Mr. Ho Le Vu (Verbal 770, Quant 800): My test first started with two essays as usual.

I selected the topic of "Creating image is more important than the reality or truth behind" cuz it immediately reminded me of Madonna. When I prepare for this section, I didn't actually tackle any topics due to limited time budget. Just studied the guides and strategies discussed in prep books and read some sample essays to get an idea of how I should write. Regarding this, I would recommend the essay tactics presented by Princeton Review. The essay discussion is the most useful and practical part I found in their guide. Other parts are just too "facile". My next several sections is V-Q-V. My first V went very well, with questions reasonably hard, esp. reading questions as they were very time-consuming. I didn't run into any new word, except one stem word (i.e. ADJUDICATE), but fortunately that word has a familiar root, so I had no trouble guessing its meaning. I finished this part with 20 sec left. The level should be similar to that of POWERPREP. My Reading subjects were the usual, one on literature and another one on biology. There was an especially hard one on linguistics (even though it is my major). I had to read and re-read that paragraph two or three times. When I studied for GRE, I found that the usual tactics applied to TOEFL reading don't work for GRE. For TOEFL, I usually read the question first and then skimmed the text to pinpoint the part this question referred to. However, in GRE, when you are to get high score, questions are often inferrential in nature and require that you have to read carefully the whole shebang before you can answer. "Skimming" doesn't work here. I have this bad habit of reading something while thinking about something else. Concentration is by far the most important thing in GRE reading. DON'T read and keep thinking "I have to work faster, or there will not be enough time." Everytime you gonna lose focus, stop and close your eyes for a sec to regain. I did that a lot in my test. My second V freaked me out somehow. First of all, I ran into the first reading question after only 3 questions. People told me that, if you are to get high score, reading questions should appear the soonest after your first third. In my first V, the first one was around 12th or 13th. The same thing happened when I tried POPWERPREP tests, first reading around 12-13th, second one around 18th-21st and the third around 26-27th. Secondly, the difficulty of the questions seemed not to increase, or at least remained the same as with the first V. The last several questions were so easy that I didn't have to think at all. If this section was scored, then I guess I would get around 500 or even less. I felt really dejected at that point. For V preparation, my advice is that you guys stick to Barron's Word List. Make it your BIBLE. Use the Guru software to practice it. There is another list I compiled myself, culled from synonym groups provided by American Heritage and Webster. This GREcompatible list contains about 4800 words (with some overlaps). You may download it from http://www.geocities.com/shockedhp/synonym.doc . If you want even more words, there's another list that contains words that are not yet included in Guru. You may download it from http://www.geocities.com/shockedhp/wordlist.doc .

Having done with the word lists, you should practice tests provided by the Barron Guide and real tests available in OG, and FINALLY, the POWERPREP. To me, those three guides are totally sufficient for tackling the V part. I have compiled a list of questions I had certain problems with during my practicing. This list contains around 180 questions, and you may download it from http://www.geocities.com/shockedhp/questions.doc . My Q went okay too, but there is a warning note. The math level here is definitely harder and more time-consuming, compared with POWERPREP or OG. As a math guy, I didn't prepare much for this section, except reading ETS math review and doing Q parts in OG & POWERPREP. Usually I got 800 with at least 5 to 10 min left for this section. But on the offical test, I finished it just in time. Also on the actual test, it seemed I got more probability questions than the usual share (3 of them), 2 graphs and some weird-shape & cylinder geo questions. A tip for tackling any geo object with irregular shape: there is always a way to transfigure them to regular shape ones while keeping their area intact. By doing that, you can calculate the area of the original object without any hassle. Furthermore, as a non-native English speaker, you should read the ETS Math review carefully, and check every math term you are not familiar with. Otherwise, you risk running into questions that you are not sure if you get it right. Take an example of Question No 17, Practice Set 3, Quantitative Comparison, POWERPREP. "The variable x is normally distributed. The values of x at the 45th, the 15th, and the kth percentiles of the distribution are 550, 350, and 450, respectively." I got the wrong answer because I didn't understand the question correctly.