What has worked well for you to prepare for the GRE? I’m looking for cheap, preferably free, approaches–not expensive Kaplan type courses. For example, any good study guides I might find at the library? Any other books or websites you found helpful?
I finished a M.S. 7 years ago and will be taking the GRE to apply to a PhD program in another field.
I just bought one of those big books you can get in any bookstore. It had some advice, and a whole lot of practice questions. Studied it for a week or so, then took the test.
I got a CD in the mail with a few practice tests. That was the only preparation I used. I don’t know if I could’ve done it much better without a lot of preparation.
You can download some practice programs from the GRE website. This may be what’s on the CD that GreyWanderer mentioned.
They also have a list of all the essay topics used in the writing section.
I made a big stack of vocab cards (since the only big words I know are chemistry terms.) You can get a list of words from one of those fat GRE books, which you could probably find in a library somewhere.
Probably the best strategy is to devote all your prep time to your weakest area, as elementary as that sounds, rather than prep for the whole test. If you’re in the sciences you probably don’t need to sweat the math section; you could probably do that in your sleep. If you’re in the humanities, which I tend to doubt because of the “S” in your master’s degree, then it’d be the math.
Well, unfortunately the library books probably won’t be much help as the Analytical section recently changed from a series of logic problems to 2 essays, so get yourself to a bookstore to get a book on the current GRE (you’ll probably spend around $20, but I think it’s worth it, especially on a $110 test!)
One piece of advice I have is to focus your study a bit more on the tests that would apply more to your field…since you have an MS, I’m assuming you’re going somewhere into science/engineering, so the Quantitative section will be crucial as I imagine the Analytical essays will be as well. Your Verbal score won’t be considered nearly as much as those 2 sections will be, but of course, studying for it still won’t hurt.
I suppose my advice is contingent upon whoever decides to accept you, of course, so ask them what sorts of scores they would expect for the program and if any of the sections aren’t really crucial to your acceptance.
I got a couple of those study guides from the bookstore. One with tons of problems and explanations, and the other with a series of practice tests. I made my own vocabulary notecards for the words I though might give me trouble.
And that’s about it. But I really did go through those books. Worked lots of problems and practice tests.
(I do suggest making your own notes and notecards, as I find that the act of writing things down helps with remembering them moreso than just reading.)