GRE related help

[Vivian Josh]

Hi Ranchers,

I am planning to give GRE test. Has anyone recently appeared for that? How much time generally it takes to be confident for the test?

I have very limited time so can someone suggest me a good resources(site / study groups/books) for that?

JavaRanch helped me a lot for my SCJP preparation and I found everyone here very helpful. That good impression brings me here with such a non-techy question.

Any help is really appreciated

Regards,

Vivian

[v ray]

I took it up recently. The "barrons" book is all you will need, but I also found the "princeton review" book helpful for the verbal section.
If you can finish all the exercises in those 2 books, take like 4-5 online tests, I doubt you need any other help.

[Rambo Prasad]

I gave it 4 years back...But then it was the old pattern where we had 3 sections-quants,analytical & verbal...Now I believe the analytical part has been removed...I was weak in the verbal section so I concentrated mainly on the verbal part
Word Power made easy-By Norman Lewis
Barrons - Verbal
Riya -For Analytical
For Quantitative I didn't do any special preparations.
For the mock tests I used Kaplan and Power prep..My final score was 2120(Verbal:560,Quantitative:800,Analytical:760)...But it went waste..Finally I didn't apply to any US university..

[David O'Meara]

I don't know what a GRE is

[Michael Matola]

The GRE is a standardized test required by many US schools for admissions into graduate-level programs.

I recommend a highly cynical approach.

It's not the kind of test that in preparing for you learn all sorts of valuable things along the way, making the studying and preparing part very important and the actual test-taking part almost an afterthought. It's a stupid, pointless examination that stands in the way of some other educational goals of yours. In that regard, don't bother with any of the prep books that take the approach of "refreshing your general knowledge." Use something like the Princeton Review materials mentioned above, which preps you for exactly what's on the test. You can dramatically increase your scores through such systematic prepping.

It's been about 15 years since I took the GRE. In those days, you could send away to the GRE agency and get actual copies of retired exams to practice on. These days, I'm sure there's something available electronically. In any case, if you take practice exams, make sure you are practicing on real exam questions and not something that covers material not on the actual exam.

I prepped for about 3 months if I recall.

At the time, there was no way I could have afforded any of the prep classes. But I do remember taking a free assessment exam at one of the centers. That was a great benefit. They reviewed the results with you and explained your strengths and weaknesses (with hopes of enrolling you in their classes). For example, I learned there was one area I was weak on an needed to brush up my skills. In all other areas, I was answering nearly every question correctly, but only finishing about 75% of them in the time allowed -- so I knew I really had to work on speeding up, but without sacrificing accuracy.

[Arvind Mahendra]

Is the GRE easier than the GMAT? Ive never been able to tell which one is for which. I think the GRE is for an graduate engineering degree?

[Jay Ashar]

Originally posted by Bikash Jha:
Is the GRE easier than the GMAT? Ive never been able to tell which one is for which. I think the GRE is for an graduate engineering degree?

Business schools looks at your GMAT score and engineering schools looks at your GRE score. So, give GMAT if you are planning to do MBA, otherwise GRE and TOFEL will do it.
Give yourself enough time to prepare for GRE, like a year or so.
[ August 10, 2007: Message edited by: Jay Ashar ]

[Ulf Dittmer]

The GRE is not specifically for engineering - it's for grad school in general (apart from business schools, which tend to use the GMAT). There are additional subject tests you can take which can be specific to the program you're applying for.

[swarup reddy]

hi vivian
as someone pointed, 'barron's' is the Bible for GRE.
Once you are confident with the wordlists, go for the CBTs.
Quants is relatively easy, tricky as well.
I believe the ETS website has the list of essays for the other section.
And most important thing is check the slot availability in your city, sometimes it takes more than 3-4 months to get a slot.

[Vivian Josh]

Thanks all for your replies and discussion on this.

There is wait for the slot ? I din't know that.

Ya, everyone is saying Barron's guide is best . I am looking for buying one.

Lets see how it goes.

Friends, wish me luck

Thanks,

Vivian

[Rahul Bhattacharjee]

Barron is a very good resource for GRE.The high frequency word list is very helpful.But do not rely on it fully.Follow some other resources as well.Many other resources are available in the web.

Apart from GRE , many other factors are responsible for getting into a good US universities(recommendation , previous projects , essay).Many of the universities look for individual section scores from GRE report card , so check with the universities where you would like to apply.
[ August 13, 2007: Message edited by: Rahul Bhattacharjee ]

[v ray]

yeah!
Score reporting is very important. After your GRE exam, you will be asked to choose 4 universities to which your GRE scores will be reported(at no charge). Make sure you know the right universities you are targetting, and choose those.
If you end up choosing the wrong universities there, then you will have to pay 15 $ per score report later.

Same for TOEFL, but you have decide your university list before the TOEFL exam.