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Official GRE Super Power Pack, Second Edition?
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I would recommend the GRE ETS books (Official GRE Super Power Pack, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1260026396/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_QRGH3RQQF2WX3CYKJSQJ)
And I'd also recommend looking into a subscription to Magoosh GRE especially because they have really great videos for math!
>the current material. Some of the TC and SE questions on gregmat are also pretty good, but the ETS stuff is the best
By referring to current material, ETS stuff,you meant this one yeah ?
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Super-Power-Pack-Second/dp/1260026396/ref=sr\_1\_1\_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=super%20power%20pack%20gre&psc=1&qid=1595108403&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyQ0VRSFJLS0hGQVdOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzA3MTE...
Gregmat is REALLY good stuff. For $5 it’s almost worth the money just to try it... but it’s really high quality for a third party tool.
Gregmat will tell you to buy the GRE study material directly from ETS. I completely agree.
I just finished going through “The Official GRE Super Power Pack”. It’s essentially three different books that ETS has smashed into one. The first book’s shows you how the test work and has different problem sets for the different types of math and verbal questions. Then the second and third books are completely dedicated to verbal and quant, respectively. There’s also two practice tests included. All of this material is something like $50 I believe. I bought the ebook version for kindle here:
Official GRE Super Power Pack, Second Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1260026396/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Vb8gFbZFRTSPZ
Another resource is the two free practice tests on the ETS website, and you can also purchase two more tests at the ETS site as well. Only after exhausting these resources would I consider looking into a tutor or other tools. And honestly, by the time she gets through all of these resources she might be feeling ready to take the test- I know I’m feeling close after going through the combined book and taking the practice tests.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask follow up questions... although I’m still in college so I can’t speak to the gap year dilemma. I’m sure sell do great though if she prepares!
The official material is here: Official GRE Super Power Pack. Definitely use those, they're your best friend, especially for verbal.
156 in verbal is nothing to scoff at: that's the 73rd percentile. For a non-native speaker pursuing engineering, I would imagine that'd be sufficient, especially with a 167 in quant.
It sounds like you think you could've done better in verbal though. If you do poorly on the first section, it's hard to bounce back. You really need to get the hard second section to do well.
Here's what I think. I have a very hard time imagining that some program would reject you with a 156 in verbal, but accept you with a 160. So I don't think it's worth fretting too much about.
However, it seems like you're a 160 verbal student, and should be able to achieve that. Your GRE score is one of the very few things on your application that is totally within your control. What you don't want is to not get accepted, and then kick yourself for not retaking the GRE. You might be tempted to think that's why you got rejected. So if it will help put your mind at ease and you've got $205 to spare, go for it.
It won't be outdated. But will it be effective? I'd start with the official materials if you can. Those are invaluable must-haves for studying, and will only set you back $30 for all three books. Save the Kaplan stuff till you've exhausted the official stuff.
- Re-do the official GRE practice tests (Link for reference). You can find all the PDF versions online via quick google search. Re-do them until you know which math strategy to use on certain 'hard' questions. Use blanks pages of course... don't write on your original copy.
- Everyone has their own strategy preference. Gregmat offers his own preference. By re-do'ing the questions you can find your own preference. Everyone has weaknesses too; it's normal as a human being. If you were a genius you wouldn't be asking for help in the first place!
- Breathing steadily helps me. Glancing at the clock like an anxious high schooler is very detrimental to my mental strength.
- For verbal, I copied Gregmat's strategy of doing all vocab questions first and then doing all reading passages second. Don't switch your brain's focus too much.
- For reading passages, I practiced writing down a paragraph outline (of course this is slow and not effective in the real test). During the real test, I mapped out an outline in my head.
- My own tips: Mark all the directional keywords like "but, however, criticized, therefore, consequently". The reading passages are like mazes: introduction, supporting opinion, supporting evidence, counter opinion, counter evidence, alternative hypothesis, fluff details, conclusion, etc. By mentally mapping of the construction of the passage, you don't need to rely on ridiculous photographic memory.
- The GRE wants you to create a false narrative in your head, which is a human thing to do. Everyone forms their own "take" on a reading passage. Don't fall for this. Some people are good at not fooling themselves, but I'm a very opinionated person so I often fall into this trap.
I will emphasize that learning vocabulary is a very small part of preparing for GRE verbal. Note that it's called GRE verbal reasoning, so it's not necessarily testing your knowledge, but your ability to reason and apply knowledge to creatively solve problems.
For the most part, GRE verbal is a reading test, as reading is the biggest skill it tests. So you want to become a strong reader, and doing this will require practice. So make sure to be reading high level English material every single day. Periodicals like the New York Times or The Atlantic are usually great. Reading is how you improve your vocabulary in context.
Also make sure you have the official materials published by ETS, which are the best verbal resources you will find. The old GRE big book, and even the official GMAT materials can also be helpful, especially for reading comprehension.
Lastly, sometimes I encounter an answer that I disagree with, thinking my answer is better. But if I spend long enough and really dissect the question, eventually I'll realize why the official answer is better. So take your time! Work slowly and methodically, and study your mistakes. Make sure you are convinced you were wrong, and know why the right answer is better. It takes time to improve, but you can make great gains with a little effort!
30 seconds of studying is enough to score 330+ for some people. Others will never score that high no matter how much studying they do. So it really depends on you.
What you can do is take a free official powerprep practice test on the ETS website. If you score, say, a 270, then you'll probably need more than 3 months. If you score a 325, then you'll be just fine in maybe a few weeks. Generally, though, I think 3 months is a good sweet spot. After that you'll likely plateau and see diminishing returns. Just make sure to put you're all into it for those 3 months. This is the time you have, so make it count!
On the advice side of things, definitely use the official materials. They're the absolute best. Memorize vocabulary, but don't spend too much time doing so. Prioritize reading. Verbal is a reading test, so you must be a strong reader. Read high level stuff like the New York Times or The Atlantic. Slow down, and keep an error log. I'd say the biggest error I see is students doing thousands of questions without ever taking the time to learn from them. It's so much better to answer 100 questions and know them inside out than to answer thousands and keep making the same mistakes over and over again. So review review review!
umm not sure what you saw but you can get the 3 main official books for pretty cheap on amazon!
i got the ETS set. I liked it a lot. Then corona hit and many schools dropped the gre requirement.
Okay, no problem.
You've got the Official Guide Book, the Official Verbal Practice Book, the Official Quantitative Practice Book, all of which can be found in the GRE SuperPack on Amazon at this link
You've got the Official Paper-Based GRE, which can be found at this link
You've got four online tests, which can be found in the 'Shop for GRE Preparation' link after you log-in to your GRE account. Two of the tests are free and two cost $40 each. Each of these tests has three different versions for verbal and math (easy, medium, and hard). To see additional questions, you should purposely do bad or purposely get a perfect score. This makes more sense on the free versions because you can 'buy' them as often as you'd like.
You've got the Old GRE tests. They have a slightly different format, but some of the questions are still gold. At least we know they're VALID. We can't say the same for test prep material. The old GRE questions can be found here in a book that contains 27 TESTS at this link
Enjoy my friend. If you run out of that, you're much better off doing other standardized tests like the LSAT, GMAT, or SAT.
Sure, there are tons of resources I recommend, mostly official material from ETS:
- GRE Official Guide
- Official Verbal Practice Book
- Official Quantitative Practice Book
Those three deserve to be separate because A) they're official material and B) they can be purchased in one "PowerPack" for cheap. You can find all three here.
There are four official exams online. Two of them are free and two are paid (at $40 a pop). There is also something called the ScoreitNow service. You pay $20 and have the official GRE e-rater grade your essays. The two paid tests above include this feature for free (I believe).
Other material that you can access are the following:
- Manhattan 5lb book (good for math practice...avoid verbal)
- Two free paper-based official tests floating around the Internet
- Old GRE (contains 27 tests). Can be found on Amazon. Search The Big Book GRE.
You also need to get on a vocabulary regimen like today. Here are some options:
- Magoosh Basic and Common (download their app)
- PrepScholar 357 list, found here
- PowerScore Repeat Offenders, found here
I would hold off on any courses for now. Did you take any for the SAT? You might be able to walk this journey alone, with occasional guidance from this subreddit.
Yes, 165 should be a cakewalk for you. You seem to have the requisite reasoning skills, so now it's just a matter of learning some basic concepts and formulas. Here's a little cheat sheet for you: GRE Math Formulas.
There's really not a ton of concepts in quant, and they're all fairly basic. Applying them is the tough part. I'd assume you really only need to solidify a lot of the knowledge that's maybe in your head, but a bit cobwebbed. You can use the official GRE Math Review, as that will contain all the knowledge you need. It's not the most approachable, but it's concise and will give you what you need.
I'm confident Magoosh will also get you what you need, and it might be the easiest/quickest route, but you probably don't need to spend the money. It's an option if you feel like taking the easy route though ;)
The Manhattan books are good at explaining stuff, and the geometry one is like 6 bucks on Amazon.
Regardless, get the official materials and use those for practice.
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Super-Power-Pack-Second-dp-1260026396/dp/1260026396/ref=dp_ob_title_bk I got the paper version cause I get distracted but I want to say that a lot of the material is also on this discord as pdfs: https://discord.gg/n737pN
>ETS material
Thank you for this. Is this an example of the ETS book(s) you are referring to?
Smart move taking the diagnostic first. Here's what I recommend you do in a step-by-step fashion:
Go through the ETS Math Review Guide. Make sure you know ALL of the concepts in here and complete all of the exercises, even if they seem easy. The only thing you can probably skip is the "box plot" section.
Go through your diagnostic test with a fine-tooth comb and try to determine precisely what your weaknesses are. You can break down math questions in four general categories: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data. Try to determine which of the four your strong at and which of the four you're not so good at.
Obtain all of the official practice material, most of which you can find in the Super Power Pack. I would also recommend that you obtain the Old GREs because, although the math is a little bit easier, it has a ton of practice material (27 tests) that you can draw from.
Purchase the 5-lb Manhattan book for supplemental math practice. Just make sure you don't do the verbal in this book.
Start familiarizing yourself with some of the more common math strategies like Choosing Numbers and Periodically Stopping.
Create a practice test schedule. When will you take your next practice test? When will you take the one after that? We use practice tests to gauge progress, so make sure you have a firm plan in place and that you take the practice test sessions carefully.
Use this subreddit as a resource. If you ever feel overwhelmed, just give us a holler.
Is there a possibility? Of course. Is it guaranteed? Far from it. I'd suggest you give yourself the 2 months, and give it your all. After 2 months, you'll probably plateau a bit and see diminishing returns on your studying.
160 is a very good baseline score, though. Work on vocab, and read as much as you can. GRE verbal is largely a reading test, so improving your ability to read will improve almost every aspect of your verbal abilities. Sources like the New York Times or The Atlantic are excellent, and usually quite GRE-like. The more you read, the better you'll do. It's the closest thing to magic that we have.
Otherwise, stick to the official materials, and pick up the big book if you'd like. GMAT RC is good too (lots of free stuff on gmatclub.com). Some verbal questions take some time to really understand. All official questions though have an answer that is clear and unambiguous correct. If you disagree, spend time with the question until you're convinced. It'll really aid your understanding.
Work slowly but steadily, and I think your ambitious goal is well within reach. Also, don't neglect your quant! It'd be a shame to score lower on test day.
No need to bomb the quant section. If you scored 147 cold turkey, then the mid-150s shouldn't be tough at all to reach. You seem smart and a good problem solver. In that case, you need to know almost know math. With some logic and creativity, the 150s require very little actual knowledge.
Of course, the more knowledge of concepts you can get, the better, and that's what studying is for. Even just knowing some of the more basic formulas can pay big dividends. Check out this quick cheat sheet: GRE Math Formula eBook.
I'd emphasize your thinking that this isn't really math, it's more like a collection of logic puzzles. The GRE doesn't have a "math" section, it's a "Quantitative Reasoning" section, and is designed for people not necessarily going into fields where math is relevant. Problem solving, though, is always relevant, and that's what GRE math is all about. I gamed the heck out of the GRE, and it felt so good. I didn't even take math in high school but still scored very highly just by using answer choices, eliminating answers, and making logical deductions. It's a challenge, a game, a code that needs to be cracked.
And it's totally fine to get problems wrong. You will see problems you can't figure out, and that's okay. You don't need a perfect score, just a respectable one. If you can eliminate some answer choices, excellent. But don't feel bad about just skipping them and spending more time on the ones within reach for you. That's a good strategy.
Now, your response to your surroundings is learned behavior. This means it can be improved. Meditation and mindfulness exercises are just as important to your studying as learning new concepts. If you can master your body and your mind, you'll score much better no matter what you know. I really like some of the concepts in this blog post: Zen Boot Camp (written for the GMAT, but just as applicable here). Poke around and see if anything catches your attention. You can get better at this. Maybe you won't be as calm as your neighbor, but you'll be calmer than your past self.
Attention can also be learned. The GRE is gruelingly long, and demands a lot of mental energy. A few games of chess or hours of dense reading, though, can be just as long and require similar mental processes. These things prepare you for the GRE. Watching TV, on the other hand, turns your brain to mush for awhile and decreases your attention span. Essentially all of life can be an exercise of attention. Look for opportunities to pay attention, and to stretch your mind for longer than is comfortable. Like exercising biceps or quadriceps, your brain can get stronger and gain more endurance and be trained to think in certain ways.
As fast as resources go, the Official Guide is the gold standard. It does very little teaching, though. The Manhattan books are great for learning math. I'd also recommend Magoosh for you, mostly because if you ever get stuck you can just write an email and someone will be there to help you through the problem. You'll never have to do everything on your own.
In any case, keep us updated with how it's going!
-Magoosh Student Help
I was admitted to the program a few years ago. My major was in Econ/Finance never took a CS course in college.
I had a 166 Quant score on the GRE, and I believe a 158 Verbal. I think they really only care about the Quant score. I think you need to get your Quant score up.
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I suggest you buy the official GRE prep book from the makers of the exam (ETS).
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magoosh.com also had a lot of helpful material.
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I also took some intro level CS courses through Coursera. And I wrote about this in my SOP. I think taking an intro course on Coursera/Edx could help.
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Hey there!
I love noobs, but I'll refrain from simply plugging Magoosh ;)
There's a trap here. You might think that giving yourself more study time will mean you'll be better prepared for the test. This is not necessarily true. Often, it's better to focus exclusively on studying for a shorter period. I myself bought the book and had great intentions months before the test, but then I hardly even picked it up until the night before. Especially if you're still in school stuffing your brain with all kinds of information, it's going to be hard to find mental space for GRE prep. Generally, it's best to take a summer and dedicate yourself to the GRE.
Study plans don't get you into the 90th percentile. You do that. Materials and plans are just what you use to get there. Luckily, though, quant is much easier to improve in than verbal. For quant, you've just got to learn the concepts and then apply them. Verbal is not nearly as straightforward!
The universal advice is that the official ETS material is hands down the best material you can find. These are made by the test makers, and the questions are as good as they get. You want to learn these books inside and out. There are also powerprep practice tests put out by ETS as well. Definitely take these.
As you work, make sure to keep a detailed error log. This will help you identify weak areas and focus your study time. So when you find a tough problem, or one that seems important, put it in your error log, with some context, like this:
- Why you missed the question?
- Why your answer is wrong?
- Why the correct answer is correct?
- What will you do to avoid this next time around?
We've also got some templates and other resources here to make it easier to plug and play:
Every single question you get wrong or took a long time to get right should go in the log and should be analyzed. Return to your log day after day, and make sure you can articulate the path to the right answer. Just answering problems doesn't help if you aren't learning from them. This kind of detailed study will help you recognize patterns and traps and your own most common mistakes to work on. If you don't know a concept, learn that concept and come back to the problem. Learning takes time and repetition, and so coming back like this helps introduce those elements of time and repetition.
As far as scores goes, it does vary, but you don't have to send your scores anywhere until you apply to the program. Then, they'll ask for your score, and you can send them your best one.
Otherwise, I'm here as a resource for you, so don't hesitate to follow up with any more specific questions or concerns!
-Magoosh Student Help
Hey there! Welcome to paradise :)
As mentioned, it's usually best to start with one of the free powerprep tests to see where you're at and how far you are from your goal.
It's good to start memorizing some words, as that takes some time. Start reading books and magazines and journals and such too. You want high level English stuff like the New York Times or The Atlantic, since the GRE will feature a similar level of style and vocabulary.
Definitely pick up all the official material: Official GRE Super Power Pack. No matter what you do you'll want to have those books. They're written by the test makers, so the questions are top notch.
Lastly, it's good to start an error log early. Any question you get wrong or don't know how to answer should go in there. Then, learn the relevant concepts and come back to review the problems the next day. And keep reviewing until you've got it down 100%. Slow and steady is the name of the game here, as you want to build your knowledge base, and learning takes both time and repetition.
Otherwise, I'm here to help, so let me know if you have any more specific questions or concerns!
-Magoosh Student Help
Indeed, the official ETS powerprep practice tests are a great place to start.
Different students have different constraints when it comes to the real test. Namely, it is expensive, and can require travel. However, if those are not an issue for you, go ahead and take a real test! I planned on taking it twice: once to scope it out and get a feel for the test center and process, and once for my real score. However, I absolutely crushed it my first time. I attribute this to a total lack of stress or worry, because I knew I'd be taking it again. Taking it once might be a good idea if you can.
Otherwise, pick up the official ETS material as a start. They have the best practice material in the business, so you'll want the books no matter what else you do. If you think they'll be sufficient, then great. Their teaching of material and explaining of answers leaves much to be desired, but the problems themselves are unparalleled.
Take the first powerprep test, and let us know how it goes! I'd love to help with anything more specific as you go.
-Magoosh Student Help
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