles and references.

And, and maybe I'm trying to be a good commie here - grade other essays, its more helpful that asking for yours to be graded. This forum (or any number of others) host reams of people begging for someone to look over their essay. Do it! Nothing like breaking down someone elses work and seeing exactly what mistakes and problems it has to make the same issues jump out in yours - at least, it helped me.

[yanicus]

3 hours ago, Warelin said:

If I remember correctly, the essays are graded by machine and by a human grader. The average (rounded up? down?) of the two determines your final score. If there's more than a point difference, another human grader is brought in to determine the score.

Oh actually you're right. I misremembered; apologies to OP for being somewhat misleading. 

[Yanaka]

6 hours ago, cypressknee said:

For the Quant section, I literally chose 'B' for all the answers unless by some miracle I remembered how to solve the problem, and for all the fill-in-the-blanks, I put "0" (because at least of the answers is bound to be zero, right?!?). Disclaimer: You should probably not do that on the Math section, but I really hate math and haven't taken a math class in almost 10 years.

I did EXACTLY the same for math, tried to solve some stuff but otherwise went with my "gut"   Scored 139, though... hahaha

[jeanetics17]

One thing that helped me was doing as many full length practice exams as I could. This helped me work on focus, time management, strategy, and approach which are important factors not often stressed. You need a game plan in addition to knowledge to be an effective GRE taker. 

The GRE website has practice exams that you can download and use to simulate testing conditions and the computer based test. I found that the score I got from the simulator was scarily accurate for the real test. 

[cypressknee]

4 hours ago, Yanaka said:

I did EXACTLY the same for math, tried to solve some stuff but otherwise went with my "gut"   Scored 139, though... hahaha

When I saw my score I literally had no idea how I scored so high. I think I went through the Quant sections in like 20 minutes apiece. 

[la_mod]

I spent all my time studying for the Lit Subject test (and still did terrible), so I only really crammed for the GRE Gen the week before. All I'd recommend is vocab. The rest is mostly English-related anyway (like identifying theme and stuff), but the vocab was really the bulk of my test. If you're worried about math like I was, I'd suggest doing a prep book. I ended up with 167V/160Q/4.5W and was shocked! All in the vocab