Several factors decide admissions into a good Grad school and course. One major determiner is the GRE score. The GRE exam is a standardized test administered by the ETS. The GRE score is accepted by thousands of institutions worldwide for admissions into STEM, Humanities, Business programs including MBA, and some Law programs.
There are five sections on the GRE exam. The first section of the test is the Analytical Writing Assessment which lasts for 30 minutes. The students get a score of 0-6 on this section. Furthermore, there are two verbal and math sections. The first verbal section has 12 questions and is for 18 minutes, while the second one has 15 questions and is for 23 minutes. Similarly, the first quants section has 12 questions with 21 minutes, and the second section has 15 questions with 26 minutes. The GRE is a section adaptive test and the final GRE score ranges from 130-170 on both the sections.
After analyzing the university and course requirements, set a GRE score goal. This focus will keep you motivated through long hours of study. Achieving this goal is an indication of your prep’s success.
The preparation materials you choose decide your GRE score. Use the ETS books and sources as a part of your prep. One big mistake students make is downloading all the free materials available. They may not be able to use all of the materials and in the end, it might create a lot of confusion as to what to use. Stick to one or two prep materials other than the ETS content. You might even choose different books for different sections. The questions in these books or materials should be similar to those in the actual test.
Create a study plan that includes all the aspects of the test. The majority of your practice should focus on your weaknesses. A detailed study plan should include what topics to be covered each day.
Your preparation should be interspersed with tests to identify if your progress is in the right direction. Only when you take tests will you realize what your weaknesses are. Review every question in the test – the time you have taken, whether you have gotten it right or not, what kind of mistake is it – careless error or conceptual mistakes, and how to avoid it in the future. Reviewing the test helps you to identify the weak areas that need to be worked upon. Set small and achievable goals with each test.
On the GRE exam, the verbal questions have roughly 1:30 minutes per question and the math questions have roughly 1:45 minutes per question. Not all the questions take up the same amount of time. Hence you should learn to manage the timing while you prepare.
Though a little bit of anxiety will help you perform better on the GRE exam, too much of it can make you lose focus and result in a lower GRE score that doesn’t reflect your test-taking skills. Learn to remain cool using breathing techniques or meditation.
Vocabulary gets tested in the Sentence Equivalence and Text Completion questions. Use a wordlist or app to learn the words comprehensively. Put down new words that you come across in a journal. Make flashcards to remember difficult words. You can own the words only when you use them.
Read articles from magazines such as New Yorker, Atlantic, and Nature and try to identify the topic and main idea.
Most of the Reading questions can be handled with effective strategies. In Sentence equivalence and Text completion questions, get the context and learn to break down the text into smaller parts to understand how it is structured.
Learn to dissect the arguments and identify the assumptions, weakening, and strengthening points.
Avoid using the calculator for every question.
While working on Quant Comp and word problems consider all the information given in the question.
On the GRE exam, it is the answer that matters and not the approach used.
Break down the complex images into simpler ones.
How much will my GRE Score improve?
If you have the right study plan, you should be able to see a huge difference in your GRE score. But, you need to also have a realistic timeline to achieve this. A huge score improvement like 40 points might take even 6 months to achieve, but 15 to 20 points can be easily achieved in 3 months.
A good GRE score is one that will get you admission into the course of your choice in a good Grad school.
The percentile score compares your GRE score with that of other test takers.
GRE can be taken 5 times in a rolling period of 12 months. There should be a 21-day gap between the two tests.
The GRE score is valid for five years.
It is possible to score 170 on both the math and verbal and a 6 on the AWA.
