A bit of context for you: I am applying to Masters in Economics programs for the Fall of 2011. These programs all pay close attention to applicants' quantitative scores on the GRE. It is not to say that verbal scores don't matter, but someone with high quantitative and low verbal scores is typically judged as a better candidate than someone with high verbal scores and low quantitative scores. Once I found this out by researching the admissions process for various programs, I decided that I would allocate the majority of my preparation time to the quantitative section given its greater importance.
Here are some tips from my GRE Experience:
- Find out admissions info about the programs you are interested in: Ask about average GRE scores for current students to get a feel for what you need to shoot for on each section.
- Set goals for yourself: Like any good goal, it needs to be measurable. "I want to do well on verbal and average on quantitative" is not a good goal. What does that mean? Personally, I told myself I wanted at least a 750 quantitative score and 600 verbal score. What happened... I received an 800 quantitative and 600 verbal (gotta love instant computer grading)
- Register for the GRE: There is nothing that compares with putting your money on the line. I found that once I registered (about 4 weeks ahead of time) I was more committed to studying. It also helped to have a specific date on the calendar for "backwards planning".
- Take a diagnostic test: I found this to be extremely useful. I took a diagnostic about 3 weeks into studying. In retrospect, I wish I had taken one during the first week to give me a better idea of what I needed to review and focus on. Kaplan had a great online diagnostic that broke your score down into different categories. I found out that I was terrible at analogies and antonyms, but pretty good at sentence completion and reading comprehension.
- Make a plan: Given your test date and your diagnostic results, create a study plan that takes the rest of your life into account. I would suggest ramping up the number of study hours for the two weeks before the test.
- Use your time wisely and according to your goals: Spend your time where it will benefit you most. I spent roughly 75% of my time studying for the quantitative section since it is what will make me a better candidate for the programs that I am interested in. I struggled with this at times because I knew I could do better in verbal if I spent more time studying for it. In the end, I reminded myself of my goals and realized too much time spent on verbal would mean too little time spent on quantitative. It is not easy to find the right balance, but you have to trust your intuition.
- Utilize extra "unplanned" blocks of time: In addition to planned study time, I discovered that when I found myself with an extra 20 or 30 minutes, I was able to get some great studying in. Make sure you have those GRE books ready though. For me, this meant keeping my books in my car whenever I left home.
- Pace Yourself: Do not wait until 2 weeks before the test date to begin preparing. Give yourself at least a month, if not more.
- Practice, Practice, Practice: I studied somewhere between 40 and 50 hours for the GRE. This means learning about the format of the test, reviewing important concepts, making flashcards, working practice sets, and taking practice tests. When all was said and done, I worked out about 500 quantitative questions between practice sets and practice tests
Here are some of my favorite GRE Resources
My Local Library
- Check with your local library catalog for GRE resources! I was able to check out a two GRE prep books, both of which came with online resources. The total cost of my test prep (other than time) was $15 on a math book and about $2 on note cards.
- I found this book very helpful in understanding what the GRE was all about and preparing for the verbal and quantitative sections of the test. There were practice sets, full-length normed practice tests, online tests with analysis of your results, and much more.
- I especially like the 100 most important quantitative concepts in the back of the book. They were grouped in three tiers of difficulty: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. I used this as a checklist to find topics that I needed to review in detail.
- If you don't want to buy this book and cannot find it at your local library, you can find the list of 100 most important math concepts right here. Just scroll to the end of the book on Amazon! Kaplan has made these pages available for free via the "Look Inside" feature.
Kaplan GRE Exam Advanced Math: Your Only Guide to an 800
- Unless you have been using math on a daily basis, I suggest you start with the general test prep books first, then use this book as a supplement to practice the higher level questions that you might encounter. If your goal is to score in the 700-800 range on the quantitative section, then I think this book will be worth your time.
- The one unfortunate downside to this book was that there were a handful of errors in the answer keys to each section. When I read through the explanations for questions that I had "missed" it turned out that on some of them I had the correct answer all along. The only thing I could come up with was that this book had to be rushed to the printing press and there wasn't enough time to have a few eager math folks test drive it first.
- This was my least favorite book of the three that I used. It has comparable aspects to the Kaplan GRE book, however, for whatever reason I found it not to be user friendly. I think a large part of it was due to the layout. For me, this was the second place comprehensive GRE book.
- I did like the online features of that came with the book. I was able to take to CAT (computer adaptive tests) online that gave me normed scores for the quantitative and verbal sections. Also, you have the option to pay extra if you want your writing sections to be scored. I thought this was a nice touch.
- I skimmed this PDF before I gathered all of my test prep books. It is fairly lengthy for a PDF (69 pages), but it has some decent practice sets and offers a detailed review of topics that you need to know.
- Although not the most aesthetically pleasing website, this math-lab is a great place to go for online tutorials centered around certain math topics. After taking a few practice tests, I realized that permutations and combinations were not my strength. After working through the tutorials on these topics, I had a better understanding and was ready to take on these problems with more confidence.
