Has anyone taken the GRE recently?

amoeba

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2003
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I took it last year.

I got 1380 and a 6 on writing.

I thought it was much harder than I expected, especially the verbal.

 

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: Nik
Good luck.

Thanks Nik, I'll need it. Don't want to be stuck in a dead end job forever, hopefully I'll do well enough to be able to go back to grad school and hopefully be able to provide a better living for a future family. :)
 

Dedpuhl

Lifer
Nov 20, 1999
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I took it last year without studying. I breezed through the math, but the verbal kicked my ass. Also, I wrote the worst essays EVER and made a 3.5. My score was more than enough for LSU's Graduate Program (>1100).
 

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: amoeba
I took it last year.

I got 1380 and a 6 on writing.

I thought it was much harder than I expected, especially the verbal.

Solid score, awesome writing score! How did you prepare for it? CD, book, test exams, etc.?
 

ArmenK

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2000
1,600
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The math was a joke. The verbal on the other hand had words that I had never seen in my life.
 

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
Originally posted by: ArmenK
The math was a joke. The verbal on the other hand had words that I had never seen in my life.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought this. I considered myself lucky if I knew 1 or 2 of the 8 words on the screen in an analogy question. I'm just glad I took it before they changed the analytical section to writing. Yay for logic games!

-Tom
 

puffff

Platinum Member
Jun 25, 2004
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1460 and a 4.5 in writing.

i found the math more annoying than the verbal. i scored higher in math than verbal, but i went in with the mindset math was gonna be a breeze, so whenever i ended up spending more than a minute on a math question, i got a bit flustered. mostly because i KNEW i could do the problem, it was just taking me too long.

i liked the verbal section better, because i either knew the meaning of the word, or i didnt. if i didn't, i just guessed and moved on.
 

amoeba

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2003
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I studied a lot of books, CDs that came with books. didn't take any courses though.

Went to number2.com and did vocab practices.

I'll say this.

real test typically tougher than the practice tests in the books.

some of the online practice sites from the book publishers are pretty accurate representation though.

Verbal is very hard. I mean very very hard. There are obscure vocab the likes of which you will not believe.

I thought I would crack 600 at least since I got 800 on SAT verbal. no good.

Due to their scoring system, all I can recommend is know enough vocab to get the first couple questions right so you are placed in to the hard questions bracket and then use your best test taking skills there.



 

SludgeFactory

Platinum Member
Sep 14, 2001
2,969
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Take the free practice tests on computer to get a feel for the pacing.

Verbal sucks, a portion of it comes down to arcane vocabulary pure and simple, you either know the word or you don't. There are word lists but it may be too late for you do much good with that.

Math isn't too bad. I'd at least review it because some of the stuff is so low level that it quite possibly could be several years since you've used it.

The most difficult part of the essays to me are the time limits. That's an area where doing a practice run beforehand can help you out.

If you want a study guide, go to a bookstore or library and thumb through their GRE books, I picked a Princeton Review book because it looked like the best out of the bunch for what I needed. ETS has their own book but I waited too late and couldn't find it locally, and I didn't really care that much anyway. Actually, apathy is probably your biggest challenge in preparing for this :D
 

amoeba

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2003
3,162
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Originally posted by: PricklyPete
Originally posted by: Tomato
If so, what did you think and what was your score?

I'm scheduled to take it 12/18.

I always thought you were a college graduate...from like USC or something. Guess I was wrong.



uh.....GRE is for grad school.

and I believe Tomato went to UM Ann Arbor.

 

PricklyPete

Lifer
Sep 17, 2002
14,582
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Originally posted by: amoeba
Originally posted by: PricklyPete
Originally posted by: Tomato
If so, what did you think and what was your score?

I'm scheduled to take it 12/18.

I always thought you were a college graduate...from like USC or something. Guess I was wrong.



uh.....GRE is for grad school.

and I believe Tomato went to UM Ann Arbor.

Yeah...apparently I would not do to well in the reading comprehension section. ;)
 

WhiteKnight

Platinum Member
May 21, 2001
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I took it before they dropped the analytic part in favor of the writing. I got a 2250 (660V/790M/800A). The first time I took it my math and analytic scores were about the same but my verbal was a 570 or something. I just studied some vocab the week before I took it the second time and boosted my verbal 90 points.
 

sohcrates

Diamond Member
Sep 19, 2000
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630 math and 500 verbal or similar

good enough to get me into my masters program and that's all i really cared about being several years out of undergrad....
 

imported_Tomato

Diamond Member
Sep 11, 2002
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Originally posted by: WhiteKnight
I took it before they dropped the analytic part in favor of the writing. I got a 2250 (660V/790M/800A). The first time I took it my math and analytic scores were about the same but my verbal was a 570 or something. I just studied some vocab the week before I took it the second time and boosted my verbal 90 points.

DAMN that's impressive! Did you get into the school you wanted to?
 

WhiteKnight

Platinum Member
May 21, 2001
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Originally posted by: Tomato
Originally posted by: WhiteKnight
I took it before they dropped the analytic part in favor of the writing. I got a 2250 (660V/790M/800A). The first time I took it my math and analytic scores were about the same but my verbal was a 570 or something. I just studied some vocab the week before I took it the second time and boosted my verbal 90 points.

DAMN that's impressive! Did you get into the school you wanted to?

I didn't get in to my toughest choice, which was Carnegie Mellon. I'm in robotics and the program there is among the best in the country, along with MIT, Stanford and the like. So, I'm sure that all the other people applying had scores in that range too. My undergrad record wasn't nearly as impressive, although it was still certainly decent, but I'm sure that didn't help. I did get in to my first choice, which was Johns Hopkins, where I did my undergrad.
 

UlricT

Golden Member
Jul 21, 2002
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jsut got results for an exam i did on the 27th of nov.
600V/790M/5W
not too satisfied.

Where do you want to apply? I really have to look into my options!
 

thirtythree

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2001
8,680
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I just started prepping, and I'm going to take it sometime next semester. I've taken 1.5 practice tests. I got 720V/730Q on one and 580V/???Q on the other, which is quite a big difference :confused: