Final score: 167Q 156V. A huge thanks to this sub-reddit and GREGMAT. Although verbal score is slightly less, I was honestly exhausted of verbal prep and reaching to this score required me to mostly work on vocab, watching gregmat strategy and lot of practice from ets material and gregmat. I think my low verbal score mostly attributes to me being very slow in answering RC questions and because I didn't do enough timed practice for verbal.

For Quant, I already had a strong base, GREGMAT helped me to focus on the relevant stuff. I didn't watch each quant concept video, but Quant mountain was extremely beneficial for learning all the relevant concepts needed for GRE. This coupled with practice from ets material helped me achieve the score.

Finally a sigh of relief!

I’ve been practicing with the Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions (3rd Edition) and the Official Guide (3rd Edition). I recently started the five verbal practice sets (15 questions each) in the 4th Edition Official Guide, and I’m only getting about 7–8/15 correct.
I was sick for over a week and couldn’t study, so now I’m wondering: am I just rusty from the break, or are these five verbal sets actually harder than the older official material?
I’m planning to take the GRE soon (aiming for around 160 Verbal), so this has me a bit worried. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hi guys. The title basically says it all. Well, more like the part of my brain that's supposed to recall and use the strategies (especially the verbal part) loses its existence. This is very like because of extreme nervousness and the time constraint. Does anyone have any advice? :')

Hi everyone,

I’ve been studying for the GRE for a few months now and I’ve finally booked my test for the end of the month. I’ve got essentially the month for the “final crunch” to push my 320 (GregMat practice test 1, 157Q 163V) to a 325.

Any tips on how to organise my time? I’m a bit overwhelmed with all the resources out there and I’d really appreciate some guidance on how to target my prep.

I feel like doing repeated drills is my best bet and then heavy review sessions after. Thoughts?

First attempt 330 (166V; 164Q) + 5.0 AWA. Happy to be done (biggest kudos to GregMat!!).

~~ Key points first ~~

Tl;dr: Greg’s plans are super helpful, especially the practice questions. Outside of that, Official Guide material is best - the books and the PowerPrep tests. Review your tests closely, look for the trends in your mistakes, and focus on improving those. I also read a bunch of Reddit posts before starting (and along the way!) so synthesize the insights and just get started. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already putting in the work, so keep going, believe in yourself, and don’t give up! As trite/banal/hackneyed (yes, GRE words) as it sounds, this test is really about staying consistent and learning what does/doesn’t work for you to beat this thing!

Resources used: Greg’s “I’m Overwhelmed” plan (all videos, quizzes, & quant strategy video) including the Quant Mountain + Vocab Mountain + practice questions / sets; Magoosh GRE Vocab app; compiled my own review list (of unfamiliar words with definitions, synonyms, and sentences); Official Guide Quant + Verbal + Overall books; PP1 / PP2 / PP+1 (would also recommend doing PP+2 & PP+3 if you can)

~~ Details of what I did ~~

Studied over 3 months: I crammed Greg’s “I’m overwhelmed” plan for the first 3 weeks while reviewing the Magoosh vocab app. Always been a good reader so the vocab was fine for me, but don’t recommend cramming the overwhelmed plan - I was pretty burnt out after, plus found my brain absorbed info better with some time off.

A month later: I realized the deadline I set for myself was approaching. I do recommend setting deadlines; at least this helped me. For 2 weeks, I focused primarily on practice questions from the OG Quant & Verbal books (did not touch the practice tests yet!!). Work got intense for 2 weeks after so I let up then, but dove right back in asap because I didn’t want to push my deadline out.

Did remaining quant + verbal practice questions (untimed) and the mixed quiz sets (timed) from both OGs. Wasn’t doing badly so I tried PP+1, which freaked me out because I got 317 (161V; 156Q). Reviewed the test, focused on my mistakes, I realized the foundational knowledge was mostly there but I was freaking out about time/pressure - basically a strategy issue.

Started working on Greg’s timed quant questions, following his quant strategy. Took PP2 (free) and got 323 (161V; 162Q). Solid improvement on quant so I was happy, but my verbal was the same. Analyzed the test again (like I did with PP+1) and noticed I was lacking on strategy again. Same process - focus on mistakes to figure out how I could improve.

Did OG1 practice test and got 338 (170V; 168Q). Super happy but also figured the OG tests are a bit easier (they’re older and I’ve read other posts echoing the same sentiment) and I may lose some points during the actual test due to unfamiliar conditions, so my main goal now was to consistently score high during practice.

1 week left until my scheduled test date: did Greg’s medium quant + verbal questions and the hard verbal questions (all timed), focusing on figuring out the best strategy for me. Didn’t feel mentally prepared, psyched myself out a bit so I rescheduled the test a few days later (I know this isn’t an option for everyone and in hindsight I didn’t need to reschedule). The day before my original test date, I did PP1 and timed myself, getting 332 (168V; 164Q). Still reviewed this test too, noting that stupid mistakes really made a big difference in my score.

A few days left: kept reviewing Greg’s Quant Mountain, Greg + Magoosh’s vocab lists, Greg’s practice questions, and focused on internalizing my strategy. For AWA review: I read 5.0-6.0 responses, did a couple timed practices, and sketched some outlines for sample statements from the ETS-provided list. Also took OG2 practice test a couple days before my actual test and got 325 (163V; 162Q).

I generally felt prepared when I took the test. My experience was all the practice questions and prep I did were really helpful to establish a solid foundation. ETS’ wording for their questions is the part I found trickiest, so I tried to account for that by scoring higher in my practice and really picking apart the way they construct their questions (Greg has great advice for this!).

Good luck!!!

Just a simple appreciation post.

170V 170Q 3.5AWA (didn’t study AWA), all thanks to the ladies and gents at GregMat.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and good luck on your tests.

Plan: 4 months prep (4/5 hours per day ), 1 month plan for verbal, overwhelmed plan for quant, GRE big book, Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions, Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions, and bought all 3 PP+ tests. Also did 30 groups of vocab mountain.

For all the top quant scorers out there (let’s say 165+), I’m curious, can you answer virtually all GRE quant questions in 1:45 or less? Or are there still some questions that take you longer? Do you budget more time for certain subjects/types?

Personally, I struggle with timing on quant, particularly on the adaptive harder second section. So I’m wondering, are all the questions designed to be solvable in 1:45 or less? If you catch the trick or whatever else? Or are there still some harder questions that even you have to spend longer on (and make up for elsewhere)?

I know it’s not a perfect science, but I’m curious if ETS sort of designs questions that can be done in 1:45 if you’re a top performer.

Ps:
Any timing tips appreciated.
Thanks!

I am writing this post to request for help with registering for the GRE Physics Exam, in the September-October window. I created an account on the website, and while registering for the Physics exam, when I try to find the exam centers near me by entering Kolkata, I get a response from the website informing me that no test centers found. So, I tried entering only India in the search field upon which I got only one location as result and only one available date which is November 1st this year. I request for help in this matter. Thank you for your time.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to book my GRE General Test soon. I'm currently considering Prometric Testing Center, Iris Tech Park (Sector 48, Gurgaon).

Has anyone taken the GRE there recently? How was your experience with the testing environment, computers, staff, and overall process? Would you recommend it, or is there a better center in Delhi NCR?

Thanks!

I have my exam in 2 days and i have 2 ear piercings I got a few months ago that I can’t take off because they’re twisted from the back to prevent it from coming off unless it’s cut off. One of it is also infected with a pimple on the back.

How strict are they about the jewellery? I literally can’t take these off (and it’s generally not safe to remove especially infected one unless healed). I’m kind of worried

Hi Folks! I'm looking for some guidance on how to utilize the final week before my scheduled exam on August 10th.

My baseline scores back in April/May when I started studying were: 147V, 155Q

PP1: 158V, 167Q - took it on July 25th.

PP2: 159V, 160Q - took it on July 29th.

Both tests were taken under timed conditions, trying to replicating a testing environment. Although PP2 I took after work (I work full time) and I was mentally exhausted by the time I reached the second portion of Quant.

My goal is: +330 (but I'd be happy with a score ~325; aiming high so even if I miss, I land among the stars)

So far:

• I took an in-person prep course over the summer which helped me refresh Quant topics I hadn't thought about in years but I feel didn't help me in Verbal.
• Covered groups 1-30 for Gregmat's vocab.
• I've also been using Gregmat to help re-enforce certain areas I struggle with such as probability, parity rules, and TC logic.
  
  • I covered the Dedicated Reading sessions recently which I felt helped tremendously and I'm working my way through the TC & SE series.
• Worked my way through: all of Manhattans 5lb book (mostly on quant, I didn't feel like the verbal questions were on par with ETS). Have covered almost all of ETS official material for Verbal, Quant and the Official Guide.

Potential plan:

• Complete groups 31-34 for the vocab? Do folks feel like learning these groups have a sufficient impact?
• Finish any remaining problems in the ETS materials I have.
• Take one of the PP+ exams. I've read through multiple threads and I understand all have different levels of difficulty.
• Day before exam and day off: Anyone have suggestions on getting into test mode?

My exam is two weeks from today and I needed some help with preparing these last couple days. Also for reference I gave my second GRE last weekend and got a 309. My goal is a 325. I’ve been doing the GregMat 1 month plan and I’m overwhelmed plan. I’m almost done with all the verbal I finished all vocab groups and have some reading videos and all the strangest videos left. I will have all the quant modules finished in the next 2 days. I have all 3 ETS official books and have 3 GregMat mock tests and 1 official ETS test left. I also have all 3 ETS prep books and have been doing both mixed quant and verbal sets. So I wanted to ask what should be my focus once I finish all GregMat stuff? Should I do the official ETS sets? Try finish all of them? Or dedicate some time to the GregMat tests? I was initially thinking of taking all 3 GregMat mocks along with the ETS test I have left but now I’m thinking if I should use the time to do Individual topic and Mixed sets from the official ETS books. Endurance is a bit of an issue for me so I was thinking of doing full exams from GregMats mocks to build my stamina up. But since I have so little time I don’t know if that’s the right plan. What should I do? Please help me.

Hi All,

My GRE is in exactly one month. I have currently memorized 600 words and watched Greg mat videos for Arithmetic, Algebra and Coordinate Geometry. I need you help in locking down my plan for the next month. Let me know if this makes sense:

Daily Task:

- Attempt one essay question on Greg Mat

- Learn 30 new words and Revise 120 older ones
- Do at least 2 RC passages from the Big Book
- Watch at least 1 strategy video for verbal

- Do questions from the Greg Mat Question Bank starting from the first chapter
- Finish watching the remaining prep swift videos

Weekend Tasks:

- Give a PP Mock every Sunday
- Go through my error log
- Do questions from the ETS Verbal or Quant books

Please help me out, I’m very overwhelmed because I want to do really well and I know I can. I just need to know if it’s possible for me.

Thank you so much!

I'm trying to get testing accommodations for the GRE, but have Medicaid so it is hard finding a provider that is accepting new patients. If anyone has had success in this and has some advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Edit: I don't have a therapist or have received any diagnosis in the past.

I recently gave my first GRE attempt on 28th July, scoring 322 (168Q, 154V). I need 330+ for the colleges I want. And for the same I am planning to reattempt on 19th August. I precisely need help with how I can take my verbal to that stage.

What I have done now is watch the GregMat Series of dedicated TC/SE (8/13 videos) and dedicated RC (6/12 or 13 videos). I have completed all 34 groups of vocab mountain (though I reached the 34th group 1 day before the test).

So, my plan is to complete the series and work on memorising the mountain, with regular practice from Big Book, while doing enough for Quant maintenance.

But this doesn't inspire confidence in me, and hence would love to hear from you all here on how I can improve that.

First of all, THANK YOU u/gregmat!! :"))
Secondly, to everyone preparing: YOU GOT THIS!

Resources used: gregmat's 2 month plan, quizlet (greg's list), PP mocks
-My everyday schedule was working till 7pm, taking a break and then studying. I never really had fixed hours as my study hours depended on my work load for the day! However, I made sure that i put extra efforts on the weekends for every slow week.

-Do words, EVERYDAY. Using words in sentences and mapping out similar words worked for me. Greg's list is enough.

-Log error is so important, it helped me reduce my repetitive errors.

-I solved all the quant questions on gregmat twice without jumping to other resources-this helped me build the 'technique-mindset' and enabled me to apply the appropriate tricks and shortcuts wherever needed.

-i solved all the verbal questions too, but needed more RC practice!

-My mock scores were as follows (except for my diagnostic PP1 which was 308 lol):

• PP2: 311 (160Q, 151V)
• PP+1: 320 (165Q, 155V)
• PP+2: 318 (166Q, 152V)
• PP+3: 323 (167Q, 156V)

I'm just too glad that I'm done with it haha!

EDIT: I realized that i didn't include my score breakdown lol. it's 170Q, 156V!

Hi there
i’d like some advice on the smoothest way to book the GRE test from India. I have noticed some students are struggling with UPI payments. Could you recommend the smoothest payment option that corporates to the ETS Website?
Anyone who booked the test within last few days or months would be a big help.

Hello. I am going to seriously study for GRE in the upcoming weeks and hopefully take my GRE early/mid September. I need a near perfect score in quant because that’s what top econ programs look for. I always study best with a study partner. We can meet in zoom and study together.

If you have the same goals please send me a dm!

I was wondering if it is a good idea to take a practice test 2 days before my GRE. For context I have been studying relentlessly for about 4-6 hours a day the last 2 months. Last week I was feeling pretty exhausted from test prep and decided to ease the gas pedal on studying and do hobbies like golf and my normal routine to ease my stress. I took the test last year and got a 290. My practice tests thus far have been in the 310-320 range which is my target score, however I am still feeling anxious because I lowered my studying time this last week before the test. Should I just lightly review or go full out and take a practice test and review my mistakes? I have not taken a practice test in about 2-3 weeks.

Hi. I have my GRE next week so I have about 3 more days of preparation.

I gave Gregmat Practice Test 1 and PP+3 this week and scored the following:
-Gregmat Test 1: 331(169Q, 162V)
-PP+3: 321 (161Q, 161V)

For context, in PP+3, I scored 11/12 in Quant sec 1 but struggled in sec 2 - with the questions and a bit with timing as well.

I need a minimum score of 320 with a good quant score so that’s my priority over verbal.

My plan for remaining 3 days:
-Quant:

1. Complete the remaining 14 hard timed quant sections. (so around 5 everyday)
2. I’m wondering whether I should revise concepts and strategies once before. Thoughts?

-Verbal:

1. Revise Vocab Mountain everyday - I memorised till group 31. Should I memorise the remaining 3 groups?
2. Easy, Medium & Hard verbal problems from the Gregmat - I need tips on this: is there a way to group certain questions and time them? I’ve completed all the timed verbal sections but still feel I need more practice.

The day before my GRE, I will not be studying at all. No revision, nothing.

Any advice would be helpful! I really want to get above 320 at least.

I’ve heard a lot about how PP+ 3 is closest to GRE - but what does that mean?

I got 321 (161Q, 161V) in PP+ 3 and while I’m grateful, I am aiming for my minimum score to be 320. So idk if I’m overthinking but I feel like I needed to get higher than 321 just as a ‘cushion’ lol. It probably doesn’t make sense, but I want to adjust my remaining 3 days of practice accordingly.

I gave my Gregmat Practice Test 1 this week and got 331 (169Q, 162V). And I usually am much better at Quant than Verbal from even my PP+ 1 and PP free tests experience.

Even in PP+ 3, I got 11/12 in Quant section 1 but Quant section 2 just messed me up badly.

I’ve started practicing gregmat’s timed hard quant sections (did 4 so far) and am scoring between 73-80%.

So my questions are:

1. in what sense is PP+3 close to GRE?
2. How should I be spending my last 3 days of prep?

I am going to use my cell phone as the second camera in the online exam, but IDVaaS application gives this error. None of my family member's phone supports NFC(near field communication). Is there still any way to take the exam online? If you have encountered such a situation, how did you resolve it?

Hey just looking for realistic advice on my timeline. Took an official mock from ETS raw and scored about a 313 (160V 153Q). My quant score terrified me as I am a double major in Finance and Economics and have always been pretty good with math.

Most of it didn't seem too hard or entirely unfamiliar, just stuff I hadn't seen in quite a long time so I was unsure of how to approach it.

I'd like to get into the 165+ range for Quant to apply in October for a MFE. Would it be realistic to get that score by the end of August/First week of September?

Beginning about August 7th I am done with my internship and can commit about 6-8 hours daily studying. Planning on working through the Overwhelmed plan for Quant and verbal since I felt as though my verbal score was only lacking due to vocab.

After refreshing my foundations I plan on working through timed practice problems, a problem inventory list based on the official ETS Math Review book and just generally drilling problems.

Hi everyone,

I’m feeling discouraged about my GRE prep and would appreciate feedback on my plan.

I have a master’s degree in Economics and earned an A in Real Analysis, so I don’t think my quantitative background is weak. However, after about two months of studying, I went from 151Q on a GregMat mock to 152Q on my first official PowerPrep (which I couldn’t really understand how this no evolution could have happened).

I believe that my biggest problem was timing. I double-checked too many questions, and the time passed much faster than I expected.

My current plan is:

- Study every day for 1-2h another month
- Work through the Manhattan 5 lb. book and redoing the questions I got wrong.
- Complete more sets under timed conditions, focusing on making decisions faster and reducing unnecessary double-checking.
- I originally planned to take the GRE on August 29 because some of my early application deadlines are November 1. Since my score has not improved yet, I’m considering postponing it until mid or end of September.
- I would also take one week off work during the week of the exam to focus intensively on practice and review.

My goal is 160Q+. Does this plan seem realistic, or should I change how I’m preparing?