GRE test (164/160) experience and tips

[vlad4]

I am done with GRE, so I decided to write a small recap.

My score: 164 quant and 160 verbal.

As a side note: I am not happy with my quant score but considering that I ended up driving 3 hours to the test center and getting only 2 hours of sleep before the test, I am amazed I was able to score above 160.

Test day experience.

I arrived to the test center a few hours earlier. The proctor offered to administer the test right then. Considering that my physical condition was not going to get any better with time I agreed to take the GRE earlier. Luckily, I was the only one taking the test, so it was quiet. Unfortunately, I got 3 quant parts. By the last quant section I was drooping and didn't understand the questions.

Quant part: My first and second quant sections were relatively easy. At the end I ended up having extra 7 and 5 minutes, respectively. I think I didn't know how to solve 1 probability question only. The third quant section was extremely hard. I had to reread many of the questions twice. I skipped many of them too. Here are a few of my observations:

1. GRE had many fill-in answer type questions. Substantially more than what you get on the practice tests.
2. Data Interpretation questions were less trickier than Manhattan or ETS DI questions.
3. I got many *A@B* function type of questions. I don't know what they are called.
4. Probability and combinatorics questions were one-step harder than ETS and Manhattan practice questions.

Verbal part: I was really surprised to see that my GRE resembled Manhattan practice tests more than ETS practice tests. Here is how I differentiate Manhattan and ETS questions: Manhattan Verbal relies on obscure vocabulary. ETS practice tests, on the other hand, provides easier vocabulary questions but the supporting sentences are often very convoluted. If you still don't get it here is an example:

1. Manhattan: We are losing money because we are charging too little. Thus, we need to ____ prices. (The answer choices are: WORD1, WORD2, WORD3, WORD4 --> You know that the missing word is "raise" but you don't know which of these words means "to raise")
2. ETS practice tests: We are not losing money not because we are not charging not too much. Thus, we need to ____ prices. NOT. (Answer choices: raise, rise, decline, stay the same --> You understand all answer choices but you have no idea which one to use because the question sentence is so convoluted)

So on the exam, the questions had a straightforward structure but a harder vocab, which looks very close to Manhattan questions.


Preparation.

I went through all Manhattan GRE books and Official ETS guide. Each book took me about 2 or 3 days to finish. I took a practice test 2 months before the GRE exam just to see where I was. I scored 164 and 157, so I guess my prep didn't really help me a lot when it comes to knowledge.

Quant Prep:
Manhattan GRE books are more than enough if you want to score 166. They are very easy to understand and all books come with 6 practice tests. If you want a higher score, you need to get additional material to study probability. Official ETS books are really weak and don't explain the topics in a structured way as Manhattan does. Although, I'd still suggest going through ETS books to see what's coming on the exam.

Verbal Prep:
Manhattan books do a very good job at explaining the verbal questions. I think Manhattan SE and SC questions rely too much on vocab and could improve by making the questions more nuanced. I also bought flash cards: 500 Essential words is a must. You actually get more than 500 words since synonym section provides more words. While my 500 Essential words were physical, my 500 advanced words was an ePub file. Learning these words on iPhone makes it more convenient since you can read them anywhere and any time: on the metro, during lunch break while you're waiting for your Chipotle, or even on a bathroom stall after eating your Chipotle.

Oh, and another thing-- guys, don't be cheap by getting these words for free online through Quizlet. While, you get all the words meanings there, the gem of the flashcards lie in the example sentences. Manhattan designed these sentences as if you're reading a sentence completion or sentence equivalence questions.


And now my favorite part-- things you should look out for when you take the test or during preparation. If you are a math genius, you can probably skip this but here are my finding that were not mentioned anywhere else:

1. Watch your writing: When I started practicing, I have noticed that I made a few mistakes because during time pressure because I would confuse 7 for 1, or 9 for 4. I had to change the way I write numbers, so I suggest making your writing intelligible.

2. Systemize your process:
- On your Quantitative comparison questions, option A should be on the left side, while option B on the right side. In case your option A becomes too long and goes too far to the right, watch out as you might pick option A because it was on the right side of your paper.
- For percents either use 50% or 0.5. Once you pick one way of dealing with the question, you solve faster.
- Use x, y, z letters for different calculations. For example, if you are solving an equation and this is your last equation, you may use X. However, if it is your intermediate calculation, use Y. Then solve for X on the final calculation. I do this because sometimes I forget that I need one more calculation to solve the problem. Even if I see this Y result on the answer choice list, I know that I am not done yet.

3. Approximately: When the question asks you find an approximate quantity, you should know that your calculation result will almost never be equal to the answer choice or an exact number. If you got "850" exactly and answer choice has it, think TWICE, because you most likely fell for some trap.

4. What's bigger? A or B: Answer choices should be very close to each other. For instance: A= sqr3 and B=2, or A=5 and B=5.1 or <5 or >5. Thus, if you have A= 16 and B=3, you probably made a mistake somewhere in your calculations.

5. Look at answer choices first. You want to know which direction and how far you want to go when you solve. If your answer choices have fractions only, then use fractions to solve the problem.

6. Prove D. I would actually go further and say-- prove C. Basically, "proving D" implies that on Quant Comparison section you want to see that either A or B is always bigger than the other choice. And if you get mixed results, then you pick D. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, one might end up picking numbers that sometimes are not strategically efficient. It's really hard to explain without having a specific example but from my experience "proving D" mentality leads to pick 1 and 100 vs "proving C" mentality that leads to pick really close numbers like 1, 0, and -1. "Proving C" mentality makes you pick numbers that are really close to each other (almost as if you are trying to prove that A and B are equal); yet these numbers are so different in results.

Practice Test and real GRE score correlation.

I know this might interest a few people, so here what I got by using Manhattan GRE and ETS software.

ACTUAL SCORE: q164, v160

mGRE 1: q164, v157
mGRE 2: q161, v158
mGRE 3: q166, v158
mGRE 4: q164, v156
mGRE 5: q166, v156
mGRE 6: q163, v153
--------------------------
Average: q164, v156.3

ETS Paper 1: q164, v158
ETS PowerPrep 1: q166, v154
ETS Paper 2: q165, v152
ETS PowerPrep 2: q159, v154 (don't pay attention to quant part, my mouse stopped working on the last section and I ran out of time. I went over the test later and would have made only 3 mistakes on quant section. So the score should have been in the 165-167 range)

Take away: Manhattan predicted my quant score perfectly. BUT! I dare to say that if I didn't have an emergency situation the night before the exam, I would have scored more and ETS software would have been a better indicator of my knowledge.

You may notice that my Verbal score kept dropping with each practice test and then I end up scoring higher than ever. I honestly don't know why it was the case; perhaps, it was a fluke. Personally, I attribute my jump to my efficiency technique.

I broke down all tests and questions in the following way:
SC1 (2), SC2 (2), SC3 (2), Arg start (2), Text Start (2), Text Long (4/3), SE (4), Arg End (1), Text End (2), Text End (3), Arg End (1)

After going through all my tests/verbal questions and seeing how well I did on each section and subsection across all my tests, I have noticed a pattern: on some subsections I did really well and on some I did poorly. On my real exam I focused on those where I had a better accuracy, even if it required spending twice as much time on them. I ended up guessing on the ones where historically I didn't do well and it worked out for me :)

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

PS: PROTIP for Manhattan. Remember how you described a GRE test calculator? I think it was something like a clunky thing from 20st century. Well, Blue Fire reader on iPad is the same. I don't know why Manhattan doesn't offer all books on iTunes. It is a shame that people are forced to crack Manhattan books and port them to iBooks. There is no need to make users do illegal things due to inconvenience after they legally bought their books.

[tommywallach]

Hey Vlad,

Thank you so much for this incredibly in-depth review of your experience. I'm so glad you found our books and tests useful, and I'm glad your score more or less lined up (I mean, I'm sure it would have been great to score much higher than you'd scored on the practice tests, but accuracy is important for us!).

I'll keep your pro-tip in mind. I agree that adobe book is a bit of a nightmare, but folks out there sure do like to steal things, so we do what we have to to keep things in line. At some point, we may expand outwards to iBooks. I, for one, hope we do!

One quick thing: The prove (D) versus prove (C) are actually two different overall strategies. However, prove (D) is the more important one. All it means is that you have to plug in enough numbers to feel confident (when you pick (A), (B), or (C)). So your goal is to prove (D).

Prove (C) is a separate issue. You're not actually trying to prove (C) (actually, you're still trying to prove (D)). But a good starting point is to see what would happen if the two columns were equal. Oftentimes you can solve a question very quickly by doing this. Both methods are discussed in our QC book, by some name or another.

Once again, thank you for this report, which I'm sure many people will find really useful. Good luck with your applications!

-t

[md.nahid.hossain.khan]

Hi Vilad,
It's really inspiring post. But would you please explain your following strategy?

SC1 (2), SC2 (2), SC3 (2), Arg start (2), Text Start (2), Text Long (4/3), SE (4), Arg End (1), Text End (2), Text End (3), Arg End (1)

Thanks in advance.

[tommywallach]

Given that this post is a couple years old, I doubt very much that Vilad is still around. Just warning you.

-t