Re: (GRE Success! ) GRE prep.

Hello Santosh,

Suvadeep gave you some great advice. I suggest you refer to our wiki files for the preparation. 800/800 in quants is an achievable target. See if you can improve your score there right away. Verbal is always challenging but it can be very interesting when you immure yourself.

I am copy/pasting a old post here for easy reference for preparation. Other members can chip in as well (for new format) for the benefit of the group. 

*********************************

I am assuming by now you must have made yourself 
comfortable with the preparation for verbal and the quants section. Big 
book practice tests for verbal are a good option. Tentatively, you have 5
 weeks.

Week 1: Finish up any wordlist from Barrons that you 
haven't done yet. Also, mark the words which you think you are not 
comfortable with. At the same time practice the quants from different 
CDs you have.

Week 2: Revise wordlists. A good 4-5 revisions of 
the wordlists before the exam gives you  confidence. Also continue 
working on RCs and quants. section. 

Week 3: Practice math 
problems and start taking tests and see how you are scoring. It would be
 nice if you can make an analysis of your score and see where you are 
making mistakes more
 often.

Week 4: Give 3 tests a day and exhaust all possible 
database questions from different CDs. See how you are doing on the 
Kaplan for verbal and quants.

Week 5: By now you should pretty 
much be comfortable facing CBTs and might have an idea or two on how to 
get around tricky questions. This is a good time to work on the 
mistakes. 

2 days before the main test: Give the powerprep tests 
now, not in the previous weeks (only my suggestion). Again, retake the 
tests in powerprep and see what new questions come up. This will be your
 pseudo GRE score.

A day before GRE: Do not take any tests. Just 
relax and occasionally revise RCs. It is very important to stay calm and
 composed. Eat right and should have a good night sleep.

All 
through the preparation, maintain a good diet and sleep well. I may go 
on to say to not interact with others unnecessarily about GRE. It just 
may heighten the anxiety. So reading articles is a good
 option and very helpful. 

Getting around analogies can be 
tackled by eliminating some of the choices. There will be atleast one 
unrelated option. By the time you get into week 4, you'll have a good 
grip on it. Worst case, make a reasonable guess in the main test.

Hope this helps and I am sure others may have some more ideas too.

Good luck,
-Sri Harsha


________________________________
 From: Suvadeep Banerjee <suvadeepbanerjee-/[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 7:51 AM
Subject: Re: (GRE Success! ) GRE prep.
 

  
Hi Santosh

It's unfortunate that we are getting back to you so late. I will get back to answering your queries.

I will answer your second question first and then your first question.

2) As far as the 3 universities are concerned, I guess the UFL, Gainesville ranks higher among all three; though I'm not sure about the rankings. Also the rankings seldom matter in these choices. When financial consideration is taken into account, still UFL is giving the maximum amount among all three. Also the cost of living is minimum in Gainesville compared to New York. But finally the things that matter is the program and the advisor. The advisor and the research he/she is into matter more in case of PhD, but I guess your friend has got into an MS program. So the program itself and the future aspirations become the deciding factors in the choice. The industry sector, though, is better in the New York area.

This should be considered as a counsel only and the best decision can be taken by your friend only. After all, it's his life, right?

1) First of all, I would like to give you the good news - 45 days is enough time for anyone to prepare from scratch; leave aside you who have already written the test twice. Coaching is not required at all; it's just a waste of time and money according to me. It's unfortunate though that you have not succeeded in scoring good in GRE. I suppose you need to look again at the strategy of preparation. Learning the Barron's words by rote will not help you in the long race because any language is not something that you can force yourself to remember or learn. It's a feeling that you need to instill into you; you have to enjoy the new language, love its nuances.

Enough philosophical talk already, let's delve into strategic discussion about how you can improve your score. I need you to answer one question - Are you from engineering background? If your answer is yes, then I think you should fare well in the Quant section. Maybe you need some practice, I mean regular practice, in the Quant section to be able to identify the traps in the Quant problems. If you remain careful enough, the Quant section should not be a problem. Just try to practice regularly.

For the success in the Verbal section, learning the words by rote won't help in the new format. You have to learn the essence of the usage of the words, be it new or old words. Any new word you learn, try to incorporate them in your sentences like don't take all my advice in a pejorative sense. Try to regularly use those words in writing and you have definitely to practice a lot of writing.

I hope this will provide some help to you and maybe other members will be able to help you a lot also.

 
Suvadeep Banerjee

Bachelor of Electrical Engineering
Jadavpur University, Kolkata
India

Website : http://suvadeep.webs.com/



________________________________
 From: santosh <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] 
Sent: Thursday, 12 April 2012 7:34 PM
Subject: (GRE Success! ) GRE prep.
 

  
Hello,

I have two questions today..hope i will get reply to both of them.so, here they are.

1. I  have given GRE 2 times  till now before august 2011(i.e in old pattern)..I got 1050(math-700,verbal -350) first time and 1020(math 660,verbal -360)2nd time..i tried to learn by rote all word lists in barron's and i really did so.I have to agree that i didn't practice well for both the tests and was concentrating only on wordlists. I did decent amount of practice 2nd time but i was scared that i would fail during 2nd time.Well,now i have booked my gre for the 3rd time in may.i.e in new pattern.Do i have to again learn by rote  all the word lists for new pattern?because ,its been long since i touched them after my 2nd attempt.And in what areas i should be concentrating more.I don't have any coaching with new pattern and i can't get any coaching as i stay away from home and coaching here is highly expensive. I also want to know which books should i follow and will 45 days of preparation be enough for giving the test.

2. A friend of mine doesn't have a yahoo account and wants me to ask this question for him.
He got into Electrical engineering department of University of florida gainesville,Syracus,USC and State university of newyork ,buffalo . he is confused about which one to join in.He also got 6000$ waiver in Syracuse and 12000$ waiver in UF. He got this admits for fall 2012.Kindly advice which univ which would be a better option and how?

Thank you.