Major GRE anxiety

[hmbanana93]

Hi everyone, 

I'm writing to vent/ possibly get advice on the GRE because I'm SO nervous about it. I'll be taking it at the end of September. 

I've been trying to study as much as possible on/ off for the past couple of months, but I just feel like my scores aren't improving on my practice tests and I don't know what to do about it (I'm scoring low 150s for verbal and haven't broken 150 yet for math. I just want to get the minimum of 150 per section!). I'm currently signed up for the 6mo Magoosh class, and I've been plugging away at the lesson videos but there's just so much material!

I spend about 15 hours a week studying, but I work full-time as a research assistant (so I usually work a bit of unpaid overtime as well), so it's absolutely exhausting to try to do more. 

I guess I'm just feeling burnt out/ overly frustrated with this. Every time I think of exam day I want to cry/panic/throw up haha. Is anyone going through something similar? 

If anyone has advice/ tips/ words of encouragement it would be great!! 

[jaaaayciee]

So, I went to the bookstore and I bought two books (both books were created by Kaplan) that purely focused on the Math GRE and the Verbal GRE. I thought this was a little bit more helpful because I got two larger books that fully dedicate themselves to the sections compared to the huge, all-in-one book that I figured would have less information to squeeze in all sections. Because Kaplan is a lot more challenging, it will definitely help for the math portion -- I noticed that while the math portion on the GRE was challenging (for me, at least) a lot of the material on there was stuff I have already seen because of the Kaplan book.

The Kaplan Verbal GRE book also has a HUUUUUGE list of vocabulary words that may or may not come up on the test. Verbal was my worst subject, but I know that the Kaplan book really helped me.

At the same time, I think you should download the Magoosh vocabulary app. I would study it before going to bed and kinda quiz myself. These words are very difficult, do not underestimate them. Using the Magoosh app, the online class that you say you're enrolled in, and the Kaplan books are a good mix, I think. 

Either way, I think you will do fine. Have a goal, and work towards it. And if you don't reach that goal, it's alright, it will not be the end of the world. The GRE is extremely expensive, but you can always retake it. Even though it's really difficult, try and keep you head up. You got this! Stay dedicated and you will be perfectly fine! 

[RRosy]

I had plateaued for awhile with my GRE scores but I just kept doing questions instead of focusing so much on the material. If I got a question wrong I would go back and review that material. Eventually I broke through and started getting Higher scores. Also test taking skills matter! Like eliminating answers and rounding up etc. 

[snoves]

I just took the GRE last week and I found that the most helpful things for me was using practice problems and flash cards! That way I was both familiar with what kinds of questions would be on the test and could actually apply the concepts. I'm very much a person who "learns by doing", so practice problems helped me a lot. I also used a lot of flash cards to learn vocabulary (which was my biggest challenge, especially sentence equivalence problems).

I will say that my scores stayed the same from the beginning of my first month of studying until the end of that month, then greatly improved between the end of the first month until I took the test. I think my scores were like 155V 147Q for my first practice test, and my unofficial scores for the GRE were 164V 154Q from my test last week. I studied about 1-3 hours every day (with days where I didn't study since I was sometimes working 11 hour days!), with more of a focus on the quantitative sections since I'm kind of meh at math. Good luck on your test!

[pbandj]

I agree with everyone's suggestion to drill through practice questions, especially questions you're having trouble with. Magoosh is pretty great at pinpointing questions you should focus on. Magoosh predicted my range of scores to be about 153-160 for either section. Like many posters here, I was also doing worse in math. I ended up getting 163 in both sections. In my experience, Magoosh's quantitative section is harder than the actual GRE test. It may be frustrating now, but keep at it and the GRE may actually be so easy in comparison! 

Hang in there and remember the bigger picture when you start to feel dejected - grad school then being an SLP! The GRE is just one little part of that process. You will get through this before you know it. Good luck!