GRE prep

Well i have decided that after procrastinating for a long time i will finally start maintaining a blog. What will I write about ? The first few posts will be about the reason why I was delayed in starting a blog. Mainly the GRE experience and the whole application process which is known to make people go insane.

I got my engineering degree from University of Pune and was offered a job after completing it. Unaware of the nature of the job or the skills it would not need I gladly accepted it. Started working for the company and after about 3-4 months was bored enough, to decide that higher education it would be for me. So having decided this I registered for the GRE. [Graduate Record Exam]

GRE is an adaptive test with 800 marks for quantitative and 800 for verbal ability. Oh yes dont forget the analytical writing section for 6 pts. I prepared using the Barron's book [Used the old version... for those who have the old version I would say there is no need to buy the new version as it has some new questions and words but most of the things are same]. I guess it gives you a good idea about the type of questions which you will see on the exam. Although the quant questions which i came across on the exam were definitely tougher than those in the book. The wordlists i believe, cant be mugged up over a period of time. Rather if you start reading various newspaper editorials or novels you start identifying the words in the wordlist and start understanding the meaning of most words. I believe that even if you dont know the exact meaning of the word you can understand the context in which it is being used and this helps a lot while giving the exam as you have the context and four options from which you can eliminate some and then guess. But this atleast helps in increasing your chances of getting the correct answer. It is all a game of percentages.

Also one important thing to concentrate on is the initial questions in each section. GRE is an adaptive test and hence if you answer the initial few questions correctly you start getting questions which fetch you more marks and are of course more difficult to solve.

One important aspect i would like to emphasize in the preparation for this test is the mock exams which should be taken. There are many exams which are there in the market. I would recommend the following:1. Kaplan: Tough tests. Prepare you well for the exam, in terms of the questions asked and the time per question which is available. 2. PowerPrep: Distributed by ETS. Questions are a bit easier than what you will get on the actual exam.3. Barrons test: All the test questions are from the book. So if you have worked hard enough (solved most of the questions in the book) then you would find them easy. Some quant questions are difficult though.
I took all the three exams (Kaplan-5 Powerprep-2 and barrons-3) and am of the opinion that they were of great help in preparing me for the exam in terms of the time distribution. I would certainly recommend that all exam takers give the mocks before taking the actual exam as it will help them in preparing for the D day.

I didnt prepare much for the analytical writing section. Did just two writing tasks present in powerprep and went through some sample responses. I think that people who are accustomed to writing need not take much pains for this section but those who are totally new should practice atleast a few writing tasks else they would be for a surprise in the actual tests.

Finally I would like to tell you my score in GRE. After all the preparation which I did, I got 1540
(Q-780 VA-760 AW- 4.5) If you have any doubts you can get in touch with me. I would be glad to help. Tomorrow i will write about the TOEFL iBT test which I had to take as the part of applying to the universities.