Engineering students, how much time did you spend studying for the GRE?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>For those of you who have already taken the GRE, how much time did you spend studying for the exam? </p>

<p>I know answers will very depending of the person and his/her ability, I'm just curious. I plan on studying for 2 to 3 weeks and take a few practice tests along the way.</p>

2

<p>I studied over summer. I only focused on verbal since math is very easy to get 800. I studied vocabulary books for about 2-3 months, ~10 hours per week. Took about 10 verbal practice tests from books. My only advice is if you plan to score higher than 650 on the verbal, buy the Barron vocab book. They contain all the strange words that appear on the actual exam. Very few “common” words appeared on my GRE exam.</p>

<p>Most people study about 3 weeks straight and do decent.</p>

3

<p>I studied a ton… almost exclusively on the verbal section. The main reason being that I hoped to make up for a somewhat low GPA by having a great GRE. I think I did like 74th percentile on verbal after all that was said and done, so I don’t know whether it worked or not. Either way, I probably studied for 3 or 4 hours a week throughout the summer leading up to the test in August. I was a special case though.</p>

4

<p>Studied about a month. The math was easy, I did a bunch of practice problems and you just learn the games they play on it and ended up with a 760. Verbal wasnt so hot (580), I dont know too many words and studied maybe a few hours total. If I had to study again for it, I’d spend more time on verbal. I didnt do anything for the essay and got a 5.5.</p>

5

<p>If you aren’t a good writer, you can download sample essays on prompts online. I googled the list of over 100 prompts which you can receive in the actual exam. If you want to cover all the bases, print out the list, and jot down three examples for pro/con for each prompt.</p>

<p>Over time, you can write out the entire essay while practicing full prompts.I think this helped me think more creatively. If I hadn’t done this, I would have spent time brainstorming during the actual exam or scribbled random thoughts, rather than write a structured piece right after I got the prompt in the exam.</p>