How I Prepared for GRE Exam (3 Steps)

3 Step GRE Exam study plan – Written by Sameer

1. Raw Skills : Know Where do you stand?
2. GRE Exam Preparation
3. GRE Sample – Practice, Practice and More Practice

Raw Skills – Know Where do you stand?

It is important to clear the misconception from within. You should have been exposed to English thats good but may not be enough to crack the GRE test. You must know what your current level of skills (Verbal, quantitative and Analytical writing).

You need to find where you stand and prepare your GRE Exam study plan accordingly. Hence, give Practice test. Infact there are Diagnostic Mock GRE tests on websites like Kaplan. Get registered for free and attempt Diagnostic test nnd Diagnose your performance.

Actual – GRE Exam Preparation

Get your resources from 2-3 different good resources. Joining an Coaching center is ok, but not compulsory. There are good resources online. Some of them are below at the end of this writeup.

GRE Practice Exams and Practice

Taking GRE Exam practice tests is the most important step in preparation. Practice and Diagnosis go hand in hand [ How to Improve GRE Exam Score] . Just writing series of mock exams won’t help unless you sit after each exam and diagnose how did you get a question wrong.

You must know your own pitfalls and avoid them in exam. There could be some sections that you do well. You need not worry much about them. Also, there could be questions you think you did well but you get them wrong. This is the point of contemplation. How you fell into the trap for a question? answer yourself.

Day before the Exam

Please note this,  Prior to Exam Day:

1. Prepare well in advance to select your Graduate schools. Remember the correct Details of University,School,Department and Course names.
2. When you are finished with your exam, GRE test sofware prompts you to select the University, Name, School names (in some cases), Department name and Course name the test centre.

Useful GRE Exam Preparation sites

• number2.com – create an account and do practice (only meanings Q’s are unlimited and other Q’s are limited- good to bulid ur vocab and test ur vocab )
• gre-verbal.blogspot.com : has a good collection of gre words aggregated monthly..they say these are Q’s from exam for that month… I have not verified the claim. they are pretty useful
• visualthesaurus.com : its the website . Its gives a good visual experience relating a jargon of words differentiating its shades.. you got to register here to use it fully, although a trail is available for limited use.
• dictionary.reference.com : this was my dark horse. I used this for looking up every new word along with synonyms and antonyms..It also gives the words usage and history.
• syvum.com/gre : instant test and results on set of 10 Q’s
• 800score.com/gre-index.html : i dont remeber if this was a paid site..just explore this as well.
• freshersworld.com : it has GRE preparations material
• koolkareers.com/gre : it also has GRE preparation material

If you have any comments and questions, leave a comment to this article. Sameer is going to write series of articles about this experience.

If you like the article, Re-Tweet this article by clicking on the Green Re-Tweet button on the right side.

Guest Article By – Sameer, I’m doing Master’s student in Cleveland state univ. I have completed Bachelors in Computers from Osmania and  3 years with Infosys. Back then, when i was applying to schools I found the blog very informative and I would like to share my experience to other Happy Schools Blog Readers

GRE PowerPrep Practice Test – 920; How Much I Can Improve?

Question about GRE Power Prep Practice score and impact on final GRE Score.

Kavitha Asks

My GRE unprepared powerprep test resulted in 310 Verbal and 610 Math. So after rigorous study for 2 months can result in what score? Can you please tell me.. This question can be answered by anyone who sees my post.. That means everyone would have taken this powerprep like me before preparing. So after preparing how much you have got ?

GRE Power Prep

If you read the article GRE Score Calculator, and other GRE Exam experiences it will be clear, your final GRE Exam score will be the average of GRE Score from Powerprep. But, since you took practice test before doing actual preparation, it may vary.

How much I can Improve – GRE Score

Well, it all depends on how much you prepare and how much effort you put in to study. Initial Power Prep GRE score shows your current potential. So, amount of score you can get after 2 months is directly proportional to your effort and study methods.

Read 10 Steps To Improve GRE Scores and keep posting your progress in next 2 months. Readers in HSB will be interested to know how you are doing.

After 1 month if your score is not improving, then you have change the way you study. Student’s usually don’t plan on how to study for GRE. They follow the same approach they got used to studying for exams. But, you need to have a study plan and stick to it. Track your progress, only then you can measure your success and improvement.

Q&A: Do I Have to Pay Whole Fees if I Get Low GRE Score?

Not everyone gets to score more than 1300 or 1400 in GRE. Many students get less than 1000 in GRE Score.  Low GRE Scores Universities had few schools that accept students with score less than 1000. But, one reader had a question about the tuition fee for getting low GRE Scores. Read more

GRE and GMAT Score – University of Texas at Arlington

Couple of days back I wrote about Average GRE Scores for University of Virginia. Few students have requested from the comments to for GRE Scores for other universities.

Today, you can know average GRE score for University of Texas at Arlington. Average GRE score is different from minimum GRE Score required for college admission. For instance, Computer Science department at University of Texas at Arlington, requires minimum GRE of 1100, but that doesn’t mean they will not give admission to students with GRE of 1050.

GRE Below Minimum Requirements

I have written in details on how graduate school application is reviewed and accepted and also avoiding there 11 common college admission application mistakes will definitely increase the chances to get admission.

GRE – UTA ( University of Texas at Arlington)

Average GRE scores listed represents scores of students from all the the departments in UTA. That will also include Masters degree in UTA and PhD programs.

That doesn’t mean average score will not be of any use. Using the GRE score will definitely give an idea of chances you have based on your GPA, Percentage, TOEFL, Recommendation Letter, Statement of purpose, resume, ..

Year	Average GRE	25th Percentile	75th Percentile
2003 – 2004	1121	-	-
2004 to 2005	1100	-	-
2005 to 2006	1080	-	-
2006 to 2007	1088	940	1210
2007 to 2008	1098	1000	1210

Year	Average GMAT	25th Percentile	75th Percentile
2003 – 2004	539	-	-
2004 to 2005	529	-	-
2005 to 2006	544	-	-
2006 to 2007	514	463	590
2007 to 2008	521	460	580

Graduate Record Exam Score Analysis

From the above table for average GRE, for year 2006 to 2008, we have data for 25th percentile and 75th percentile. So, students with score of 940 and below have got admission. But, they don’t disclose which department. Maybe for Biology or Physics department will give admission for GRE scores below 900, but I’m sure for Engineering department in UTA will need score of 1100 are more.

I have similar data for another 20 or more universities and I plan to write in coming weeks. If you like to stay informed, subscribe to email updates using the link below. If you like to know what other universities, I have, hmm lemme say few names,… University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas at Dallas, Clemson, and many more.

Average GRE Score – University of Virginia

I have seen so many students trying to find average GRE score accepted by universities, I happen to find this valuable data from University of Virginia website. Following table lists Average GRE Score for various departments. GRE Score average is calculated from students admitted to the program.

Students applying with different scoring systems, looks like University of Virginia have some formula to convert academic CGPA or Percentage to GPA. I have written GPA Converter guide to give an in depth analysis of GPA Conversion process. Enjoy the following GRE Score tables and I plan to write similar articles for other Universities.

Average GRE Score

Architecture	GPA	GRE Verbal	GRE Quantitative	GRE Analytical	GRE Analytical Writing
2007	3.45	553	631	610	4.6
2006	3.39	570	638	680	4.6
2005	3.50	579	663	703	4.7
2004	3.41	574	629	644	4.9
2003	3.40	573	642	654	5.1

Arts and Science

Arts and Sciences	GPA	GRE Verbal	GRE Quantitative	GRE Analytical	GRE Analytical Writing
2007	3.55	597	682	683	4.8
2006	3.55	605	682	659	4.9
2005	3.56	605	669	656	5.0

Education

Education	GPA	GRE Verbal	GRE Quantitative	GRE Analytical	GRE Analytical Writing
2007	3.36	528	592	600	4.7
2006	3.31	540	602	610	4.7
2005	3.31	534	609	637	4.7

Engineering

Engineering	GPA	GRE Verbal	GRE Quantitative	GRE Analytical	GRE Analytical Writing
2007	3.39	538	737	671	4.4
2006	3.58	538	743	581	4.5
2005	3.44	552	742	697	4.6
2004	3.42	539	747	690	4.6
2003	3.39	551	752	627	4.7

MBA – Darden

MBA – Darden	GPA	GRE Verbal
2007	3.29	678
2006	3.38	671
2005	3.37	668
2004	3.30	680
2003	3.40	679

Number of Students in 2007
Country of Citizenship	Total Graduate Students	Total Undergraduate Studetns
China	284	179
India	183	80
South Korea	97	193
Canada	27	60
Japan	31	17

GRE – Practice Verbal, feed hungry people

Playing FreeRice to keep up with your verbal practice while you’re focusing on the math. It’s addictive, and you feed hungry people in developing nations. http://freerice.com/index.php.

I have put together a page exclusively for GRE Exam, which will include Frequently Asked words in GRE, strategies to improve GRE score, ..

10 Steps to Improve Your GRE Exam Score

Follow the steps listed below for preparing for GRE Exam. I’m sure it will increase your score.

Step 1 – GRE Practice

There are lots of free online GRE Exam practice Tests available. Take one of the test without any distractions and check your score in GRE Exam Verbal and Quantitative sections. Make note of the date you took the exam and scores in each section.

Step 2 – Identify Weakness

For the questions you have answered wrong, make sure you find out why you selected the wrong answer and find how to solve. If you happen to learn a new formula or words, make a note of it. Use a separate notebook, one for Verbal and one for Maths. By making note of your mistakes, you are improving your weakness. This is better starting point to improve your final GRE Exam score.

Step 3 – Improve your Skills

Spend atleast 1 hour per day for GRE Vocabulary from Barron’s GRE Exam book. It has 50 Word Lists. Try to remember atleast 1 word list per week. So, every week you can read 50 to 100 new words.

Same time revise the notes you have from Step 2.

Step 4 – More GRE Notes

Week 1 read the first word list, Week 2 revise the first word list and then start learning the second Word List. So, that you will not forget the words. If you are weak in Quantitative, practice lots of maths questions. Keep taking notes for each new word or math formula you come across.

Step 5 – Flash Cards

Best way to remember new words is to form a sentence for each word. (Other technique – Use GRE Verbal Flash Cards, carry all the words that you are finding difficult to remember. If you happen to revise/look at a word for more than 5 times, it will be easy to remember ).

Use same flash card technique to remember some formulas, you can’t keep track of.

Step 6 – GRE Practice Test

Next, take an GRE Practice Test again and see how much you score, and for mistakes you make, again evaluate what went wrong. In this way, you will learn new maths formulas and at same time your score will increase month by month.

You will definitely see a score improvement from GRE exam practice test in Step 1.

Step 7 – Keep Improvising

No need to worry that you are scoring less in GRE tests now, every student initially has the same problem. Spending atleast 1-2 hours per day for first 3 months from now will get you going. In 4-5 months time you will see huge difference in the score.

There is difference between hard work and smart work. Smart work includes hard work and right study plan and keeping track of your skill level. While taking practice test, if you know you are going to get this question incorrect, make a note of it. After the practice test, make sure you solve similar problems atleast 30 times.

Step 8 – Daily Practice

So, the key to improve your GRE Scores and your GRE test strategies is to practice daily and if you select a wrong answer in your practice test, make sure you find the right answer.

Don’t jump around to many GRE books. Take one book, complete practicing all the problems there, then move to next book. If you are studying for 1 hour, make sure you use 100% of your time.

Step 9 – Motivation

Majority of the students make the mistake of not finding out the right answers for the questions they go it wrong in GRE Practice test. This is the most proven way to improve your scores in GRE. In your GRE exams (practice) and lets say you score 1000 and 2 months later in your GRE Practice test if you score around 1000 again, then I can say, 2 months of time spent studying GRE is of no use, unless the score improves.

Key to improve your score is to stay motivated. You need to have an urge to improve your scores. If you don’t commit yourself 100% during preparation, you are wasting your time.  GRE Exam is CAT format, with same skill level, how many time you take, your score will remain the same.

Step 10 – Bingo High GRE Exam Score

If your score doesn’t improve, try following different approach for preparation. But, after spending lot of time and if you don’t see your scores improve, there is something worng with your approach. Check if you are actually preparing for GRE Exam, not different exam

GRE Test Prep Books

Checkout the Top 4 GRE Test Prep books that can drastically improve your scores. Again, practice make you perfect.