End Result: Q:750-800; V:750-800Edit: ...Continued after hangover
Why GRE?I've already taken the GMAT, and not done too badly. So that begs the question: Why GRE? Good question. I have given so many different answers when asked this question. The answer lies somewhere between the fact that I have been wanting to retake the GMAT for quite some time now, but wasn't able to motivate myself to start going through the same old routine again. In the revised GRE, I found a new challenge, something to get me back in the old swing of things, without being a complete waste of time. Make no mistake, the revised GRE is here to play with the big boy (GMAT).
PrepI registered sometime in late July and scheduled my test for Sept 16, leaving me with what I assumed would be enough time to run through all of the following material:
1.
Official Guide to the Revised GRE - 7/10
2. Princeton - Cracking the New GRE - 3/10
3. Barron's NEW GRE - 4/10
4. Kaplan - NEW GRE Premier - 3/10
However, I quickly realised that 1. I didn't have enough time to finish two books, let alone all four, and 2. the three non-official books weren't perfect. Getting in the 750-800 range for Quants was a given, and I decided to focus on the weak link: Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion. I realised that none of the material that I had would help me much, and therefore used the following instead:
1. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis - 8.5/10
2. Princeton Word Smart - 4th Ed - 7/10
3. Manhattan GRE - Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion - 8/10
4. Manhattan GRE Flashcards - 8/10
I wish I could say that I finished all of the above cover to cover, but I did enough to jump up a few notches, and increase my confidence. I went into test day with no where the amount of prep that I had planned on doing, but I was still confident of doing well - nerves of steel
Practice testsSadly, I had time to take just one practice test, which was at the start of my prep. I've got to say though, a lot of credit on how I fared should go to this test - a Kaplan online practice test. The test experience was very similar to what I experienced on test day, but more importantly the scores accurately reflected where i was strong (Quants, RC) and where I was weak (SE and TC)
D-DayGetting there:Where was I, oh yeah, nerves of steel. My test was at 9:00 AM. I drove to the test centre and I spent a good 20 mins trying to locate a parking space. I entered the centre at 8:50 AM, 20 minutes late, or, as I put it, a 10 minutes early. The admin asked me why I was late, and I got into an argument over the damn parking.... After what seemed an eternity, but was a good 15 minutes early, I made my way to my seat.
Essays:Not worth going over. I used the old Chinese Burned Essay guide, and it was a breeze. I practiced one of each a couple of weeks ago, but that was more than enough. A lot of people stress over this simple, (almost) meaningless section, and in my opinion, it's not worth spending more than 0.5% of your total prep time on this section.
Verbal:I got three verbal sections. The first was easy, but the next two were hard, and I'm not sure which one was the experimental section. Nothing much to talk about here. I made quite a few "educated" guesses in the SE & TC questions, but all the other question types were a breeze, expect for this 1 RC question that took me almost 5 minutes to work my head around - yes, before you ask, of course, I saved it and came back to it at the end
I've got to say, all those hours spent building my vocab really came in handy, but even more handy were all those years I spent reading novels, and magazines. I wish I read newspapers
Remember people, it's all about context. Search within the question, and though shall findeth the answer
Quants:If you're like me and you've got 50 on the Quants section of the GMAT, then you won't even bat an eyelid. The questions are so damn cheap compared to those that appear in the GMAT.
TakeawaysThe Verbal section of the Revised GRE will be a lot easier for Native english speakers.
Confidence matters a lot when you are taking tests. If only I was this confident when I took the GMAT.
More details, including reviews of prep material, will follow in the coming days