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7/3/2011 6:24:22 PM

I didn't study at all, and didn't even know how the test was composed.
I took the computer version and got a 770 in math and a 590 verbal. I about crapped myself when I discovered there was a writing section. I got a 3 on that, but felt that was a solid score for the garbage I wrote.

If you are good in math, focus on learning synonyms and doing the word comparison stuff as well as analogies and the like.
If your language is solid, focus on geometry, trig, and algebra.

7/3/2011 6:54:09 PM

Quote :

"Useless memorization."

Well it has definitely helped me in the past on many tests. As an example, if you are asked for the prime factorization of 196, if you remember that 14^2 = 196, you can quickly arrive at 196 = 2^2 x 7^2. That might be too easy for the GRE, especially because 196 is a perfect square, however, the double of 196 (392) I remember seeing on one of the practice tests. Again, knowing the squares would quickly lead you to 392 = 2^3 x 7^2.

Anyway, those who are into numbers and/or are good at numbers, already usually know the first 25 or so squares and first 10 cubes anyway. For the rest, they can decide if it is worth their time and if it is easy for them to learn them.

Quote :

"I about crapped myself when I discovered there was a writing section."

7/3/2011 7:18:06 PM

Useless memorization. Is 196, even,factor of two, blam... 98. Even, factor of two blam, 49, which is obv, 7 times 7. 7,7,2,2.

Quick thinking and processing trump bullshit memorization anyway.

[Edited on July 3, 2011 at 11:45 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2011 11:45:21 PM

Like I said, those who are good at math know them anyway.

BTW,

Quote :

"Is 196, even, factor multiple of two, blam... 98. Even, factor multiple of two blam, 49"

Glad to have taught you something

[Edited on July 4, 2011 at 6:38 AM. Reason : P.S. Calm down dude, you seem to have anger issues...]

[Edited on July 4, 2011 at 6:39 AM. Reason : 192 is even, what about squares of prime/odd numbers? Squares of 13, 17, 19, 23? Good to know them]

7/4/2011 6:26:20 AM

I guess it depends on the person and application. I'm someone whose best subject was math growing up, I use math on a daily basis at work, and yet I don't see much use in memorizing that kind of information.

I know them simply from repeated use growing up but I don't ever really utilize that knowledge because it really doesn't save that much time. The only time I am ever using cubes and squares is in longer equations where I already have the calculator out and it's the same amount of time to type 9^3 as it is 729. Or in real application I'm probably writing it in excel and thus the variable that is squared or cubed will be constantly changing with my input so it really does me no good that I know the squares and cubes.

[Edited on July 4, 2011 at 9:07 AM. Reason : ]

7/4/2011 9:04:02 AM

Yeah if you are not a "math person", memorizing math stuff may help.

However a lot of the "math people" I know hate memorization like I do.

It is definitely not necessary to memorize squares and cubes to get near-perfect quant scores (I got 790 FTR)

7/4/2011 3:25:04 PM

Took the GRE for the second time this morning (first time was in 2007). I got lucky on the essays- they were relevant to my studies, so I could write more confidently about them.

In particular, I improved my quant to a perfect 800 ( ) and my verbal by 100 (from 550 to 650 - words ain't my thing, yo )

I intended to put more effort into studying some new vocab this time around, but only ended up cramming in some flash cards this past week. It paid off, as I had about 15 verbal questions that depended on words I didn't know before I "learned" them this week. I will say that :some: of the techniques mentioned in the princeton review book I had actually helped. Maybe not that much, but I noticed on at least a handful of questions that I stopped my train of thought and corrected to a suggested technique, which allowed me to confidently pick an answer and move on without wasting more time. I am a slow reader, so this helped a lot on the verbal section.

tldr I'd suggest grabbing a princeton review prep book. it may not be super cheap, but they have a few useful ideas. (though some of the solutions to their problems are actually incorrect, beware!)



PPS - who all is taking this before the new format kicks in? My old scores will expire before I need to use them again, and I didn't want to take the new one. Anybody else in the same/similar boat?

7/15/2011 5:34:57 PM

I saw several people posting that they got around 770 - 800 on the quant part, and I would say that isn't excellent so much as the minimum most grad students should have for Ph.D. programs in engineering.

I think my program's average (CHE) for our last class was 790 quant. I doubt if we even looked at verbal or writing competency. I scored, iirc, 630 verbal and was in the 90th percentile, so it doesn't seem like very many test takers even bothered to do the verbal section. This was in 2007, so take it fwiw

7/15/2011 7:41:09 PM

Definitely had a lot of GRE students lately, everyone wants their last chance to take the old test because it'll take a while for the prep books to catch up for the new one.

7/16/2011 2:31:05 AM