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If your working on or have your masters...

Did you think GRE/GMAT was difficult? Any tips that you would share? Did you take a prep course?

Re: If your working on or have your masters...

  • My DH took it to get into grad school, and he's an okay test taker. He took several practice tests and did online tutorials for about 1-2 hours a day for 4 weeks before the test.I can't remember his score, but he was easily above the requirement to get into Indiana University. He didn't think it was super hard, but he was very happy he did all of the practice tests and tutorials. 
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  • I'm not the best test taker and I hated the GRE! The verbal section was fine. I bought a book and reviewed vocab and per-fixes and suffixes. The math was horrible!!  I took the free kaplan tests a bunch of times and finally got the math score up. Good luck!
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  • I didn't find it particularly difficult but I'm a really good test taker. The online website for the GRE has great resources (or at least used to when I took it 4ish years ago). There are free practice tests on there (and since you're doing them on your computer, it's more similar to what your actual testing situation will be like than doing a paper one) and there used to be an awesome math review pdf. It's like 65 pages long or something crazy like that. I went through it all.First I went through and anything I knew how to do easily I marked off. Then I worked on ones I was familiar with but a little unsure of. Then I tried to do the ones I had no idea about.

    My math score significantly increased and ended up being much better than my verbal (which I had scored higher on for all the practice tests) so I really recommend the pdf review. The only preparation I did for the verbal was buying a book of common GRE vocab word flashcards.

    Good luck!

    ETA: I just looked and the pdf is still there. They also still have the computerized tests (The powerprep software that you can download). I highly recommend both of those resources. Here's the link:

    http://www.ets.org/gre/general/prepare

    You probably already know this but the GRE is a Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) so the questions you get are based on your performance on previous questions. This is why I recommend the computerized tests. When you take paper tests you don't experience this. 

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  • I took the GRE back in 2004 and I don't remember it being that hard or any harder than the SAT.  Also, I am a sucky test taker (for the record).  I ended up getting a big workbook from the bookstore that had a bunch of sample tests and took one of those.  Based on the things I missed in the sample test I did the exercises in the book for the particular sections that I needed help on.  Most of my issues were with the math portion since I am not really great at math.
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  • My DH took it and said that he thought it was pretty standard. He only took it once, I don't remember what his score was. Im not sure how helpful that was.
  • I also wanted to add that while it seems like the GRE was not overly difficult for several of us, or our DHs, a LOT of people struggle with it. If you tend to do well on standardized tests, then you'll probably find it easier than people who don't. My sister prepped for 6 months (to my 1 month), took it 4 times (to my 1 time), and still scored significantly lower than I did. The last time she took it she got a score just high enough to make her grad school applications competitive so she didn't take it again.

    The reason I say this is that I recommend taking the prep seriously (not that you wouldn't, but a lot of people don't). I didn't prep until the last minute and was lucky that I performed well on the practice tests right away but if I had prepped sooner I probably could have done even better (which would have opened me up to more programs, higher levels of funding, etc.). Make sure you give yourself the time to realize whether it's going to be difficult for you or not. Ok...I'm going to step off of my soapbox now...

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  • I took it probably 10 years ago, so it's not exactly the same test as they do now, but I would absolutely at least study for it from prep books. The vocab is well above the level that you use in every day conversation, and you have to get your mind working in the 'standardized test' direction again.
  • Thank you. Lucky, I will look at the stuff you recommended when I am on the computer versus my phone.
  • image4-8-06:
    Thank you. Lucky, I will look at the stuff you recommended when I am on the computer versus my phone.

    You're welcome. There's a lot of information on that site so hopefully you find some of it helpful!

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  • Ahh I am about to take my GRE this month. I am so nervous. Applying to PA school right now.
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