British Academy

Best Way to Crack the New GRE

1. Use multiple resources

If you want to “crack the GRE”, don’t limit yourself to just one book. Some books excel in one area, while falling woefully short in others. Picking and choosing is important, since you don’t just want the best strategies, you also want the best practice questions. And by best, I mean those that faithfully simulate what you’ll see test day.



2. Quiz yourself often

It’s easy to fall into a rut of just opening a book and doing a few problems here and there. Or another typical rut you can fall in is to read vocabulary lists, yet never quiz yourself.

Quizzing yourself often—whether by randomly selecting twenty flashcards or by constructing a problem set out of a mix of verbal and quant questions—will keep you on your feet.



3. Don’t over focus

Oftentimes I find students trying to become a master at one topic. There are those who have learned to solve just about every variation of a combination problem but are unable to deal with easy rate questions.

At the same time make sure you do focus on only a few question types per week. After all, you need to build up some skill in a certain area. But remember to always come back to topics you learned in previous weeks. Review will not only refresh, but will also help instill concepts. All of which is unlikely to happen if you burrow into the integer properties tunnel.



4. Pinpoint your weak spots

This point flows into the last one. Do not continue working at what you are already good at, putting off those sections that you either dread of struggle at. Success on the GRE depends on being adept at the same level. Let me explain: the GRE throws a bunch of different concepts at you. By only being good at a few things, you will never be able to get beyond the medium section to even encounter the difficult questions (so if you are the combinations wizard, you are unlikely to get to use any of your magic).



5. Analyze the questions—learn the traps!

Both the math and the verbal section are full of traps. Luckily, they are also filled with shortcuts, meaning that if you know how to eliminate you will be able to save yourself a lot of time.

Becoming better at anticipating traps comes with plenty of practice. Remember, of course, if you really want to know how to crack the new GRE, you’ve got to use the best practice material. Such material will lay traps very similar to that found on the real test.

Shared by Adit Popli

My GRE Experience: How to crack GRE

This post might provide some respite to all those who are to give their GRE soon and are a little anxious and apprehensive about their performance and how to crack GRE because of the claim made made by some people that lately GRE (especially the quants section) has become tougher. If you are one of them, sit back and spare some time to read this post (which is going to be a long one)

I started with my GRE preparation around 2.5 months back and was very confident with the way my preparations were fairing up. And I actually like to read each and every experience posted py people who have appeared and how to crack GRE. And lately, over the past few weeks people have been saying that the quants section has stepped up a bit, not only in terms of difficulty but also length. This got me a little worried.

But, I had a very smooth experience with my exam. I didn’t find the exam intimidating at all. It felt as if I was giving another powerprep practice test and it was easy for me to crack GRE.

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Now, the exam-specific experience :

I got QVQVQ. As maths has always been my forte, this really soothed some nerves.

AWA:
I didn’t study for awa at all. I just spared 60 minutes last night and went through one sample passage for each task (those in OG) just to get a feel of the structure. If you are used to writing blogs, etc. I feel that you don’t need to give more than a day to your awa preparation. Though practicing a couple of passages for each task won’t hurt.

Q1:
As smooth as it gets. Completed it in 22 mins with revision in the next 5. Still 8 minutes to spare. This may not be the case with everyone though because I am really fast in calculations and often don’t need a calculator. ( Swag?! Oh yeah :P )

V1:
It was fine. Difficulty level was similar to powerprep 2. But the answer choices in the RC questions were a little tricky. It was often the case that I could easily eliminate 3 out of 5 choices and was caught between the remaining 2. In this case, just make a calculated guess and move on. Don’t waste a lot of time on them.

The 10 minute break:
I was really exhausted by this time. Actually, the last day I had traveled all the way from mangalore to chennai. And one mistake I made during my preparations was that I always skipped the awa section in mock tests. DON’T DO THAT. You should be mentally prepared to sit for 4 hours in front of the computer screen. I splashed water on my face and took a few deep breaths and that really seemed to work.

Q2:
Since GRE is an adaptive test and I fared pretty well in Q1(acc. to me, atleast), I expected Q2 to be tough. But it was even easier than the first, which made me little skeptical about my performance in Q1. Again completed it within 22 minutes.

V2:
It was easier than the first but there were a few alien words this time. There were also a lot of SELECT ALL THAT APPLY questions in RCs.

Q3:
Again started off well but after 7-8 easy questions, there were 3-4 tricky questions which consumed a lot of time and I was mentally exhausted. These questions weren’t difficult but the language was tricky and questions were long and I had to read them 2-3 times to comprehend them well. I was really exhausted and I felt an urge to give up. My mind was imploding. I skimmed these questions quickly and came back to them in the end. I consumed 34 minutes to complete this section.

And then was that heart pounding moment and I wasn’t expecting much because I was quite demoralized by the last section.

Score: 325 (q-168 v-157) and this is how I cracked GRE

"this article is written by Indian student (Perumal Gandhi) who got 164 in GRE Verbal"

The new GRE Verbal is a test of, first your vocabulary, second your ability to understand and complete a sentence, and lastly your ability to analyze the sentences and paragraphs provided. If you want to score high in this section your preparation must start a few months in advance. The GRE Verbal consists of three separate areas of testing:

Text Completion
Sentence Equivalence &
Reading Comprehension

While test strategies for each of the three sections will be discussed in detail, just by increasing your vocabulary, you will drastically increase your chance of scoring high on all of the sections.

How to Ace The GRE Verbal - Vocabulary

A high vocabulary directly correlates to higher understanding of the English language, additionally a high vocabulary will allow you to express your ideas and views in a more cogent and articulate manner. Do the following to increase your vocabulary (note that it will take a minimum of two months to do this properly):

Barron's Word List: The entire list consists roughly 4000 words, if you want a score higher than 160, then it will be necessary to wade through the entire list. But since the New GRE places a lower emphasis on Vocabulary, even if you just complete the high frequency "Ubiquitous 800" word list, you will be able to score a 150+.

Use the Words Regularly: Continuous revision is a necessity if you hope to learn the entire word list, so make use of the words which you learn everyday when even the opportunity presents itself. Additionally once a week, revise all the words which you learnt the previous week.

Use Flash Cards: A easy and fun way to revise on the go, is to use flash cards. While you do get them ready made, if you make your own they will prove to be more effective, since you will be writing them down as well.

How to Ace the GRE Verbal Text Completion

The only things which is checked in the text completion section is your ability to understand the complete picture i.e. your ability to select words which will fill the blanks completely and make sense to read. Clues to the answer will be found within the words present in the passage itself, so read carefully before answering.

How to Ace the GRE Verbal Sentence Equivalence

This is by far the easiest of the three sections, mostly because with a strong vocabulary you will be able to answer most of them correctly. A important tip for this section is that you must select two words which mean the same thing, complete the sentence perfectly i.e. of the 6 answer choices provided, 3 will be obviously wrong, the other three will fit, but only two will be synonyms, so always select the synonyms!

How to Ace the GRE Verbal Reading Comprehension

This is by far the toughest of the three sections in the GRE Verbal since it requires a high vocabulary, a high understanding of the English language, and a high reading/understanding speed. The only way to score high in this section is to:
Read classic books where the use of language is exceptionally good

Read newspapers articles of high quality i.e. The Hindu Editorial Section
Understand the flow and reasoning behind the text
Read about the different types of questions which are commonly asked; this will save you time and allow you to find the answer faster
Practice, Practice, and more Practice (try as many questions as you can)

While all of the above will take a lot of time and effort from your part, it will pay off big. If you manage to do all of the above, you are guaranteed a 160+ score.