GRE prep courses?

[cookderosa]

Do any of you know about the GRE prep courses? Are they worth the $??

I'm going to take the general GRE this fall, and I want to do well. I have no idea what the average Joe scores, but I need over 500 on both quantitative/verbal and above a 4 on the written. I'll be looking into how doable that is, but the higher the better obviously lol

[Sunshine]

I am curious about this too...

[Levi]

Bump.

Hi all, I'm also planning to take the general GRE exam very soon. Any suggestions for study resources? (Besides the Cracking the GRE book.)

[sanantone]

I did not study for the GRE. I downloaded their software to take a practice test the day before. I actually did pretty well. The math is not that difficult, but I could have done better if I had brushed up on algebra a bit more. Anyway, my quantitative score is more than enough to get into any non-STEM program. Trust me, I am just slightly above average when it comes to math, so anyone can do it. If you aren't well-read, I suggest brushing up on vocabulary. I did well enough on the verbal part to get into almost any PhD program because I excel at comprehension and guessing the definition of words based on context and roots. Luckily, most of the schools I've looked at don't care about the analytical writing score because I did very average on that. I landed right in the middle on scoring. Someone who took the GMAT (and it's probably the same for the GRE) recommended looking up articles and forums on how to format your essays. They typically want the type of 5-paragraph essays you had to write in middle and high school. I hadn't done those in a long time. I'm used to writing 3 or so paragraphs for discussion boards and 7 to 15-page essays for graduate school.

[Muricles]

I took the GRE last week using only free study materials. That means I can't offer a review of the any 'real' prep courses, but I can provide some free study aids.

1. GRE POWERPREP VERSION 2.0 - ETS (the company that administers the GRE) provides a free standalone program with two full practice tests.
Pros: The tests were very close to what actually appeared on the real GRE in regards to both user interface and material.
Cons: The program does not tell you which questions were wrong! It only provides a score (130 to 170 for Verbal and Quantitative).

2. MORE PRACTICE TESTS - Two more practice tests from ETS. However, this time magoosh.com has provided answers and explanations as a sample of their test prep products. There is no sign-up or email registration, so this is a good free resource.
Practice Test One ---- Answers and Explanations for Test One
Practice Test Two ---- Answers and Explanations for Test Two
Pros: Having the answer and a brief explanation allows you to see your mistakes.
Cons: The explanations are not always the most detailed.

Once you have an idea of what's on the test and your strengths and weaknesses, you'll probably be able to target specific weak areas. That's when the pain - I mean learning - begins.

Test Breakdown

The test starts with two analytical writing sections graded on a 0 to 6 scale. The goal is to write an essay on a given topic in 30 minutes. Then, do it again, but this time critiquing a given argument. I didn't spend any time studying for the writing section, because I felt my time would be better spent on the quantitative and verbal sections. I can't see a graduate school accepting or denying your entry based on the analytical section, especially schools with an entrance essay requirement.

The math (quantitative) section of the GRE is based entirely on algebra, geometry, and basic statistics (i.e. mean, median, mode, standard deviation). The geometry is heavily focused on triangles (relationships between angles and sides of isosceles and right triangles) and circles (area, perimeter, and somehow more triangles). This is high school level stuff, but remembering and applying the principles can be a chore. The good news is khanacademy covers everything that appears on the GRE. In Khan we trust!

The verbal section is fill-in the blanks (often two or three) and critical reading. Some of the options can be confusing, but reading the context clues and answering the question asked are key. There are dozens of word lists online if you want to brush up on your vocabulary. I skimmed through this one. I read somewhere that "jejune" is always on the test, but I cannot confirm or deny that.

Your biggest enemy on the GRE is time! I have never had an issue with time on an exam, but I finished each section with under two minutes remaining. If you spend more than three minutes on a question, even a math question, you risk running out of time. Do not be afraid to take an educated guess and hope to come back to the question later. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so spend your time on questions you know you can solve correctly.

Good luck! It is not as bad as it sounds. It's just like a longer CLEP/DSST. Figure out the types of questions asked and learn how to solve them quickly.

[sanantone]

I thought it was an awful experience and I love test taking. I never want to take the GRE again; it's just so long.

[clep3705]

Your SAT verbal score is a very good predictor of your GRE verbal score.

[sanantone]

Percentile-wise, I did a lot better on the verbal section of the GRE.

[Yanji]

Someone who took the GMAT (and it's probably the same for the GRE) recommended looking up articles and forums on how to format your essays. They typically want the type of 5-paragraph essays you had to write in middle and high school. I hadn't done those in a long time. I'm used to writing 3 or so paragraphs for discussion boards and 7 to 15-page essays for graduate school.

I did not write in a 5-paragraph format for my GMAT AWA section and I got a 6.0 (max score), so it is okay to write your own format. The scoring is partially automated though, so varied vocab, complex sentence structure and sentence length will all boost your score. And you're right that most schools don't care about AWA/IR... I got a 720 on the GMAT without studying at all (49Q, 40V, 6.0 AWA, 8 IR) and nobody cared about my AWA and IR scores when applying to MBA programmes. While it's well-known that many business programmes will take GRE in place of GMAT, there are actually some non-business programmes which will take GMAT in place of GRE. The GMAT is often reputed to have a slightly tougher quant section while the GRE is often reputed to be a bit more verbal-heavy.

[sanantone]

I had to take the GRE for the PhD programs I applied to (non-business). There are some that will take the MAT in place of the GRE. I heard that the MAT has virtually no math, but it's not accepted by the schools I applied to. Darn! Interesting fact, MENSA will accept a score in the 95th percentile or greater on the MAT, LSAT, or GMAT for membership.

Qualifying test scores - American Mensa, Ltd.