<p>Kaplan? Princeton Review? Barrons? </p>
<p>Is self-study even helpful as compared to a formal course? Is a formal course worth the money?</p>
<p>I personally liked Barrons. The courses are, IMHO, a waste of money if you have any kind of study skills.</p>
<p>That said and before you do anything else, download the PowerPrep software from ETS. It contains 2 practice tests that are virtually identical to the real thing. </p>
<p>Pick up one of the prep. books in the library, career services office or bookstore and read the chapter about how the test works. There are a couple of tricks you need to know.</p>
<p>Take the first practice test in PowerPrep and determine where your weakness (if any) is.</p>
<p>Go back to the library, career services office or bookstore and look over the prep. books and then buy the one that seems to best address your weakness and your learning style.</p>
<p>And relax - the GRE is not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! :) I didn't know about the PowerPrep resource, but I can see how it would be very helpful to guide the actual study time.</p>
<p>Courses for these types of things tend to be directed at low-scorers with poor self-discipline. But if you hope to break 1200, you're going to have to devote a lot of personal time. </p>
<p>I felt that the Princeton Review guide had the best strategies. The Barron's math was way harder than that of the actual test. And this is coming from someone who got a 750Q, 600V. Barron's verbal section is very good, however, if you want to get a high verbal score. Learning the high frequency words is necessary, but not sufficient, for breaking 600. I felt that my strategy of using all the guides simultaneously was effective. Don't forget to pick up the official ETS book in addition to the Powerprep software. I also found the Kaplan CD ROM to be extremely helpful. Take practice test results with a grain of salt: There's absolutely no way these companies have the data that ETS uses to determine one's score. The Powerprep software, however, is predictive. </p>
<p>I tend to be more verbally proficient, but my overcompensation for the math resulted in a complete switcheroo. Make sure to research which section your particular graduate program cares about more.</p>
<p>Math is easier to score high in because it's the same math that you took on the SATs. It's probably one of the reasons why I did worse on the GREs than the SATs, I hadn't even touched the material since 9th grade.</p>
<p>Dunno how much help studying word lists will be, I've never been that great at straight memorization of things. I spent a few nights reading over some list of 100 or 250 most common words and I didn't remember seeing any of them on the GRE, though I still managed to get a 620.</p>
<p>I'd say the most important thing I read was the essay format. If I didn't know what I was aiming to write about going into the test I'm sure I would have done considerably worse. The GRE writing section graders don't care nearly as much about technique or eloquence as your English professor did, what they care about is your ability to get your point across concisely and coherently (at least, that's the only justification I can come up with for me getting a 5.5 on it).</p>
<p>i have never used prep. i bought two books -- princeton review and barron's. i personally feel that the only thing prep is good for is to force you to keep on studying. if you have good studying skills though -- and if you're applying to grad school, you better -- i don't think it'll make much difference. the one thing it might help you with is writing.</p>
<p>Is there a book that one could read to get ideas and/examples for the issue essays? One that helps with brainstorming? I guess facts and statistics as examples make essays sound substantial. Thanks.</p>
<p>a_hardcase - don't worry too much about having facts and figures for the essays. The readers are mainly interested in how you structure your work. The idea is to show that you can produce a coherent argument and support it, not spew out predigested material. </p>
<p>Anyhow, you want to have a solid basic structure. This is what I used (I got a 5.5):</p>
<p>Intro paragraph: re-state the prompt and indicate your position. State how you will support your position (3 or 4 points)
Support Paragraphs: one for each point mentioned in Intro.
Conclusion: re-state the prompt and your points, explaining how each supported your position</p>
<p>You want to write in complex sentences, i.e. with subordinate clauses.
You want to have fairly smooth connecting sentences between paragraphs.
You DO NOT want to overthink the prompts - there are no hidden agendas or political motivations. </p>
<p>They give you a pencil and a blank sheet of paper - I used mine to scribble an outline so I wouldn't forget to cover each point in all 3 sections.</p>
<p>All that said, I never came across a book dedicated to the essays, but all the prep books will have have some examples.</p>
<p>is the order of the sections are totally haphazard?</p>
<p>I thought Kaplan oversimplified...it's quantitative part was overwhelming for me (perhaps cuz i haven't done math since 11th grade).</p>
<p>Barrons always seemed excessive...I never did half the problems in barrons for SAT.</p>
<p>Princeton Review seemed sparse... Spark Notes..too new to tell.</p>
<p>I found Princeton Review to be a pretty good review of the Q basics (if you have a science background), but it was lacking in counting and summation rules. For V, I used Princeton Review's Word Smart booklet and most "harder" words I encountered on the actual test are covered in there.</p>
<p>Cheers Will C. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>I took the GRE before they added the writing section (780V, 650M) - the last paper and pencil administration - so don't know how much my advice will help. I took an old GRE as a diagnostic & based on that prepared only for the math (didn't have much time). I hadn't looked at math since barely squeaking through freshman calc in college, and although GRE math covers only high school algebra and geometry, I had forgotten that too.</p>
<p>So I went through the ETS material and the Princeton Review's math section. Also, I avoided using a calculator. Just getting faster at basic arithmetic made a difference in finishing the math section. Took another practice test slowly and went over all the explanations. Worked on that and then took another practice test, this time under actual test conditions. Then another - would have done more but ran out of time.</p>
<p>Bottom line - if you have limitied time find out what your weaknesses are and focus on improving there. Good luck!</p>
<p>With the computer based exams, you have to select 3 tertiary institutes you want your GRE score to be sent to right? Is it better to not report the score, if it's bad, since the score remains in the system for 5 years or does it not matter? Can the score be sent to a university, other than the ones you selected on the exam day, later? Cheers.</p>
<p>The three you get to send scores to while you take the test are "free" scores. If you want to request for them to be sent afterward you have to pay a certain amount of money for each school. I think it was something like $10-$20 a score report.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for the reply</p>
<p>Oh, also, be sure to request those reports early. If you want to get them expedited you have to call them by phone and there's an extra surcharge on that way (it also takes forever going through their voice menus).</p>
<p>I took the Kaplan course for GRE and ended up scoring 630 in maths and 510 in verbal sections. I needed at least 720 in maths and 600 in verbal section for my graduate program in economics. My diagnostic test scores from Kaplan were hovering in the range of 740 in maths and 680 in English. I found that the questions on the GRE were not like the ones I had worked through from Kaplan books and course. I came across an advert for MLI company’s GRE course and registered in the course. It was thorough and covered problems I had not seen with Kaplan. My maths score went up to 760 after MLI GRE class and my English score went up to 670. I scored 5.5 on the essays after MLI GRE versus a 4.0 after the Kaplan. I highly recommend MLI GRE prep course. Kaplan course did not prepare me well for the GREs at all.</p>
<p>^^^ Take this “testimonial” with a grain of salt. This is the poster’s first post (which makes it suspicious), especially given that this test company has been cited before for spamming internet forums with fake testimonials.</p>
<p>This poster under the avatar ‘blackeyedsusan’ (when did you get your black eye, susan?) states that a first time poster cannot say anything positive about their experiences with a company and must be cluelessly asking questions. I am not shilling for MLI GRE. I have taken it and am very pleased with it. If anything, you are the one shilling by hanging around the forum, and not contributing to useful information. Criticizing is the easiest thing to do. Get off your lazy susan and work on your black eye, Susan.</p>
<p>First of all, you should not trash other people on the site. The site is there for people to find help in getting through the GRE. I’m a parent and I’m searching for not a good GRE prep course but a great GRE prep course. I cannot tell you how many posts I have read that had negative comments for mlic’s program. I did not read any positive post for the mlic program except for you. We all want to find the program that will help the most. Maybe you were just one of the lucky ones that actually benefitted from mlic. If I had to put my money in on a program, I would invest in 2 good prep books, download the free tests from ETS and find someone who is currently in a graduate program at the school my daughter would like to attend. Grad students who got into the program at the school that matches yours is most likely to be the best source for tutoring. In case most people don’t know, there is rarely any kind of financial aid except for loans fro grad students, so I think they would be happy to make money on the side tutoring. I’m going to take a guess that their fees would be less than that of any courses by independent programs for the GRE.</p>