PRACTICE, PRACTICE, QUALITY PRACTICE

This is one area that most of us fail to try. We know that it is prudent and absolutely necessary for us to work with solid prep examples and equally do several and complete practice tests, but we procrastinate, we delay, we hope it will solve itself out on the test day and that everything will be fine. GRE is not like that. The quality and consistency of your practice will show up in your score.

One thing I learnt the high scoring exam takers do (especially the Asians) is that they practice/do a lot of practice tests under a timed/exam-like condition and it shows in their high percentile score. Metaphorically, GRE (or GMAT) exam can be likened to a combination of 100 meters dash and several marathon laps. The 100 meters signifies your speed and accuracy while the marathon tests your stamina and staying strength. For you to do well in GRE, you can’t have either, you must be competent in BOTH.

People that have done the exam will tell you how draining the exam is especially towards the end of the exam when fatigue would have set in, candidates now more prone to mistakes. You surely don’t want to wait to find out this in the exam hall. Athletes improve their chance of doing well in the Olympics Finals (or other Competitions) if they PRACTICE and PRACTICE in a STADIUM that mimic the environment of the Olympic Competition. Practices tune them up for the finals, putting them in “the zone”. They go to the Olympic track/field to execute their strategy fine-tuned during their practice exercises.

Ashwini Nene (The Indian Lady that scored 340 - yes 340!!!! Q-170, V-170 Google it, it is on YouTube) said she knew she was going to score high because she has been scoring high in her PRACTICE TESTS!!! -i, e -UNDER A TIMED CONDITION, which means she must have consistently practiced for her to have the confidence, conviction and affirmation that she was going to do well in the exam. Her solid 7 months of preparation obviously produced a very big payoff. Her result could be seen as the outcome of natural ability boosted by diligent practice.
Replicating the exam condition before the test day means sitting on your desk in front of your Computer for around 4 hours solving 5 Complete 20 Verbal and 20 Quant questions in 3 to 2 combinations not forgetting the 1 hour of Essay and Argument writings(with only 10 minute break). That is you practicing on the track at your training pitch before the (Olympic) finals tuning up your speed and validating your staying stamina. That is the condition you will find yourself during the exam. If you go into the exam hall without doing so, YOU HAVE NOT “PRACTICED”.

There are GOOD and FREE Practice test (for people that do not want to/do not have money to buy Manhattan, Magoosh, Crunchprep or other paid tests).

My Practice Tests.
Listed below are the sequences of my planned Practice Test for my second attempt at GRE. (For other free tests, Google “Crunchprep free practice test” for up to 33 free practice tests).
1. Barron’s GRE – 2 Model Tests
2. Manhattan - Yes, when you register, you have access to 1 - One free Online Practice Test - www.manhattanprep.com/gre
3. Kaplan Practice test 1 - One free Online Practice Test – www.kaptest.com/gre
4. PowerPrep II – Untimed
5. ETS Official Guide 1st and 2nd Practice Tests
6. CrunchPrep -This is the site I got the information about the free practice tests - www.Crunchprep.com. The site is loaded with loaded
and informative information.
7. PowerPrep II_1 - Timed
8. PowerPrep II _2 – Timed

My Advice

1. Whether you need it or not, plan to write GRE or/and GMAT exam(s) as soon as you are through in school when you are fresh and still in academic mood (or better still, during your NYSC year when you should be able to set aside 4-6 months for focused preparation). It may come out to be a very good decision. It will add another dimension of knowledge to what you might already know. Study for GRE and GMAT very well and all those job aptitude test should be easier to handle.

2. If your know how to search very well, you can get all those materials at a minimal cost. Load those e-copies on your Smartphone. You will be amazed how much ground you will cover reading those materials on your “spare” time on the phone.

3. (If you are still in school or you know someone that will need to take the exam in the nearest future, advise them to) - Start preparing right from your final year. Download/Print out Barron’s 3500 or Manhattan word lists. Download the Vocabulary App from Magoosh. Start reviewing the vocabs on your phone, study it while waiting for the next lecturer to come in, during the adverts in the half time between Chelsea and Manchester United games, start playing with the apps like a game on your phone, before your know it, you will have gone through those vocabulary lists, math principles and formula/vocabs flashcards several times, it will have become part of you and you will be seeing a more nuanced definition of those vocabs. I played my vocab games during my BRT commute to and from work.

4. Start reading from today. It is easier said than done. It is also one of the areas you will later appreciate the forced improvements GRE/GMAT preparation will impose on you. There are many sites with very good content, like nytimes.com, the Economist, The Atlantic, Bloomberg View, Nigerian Guardian, back page of Thisday Newspaper, articles from aldaily.com. My favorites are soccernet.com (for Football News), theatlantic.com (for its free, high quality and wide range of topics) and bloombergview.com (for economics, business and current news issues). You can start today with those three sites. As you read, note any new word/vocabulary that you don’t know at all or don’t understand very well, check for their deeper meaning from the dictionary on your phone, Google it, use those words when you go to “Moremi” or “Mozambique” or come to “Awo Hall” and before you know it, those “hard” vocabs will be part of your “normal” everyday words.

5. As I did during my planned second attempt at the exam, if you have the time and you can, go through the materials more than once. Like any other activity, if you want to be good at it, spend extra time with it. As a particular Yoruba adage says; when a leaf stay glued to a soap long enough, it will become soap itself.

6. When you finally decide to write the exam, give yourself 3 months of concentrated focus and preparation. For those 3 months, draw up a plan for all the materials you are going to study to cover all areas of the exam. The plan will guild and help you not to stray off, force you to stay focused and to cover all basis. You can Google up a 3 month GRE plan, and then modify it. But do not water it down.

7. The core of your preparation should include the cocktail of the following materials:

Quantitative:
1. Barron’s - for review of the basic Math Concepts
2. Nova GRE Bible – for solid grounding of Math Concepts
3. Manhattan GRE 5 Lb Books - for copious examples and practice of Math Concepts
4. ETS Official GRE Quantitative Reasoning Practice Questions – for Practice Questions
5. ETS Official Guide GRE - for Practice Questions and Mastering of known Concepts
6. ETS PowerPrep II Software – for Timed Practice and familiarity with the test interface

Verbal:
1. ETS Official GRE Verbal Reasoning Practice Questions – for Intro
2. Magoosh Vocabulary App – for Vocabulary Building (and other products free/paid)
3. Barron’s 3500 Vocabs – If you have the strength, it won’t hurt you
4. Manhattan RC and Essay – Wonderful for Reading Comprehension and Essay Writing
5. ETS Big Book – the Old book is a treasure trove for practicing TC and Reading Concepts
6. ETS Official Guide -GRE -for Quality Practice Questions and Mastering of known Concepts
7. ETS PowerPrep II Software – for Timed Practice and more practice questions

Analytical Writing:
1. Manhattan RC- Essay and/or Kaplan should do.

2. Pick out at random 10 Questions from ETS published Pool of Issue Topics
(https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool) and PRACTICE with the
questions. You can start with untimed issue essay practice but do switch to timed practice for the last three or four practice
writings, a 30 minute task.

3. Pick out at random 10 Questions from ETS published Pool of Argument Topics
(https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool) and PRACTICE with the
questions. As stated above, you should start with untimed argument essay practice but switch to timed practice (30 minute
exercise) for the last three or four practice sessions.
Other Materials such as Kaplan, Gruber and Princeton may come in later, but the ones as listed above should form the core of your preparation materials. Even still, these other materials will be a walk in the park after mastering the concepts and examples in the above stated core materials.

7. Don’t limit yourself. Set the bar very high, aim to score 334, it will direct the direction and intensity of your preparation. If you fail to achieve your primary target of 334, you will score 324, which will be disappointing but not bad. And if you fail woefully, you will score 315. Now imagine if your original target score were 305.

8. My fear is that you are not going to prepare very well for the exam, that you are not going to do/practice more than 5 Timed Practice Test. Please disappoint my skepticism and practice not less than 8 timed practice tests. You will be glad you did. Mediocre effort will only produce a below average score. You surely don’t want to find out after your exam, after wasting your Time (albeit tepidly) and Money.

9. The higher the number of high quality questions your practiced with and understood deeply (like Barron’s, Nova, Manhattan, Magoosh, GMAT Official, all ETS Books and PowerPrep II), the more familiar the questions you will see on the test day, the more confidence you will have, the faster will be your solutions, the less will be your mistakes and the higher will be your score.

10. When you finally get the leg up there(fill in the gap….United States, P&G, ExxonMobil, Shell, Nairaland, XYZ Bank, Professor, Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs etc., etc.), make sure you help someone, whether with your knowledge, network, finance, experience or exposure. That is one thing we MUST all improve on.

On my second attempt
I am yet to write the GRE for the second time.
When I was ready for the second attempt around March, I was having challenge getting a suitable test date for the test for around 1 ½ months. Trust me; test seats/spaces get filled up easily. Not long after, I was drafted into a project in my place of employment which seriously curtailed my time and intensity of preparation and having to write a mandatory and tough certification in my place of work, I painfully have to shelve writing the exam. Thus no 330 score in the bag yet.

I hope this write up will add a couple of points to your GRE score. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavours.
And back to the Original DanjaNinja thread "How To Achieve High Scores On The GRE by DanjaNinja" https://www.nairaland.com/1832477/how-achieve-high-scores-gre

Congrat bro. I envy you o.

Congrats... You really tried!

My Congrats!!
And a lot of thanks for this useful post also !
Want to add about essay: whatever your chosen topic is, know it. Take time and do your research. Follow the theses format. Your content will be interesting IF you make the effort to KNOW what you are writing about.Also chek this sourse also essmart.org there are many good articles and tips.

Thanks. please what do you mean by 5timed practice questions

Thank you so much for this wonderful piece. This is very informative I must confess.

Pls i couldn't acess the GRE materials. Sent via self study mail. It's saying I do not have access. Pls what can I do?