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Revised GRE – 15 Statistics Questions in Quants

Raghuram Sukumar —  October 6, 2011 — 20 Comments

Shared by HSB Fan.

Appeared for revised GRE on 4th Oct, Got score range of

  • 510-610 – Verbal
  • 750-800 – Quants

Quantitative Section

All those appearing revised GRE please concentrate on the Statistics part of Quants, I got around 15 questions from them out of the 60 questions ( I had one quants experimental section).

My suggestion read the Math Guide available.

Rest all part are easy.

You can finish one quants section easily with 5 minutes to spare, so lots of time here to check your answers.

Verbal Section

For Verbal you will only get one very long passage in the two sections so i found adjusting time easier in the section with only short passages. Test is a bit lengthy but you wont notice when the time passes. Let me know if you have any questions..

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New GRE – A Pleasant Nightmare – Part 2

Raghuram Sukumar —  September 10, 2011 — 7 Comments

I’m continuing my story from the point I left it in my last post:

New GRE Exam – Pleasant nightmare

It was August 4th, hardly a week before my exam. That Thursday evening brought with it, among other things, surprise and suspense for me. I was casually checking my mails when I ran through a confirmation mail from Prometric.

I took it to be the normal reminder which we get before our GRE. But when I read it, my eyes widened.

My GRE date was mentioned as 25th August 2011. I couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

A tide of questions rose within me- “Am I reading it wrong?”, “Did my memory become weak and I actually booked my GRE for August 25th?”, “Is it a technical snag that caused this to happen?”, “How could my exam date be changed without my knowledge or even without my consent?” et al.

I had mixed feelings. I later on came to know that the exam center in Hyderabad was being shifted and hence all the exams were re-scheduled.

It was like a boon for me which I got without asking. The only thing I was unhappy about was my exam time- it was at 18:00

Imagine yourself reading a GRE RC passage at 21:30 when the world is getting ready to sleep.

However, keeping this aside, I made up my mind that I’ll completely utilise the extra time I got. It couldn’t happen somehow- you know how human beings are.

The only thing I could do was add another 200 words for my vocab base. 2 weeks passed by and this time my situation was pathetic- keep aside reading new words, I couldn’t even recollect majority of the 1200 words I studied.

Added to it, I discovered that I was failing to recollect even the quants concepts and formulae. That said, I decided not to panic and stay aplomb.

I first revised quants thoroughly so that I can be rest assured of getting a decent score in that section. Then I started practicing quants. For verbal, I first finished revising the 1200 odd words which I knew.

Now my condition was same as before- not many days left for GRE and much left to read. “Earth is truly round”, I said to myself. I decided to sideline vocab for sometime and instead concentrate on RC’s. I finished RC sessions from my online classes. By this time I was cheek-by-jowl with GRE.

2 Days to GRE Exam

Two days before GRE, I did the practice questions from the official guide and was ecstatic to note that majority of my RC questions were right. This bolstered my confidence, although many of the words were aliens to me.

My quants practice was continuing alongside with this. I was not getting very decent scores in the quants practice tests that I was writing, nevertheless I didn’t allow myself to get diffident. I was just keeping my sangfroid and doing whatever I could do.
“Time and tide wait for none”, they say. I was not to be exempted from this law of nature and the D-DAY arrived.

That morning I was going through the RC strategies peresented in Gruber’s GRE which provided good insights into tackling the GRE RC part. The night before, I went through the Quants strategies from the same book and found some of them to be really helpful.

Then at 12:15, 05:45 away from my exam, I started writing powerprep II. This time around I didn’t use a dicitionary. The test went on for 02:30 and I got a score range of 1280-1440.
I decided not to get carried away. I got ready to face the exam, took the blessings of my parents and the Almighty and started towards the exam centre.

In the car I was reading some of the verbal strategies from Princeton Review- Cracking the new GRE book, which didn’t get into my head anyhow.

I was finally at the exam centre. I finished the formaltites there and found myself before the computer at around 17:30- without any preparation for AWA and the quants formulas and 1200 words orbiting my mind………

I’m unable to refrain myself from posting some RC questions. Try answering them:

1. Which of the following most closely represents the author’s views about human beings?

A. Most of them go to sleep at around 22:00.
B. Most of them are otiose.
C. Most of them plan things mentally but fail to pull the trigger because of some important commitments.
D. They scoff the favours which they get without asking.
E. Most of them fail to utilise the time effectively, which they get by chance, due to their own reasons.

2. Select a sentence from the passage which supports the author’s views about Earth.

3. The author says that time and tide wait for none to

A. Deviate the reader from the main point in the passage.
B. Emphasize the importance of time.
C. Bring out an analogy between time and tide.
D. Argue that time stops for no one whereas it should do so.
E. Illustrate later how this turned true in his case.

4. Going by the information provided in the passage, how many sources did the author use to prepare himself before going to the GRE exam?

A.2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5
E. 1

The answers for the RC questions in my last post are:

1. A,B,C.
2. C
3. D

If you do not agree with me on any of the above answers, post it in your comments. And answer the above questions if you are interested. Be rest assured that getting the correct answers for the above questions is not going to be as easy as for the one’s in my previous post.
I would be sharing my test experience and my score ranges in my next and the final post.

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GRE: How To Score 1580

Raghuram Sukumar —  April 25, 2011 — 54 Comments

My GRE experience was better than I thought it would be. I scored 1580. which was unexpectedly and pleasantly high.

  • GRE Verbal – 780
  • GRE Quantitative -  800
  • GRE Analytical Writing 5.0

GRE Coaching Class

I know many GRE-takers can’t decide whether to take a GRE Coaching class or prepare on their own. Though taking a class certainly won’t be enough to guarantee you a good score, I’d  suggest joining one. I had taken coaching for about 6 weeks, and though I didn’t remember the words and formula as such during the course of the classes, at the end  of the day I had good, reliable material to start off with.

With so many distractions around us, the momentum that a regular class gives can be important. So unless  you’re very confident about your motivation and ability, joining a class can be a good investment. Looking to save a few bucks can prove expensive later on if you  happen to lose sight of your goal along the way, and end up with a score beneath your potential.

Then again, joining the right GRE Coaching center is important; I’ve heard of classes which hand out word lists and make them recite the word and meaning out loud. That’s the worst  possible kind of preparation, and ironically turns students looking to pursue graduate study into kindergarteners.

The class I attended was taught by a sir with  amazing knowledge about an array of topics, and he just used to talk about any random topic and GRE words were brought into the interaction naturally, wherein he  explained them to us along with the pertinent word’s synonyms. This is an important part of preparation-’learning in context’.

We can, and will forget a word that we  learn by rote, but knowing and understanding the way in which in which it’s used will seal the word in memory.

General GRE Preparation Tips

Regarding preparation, I’d suggest the following-

  • Before you start your preparation, set a target score. Don’t underestimate yourself. It’s ok to aim high, as long as your work is commensurate to that. :)
  • If you will take/have taken coaching, perfect the GRE Study materials at hand before moving on to online material or other books. Looking to work in too many directions  at the same time can shift your focus.
  • In case you plan to study on your own, make sure you ask for advice regarding the right kind of material to buy/download from seniors or reliable blogs like HSB. GRE preparation is not the time to demonstrate our independence, there’ll be ample time for that later on.
  • Don’t try to second guess the computer. It doesn’t matter which of the sections will be evaluated, do your best on all  of  them.
  • Start your preparation early, preferably atleast 5 months before your expected test month; earlier if you’re not very comfortable with english.
  • Take some practice tests in the course of your preparation, but know when to stop. Too many practice tests without proper preparation and the resultant low score can affect confidence.

GRE Quantitative

  • The quantitative section is the most important criteria for admissions, make sure you’re good with the basics you learnt in school and intermediate. I do wish someone had told me while we were first learning those concepts of probability and permutations that they’d come back to us in the form of GRE,  I’d have paid a lot more attention.
  • Luckily, most Indians find the quantitative section a cakewalk. In a regular situation, it’s pretty easy to score over 700 in this section. So if you’re  consistently scoring over 700 in preliminary practice tests, I think it’s better to spend time to improve your verbal score rather than trying to bring up your quants to 800.
  • A perfect quants score is great, but in the time that you spend increasing your score by about a 100 in quants, you could actually increase your verbal score by about 200-300 points with the right kind of preparation.

GRE Analytical Writing

  • The AWA section is said to be the least important part of the GRE, and rightly so.  However,this section can play a deciding factor during the admissions process, when the committee has to chose between two candidates with similar profiles. So being ready with an opening and closing template is probably a good idea.
  • The argument is a pretty easy section, you just have to find fault with everything(logically, of course).
  • AWA issue is a different matter, and requires a basic  knowledge of history, literature, politics, etc. If you have sufficient time, it’s a good idea to look at the pool of topics and maybe try to find sample answers somewhere(only to get an idea of what is expected and accepted. Never, ever lift off entire ideas or sentences)
  • If you’ve started preparing, the dreaded concept of dummy sections wouldn’t be new to you. It’s possible that you can get two quant/verbal/awa sections, only one of which will be considered into your score.

GRE Verbal

  • For those of you who have more than a year to go before you have to take GRE, start general reading. This will help you ease into the habit of reading and looking  up new words, and will also better equip you for issue-writing. ‘The Hindu’ editorial is a great place to start!
  • If you’re a habitual reader(fiction/non-fiction, even reading the newspaper everyday gives you good practice) you will find some GRE words familiar. The reading  habit will also be a great help with the reading comprehensions, which are nothing like the ones we had in school. In limited time, reading the high-level  passages requires a speed of effective reading, which comes naturally when reading is a habit. Even better when it’s a hobby. :)

Understand GRE Scoring

  • Most importantly, know how the GRE test is scored. The GRE is computer adaptive, and the initial questions carry far more weightage than the last few. Spend half your section time on the first 10 questions of the section. If you get all of them right on a row, your job is half done. Also, you’ll be penalized for leaving question unanswered, so never leave any questions.
  • Answering the last three questions wrong is better than leaving the last one unanswered, score-wise. When  you get to the end of the section, on the last question, choose an answer before you begin to solve it. If the time’s up, you’ll be asked for confirmation of your chosen answer. If luckily you get the right answer before time’s up, you can always change it. Bottom line, never leave it unanswered.

GRE Exam: One Month to Go

One month before the test date, step it up. Take lot of practice tests, and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Always see the key and go through the right method  to approach each question; this is especially important in the quantitative section. If you can, set aside a book for practice tests so that you can track your  progress. Taking maximum possible number of practice tests will accustom you to the time limitation and you can learn to manage time better.

GRE Study Materials

Try different standardized GRE tests like-

  • Powerprep (the best measure of your performance, you get two tests. Save one for two days before the test. That score will give you an idea of the score you can expect)
  • Barron’s (two tests in the cd you get along with the book)
  • Kaplan , Princeton Review, etc
  • Top 9 GRE Test Prep Books

You can try 800 tests practice tests; the difficulty level is higher than that of the actual GRE, but if you’re consistently scoring around a score range, you can expect  that your score won’t be lower than that on the actual test.

The last few practice tets I took gave me scores over 1500, but of course back then I thought that the tests weren’t being difficult enough. But in the end, those tests, especially the GRE powerprep test, turned out to be accurate indicators of my test score.

On the Day of the GRE Exam

On the day of the exam, the most important thing is to keep your head. The GRE is important, but it’s only the means to an end and not the end itself. Don’t panic, and never try to cram any  words the day before the test, or worse, at the test center (make sure you find out the exact location of the test center beforehand).

Revise all the GRE quants formula and verbal tips on the day before the exam. Take extra care of your health  the week before your exam, especially in the winter. You don’t want to end up with a runny nose, you need our hands for more important things.

Give your best shot.  Hope this helps, all the best! :)

If the person who shared above wonderful article gives permission to disclose the first name, we will update it here. If you have any questions for her leave your comment to this article.

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GRE Test Prep Books, Software and Study Tips

Raghuram Sukumar —  April 12, 2011 — 77 Comments

I gave my GRE on 25th March and scored 1450 (790Q + 660V) and a 4.5 on AWA. It was slightly unexpected as I scored my maximum on the actual GRE than any other practice tests, but it was a pleasant surprise.

GRE tests your nerves, that’s what I have figured out. The success formula is just staying calm through those 3 odd hours and doing what you have been doing for the past month or so, solve questions as efficiently as you can.

Lets split this into 3 parts as the GRE does.

GRE Analytical Writing Assessment

This one is the most tricky section of the GRE. Hugely under-rated but vital in the process. The essays do not affect your admission, especially if you plan to make it in the Engineering. An average score of 3 or more usually proves enough.
But the section is important as it sets the tone for the exam. If you are confident with your essays and go through them properly, it really helps. Usually, you would be nervous the moment you start writing the essay. And believe me, there nothing as good as a neatly written essay to calm those nerves.

A good essay will give you confidence and a much needed morale boost to face the upcoming sections. So, attempt the essays as sincerely as you attempt the rest 2 sections.

GRE Quantitative Section

GRE Quantitative section is pretty easy once you practice it thoroughly. Practice is the only thing that helps. You need to get your basics cleared before you start with the actual practice questions though.

  • Books like Barrons seem enough for the same.
  • GRE Quants tests is your patience.
  • Some questions are really tricky while some are lengthy.

You know you are going to get there but it takes time and that’s what gets to you. As I said, holding your nerve is the only thing that helps. Also, data interpretation is the toughest of the lot I feel. A thorough practice on it will help for sure.
Also, the difficulty level does go on increasing and the questions start to take time but it returns to the original level in the last few question once your pointer peaks. Time management is not quite a problem in quant. I finished mine with 12 minutes to spare.

GRE Verbal Section

That’s the dreaded section, mainly for the Indian students, especially those from vernacular medium. Verbal is all about managing time and off course luck. The difficulty level does vary, not only from question to question but from day to day. I did have a comparably easy verbal than my friends who gave it the day before.
Time management is one of the key factors in verbal. The Reading Comprehensions do take a lot of time but the analogies and the antonyms make up for it. But you need to be thorough with your words for that.

GRE Test – Breaks

You’ll get 2 breaks in the whole process. One after the AWA of 10 minutes and other after the Quant/Verbal of 1 minute. Use the breaks to their full capacity.

Don’t even waste a single minute on you break. Relax. Do whatever you want to but don’t start beforehand.
Also take the tutorial presented at the start of the test. It’s useless and you might be a computer engineer working on the mouse and keyboard day in and day out but it helps you to relax. It gets you accustomed to the environment in which you’ll be spending the next 3.5 hours giving the exam that decides you future.

GRE Preparation – Verbal

The preparations do vary from person to person. So comparison is in vain.

Start with verbal as it does take a lot of time. I remember doing word lists for days on end and still a lot of them were in the unfinished column. The Barron words list are more than enough I feel.

You will find lots of word list on the net. A 300 word one , a 2500 word one and many more. I will not say they are useless but the Barron’ s word list looks quite complete. Also, you will find a host of High Frequency words but seriously, there is no shortcut for doing the words.

Hard work doesn’t have a substitute. The only thing that would help is working smart. Prepare word groups. Maintain a notebook. Write down similar meaning words. Many more techniques can also be implemented.

The word lists need to be revised for a minimum of 3 times to be thorough with them. Getting them trough is the only way to answer the antonyms and analogies correctly and as I said earlier, they are the only time saving option on the GRE.

GRE Quants Preparation

Quant needs practice. Start of with doing minor exercises and move on to actual GRE questions. The questions from Kaplan are a bit tough than Barron’s but once you get Kaplan right, you can do little wrong on the GRE.

Also, there are 800score.com tests which provide the toughest questions. If you score well on those, be rest assured of you Quant score crossing the 780 mark.

Practice / Mock GRE

Giving mock GREs help more than any other practice. There is nothing better than to give GRE as it would appear right on the test day. Moreover, the testing softwares are pretty accurate about the scoring.

Many people say that the Powerprep is the best indicator of you score on the actual GRE but I felt the other way. The princeton and Kaplan give far more accurate scores than the Powerprep. In fact my 2 tests on Powerprep were 1220 and1310, far from my actual score.

Not getting depressed by a low score is important. Think the other way round. Say to yourself that the softwares are cheating as the companies want you to buy there softwares and move on. Practice to get a higher score.

Equally important is not letting a god score on the Mock get to your head. If the software was inaccurate on your failure, it cant guarantee you success too!

There is a huge list of GRE Testing Softwares available through the net. I’ll list the ones I used:

  • Powerprep – v2 and v3(in free CD from ETS) – 2 tests each
  • GRE Barrons – 2 tests
  • Kaplan  GRE- 3 full GRE tests and 6 each of verbal and quant
  • Princeton Cracking GRE – 4 tests (Book + Software)
  • 800score.com – 5 tests
  • Cambridge – 1 test

GRE Books used

Remember, being focused is the only thing that will help you. Try to concentrate on the GRE other than anything else. There will be distractions throughout mainly due to mismatch in timing.

There would be a difference of around 40 mins between the person entering the bloc first and the one entering last. Thus, when you would be in your Verbal/Quant section, he would be attempting the AWA and the keyboard clutter could cause distraction.

Stay calm. Stay cool. All the best with you exams.

Feel free to contact me for any materials. I did get a lot from this blog and the members herein and I would be the happiest if I could pay-back.

Thansk to Nitish for sharing his GRE Experience. It well written and informative.

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Fall 2011 Admission: The Timeline

Raghuram Sukumar —  March 12, 2011 — 23 Comments

Fall 2011 Graduate School Admission procedure and the timeline – Shared by Kaustubh

GRE and Fall 2011 Admission

Just wanted to share my whole time line, thought somebody would have some idea that how to prepare…

I personally hastened through out the process because I was also studying at the time and still I am. May be you would like to pre-plan to avoid such a mess.

When I was a kid from that time I was certain that I am a technology guy and I am not going to be in any other field. Till my 12th standard i was only knowing that I would be a engineer but wasn’t sure about the MS or the thing.

Then in the December of my 3rd Year my uncle (Cousin) from Los Angeles landed in India. At that time I was preparing for CAT. Then after I had a chat with him. Then he told me the whole process he got through as he is also a mechanical engineer (with MS in Industrial Engineering in 1981). Of course I had known that he has a MS but was not in a great tough with him though. Then I started having a serious thought of going for MS.

I decided in May 2010 to appear for GRE

  • June 2010: Started to apply for Passport, had some issues so took time for the process
  • July 2010: Applied for the Passport
  • End of July: Started studying for GRE
  • October 13th 2010: Appeared for GRE; Scored 1260 (Q-760, V-500)
  • October 31th 2010: Appeared for TOEFL
  • November 7th (After Diwali): Appeared for the Orals of 4th Year
  • November 13th (approx): Started the Documentation for Application
  • December 2nd: Started studying for the 7th semester exams Which ended on
  • 24th of December: Resumed application process
  • 7th January: All application with documents Completed

And a big Sigh of relief….hushhhh :o

Now have an Admits from:

  • University of Texas – Arlington
  • Oklahoma State University – Stillwater
  • University of Oklahoma – Norman
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How To Improve GRE Score: 1290 to 1430

Raghuram Sukumar —  February 22, 2011 — 29 Comments

 

Hello HSB – I am from Pune. I have been following HSB since last 2 years. It has been of immense help. So, I thought of sharing my GRE Exam experience.

GRE Exam – 1290

I had taken GRE in my third year i.e. in 2007. I was not very well prepared for the exam. I had completed about 30 wordlists from Barron’s, but had to take GRE asap since there were rumors of change in pattern at that time. I scored 1290. Verbal =550 and Quant = 740.I did not have sufficient time to finish those remaining 20 wordlists. So, I just started taking practice tests.

I had no time to prepare specially for quant. So, I listed out all formula and concentrated only on problems I got wrong on practice tests. During these tests, I realized that knowing each and every word from Barron’s is indeed very important. But you can’t improve vocabulary in last few days and since I was from Marathi medium school, my GRE vocab was not so good.

I read all tips from books and HSB and actually used them in the test. This is very important. Many times we just read them and forget to use them in test as we are focused on that particular question at the time of test. But if you make conscious effort to use them, it becomes habit.

Analogies was my weak point because of poor vocab. But, I followed each and every tip on RC and used it and it really helped me. I used to get most of the RC questions correct.

I scored just 430 in verbal on powerprep test a day before. So, I was really happy to see my highest score on actual GRE. :D That was 550. I had not practiced quant section rigorously and had to suffer. Ended up with 740 and last 2 questions unanswered.?But this GRE experience proved to be a learning experience for me and I realized that I can definitely do better than 1290.

Then I decided to take GRE again and learn at least every word in Barron’s.

GRE Test – 1490

GRE Verbal tips

Learn each and every word in Barron’s. It gives you lot of confidence to face GRE. You may encounter completely unknown word on GRE. But importance of Barron’s can’t be denied.

Read a wordlist with a blank mind. Read sentence associated with it carefully. Make random associations if that sentence reminds you of anything familiar or a story. Or think of equivalent word in your native language to get exact sense of that word. So you can remember it like… ‘ohh means something like !!

Make a notebook. After reading wordlist completely, try to figure out difficult words and write them in your notebook. If the word is very difficult, then write sentence as well or anything that helps you to remember that word. So, you can shrink wordlist of around 85 words to about 60 words. In such a way, you can reduce total number of words by 20 x 50 i.e. 1000 words!!! Think of it every time you finish a wordlist and it helps to reduce mental stress of building vocabulary.

Vocabulary building gets frustrating when you forget word you read a day before. Accept it, read that word again and write it. Once you have read good number of wordlists you will encounter similar words. At the end of the notebook, write all of them in one group. I had made such lists e.g. there are many words meaning stubborn. Also, write all words related to one common thing. E.g. food, animals, different professions, ~logies, geographical structures.

Adjectives and Verbs are more important. These are potential words for antonym questions. Nouns are generally found in analogies.

Think of connotation of the word i.e. whether it is positive or negative. Sometimes you don’t remember actual meaning, but you definitely know its connotation. It helps to eliminate wrong answer choices.

Read all words written in your notebook again and again. You can’t avoid that. Just do this for couple of months and you are done with your GRE! If you waste 4-5 months in just vacab preparation, it gets boring. By this method I had finished Barron’s completely and knew each and every Barron’s word at the time of my second attempt.

I know, there are many non- Barron’s words. But this is what is in your hands. Otherwise read, read and read! But that’s long time preparation. If you are in first/second year, you can still do that. If you read GRE word somewhere or hear it while watching movie, you get that awesome feeling ‘I know, I know this word! Yay!’ :D

Reading Comprehension: Don’t read passage. Read question and answer choices first. So, while reading you naturally think in that direction. Don’t just read without understanding anything! I used to do this :D . Keep your mind cool and read it. It may take time more than they specify in tips. Understand the passage.

Think about structure of the passage i.e. first paragraph proposes this, second proves it, third compares it with something else, so author seems to think in this way. This helps a lot. It gives you correct answers. Also, most of the times answer choices with sentences similar to that in passage are wrong. They are misleading. Read them carefully.

Practice. Practice. Practice. This is very important for time management. I didn’t practice so much and had to suffer. Time management is very very very important. Otherwise you can’t do anything even if you know each and every answer. I had to simply answer second RC of 85 lines without reading it. But that was ok since it was at around 20th question. I read third RC at around 25th question completely as it was small.

FIRST 15 QUESTIONS ARE VERY VERY IMPORTANT. I tried my best for first 15 questions and it really helped me to get a good score in spite of answering last 7-8 questions without reading in each section. I think I could have done better if I had done enough practice.

Kaplan Verbal workbook has nice division of words of similar meaning. I got to know this very late. But I had already prepared such list on my own.

Use mobile vocabulary software if you travel daily. I work as a SW engineer. So I have to travel everyday. I used to read few words everyday. It also helped me to revise all words when I was traveling to Mumbai for GRE. So I saved time to revise vocab.

GRE Quantitative  Tips

Practice. Even though quant is very easy, it needs practice to finish it in time.?2. Practice co-ordinate geometry, probability, mean, mode, median, standard deviation, frequency distribution, permutation combinations. I got 4-5 questions on equation of line in actual GRE.

I had forgotten all those equations as I was not in touch with them for last few years. I read them in the morning of test day. It saved me.?3. Learn different system of units. E.g. hectars, ounces, inches, gallons, yards.?4. Powerprep comes with one PDF (MATHREV.pdf )document in quantitative section. It is good to refresh all concepts at last minute.

Read sample issues and argument essays in powerprep.

So, I took GRE again in Nov 2010. In my second attempt I scored 1430. Verbal = 660 and Quantitative = 770. I could have done better in quantitative if I had done enough practice.

On the test day: BE CONFIDENT AND KEEP YOURSELF  COOL IRRESPECTIVE OF LEVEL OF PREPARATION. GIVE YOUR BEST. I SCORED HIGHEST ON ACTUAL GRE IN BOTH MY ATTEMPTS. Take rest a night before. If you are tired just before your test, take those stupid tutorials about ‘how to use mouse’ to relax and get used to test environment. I took entire tutorial just to relax. Take ten minute break after analytical section. All the best!

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GRE Experience: 790 and 1260

Raghuram Sukumar —  December 30, 2010 — 10 Comments

HI guyz….

well seeing this article i wanna share my GRE Test experience. well i gave my gre 1st attempt on july12th i ended with 790

  • 300 – GRE Verbal
  • 490 – GRE Quantitative

I was totally depressed. i knew it was below my potential so i decide to retake the test. i booked ma test date 1 month later 27th of august. then again i started rigorous preparation. after 15 days i realized that i still need practice and i knew most universities deadlines are gone. so i postponed it to nov3 this year. i made a fresh plan started from scratch.
specially this blog helped me a lot. i had2 months in my hand. i followed HSB’s 2month study plan did exactly what it said. gave an practice test made a notebook and noted my mistakes.

(NOTE: guyz i recommend you to start test practice after completing barrons wordlist if you don’t do so u’ll feel depressed due to low score)

in my 1st test i mugged up word family which did not worked. and referred my coaching notes.

IN my secong attempt i scored 1260 (520 verbal 740 quants) a difference of 470 which matters. it might be looking unreal but its true. here it goes what i did.

  1. mugged barrons wordlist in 15days and kept revision everyday till the test day
  2. first completed quants guyz hsb recommends a book (Nova GRE MATH bible) i did that only its too awesome for sure 700. and for verbal
    its was tough i used tips for answering RC/sentcomp. believe me guyz first it doesn’t works but for RC and sent completion it surely works. once you get familiar with it by practicing using tips u’ll enjoy RC’s an SC. mean while in my leisure time i read novels which boosted my reading speed. i some how completed verbal section but still was depressed in practice test score was around 400
  3. Then it was 45 days when i started giving tests
    1st i gave untimed test so that i get correct answers first i practiced test on every software like nova/powerprep/kaplan/barron/brebible/bigbook1 and version2 [ Top GRE Test Prep Books]
  4. when i gave test slowly slowly my score increased but i was never confident that i will get that much score in real test. so i kept giving test, revising words every day.
  5. but 2days b4 my test i lost my bro. he expired due to loss of water. it was really hard to get back momentum.but i did not gave up. i had one day for revision.

Second Attempt – GRE

  • on 2nd nov i revisied 1ce quants section
  • saw once verbal section and high freq words and slept early in might around 10 p.
  • my slot was at 9.00 in morning.

I was bit tensed. but i decided in my self.”vinay you have worked hard for this exam and you know most things” thats it went in the test room.

got awa first solved it.
then 10min break utilized it completely relaxed.
came back got quants section 1st
decide any cost solve 1st 15 correct. and i did it.
i spent 3o min on 15 questions. then fastly solved rest
then 1minute break. made my mind set clear
started. same strategy 1st 15 correct. but difficulty increases. i could not. but kept my confidence used elimination strategies and tactics which i practiced.
at the end my verbal score 520. i was amazed.

Thanks to Vinay for sharing his experience.

Suggestions to Vinay: When you are writing your SOP, thy not to write exactly like this experience. There are so many typos and mistakes.

Your good score will go helpless if SOP is filled with mistakes.

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GRE Tricks to Score 1330

Raghuram Sukumar —  December 29, 2010 — 8 Comments

I have given my exam yesterday i got 1330 in first attempt.

  • Verbal – 570
  • Quant – 760

Complete list of GRE Test Experience shared by users.

Following are the things to remember or things to do while you are preparing

  1. Those who are good at quants dont try to put more efforts in that because any how you will get above 750 if your fundamentals are clear.
  2. Verbal is the most important part if you want to score more than 1250. So i would suggest you to go through each and every word in the word list of Barron
  3. Though many say that words are not Barron’s etc etc. But i found each and every word is there which can help you out in every topic of verbal. i.e from RC to analogies.
  4. Try to take GRE in last week of month. I have got reasons for that
  5. The reason is every month the questions are asked from same database and every month they will change it. So there is a huge possibility that questions will be repeated in last week. And GRE exam questions you can find it on Dr. Raju’s GRE forum. I hope many of you will be knowing it already.
  6. Try to practice more and more for RC because that will take lot of your time. And as i said if u know what is the answer with the help of Dr. Raju’s GRE forum. It will be of great help. in saving your time.
  7. Try to take more and more mock test as it will give you rough idea of your score.

Thanks to Chintan for sharing his GRE Tips and Tricks.

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GRE Test Experience – 1130 and 1280

Raghuram Sukumar —  December 27, 2010 — 31 Comments

Following is the experience of my second GRE attempt I gave 3 days ago. I would like to share with the readers of Happy School Blog, especially with those who are confused about giving a second GRE attempt.

  • My first attempt score was 1130.
  • Verbal 370
  • Quant 760
  • Second attempt score was 1280.
  • Verbal 530
  • Quant 750

I know its not a very high score to brag about but its just the GRE Test Taking experience that i wish to share so that the test-takers can understand what critical mistakes they can avoid and what they can do to score up to their potential and not below it. Continue Reading…

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GRE Test Experience and Study Tips- 1420

Raghuram Sukumar —  December 8, 2010 — 18 Comments

HSB fan shared GRE Test Experience after scoring 1420 in GRE. It should have taken atleast 1 hour to write this GRE experience – including test prep tips for each section, self-assessment, study materials and what to do on the day of the GRE exam.

I gave my GRE on August 23rd. Scored 1420.

  • Quantitative-750
  • Verbal-670

Now that my exam is done, I think it’s time I repaid the favor by sharing my experience and suggest a few things. I shall not discuss all the routine instructions and tips. You can get them by perusing though the blog. Tips from personal GRE experience that I think will be of use and might benefit others have been discussed. Hope you’ll find then useful…. Continue Reading…

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GRE Score – 1330; Experience and Tips

Raghuram Sukumar —  October 14, 2010 — 33 Comments

Umank sent his GRE experience along with GRE Study tips that helped him improve his score by 300 points in 3 months.  Use the following GRE Study guide (personal experience). He has porvided very valuable tips on how to control stress and manage time. Continue Reading…

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