My daughter is planning to take the GRE for Engineering either April, or Sept 2017. Any advice folks?
I had approximately 3 weeks to study for the GRE over winter break so my method is very much sub-optimal. However, with just 3 weeks of studying you can still score very well, but that requires that you identify very quickly the areas that will be possible trouble on the exam.
But there’s a lot of time for your daughter to prepare, so that is fantastic. The material on the exam is not difficult at all, but combination of the high pressure of the exam and the endurance necessary to complete it can lead to extremely silly mistakes that add up if you aren’t careful.
However, I can recommend a few things:
The GRE PowerPrep practice exams were a good indicator for me on how the exam would actually go. My performance in the quantitative section on my second practice (just a couple days before the real thing) was the same as my actual result. For verbal, it predicted slightly higher than I performed, but it wasn’t off by much.
I used the 5 lb. book of practice problems from Manhattan Prep. This was a good set of practice material, and it gave me a general idea of types of questions to expect. If you want a more comprehensive topic-topic walkthrough of possible exam material, then I would get a book to supplement the 5 lb. book.
Ideally, you want to score well in both quantitative and verbal. For graduate school in engineering, you for sure want to lock down a good quantitative score since that will likely be looked at a little bit heavier. However, with a lot of time to study, aim for the sky on both sections.
I was thinking if you can answer this question, you might be too smart to prove yourself by taking the GRE. (joke)
Question:
“My father is a Chemist. My mother is a Mathematician. They call me Iron59. What is my real name?”
My son says, Felix.