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GRE in one month?


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Hi all.

 

So I'm planning to take the GRE in November, or maybe beginning of December. Is it possible to prepare for it in one month, for those of you familiar with it?? I know that there are many resources to help prepare for it, but concerned that one month might not be enough time?

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You can take it w/o preparing ... but it could take at month or more for it to be graded/delivered. You should check into that on the GRI site. I recall taking mine (did not study at all) on October 1 and it arrived in early November. I recall the site saying not to expect scoring to happen in the same month that your testing occurred (this could have changed since the exam has changed this last August.)

 

I had completed my undergrad studies 7-8 years prior to taking the GRE... I wouldn't stress too much about studing if you're in a time crunch. You'll be fine. Now, if you have time go ahead and study... it can never hurt.

 

JD

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You can take it w/o preparing ... but it could take at month or more for it to be graded/delivered. You should check into that on the GRI site. I recall taking mine (did not study at all) on October 1 and it arrived in early November. I recall the site saying not to expect scoring to happen in the same month that your testing occurred (this could have changed since the exam has changed this last August.)

 

I had completed my undergrad studies 7-8 years prior to taking the GRE... I wouldn't stress too much about studing if you're in a time crunch. You'll be fine. Now, if you have time go ahead and study... it can never hurt.

 

JD

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Contrary to the previous post, I would study until you are capable of performing well on practice exams... especially in the math department as it is easy to improve on. I've been pretty good with math my whole life, yet was able to improve my score by a few hundred points using a bit of practice. I found the vocabulary impossible to improve upon, even after memorizing 500 GRE flashcards, but I did improve my ability at using the process of elimination. At any rate, a month may be a good amount of time to practice, assuming you invest several hours a week, IMO.

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Contrary to the previous post, I would study until you are capable of performing well on practice exams... especially in the math department as it is easy to improve on. I've been pretty good with math my whole life, yet was able to improve my score by a few hundred points using a bit of practice. I found the vocabulary impossible to improve upon, even after memorizing 500 GRE flashcards, but I did improve my ability at using the process of elimination. At any rate, a month may be a good amount of time to practice, assuming you invest several hours a week, IMO.

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Thanks for the insight. Now I did find a lot of study guides/CD's/Books that help prepare for the GRE. I don't really know which ones I need. I'm overwhelmed by the amount that is available for practice!

 

I took the old version. I used a Princeton Review book and studied for three weeks. I was happy with my score. I'm not too familiar with the new version, but on the old version you could quickly improve your math score. The verbal was heavily based on your existing vocabulary, so it would take more time to improve your score on that section.

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Thanks for the insight. Now I did find a lot of study guides/CD's/Books that help prepare for the GRE. I don't really know which ones I need. I'm overwhelmed by the amount that is available for practice!

 

I took the old version. I used a Princeton Review book and studied for three weeks. I was happy with my score. I'm not too familiar with the new version, but on the old version you could quickly improve your math score. The verbal was heavily based on your existing vocabulary, so it would take more time to improve your score on that section.

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Cracking the GRE and Barron's(mostly for quant), Nova math if you want a tonnnnnnnn of practice problems, vocab flashcards, and practice exams are the key imo. If I were you, I would do a quick run through of a study guide now as a refresher. Don't spend a lot of time on it; you will just be putting the concepts fresh in your mind. Then you should download the gre practice test software from ETS and take one. Use that score and compare it to what your goal is and decide on a study plan from there, i.e. you will need more time if you want to go from 900 to 1200 than 1100 to 1200. It is much harder to raise a vocab score than a quant score so also take that into consideration.

 

Of course the strategy may be different now with the new GRE. Maybe someone who has taken it will chime in.

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Cracking the GRE and Barron's(mostly for quant), Nova math if you want a tonnnnnnnn of practice problems, vocab flashcards, and practice exams are the key imo. If I were you, I would do a quick run through of a study guide now as a refresher. Don't spend a lot of time on it; you will just be putting the concepts fresh in your mind. Then you should download the gre practice test software from ETS and take one. Use that score and compare it to what your goal is and decide on a study plan from there, i.e. you will need more time if you want to go from 900 to 1200 than 1100 to 1200. It is much harder to raise a vocab score than a quant score so also take that into consideration.

 

Of course the strategy may be different now with the new GRE. Maybe someone who has taken it will chime in.

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Thanks guys! I already went through some sample questions from ETS and I honestly don't remember how to do most of those quant. questions even though I was so good at math! the vocab was just a disaster! I'm getting the Kaplan for the new GRE from someone and I hope it helps with this tight prep time!

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Thanks guys! I already went through some sample questions from ETS and I honestly don't remember how to do most of those quant. questions even though I was so good at math! the vocab was just a disaster! I'm getting the Kaplan for the new GRE from someone and I hope it helps with this tight prep time!

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I studied for one solid week prior to taking the GRE. I purchased the Kaplan GRE book with DVD which had mock exams. For 7 straight days I sat for about 8-12 hours and read through the whole book at least once, wrote out essays based off the practice prompts the book supplied and focused a lot on the math section (which I agree is the easiest to comprehend and improve on in a short amount of time). I think the most helpful resource I had was the DVD, which essentially had somewhere around 10 full length practice exams. I kept track of my scores and when I eventually had an average that I was happy with I took the exam.

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I studied for one solid week prior to taking the GRE. I purchased the Kaplan GRE book with DVD which had mock exams. For 7 straight days I sat for about 8-12 hours and read through the whole book at least once, wrote out essays based off the practice prompts the book supplied and focused a lot on the math section (which I agree is the easiest to comprehend and improve on in a short amount of time). I think the most helpful resource I had was the DVD, which essentially had somewhere around 10 full length practice exams. I kept track of my scores and when I eventually had an average that I was happy with I took the exam.

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I would say it really depends on your base score. I took the GRE 6 years ago for my first graduate degree and retook it this summer for applications. I easily had over 1000 with my first practice test but wanted to give myself the best chance possible at getting into school on my first try. I used the Kaplan online classroom option (all pre-recorded lectures) and studied for three weeks. It was good practice and helped me get a good solid score. I would study for at least a few weeks depending on how your first practice test goes.

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Personally, I spent about three months about 3 days a week hitting the books. My advice, hit the quantitate stuff HARD, as it is the easiest way to increase your score, unless that's changed with the new exam (took mine the last date in July before they changed the exam). As for the vocabulary.....yeah....about that. Anyone ever use the word corybantic? ha

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