Understanding the GRE Scoring and an MGRE EBook Question

[Nadirshah]

HI There
I just started preparing for the GRE which I have in exactly one month.

I just did a practice GRE test from the power prep software to see where I stand. I got 153 in verbal and 154 in quant. This was my first test and I wasnt used to the timing. I must have left out at least 8-10 questions.

I have 2 questions for the scoring.
Generally speaking how good is the initial score I got? Can it be considered an average score? If my aim is to get good enough to achieve a 328 or above with atleast 4 hours of studying each day within a month, is that doable or unheard of

I needed to understand how the scoring works. Im trying to figure out how many additional questions would I need to get right to achieve this big a jump. Is there some formula that can used to figure out how many questions contribute to getting one point

AND FINALLY....Ive been trying to buy the ebook versions of the manhattan 5lb problem book and a few strategy guides but seems like I have to provide a physical address and get charged for shipping. Is there no way I can just get the ebooks?

[tommywallach]

Generally speaking how good is the initial score I got? Can it be considered an average score? If my aim is to get good enough to achieve a 328 or above with atleast 4 hours of studying each day within a month, is that doable or unheard of

Just use your percentile to work out the average (obviously, if you're 50th percentile, you're average!). But yes, 150/151 are about average worldwide at present, so you're slightly above. To your second question, there's no easy answer, but yes, 4 hours of studying a day for a month should allow you to see significant improvement assuming that you are studying in the correct way (learning new techniques and applying them, as well as memorizing lots of vocabulary words as quickly as possible, starting now!).

I needed to understand how the scoring works. Im trying to figure out how many additional questions would I need to get right to achieve this big a jump. Is there some formula that can used to figure out how many questions contribute to getting one point

The scoring is much more complicated than you might expect, and it just isn't as simple as number right or wrong. You need to answer enough questions right to get into the HARDER secondary bracket for each section (you aren't there yet). From there, you could conceivably miss the same number of questions you did on your current second sections (likely the medium difficulty) and still see a significantly better score.

AND FINALLY....Ive been trying to buy the ebook versions of the manhattan 5lb problem book and a few strategy guides but seems like I have to provide a physical address and get charged for shipping. Is there no way I can just get the ebooks?

Hmm. I don't believe we're selling an E-book version of the 5lb guide just yet, so you'd have to pay shipping on that. As for the other books, you ought to be able to buy them without doing that stuff. I recommend you call our office/student services during business hours/weekend sometime, and they can sort you out.

Good luck!

-t

[Nadirshah]

Solid answers. Thanks. I have another question but ill post in the right forum area. Perhaps others can benefit from it as well

[tommywallach]

Thanks Nadir!

-t