Nucs2PA Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I am planning to take the GRE this summer. I don't have months to study because I'm taking science prerequisites, along with working, having a family, etc. I will probably have a few weeks to focus on it. I want to make the best use of the study time that I have. Any advice or suggestions to prepare for the exam would be greatly appreciated!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NathanLe Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Grab a $30 Kaplan or ETS study guide from a bookstore. Focus on your weak areas but at least check out each section. I'm typically a strong writer, but I did poorly on the analytical writing portion because I spent almost no time preparing to write GRE style. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pct2010 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NathanLe Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Always trust someone who says you'll ace the exam. They're guaranteed to be right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbrandenstein Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Lol @NathanLe. Taking your approach, I'm assuming that your really good at one of the components (math or verbal). I took the old style GRE and will have to retake since my score is from 2008. I was already decent at math, but many of the study words were only "vaguely familiar". I got a 1170 (about a 153 avg) the first time and a 1350 the second (around 160 M/V). I would buy at least one book based on amazon reviews, and some verbal flashcards. I think a few weeks is pushing it... I think a better approach would be to studying 10min per day in both math and verbal starting NOW. It's a better method than trying to cram all those 10min chunks into a few weeks. Unless you are really good at both math and verbal already, in which case you might not need to study at all :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucs2PA Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 I purchased the Manhattan Prep book set about a year ago. It is a lot though and I know I won't be able to get through all of it in a few weeks. I started with the math, thinking that would be my weaker area. I haven't had time to touch these books in months. But, I've been doing a lot of math in my Chemistry courses, so I am probably going to focus more on the writing. I will have some days that I can devote most of the day to preparing for it. I will also be sure to take practice exams. I guess I'm just anxious because I will be able to study for the GRE for about 3 weeks and not 3-6 months! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjm7 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I found the Princeton Review book (the single review book) to be HUGELY helpful a few years ago. Their math review was succinct and useful, and their vocabulary "hit list" is really nice (you really need to know the vocabulary--plain memorization). They also were good at helping with strategy (which was surprisingly important when I took the test 3 years ago or so). In summary: know the vocabulary, shore up any weaknesses in the math, learn the strategy, and take a practice test or two. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucs2PA Posted February 4, 2014 Author Share Posted February 4, 2014 Thanks for the advice! I greatly appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taotaox1 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Spend the majority of your time studying the math, as the majority of it is "tricks" to complete the problems. Doing more than just learning some vocab and getting familiar with he verbal problem style is a waste of time. There is a reason the GRE verbal score can be correlated roughly with IQ, it cannot be raised significantly with study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fakingpatience Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I purchased the Manhattan Prep book set about a year ago. It is a lot though and I know I won't be able to get through all of it in a few weeks. I started with the math, thinking that would be my weaker area. I haven't had time to touch these books in months. But, I've been doing a lot of math in my Chemistry courses, so I am probably going to focus more on the writing. I will have some days that I can devote most of the day to preparing for it. I will also be sure to take practice exams. I guess I'm just anxious because I will be able to study for the GRE for about 3 weeks and not 3-6 months! I took the GRE without studying at all (wanted to see how I would do, since I couldn't focus on studying). The verbal section I didn't think was too bad, and honestly I think it would be hard to study for; theres no way to know all the words they could possibly use. I did poorly on the math section, I kept hoping it was done when the test would switch to verbal questions, then it'd go back to math! (I didn't look at the format of the test either...). I felt like there were a lot of geometry questions on there, brush up on area formulas of different shapes, also some trig. For what it's worth I got Q149, V158 W4.0, haven't taken it again yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pct2010 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Always trust someone who says you'll ace the exam. They're guaranteed to be right. Why the sarcasm? My advice was sincere and relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDrunner11 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Take practice tests! The scores you get on those will be a good prediction of your real scores. I used the GRE Kaplan prep guide and it comes with about 3 practice tests. Groupon sometimes has cheaper practice tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NathanLe Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Why the sarcasm? My advice was sincere and relevant. pct2010 - I apologize for my snarky comment. Your intentions were good. One of the best pieces of advice I have received is that it is better to under promise and over deliver. Just food for thought. Again, apologies for the unnecessary sarcasm. Now back to the OP's inquiry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferraro Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I was in a similar situation as you - working 60 hours a hours a week made it difficult to find adequate time to study. I would suggest focusing on your weaknesses. For me it had been a long time since I had taken basic math classes so that was my focus. I completed the entire ETS book and used magoosh for the extra math help. I also went over the most common vocab words (I believe the book was by Barrons). This prepared me enough to do fairly well on the exam, but of course more time would have been ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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