How to prep for the GRE

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m an olderish (27-year-old) college senior who is planning to take the GRE in a few months. I’ve been wondering how best way to prepare for the exam. Should I take a prep course or just go at it alone with the book?

It is important to me to get a good score, but I don’t have loads of money to drop on classes if I can achieve the same result by working diligently on my own. So, what say you Dopers, am I going to learn kick-ass strategies to attack the GRE by attending a course, or is the book enough?

Any recommendations of specific courses and books (Kaplan, Princeton, etc.) are welcomed.

2

I think it’s really, really dependent on how you personally feel about it. I picked up a Kaplan book, looked through it, did a few practice tests just to get the feel of what I would be asked, and I did very well on the GRE. I took it at 28 after having been out of college for 7 years.

In my opinion, the Kaplan books are very good at telling you how the test works, what strategies you will need for the Computer Adaptive Test, and giving you similar questions to what you will actually see. My wife also did well on the GRE after studying a Kaplan book, and she is a self-proclaimed “terrible standardized test taker.”

My only regret is that I should have practiced the writing sections more. I never forced myself to do a timed writing exercise on a random and uninteresting topic, and when it came time to do so during the test, I though way too much and had too hard of a time writing.

3

I liked Barron’s book because the practice tests they gave were slightly harder than the real GRE, so it helped me with motivation to study. When you register, you’ll be given a link to download ETS’s software; do so, as it’s as close as you can get to the real thing without having your score recorded. For the writing section, it’s not about how well you can write so much as how well you can write in the format they’re looking for, so brush up on that.

4

The first time I took it, I prepped with a Kaplan book on my own. Did well on writing and verbal, my math was BAD. Took a course with Kaplan the second time around, went up a hundred points in the math

5

I last took it in early 2005 or late 2004, so my information may be taken with a grain of salt. I also took it 1997 and 1981. (In 1997 I decided not to go back to school).

One thing I noticed about all three times was that the math skews much easier than the verbal does. This is to say that a given numerical score will demark a lower percentile on the quantitative section than it does on the verbal. The math is mostly on a high school level, in my experience not having included anything beyond first-year geometry. Second year algebra, trig, and calculus were not included. Undoubtedly they design the test this way because a great many college juniors and seniors never go beyond first year geometry, and while they may have calculus of a sort in freshman college, as taught to them it is likely to be unrigorous. We’ve had one or two threads that bear this out; I know one person said she got an 800 (perfect score) on the quantitative section–but so did a few others. This would be next to impossible on the verbal section. I believe the math section attempts to guage your ability to reason quantitatively, e.g. how to set up a story problem, but the actual calculations involved turn out to be simple. I’m a notorious math-phobe, but was able to bump up my score greatly just by practicing simultaneous equations in two variables from an old algebra book.

To do really well in the verbal, on the other hand, you need to be a real wordwonk, or get yourself able to imitate one fast. Best strategy is to have a variety of interests in arcane subjects, and read, read, read. It’s helpful to know something of Latin, even if only by way of knowing some modern Romance language, because so many of the words in the test are based on Latinate roots. We are ordinarily ignorant of Latin grammar and roots, but most of the words you will see on the test can be broken down into a root and various affixes.

I think the science and engineering people get their revenge on the subject GREs that most of the better schools require of students wishing to study those subjects at the graduate level.

6

I did fine with just the books, if you go that route my advice would be to order 2 or 3 from Amazon, the user ratings there seem to be helpful and up to date. I say 2 or 3 because IMHO much of this is just practice, the more practice tests you have the better. Set up a schedule and work through it. I found the cd-rom with the Kaplan book to be surprisingly helpful, I think because it forces you to work thru the questions linearly, rather than jump around like you could with a paper test.

7

I just used a couple of the books myself. I don’t recall if I used Kaplan or Barron’s or what. I did the practice tests and exercises. Worked lots of math problems.

But what I also did was make notecards. Hundreds and hundreds. Vocabulary and root words. Took them around with me for months, whipping them out at any chance to review.

When I took the test I was so pleased that there were quite a few questions that pulled right off the notecards I made.

I scored very well. Certainly better than had I not gone through the books and used my notecards. I can’t imagine that a $1000 course would have been able to improve my score any.

8

I took it in 1995 at age 29 when I decided to go back for my Masters. I just went to the public library and borrowed the most recent ETS books that had actual tests in the back. Spent a weekend or two going through all the sample tests. I kicked ass. So paying through the nose for a course would have been a waste of money in my case. Now, this was before they added the essay portion when it was purely multiple choice, so YMMV.

9

For the math, verbal and analytical, I got a bunch of practice tests, and took them again and again. I got 780, 790, and 790 respectively, having started out somewhere in the 600s.

For the subject specific (and this wouldn’t work for everything, but it was perfect for Psych), I got a freshman Psych 101 text book, and read it five or six times in a row in the few weeks leading up to the GRE. I got 780. I don’t think at that time I could find practice tests in psych.

10

I took it a few weeks ago.

I just bought one of the books (Peterson’s, because it had a lot of practice tests in the book. promised more on the CD but the CD didn’t work) and studied that. I really needed help with the math, I was never good at algebra when I was taking it, and it’s been 6 years since I took any kind of algebra or geometry course.

I didn’t study very much. I got a pretty decent score, but I know I can do better if I actually try to study so I’m going to take it again next month.

Studying for the verbal is hard - vocab cards might be the best way to go. You have to be able to recognize words out of context and pick its antonym out of a list of 5 words for a lot of the questions. The other types of questions are “fill in the blank” sentence completions where you get a choice of words and reading comprehension questions. The passages on my test were very dry and hard for me at least to concentrate on. On other standardized tests, my scores for reading/english have always been high, but on this I scored no better than I did on the math. I posted a thread recently asking for GRE advice and someone told me to start reading New York Times and other sorts of publications like that to expand my vocabulary - and whenever I have read stuff like that, almost always I’ll come across a word I’ve seen on GRE word lists. I always thought I had a good vocabulary because I can read and comprehend, but really knowing what words mean with absolutely no context is much more difficult.

Depending on how good you are at high school math, studying for this is much easier. The book I bought had a huge math review going over all the concepts again and had tons of practice problems. If you’re rusty, make sure you practice. The problems are more complex than the math courses in high school made us do, and people tend to score better on this section than the verbal - so get your points here.

The writing section for me was really easy, I got my scores the other day and was very pleased. For the longer essay you get a choice of 2 topics (statements you argue for or against) and one was something I had an opinion about and was able to flesh out a long essay. Normally when I write, I use a more unconventional style unless I’m writing a technical paper, but for this I remembered to clearly flesh out my topic statement at the beginning and have a good conclusion. I even used up almost all of the 45 minutes. The other essay you can’t choose the topic. I didn’t think I did as well on that one because I didn’t have a lot to say, but like I said, I still ended up getting a really good score. Just organize your essays in a clear way and use decent vocabulary.

If you can make yourself study, I wouldn’t spend the money on a GRE course. I’ve heard they are extremely expensive. The books are about $30 a pop, get a couple and work through them on a regular basis.

So in short, get some books. I think Kaplan sells vocab cards too, or you can make your own. My book had a big word list w/example sentences in the back. Study that vocab!!! Read!!! Take all the practice tests you can get your hands on. I was NOT surprised by any question I came across because the book I used gave me the exact same question formats. Do a rigorous math review - easier to get points there if you’re at all decent at math. Don’t freak about the writing so much - it’s the first section always and you’ll get it out of the way. Format your essays in the way you’ve learned in every writing class when you were young - thesis statement early, new paragraphs when you change subjects, good conclusion. Watch your time and review what you write, make sure it makes sense and flows.

Oh, and shitty thing here - you’ll probably get an extra ungraded section on the GRE. They planned to revamp the test recently but didn’t, and are testing new questions now. Unless you get a writing section that’s not the very first thing (I’ve read in a few places that writing is ALWAYS first and the other sections are random), you won’t know what section is ungraded. I had to complete 2 math sections. My test ended up being: writing, math, verbal, math. The ungraded section can appear anytime so you cannot even guess if you get an ungraded verbal or math.

11

Download the free practice tests from the ETS website. Those are a good place to start, and they will familiarize you with the structure of the test.

I used a Kaplan guide and since my math was weaker than my verbal, practiced 2 nights of math, then one night of verbal, and repeated that cycle with one day off a week. I did that for a month.

I regret not practicing the writing section. I got a 4.5 and probably could have done better had I practiced.

12

Thank you for all your responses. I’m going to order up a couple of books this weekend and get cracking. I was already leaning towards not taking a course, and reading this thread has convinced me to forgo the idea altogether.

I was a bit freaked out by the math, so I’m glad to hear its on the not-so-scary side. I’m definitely going to make vocabulary flashcards. Thanks for that idea, myskepticsight and divemaster! I took a course in the history of English words (applied linguistics major) a couple of semesters back, so I have a great textbook to refer back to.

I’m going to try to give myself a month to study and then I’ll see if I’m confident enough to tackle the test. So, I guess my follow-up question is: how long did you study for?

Thanks again!

13

I used the Ultimate Math Refresher for the GRE, GMAT, and SAT to prepare for the math section. I hadn’t taken a math class in twelve years and I can guarantee you that I would have scored absolutely dreadfully without this book. I also used the Barron’s general prep book, which was good, but I really needed all of the exercises in the dedicated math book.

I studied a LOT - at least a couple hours pretty much every single day for three or four months. (I realize that may sound insane, but I was living in a village in rural Bulgaria and my place of work went on strike, so I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with other things to do.)

One thing a friend recommended was to subscribe to a bunch of word-a-day mailing lists, which all of the online dictionaries seem to have. I faithfully wrote down hundreds of vocab words, and I don’t think a single one of them was on the test. Preparing for the verbal is a lot chancier than the math section.

14

The verbal, I think, is something you can’t really study for. You’ve either read a lot and have the vocabulary, or you don’t.

How long? Start early, and practice until you’re getting the scores you want on the practice tests plus about 30-50. The real tests will be a tad more difficult, I think. Then schedule your test, and warm up in the week leading up to the test. I believe I studied every evening for 3-4 weeks, but it was 13-14 years ago, and I can’t remember for sure.

Warning - don’t bother shooting for too high on the tests. My high seven hundreds scores did me no good getting into grad school and in fact may have hurt me. That’s in Psych, though. If you’re in one of the hard sciences, that’s probably not true. But upper six hundreds/lower seven hundreds is probably high enough for most things.

15

Purely out of curiosity, how could high scores hurt?

16

Well, one prof who interviewed me said, “Good GRE scores.” Then he looked at me a little sardonically and said, “Better than mine.” Combined with the fact that I was almost 40 at the time, I think they may not have wanted a potentially overly self-confident smart-ass around.

ETA: That same professor later seemed to take a fair amount of pleasure in telling me that I hadn’t even made the list of people who were seriously considered.

17

I took it 35 years ago without major studying, and did okay, but I do well on tests.

My daughter did better than me. She was teaching LSATs for Princeton Review, and had access to a book with vocabulary. She studied that pretty intensively, and got two 800s ( the math she’s naturally good at.) She never took or taught the Princeton Review GRE prep class, but it seems to help.

18

I’m a teacher with Princeton Review myself—LSAT, SAT, MCAT (just the reading part), and ACT (but not GRE). I can tell you, though, that many of the students I see don’t need the class and would do just fine without it. But there are others who get a great deal out of it…students who have no idea how to approach a standardized test, or who are very nervous test takers. A lot of those students benefit just by becoming so familiar with the material that their self confidence increases dramatically, which some find an asset. Generally, the lower your score on a practice test, the more you’ll benefit from our class. People who have above-average scores typically don’t get as much out of the class, because to be above average you have to know a lot of the basics that we’ll teach you already.

I’m not that familiar with GRE, but I remember when analogies were on the SAT, that was the one area where we almost always saw the biggest improvement in our students. Most of them had no idea how to approach them, and even without intensive vocab studying, there were lots of ways to avoid the dumb answers. I’ve seen quite a few students improve substantially in their reading scores after one of our classes, so I don’t think it’s true that you can’t prepare for it.

My advice would be to take a few practice tests first to see where you stand to start with. Prep classes are expensive and not necessarily beneficial to everyone.

19

Kaplan LSAT/SAT teacher here.

I’ve never—absolutely never—had someone take my class whose scores didn’t improve. (I’ve had a few high school students in my class who didn’t try/attend, but that’s a different story.) I can’t say what their scores would have been without the course, but there is a lot of meat/feedback that you can’t get with just a book or a series of practice exams.

How is your discipline? One of the benefits of the class is the amount of scheduled work. There’s the class time itself – several hours per week in a structured setting, focusing on different elements. There’s the homework between classes, geared toward reinforcement. If you still have time/ambition (much more likely in a grad situation than with my SAT students), there is a deep catalog of extra practice work. Not just random problems, but targeted to specific areas that you’re testing weaker in. Finally, there are practice exams. The benefit of the class is that you take the exam in a proctored, exam-like setting. There is no comparison to just taking an exam at the kitchen table with a clock, to the point where I encourage my private students (taught one-on-one in their home rather than in a class) to go to the center for exams—the difference is palpable.

And, of course, there’s the teacher him/herself. Sure there must be lots of mediocre teachers out there, but there is some strong vetting that goes on and you can always transfer classes. Being able to get feedback or an explanation that goes beyond the paragraph or so in a book is a significant benefit, especially when the explanation ties back to strategies and techniques you’re working on.

Please don’t take this as suggesting that studying at home isn’t a viable option, or that every class-taught identical twin will do better than the self-schooled one. YMMV.

20

Boy, have times changed. When I was a high school student back in the Stone Age (early 70s), it was an article of faith that you couldn’t study for the SATs - they were information that you’d either learned or hadn’t learned by now. And weren’t average scores just about the same as they are now? I’m honestly asking; I don’t know.