rogerdavid:
Please Guys, this PayPal thing, can a verve card be linked with it? And where is the connection between the PayPal account and ETS-GRE payment?

Thanks

happyday:
Hello House,
Seeing how much I have benefited from this great thread, I think it would be unfair on me if I just come here, get what I want to get, and just leave!
People, please let's weigh in, more than just silently reading and withholding valuable info.
That's by the way, though.
With GRE less than 2 months away, I know I'm still learning and not where I need to be yet, in terms of my target scores but here's goes nothing:
VERBAL SECTION :
Being a non native speaker may be a downside a little, but I have read of Americans and test takers with English as their third language scoring 169 / 170 on the Verbal section!
By and large, most of them adopted different strategies and laid claims to various factors owing to their successes. But most of their advice seems to intersect at these 2 major points :
1. The Blind Review : I tested it and I can tell you it works. Blind review simply means identifying your weaknesses and working on them.

As a case study, I answered the first 42 questions on the Manhattan GRE Comprehension Passage section, timed. I ended up with a measly score of 23.
Time taken: 53 minutes, meaning an average of a Min and some seconds per question.

Since the score was really below par, I forgot about the time and decided to focus attention on the quality vis a vis how to improve my score in answering Passage questions.
I went through the answer guide provided in the MGRE, and for each question I missed, I identified the REAL reason I missed it. (I guess this is the most important, and also the most difficult aspect of the blind review.)

For instance, a question skin me to identify the author's primary purpose for writing the passage tricked me into choosing my option, based on the first paragraph Only.
So, while reviewing this question, I wrote it down why I missed it - I focused ONLY on the first paragraph.

Then, I wrote down what to do to avoid making similar mistake next time -
1. Skim through each paragraph, getting an idea of how each paragraph links to the next.
2. Go through the answer choices, and convince myself why FOUR choices are wrong, and the one left is the correct option.

I know this is kind of abstract, even to myself right now, but what matters is being able to apply it when answering questions.

Activity : Block out 2 hours of your time, and answer 30 passage questions from the MGRE. Note the time, but satisfy yourself. You need to understand this concept first, and then you can later work on your timing.

Never pick an option for a question Unless you are 100% sure why the option is correct. Thus, we are removing guess work. If you are unable to answer a question convincingly, circle the number and move on.

When you are through, go through the explanations. I have found most of them to be helpful, ensure you know why they chose the option they chose before moving on to the next question.

For the ones you got right, still go through the explanations to make sure you got them right for the right reasons.

After this session, take a break and repeat the same passage 24 hours later or more.
Same 30 questions, and same rule : Don't pick an option unless you are perfectly sure of it.

Mark your work again, and don't worry if you still missed out on some questions.
Repeat the blind review again, and make a note of your mistakes and how you plan to avoid them next time.

2. Vocabulary : We need to talk about this, though most of us wish we can avoid to do away with it. Most perfect scorers I have seen focused on :
a. Building up their vocabulary and
b. Reading dense articles, aka those ones that we won't save on our bookmarks.

For a., I suggest taking the Vocabulary test in Grubber, 2 at a time.
Mark your work afterwards, and do a a blind review, looking up the meanings of words you don't know.
Write our the worst and attach mnemonics with them.
E. G Ambulances are actually needed by non ambulatory persons. (keyword is Ambulatory).

For b., quickly Google "Christopher Hitchens Atlantic monthly" and you will get a dose of what you need to prep for the GRE.
Especially his tirade on "The real Mahatma Ghandi".

marqueetim:
Please I need your scope on AW. how did you approach it. Did u focus on giving many point or in buttressing your point? what was ur essay length

tunamania:
at OP did the gre...had a score of 305, whats the hope of securing admission with that ? 3.5 on the writing section too

geobukky:
Good evening guys...
Pls, can someone recommend any book, coaching or study routine to conquer verbal section of gre... I am new here and I intend to take it in December latest...

marqueetim:
Verbal, official GRE Guide by MacgrawHill is good. Can help you score 155-158 range if well understood. for 160+ maybe Magoosh coaching lessons will.

TJ18:

Go to notefull.com,and download their videos.
Also 4shared.com and type'TOEFL official guide'...
You will be able to download both the textbook and the software.
Follow the notefull video strategy religiously, you should be fine with that. It worked for me.#107

Donprada:
Please how did you download the videos? i have been trying to but there is no download link on the page

TJ18:
Try downloading it through youtube.Search for note full on YouTube.

paulbets:
You tried. Admission is not solely based on GRE score... so many factors come into play, and for the record, 305 is not bad. you can get admission in almost any school you apply if you package well (The Ivy leagues might be an overstretch).
Goodluck, (You will be fine with admissions )
And pls tell us your GRE Preparation and test day experience so others can learn

femi321:
So i took the GRE On Aug 22 at The French Connection Lekki and got 307 (Verbal 148, Quant 159, AW 3. My Experience: I registered to take the GRE initially on July 2 but had to postpone with 10k5 because of my Sister's Wedding distractions. I studied for like 5months on and off because of the stress of working in Lagos ( Wake up 4:30am to go to work and get back home 10:30pm min Mon - Friday.). It was not easy. I studied with many materials like Barron, KAplan, ETS guides, Nova GRE and Manhantan. For Quant i used Nova, Manhantan,ETS 150 Quant Questions and ETS official Guide. For Verbal I used Barron, ETS Official Guide and ETS 150 Verbal Questions..Analytical i used Only Kaplan and i had to learn like 900 new words. 1 week to the test i started practicing for AW which showed in my score because my concentration was on Quant to get min of 166 (Engineering Graduate)..On the test day i got the French Connection like 1hr:30mins to the start time,had to stroll around. When it was exactly 20mins to the start time i went to the 3rd/2nd floor (Cant remember exact floor) where French Connection is located, did the necessary registration, filled a form and i was shown a work station to take the test. We were like 10 in total taking the test at that time and venue..My first test was Analytical writing..i managed to write 4 'nonsense' paragraphs for the issue task and 4 'ok' paragraphs for the argument task. then came the first Verbal and the passages were just like greek..very dense..i managed to finish even though i wasn't that sure of my answers. The next Test was Quant which was my favorite..i did my best and i moved on...i can remember when i took the Standard 10 mins break, after the timer finished counting my test didn't start automatically, i got scared but composed myself and i raised my hand to signal to the instructor because we weren't meant to talk,no asking of instructions from the instructor accept you have any hardware problem. Inshort i did 3 Verbals and 2 Quants. At the end i reported my score,sent it the 4schools. I was kind of sad for the quant Score because from what i did that day i feel the questions were cheap and i should have had like 166 but then man wont know the silly mistakes he might have made. After the test i was given a Malt, Pringles and chips. I wanted to retake the test to at least get >320 but after spending 51k on GRE and thinking of another 40k again for another GRE i felt the best thing to raise my profile is to take TOEFL and aim for >100 since GRE is not the only Criteria for admission and funding, so i am in the process of preparing for TOEFL, Writing and EXCELLENT SOP and school Search.

My Advice from my Experience: For Quant all you need is Nova GRE,ETS 150 Quant Questions and Manhanatan...For Verbal: Both ETS official guide is a mostand you can add Barron. For AW: Kaplan, Kaplan, Kaplan..All i did to get 3 was to cram the paragraphs opening in Kaplan..imagine if i had prepared well..i could have gotten above 4...Practice for at least 3 months continuously not my own on and off type. I feel the best time to practice for GRE is during NYSC..those days are always free..Invest it so you don't have to start struggling to read after NYSC, perhaps who knows you might have a job taking your time too. My own NYSC days was basically used for learning software and career development..i dont have any regret though.

P.S. Kindly ignore any grammatical mistake, Spelling error..i had no time to prove read..let me go back to my research on Schools and TOEFl Preparation. @DanjaNinja please i am seriously waiting for that your thread on 'Admission Process and Advice'..i don't mind if you can send the little you might have written to me personally..I need it urgntly because I plan to submit Completed application to 6 schools latest Nov Ending so that i can stand a good chance of Funding, Cheers

marqueetim:
femi321 can you recall what came out in your issue and analytical task, thank you.

happyday:
Detailed and actionable. You went, worked and conquered. Excellent debrief. I pray your TOEFL work out as planned.
Do you have your SOP draft yet? Since I am guessing you want to apply for 2016 Fall??

geobukky:
Gre quantitative can b funny really, I took the practice timed test some days back with power prep II, in my mind the two 2 quantitative sections combined I can't miss more than 5*even finished both sections with more than 10mins to spare after each* but den score came back 157, I b like 'wat happened' I just concluded on my own that I must missed detail for some questions then misinterpreted it. Ets is jes very trickish ... fear dn dy catch me to write the exam sef.... Almost 50k at stake, and my quantitative target is 165

femi321:
I cant recall the argumentative but the issue was 'give examples to support or againt why the Federal goverment should/shouldnt implement the policy of scholarship for student that gain admision but cant fund themselves'..you dont need to know mine just go through the 200 pool of issue based questions on the ETS site. when are you writing?

marqueetim:
Thanks av written and i have seen the pool. Just asking to observe certain thoughts.

femi321:
ehen..what thought? do share..whats your score?

femi321:
dont be scared..the practicr test is too easy compared to the real test..infact I had 170 in one of the quant of the practice test..I still dont understand how I got 159 well..just practice..dont be scared..make sure you register for the exam fast because not until you register you wont be serious with reading.. GRE is not the end of the world

geobukky:


That's the word

marqueetim:
They do repeat questions or very similar with just number, words or name difference Q160 V153 AW3.5

geobukky:

Mr marqueetim, come coach me na

marqueetim:
We sef dey find coach too. With this score IVY League go throw your application áway. No try those Chinese Guys. Q170 V165 AW5.5

geobukky:

Ahhh, no try chinko ppl oo, dy dn dy practice since high school, na since high school dem dn know say na ivy dem wan go, u wan dy use 4yrs+ training compare our 2-3 months ni, and really Chinese and Japanese ppl are very intelligent... They even have higher cut off marks in some American schools to reduce there dominance.

marqueetim:
They do repeat questions or very similar with just number, words or name difference Q160 V153 AW3.5

marqueetim:
We sef dey find coach too. With this score IVY League go throw your application áway. No try those Chinese Guys. Q170 V165 AW5.5