Hi,

Could anyone kindly advise me on this? I was wondering if it is possible to self learn for this exam. Any reference book? Or perhaps any better suggestion?

Thanks

I want to do this exam too, let help each other

how long needed to prepare for GRE exam?anyone know?

I have no idea too .. but if are good enough you can always go ahead .. lol .. for the quant part, I heard it was quite similar to form 4 or 5, not that hard then. But, the hard ones would be vocab and writing.. are u talking in Malaysia?

Hi,

Could anyone suggest a book for reference? I would really need one. Planning to sit for the exam around mid of November. I have come across a couple of books, Barron, Princeton and Kaplan during my perusal. However, I am not sure which should I go for? Do appreciate if anyone could advice me.

Hey guys,

Have met quite a few students asking help with this, so I'm referring to forums based in the US, where the GRE is a lot more popular

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/gre-pr...p-material.html

The forum there is pretty kick-ass too, with scores expected by whatever schools you intend to go to as well as what prep material may be helpful.

Hope this helps!

Hey thanks a bunch, really appreciate your help. I've tried looking for ETS but it doesnt seem to be sold on any bookstores. Do we have to purchase it online?

For the time being, I've started off with Kaplan to reaffirm my foundation.

BUMPing the post ..

Any GRE scorers around, especially those who have done or doing their PhD at our neighbouring country.

What's the requirement to be admitted?

Im taking GMAT.. any Gmat takers?

Oh cool, why did you opt for GMAT instead? Prerequisite for the uni that you're applying?

Yes.. Doing Phd is top 100 business needs Gmat score for application... Aiming for NTU

NTU as nanyang or Taiwan? If it's nanyang why not you opt for GRE instead? Since both GRE and GMAT is applicable?

Finished my GRE. Got a score of 314. What I can advice is that have a teacher. Seriously. I assumed that I could do this all by myself, juggling between working and studying. The primary reason why my test din't went well was that I did not pace myself. 35 minutes/25 questions each section might seem alot, but it isn't.

Practice working on each qestion no more than 1.5-2 minutes each. For hard questions could take like 3 minutes but no more than 4.5-5. And you need to bring your passport. ETS requirements are quite strict, your IC isn't sufficient.

Any other questions I could think of I'll add later.

So was the vocab hard? I'm quite concern on that. How much words did u opt for? I heard Barron 333 was sufficient. And, the essay part, was it hard? Lest not to fail for my quantum, I guess I have to be more meticulous. I heard the questions were pretty cryptic though.

Hope to get some feedback from you. Planning to go for it this coming November

This post has been edited by malz89: Oct 21 2016, 08:02 PM

The first section was normal, banal in fact. vocab tends to be easier. Hardly any words from the barron lists, but test mostly intermediate vocabulary. Constructed sentence also tends to be simpler to understand, but still requires logic to follow. After that depending on how you do, it either goes harder or easier. I pretty much ace the first one, so my 2nd vocab section was significantly harder. in the second one, words such as paucity or propitious was plentiful. Sentence construct also becomes wordy, and requires key antonyms to really decipher the correct blanks.

As for the essay, you have to practice, there's no way around it. Set a timer for 30 minutes, and write whatever practice statement that you've set. It is important that you time yourself, I can't stress this enough. Alone, we tend to spend alot of time thinking on how the essay should look like, and may miss out on our pacing. You will find that you still have lots to write about, but because of time constrain, you have to cut off many juicy parts. Get a word count of about 500-600 words for best results, GRE writers on average score highest within those boundaries.

You have to practice to know what I'm writing about. Reading comprehension tends to be the killer for verbal, not vocab. Decipher what the paragraph is trying to convey, and check what questions are asked first before fully reading the passage.

For quant, people say for us malaysians, it should be easier. On the contrary, if you're planning to get a quantitative score of 160+, practicing is the only way. Get the ETS ones, and practice a few lessons. After that, go through your mistakes and really learn from it. It's not enough to simple see the solution and say "Ah, I get it", you have to review what went wrong, and how you can get to the solution faster. read the answers commentary, and see if your method is the same. If you take a significant long time to get the answer, even if its the correct one, its no good. You must device a faster method, and the commentary supplements that with crucial tips.

Here's a big tip. Harvard university students have come up for an app called "Ready4GRE". By far it is one of the most sophisticated app out there. It gives an indication of your GRE level, quality practice questions and commentary, and timed quiz. It is truly a life-saver, trust me I know. Best part: Its free. Their motivation for coming up with the app is to promote their tuition services, which is exclusively online. So it's a win-win for both harvard and the test-taker.

Anything else I'll try to answer all. I've just finished it myself, plan to use whatever score I have for application and hope for the best.

Hey thanks, I am coupling with the ready4GRE, however, the vocab part for the app is somehow a disaster to me. Was the vocab that hard? I would say I'm picking up alot from the quantum though.

Yeah, it is pretty similar with the ones in test. If quant is good then you can put more emphasis in verbal sections. Just don't underestimate quant. They tend to get really wordy at the harder section.

You can get other high quality tips from Magoosh. They really want to help GRE test takers succeed.

Oh thanks .. what/how would you recommend to edify on the vocabs? I'm worried my vocab may not be sufficient. I'm working with magoosh only.

Frankly speaking I'm afraid of my quantum too .. always fall for their "tricks", opting for the direct answer rather than the correct answer

Hows your study strategy? Do you strive to learn new words everyday? How often do you review them? Have you tried spaced repetition? The key way to get vocab stuck in your head is to always practice them, again and again till if you see the word you instantly know the definition. I find writing it or typing the entire word out helps. use Anki or any card review website to help with this. Vocabulary.com, also a spaced repetition website, also provides excellent GRE words with relevant sentence context.

About the tricky quant questions, the only advice I am comfortable sharing( not because I'm stingy, but because I have little authority in this department) is to read the ets maths review section, and remember many of the important exceptions. Is 1 a prime? Will the answer be odd/even if odd x odd? If the sides of a triangle are 3 , 4 , x , what are the possible values of x? Try practicing several quants books out there. Here's my list:
Magoosh ( trains you on the theory part, plus they provide explanation videos)
Manhattan's 5lb maths questions( this one's my favorite, full of tough, tricky maths that will sure make you an expert),
ALL ets books, the official and the supplement ( its from the ETS itself! you're crazy not to review it)
Ready4GRE (this one helps me in my pacing, plus their questions are pretty solid)
Barron's 6 GRE Practice Tests ( I haven't had the time to try this one, but I've heard reviews that its really good)

If you want some of the books pm me and I'll send it to you via dropbox, I've downloaded some of it online for free, even the Magoosh GRE video lectures series.

Thanks .. I guess I'm heading towards the right direction. I would love to get the books from you. Could you send me a PM.

I'm dinning veey hard on the vocabs, nevertheless, I would forget some of the words. Hahaha. Ive never been good in language, but working hard now.