GRE TIPS

Now, the exam-specific experience :

I got QVQVQ. As maths has always been my forte, this really soothed some nerves.
AWA:
I didnt study for awa at all. I just spared 60 minutes last night and went through one
sample passage for each task (those in OG) just to get a feel of the structure. If you are
used to writing blogs, etc. I feel that you dont need to give more than a day to your awa
preparation. Though practicing a couple of passages for each task wont hurt.
Q1:
As smooth as it gets. Completed it in 22 mins with revision in the next 5. Still 8 minutes
to spare. This may not be the case with everyone though because I am really fast in
calculations and often dont need a calculator.
V1:
It was fine. Difficulty level was similar to powerprep 2. But the answer choices in the RC
questions were a little tricky. It was often the case that I could easily eliminate 3 out of 5
choices and was caught between the remaining 2. In this case, just make a calculated
guess and move on. Dont waste a lot of time on them.
The 10 minute break:
I was really exhausted by this time. Actually, the last day I had traveled all the way from
mangalore to chennai. And one mistake I made during my preparations was that I
always skipped the awa section in mock tests. DONT DO THAT. You should be mentally
prepared to sit for 4 hours in front of the computer screen. I splashed water on my face
and took a few deep breaths and that really seemed to work.
Q2:
Since GRE is an adaptive test and I fared pretty well in Q1(acc. to me, atleast), I
expected Q2 to be tough. But it was even easier than the first, which made me little
skeptical about my performance in Q1. Again completed it within 22 minutes.

V2:
It was easier than the first but there were a few alien words this time. There were also a
lot of SELECT ALL THAT APPLY questions in RCs.
Q3:
Again started off well but after 7-8 easy questions, there were 3-4 tricky questions which
consumed a lot of time and I was mentally exhausted. These questions werent difficult
but the language was tricky and questions were long and I had to read them 2-3 times
to comprehend them well. I was really exhausted and I felt an urge to give up. My mind
was imploding. I skimmed these questions quickly and came back to them in the end. I
consumed 34 minutes to complete this section.
And then was that heart pounding moment and I wasnt expecting much because I was
quite demoralized by the last section.
Score: 325 (q-168 v-157) and this is how I cracked GRE
************************************
Mock test scores (in order):
PP1 : 323 ( v-155 q-168 )
Kaplan MST5 : 328 ( v-158 q-170 )
Kaplan MST4 : 320 ( v-152 q-168 )
PP2 : 325 ( v-157 q-168 ) >Same as my GRE score!
***********************************
Material Referred:
Quant:
1. ETS OG
2. Barrons 19th edition. (Excellent concept explain actions)
3. Manhattan Maths strategy guides. (First 6 books)
4. Magoosh
Verbal:
1. Manhattan RC guide
2. ETS OG

3. Barrons
4. SC and TC Questions from Manhattan
5. Magoosh
Vocab:
1. Word Power Made Easy (excellent book)
2. Barrons HF333.
***********************************
Miscellaneous tips to crack GRE:
1. If you write and read blogs or articles regularly, not much of preparation is required for
AWA. No need to go through the entire pool.
2. Do attempt awa section while giving mock tests. Skipping them is not a good practice.
3. Rather than focusing too much on SC and TE, practice as many RCs as possible. SC
and TE questions in the exam will often be easy.
4. Dont stress on vocab too much. Go through barrons HF333 with utmost attention.
But I would advice you to write down and memorize the new words that you encounter
in the mock tests, because apart from the word lists, I did encounter a few words which I
had already encountered in my mock tests. Ex- jaundice, intermittent, fractious etc.
5. Use the one minute breaks to take deep breaths.
6. The 10 minutes break is only for having Food and going to washroom. Dont talk to
anyone. dont try to refer any study material. There was a girl at the center whose exam
was cancelled because she Was going through her notes.
7. Dont study on the day before the exam. And have a proper 8 hours sleep and have a
positive mindset.
************************************

A USEFUL STRATEGY to crack GRE VERBAL SECTIONS:

Dont attempt the questions in sequential order because it is often possible that you
might lose the track of time.
Verbal section always contains 10 RC questions and 10 SC/TE questions. Try to solve
all the 10 SC and TE questions within the first 10 mins. Now, you will have the 20
minutes for RCs. Start with the longest RC and dedicate 4-5 minutes and read it
completely and try to grasp as much as possible. If you have understood the passage
well, you will be able to solve the associated questions in 2-3 minutes. Now, you have
13 minutes left for the remaining 6 RC questions.Follow the same approach to answer
them.
Note : Adopt this approach to crack GRE and you will never fall short of time.
However,this exercise might prove exasperating for some as you need to read passages
back to back. I always took a 7-8 seconds break between each passage.
Also, Out of the 60 questions on Quants: 0 on percentiles,2 basic questions on SD, 3-4
questions on mean and median,5-6 questions on fractions,2 questions on profit/loss,
around 3-4 questions on probability.,1 question from PnC. DI questions were easy but
read them twice before marking your answer.

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The best option for a free GRE practice test is Powerprep II from ETS, the makers of the
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Here's the link to download Powerprep II:
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Unfortunately, Powerprep II doesn't work with Macs. So if you are a mac user, I'd suggest
borrowing a friend's PC. And if that's not an option, you can download ETS's paper based
practice test which has many of the same questions as Powerprep II.
Here's the link to the PDF:
http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/pra...
The only downside to Poweprep II and the paper-based practice test is that neither have
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http://www.youtube.com/playlist?...
And here's a link to better organized explanations for the same set of videos:
Revised GRE PDF 2nd Ed.
There are quite a few other sites that offer free practice questions however in many cases
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Practice tests:
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