By Amna Sabahat.
“Don’t give up unless you have put all your efforts in it!”
Well, the fact that you opened this post about GRE ensures that there is a will at least! And all you have to do is find a way to do it well. Trust me, we all are capable of making it through. Don’t disappoint Darwin’s survival of the fittest and our ancestors’ genes. The GRE is not as daunting as it seems and, speaking from personal experience, it only takes a little work every day to ace it. With work and studies, it may seems a bit “unreal” but let’s get to the “how-to” part and you will realize, it is not an insurmountable mountain!
- GRE Vocabulary: Memorizing 1000 high frequency words is all that you need to master the vocabulary section, especially if you have limited time for preparation. Of course, you would need to get comfortable with the idea that you may not know each and every word that will appear on the screen that day. Instead of freaking out, just focus on getting the ones you know right. Keep revising the words you learn. I found the flashcards on the Magoosh app to be very helpful! There is a sentence for each word that helps understand the word in its context. Quizlet is also useful for mastering pronunciation.
- GRE Quantitative and Verbal Practice Questions: The best way to get comfortable with solving the quantitative and verbal questions is practice. Because all test-takers are under a time-crunch, timing yourself while solving the questions is the best way to go about putting to action all that you know about the verbal and quantitative questions. For this, I found Princeton Review’s book “1,014 Practice Questions by Princeton Review” to be very helpful. The most important thing for GRE is to become a pro at how to take the test. In addition to taking two practice tests available on the ETS GRE site, I suggest you also spend around Rs.3000/- on 6 Manhattan practice tests.
- GRE Issue Essay: For this section, you will be marked on clarity and cohesion. Write about 5 to 6 paragraphs in which you build your essay from an introduction to arguments, examples, and conclusion. You may also highlight any other general example or how the field/topic still needs to be explored further.
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Amna Sabahat, KL-YES alumna
GRE Argument Essay: Just like the issue essay, quality and length matter here, too! Write about 5 to 6 paragraphs and in each paragraph attack the shortcoming in the question statement. You will be given an argument statement trying to convince you for a decision but the statement will be full of loop holes that you can easily identify using common sense. For example, the argument statement says something like “the research shows that XYZ product is the best in the market.” Your job is to rip it a part (with your words, of course!) For example: “We don’t know who conducted the research. We don’t even know the sample size taken for it and also if the sample size taken for it actually even represented the general target group of this XYZ product.”
- My Study Schedule: For about a month, I tried my best to study for at least an hour after getting home from 7 AM to 7 PM routine including travel time and there were times when I didn’t study at all. However, I took a week off from work right before my test. I booked my test about one month in advance after consulting with my boss to ensure the week leave.
I took my score from 290 to above 300 in just a month and if you start now, there is still time for you to work towards a decent score. I hope this helps, but if you would like to read a detailed version, visit my blog.
Best of luck, people. Trust me you can ace GRE! Just book your test now and get it done.
