GRE! The GRE!

Hello everybody,First of all, I thank all of you for the good wishes and congratulations that you have sent... either as mails, PMs, or anyhow. I have also been getting a lot of mails from people asking for tips and tricks and how I made it to the 800 in quants and 700 on the verbal. So if you are prepared for a lot of gyaan (which I love shelling out), here you go:1. How long does it take to prepare?A: There is no definite time frame. But about 2-3 dedicated hours a day, for about two-and-a-half months is enough. Then, again, it is dependent on your level. To find that out, I'd suggest that you should take one paper-based test that is there in the front of the book (Barron's, Kaplan, anything... or even the Big Book). If you score about 750 on the quants, and about 500 on the verbal (no cheatings, etc) then the time frame I've said should be enough. If you scored more, great... you should try to get to around 1550!! But if less... well, spruce up depending on how much less.2. From where do I do the quanti section?A: Keep in touch with the section along with your verbal prep. Ignoring this section can mean the difference between a 780 and a 800. Try to get all your answers right when you practice the tests from the Big Book... no big need to do the practice material from the books. But again, if you stand currently at about 600 on the quanti, please do all the exercises. For the probability and statistics questions, I'd suggest that you catch hold of some CBSE XIIth grade books and do them from there. It is more than enough. Remember, the tests on the different books like Kaplan, Princeton, Barrons are a tad bit easy. You will get a taste of the real thing on the Powerprep ones.. they are good.3. Verbal Section: Vocab and the Barron's WordlistA: Yes, you have to read this one... there is no shortcut. I will suggest that you should start with the lists and go through the Norman Lewis book (a red one titled "Increase your Word Power" or something) in parallel. Make sure you do all the exercises as the author suggests in the book --- word for word. Once you are through, you'll be having a feel that you really know some words. Flash cards do help, trust me... I read most of the Barron's lists through the flash cards one of my sisters had prepared for herself, going to and fro on my office bus. It looks a bit weird, but they are good. After that, when I sat down with the Barron's book... I could see that I knew many words.4. Reading comprehensionA: The best way to tackle this is to practice. One RC a day continiously for 2 months should be enough to help you spot the right answer. Most importantly, please go through the methods and things suggested in the Kaplan's book as well as the Barron's book. This goes not just for RCs, but analogies, sentence completions and antonyms as well. The methods in these books are really good, and they will tell you much more lucidly how to tackle them than what you can gather from my mail.A word about the books here should be befitting. Please read the Kaplan's and Barron's book cover to cover. There is a virtual treasure-trove of information that is of immense help and can help you find answers to most of the questions you may be having. The Princeton's book is OK, but I think it is relatively easy and not as good as the Kaplan's and Barrons.5. The Big BookA: Yes, even if you haven't bought this one, do so. I bought it from Hyderabad when I visited my friends. There is a place there called Kothi and there is a line of book stalls just opposite the bus stand. You can get the book there for about 250 bucks, although the shopkeeper will start from somewhere around 270-280. Trust me, these 250 bucks will be your best investment. The verbal questions are really GRE standard, and I think one or two questions were among those that I had already seen on the Big Book. One verbal test daily and one quants test once every two days should be enough practice from this book.6. AWA --- Essay writingA: This one again is heavily dependent on practice. What I'd suggest is that you write your essays, and then mail it to the group. When somebody does mail an essay, PLEASE EVALUATE IT. Believe me, it takes just about 4-5 min to evaluate 2 complete essays and then you can have a good buddy. Besides, this is a mutually beneficial affair and I personally benefited immensely from this.7. General tips and tricksA. PLEASE TAKE YOUR PASSPORT TO THE TEST CENTRE. I was about to laugh out loud when a (sweet) lady came in and told the test admins even more sweetly that she did not have her passport with her. Well, her condition after she was told (in the sweetest possible way) that she needs a passport to be let in fobade the laughter.B. Get your first 6-7 questions correct. When I was taking the powerprep tests, I got the first (and fifth) verbal questions wrong on my first test, and the second (and fourth) wrong on the second. Consequently, my scores plummeted to 590 and 620 respectively on these sections, although the quanti scores were ok (800 and 790). This happened one week before the actual test, and I cannot properly express what I had felt on the last few days because of this.C. Don't forget to read magazines and newspaper editorials everyday. And do hunt up words which you do not know. As for example, I remembered the words UMBRAGE and PECADILLO from a newspaper article although I had read them in Barron's because I hunted them up then and there. Now, you have seen these words in my mail. Go and find your dictionary, right now!D. There are numerous sites such as http://www.i20fever.com that offer a lot of information for GRE people. Try google, university webpages, and anything that you can lay your hands on and to narrow down on these sites... build a good list of bookmarks and keep practising. I believe that the Princetons, Kaplan's etc also have free online tests. Subscribe to the word of the day from the http://www.dictionary.com site, and make sure you read through the entire mail everyday. Most importantly, join lots of Yahoo and Google groups, and try to answer questions that other members pose.Finally, let me assure you that I will be ready to help if anybody has any more questions beyond this. But first of all, please go through all these sites:
Xap Student Center
ACT, GRE, SAT, Free Test Prep from Number2.com (with Number2.com Redesign).
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That was my set of bookmarks... I have bared all my weapons now. Believe me, I spent 5-6 months building them...and these are just for the GRE preparation... I have many more up my sleeve which will be published in due course of time.
Chalo guys all the best! I took my TOEFL this Saturday on 20th and scored 240-297 on it... I am awaiting 290 on that.
Regards,
Sudipta
Addendum: this site was suggested by manikanth and looks good: www.majortests.comAdded later on 18th May, 2005... since this post is apparently being followed by some junta:I hope this old set of tips should help you regarding RCs:First of all, you need to understand that the reading comprehension is actually a treasure hunt and nothing more. All that is being asked has its answer somewhere in the passage given, and so you must look for the right area in the passage. Keeping that in mind sure helps... for example when you think you have read something about the question in the passage somewhere, and are about to answer from memory, don't! Go through the passage again, and find the exact thing that you were trying to remember, and then you can go ahead and answer a question.Next, eliminate outrageous answers outright. By "outrageous" I mean any answer choice that mentions something not mentioned in the passage. It may be that the passage is about wildlife conservation, and you get an answer choice that seems to fit in, except for the fact that it mentions poachers or government apathy, etc. --- anything that was not there in the passage... chuck it out straight away.Also, it helps to keep a pencil and paper at hand and manually cross out answers that you have eliminated like that. You know, A B C D E looks a lot more confusing than A B C D E where you have eliminated B, D and E and can actually focus on A and C. (Sorry this blogger does not allow a strikethrough).To add to this list I have another piece of advice which, although repeated, I guess is a life-saver in itself. And that is, read the way the various books such as Kaplan and Barrons ask you to tackle the RCs or anything for that matter. Practice their sample examples religiously, and I am sure your standards will improve. Finally, don't panic. If you see that something is taking a lot of time, you have to make an educated guess, much like the way a captain decides to send four of his men through the enemy territory while he saves the other 46. You have to take mental decisions, and tough ones at that, to be able to triumph. At the end of the day, the GRE is not about how much you know but it is about how well you can steel yourself for the challenge!