ceitfianna | GRE!

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I just signed up to take the GRE on April 21st, I'm glad I have a date but oh god I'm terrified so the icon is for me.

For those who've taken it already, what advice and test prep sites can you recommend?

I really want to go to UoM but I'd forgotten just how stressful applications can be.

Yet I've done this before, even for a school in a completely different country, so I need to take more deep breaths.

Current Mood: anxious

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

the_croupier

The strategies for taking it by computer or by paper are very different. I've done both, so I can talk to you about strategies for dealing with the computer version. (Hint: It will seem stressful while you're taking it, but if you understand how it works, that will help.)

The main thing is start preparing for it right now. Get the Kaplan book or one of its competitors and start doing a little bit EVERY DAY between now and then. That approach will be a lot less stressful than trying to sweat through last minute prep in the final week.

The GRE board will be sending you a disk. KEEP IT. Go through all the instructions and everything on it; take all the small exercises and see how you do. But save the two complete tests for the last week. Ideally, you'll want to take one each in the two days leading up to the test, and if your schedule allows it, you'll want to take them at the *same time* as when you'll be taking the actual test.

In my experience, the two sample tests are almost EXACTLY like the ones you'll actually be taking, though a little harder.

More to offer, but that should get you started.

From:

ceitfianna

I'll be taking it by computer and oh good, that's all very useful to know and I can easily go and grab one of those books. Thank you.

From:

wakeupnew

What Rick said. I got the Kaplan book and it was helpful. Something to know going in, which I didn't realize until just before I went to take the test: you're not allowed a calculator, which was very different than my experience with the SATs and other standardized tests and which completely threw me off, not realizing ahead of time.

Basically, I was completely stressed by the entire experience and super miserable, and I spent the entire several hours in the computer lab trying not to weep (and occasionally failing at that) and wanting to bang my head against the desk repeatedly, but I came out of it with a decent score in the end. The thing to remember is that it's going to ask you at the end if you want to see your scores (and thus keep them) or discard them entirely, sight unseen, and unless you've had some sort of crazy extenuating circumstances or haven't finished a huge portion of the test, keep your scores. If you have to, you can always re-take the test, and odds are excellent that you did better than you thought you did.

From:

ceitfianna

I just picked up the Kaplan book and that's very good to know since math stuff is kind of my bane.

From:

wakeupnew

Math was (and is) my bane, too, but I took the test after not having taken a math class in five or six years and while struggling immensely with even basic arithmetic, and I still got an acceptable score after studying with the Kaplan book, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as you do your homework!

From:

the_croupier

What Lexie said times three. Unless you have a really concrete reason, keep your scores.

The way the computer test works, you may very well think you did terribly, when in fact you did fine. That's because the computer test will set the difficulty of each question based on how well you did on the questions before it. So it's very possible most of the questions will seem on the hard side, and you shouldn't be surprised by that.

It's kinda evil, really. But if you know the deal beforehand, I think it's much easier to cope with.