#greprep

[caffeinatedhan]

A big hello to all of the future GRE students out there! Here is a quick tip that might help y’all out ✍️

[studiesofnature]

my gre studying is going great wdym

[kxowledge]

Uhm. So. I’m studying for the GRE again (July - August) after a period of extremely low self-worth and confidence, and I want to post updates to keep myself accountable and track my progress. But also portray here the frustrations and disappointments of daily study sessions and the nitty gritty, so that in the end it will be more inspiring than a “How To Score 320+ on the GRE” post with vague tips. There’s plenty of that on the internet already. 

Let’s start by saying that I am aiming as high as possible, my dream university average score is 328, my second dream university has a requirement of at least 165Q. I am nowhere near close to these scores.

On Saturday I took a diagnostic test on Crunch Prep and scored 154Q & 164V, which - I’ll be honest – is a very disappointing start. I knew Quant was the weakest section for me, but this is extremely far away from my target. Oh well, from this score I can only improve. 

I know it’s not as reliable as official tests, but I didn’t want to ‘waste’ an official test by taking it at the beginning - I want to study for at least two weeks before taking the first PowerPrep test.

In general, my pitfalls are reading comprehension and quantitative comparison. My knowledge is lacking with regards to geometry. One thing I know I should do and yet I don’t do is review my answers. Overall, I am not worried about stress or time management. I can complete the verbal section easily, whereas I always use all the time for the quant.

I’m not overly worried about the Verbal section, which has less importance for the universities I’ll apply to anyway, but I do want to get a high score on it because I think it’s entirely within my reach. I won’t disregard it completely, but I won’t spend too much time on it – I’d rather focus on the Quant, which should be my priority.

I started on Wednesday (01/07) and studied for about 45 minutes: did the exercises from Manhattan Prep 5lbs on Arithmetic and watched one vocab video and started making flashcards. On Friday (03/07) instead I was very optimistic (… or should I say sanguine?) and studied for more than 3 hours – I worked on word problems on mixture, distance, and work, started reviewing ETS Math Review and completed Arithmetic and Algebra. Reviewed the triangle inequality ( | x+ y| < |x| + |y|) which I keep forgetting (even though I know the proof&etc. I just forget it’s a thing. ) and found out how to figure out the total number of divisors of a number. Minor progress, but I had fun. Saturday was for test-taking and wallowing in the consequent depression.

It’s clear what I have to improve, it’s not so clear how. 

While I don’t have a study plan per se, I have a list of resources at my disposal and a tentative ideal routine of tasks to complete each day. While I am relatively confident I can improve (and know how) on the verbal, the quant still baffles me. But let’s see how it goes. 

[academically-booked]

Hello 💕

Been doing a lot of GRE prep lately. Hoping to take my exam in the fall so wish me luck! How is your week going?

Jessica 💕

[kxowledge]

“Focus on the skills, not the score”

Reviewing fundamental concepts is slow-going and it currently seems it will take me the entirety of July – but since I’m doing relevant practice questions in the meanwhile, I feel confident in the path I’m following. I’m gaining a solid understanding of the concepts and this will help me immensely.

This week I finished reviewing Geometry and Arithmetic and worked through the problems on ETS Math Review for the former. I studied everyday – a couple of days I was only able to go through one video, but I fully made up for that during other days where I spent more time on GRE prep. Dare I say I’m having fun?

What I really need to start doing is looking at the error log and re-solve those problems, but I’m procrastinating it due to the usual reasons. What is going extremely well is vocabulary building, as now I know about 70 more words and I’m definitely on a roll – I like Anki flashcards and chunking is rather effective.

[Have not taken any mock test yet, math review is taking longer than I anticipated]

[kxowledge]

GREprep - Week 4

[No picture for this week or otherwise I’ll delay posting this further.]

This week I started going through Manhattan Prep’s exercises from the 5lbs book – however, by the end of the week I decided to change my approach and re-adjust my study plan so as to start first with old GRE material and use afterwards the 5lbs book to practice problematic areas. I’m struggling with not over-worrying about the pace of my study, yet I can’t help it.

My mind is always ten steps ahead and I think of when I’ll have to practice harder quant questions, when I’ll have to take the practice exams, when I’ll have to take the real exam, what if I can’t reach a high enough score, what if I have to re-take it, what if I don’t get in my university of choice (I do have other options, just a notch less exciting). This is a deleterious mindset & I’m constantly trying to remind myself to focus on what I can do today in order to get closer to my goal.

@achilles-alexander wrote about how you need both nuclear goals and atomic habits – I couldn’t agree more.

It's imperative to have big ambitions and one must make sure these are backed by atomic habits. Sometimes – when the daily gets tedious or frustrating – it’s useful to remind yourself of the bigger picture and why you are doing this; sometimes – when your goal seems unattainable – it’s useful to focus on the daily, on getting through one day at the time in order to avoid falling in the pit of despair (and the consequent abandonment of your ambitions due to discouragement).

I’m proud of not having given up: at the end of this week I’ll have behind me a month of test prep and (I believe) a strong foundation. A diagnostic test will provide insightful data and (maybe) reassurance, but I’m building my skillset & I’m proud of myself for keeping at it despite the insecurity and the despair – this is all that matters.

As for an actual update on what I have done – I started reviewing my error log and my notes (even though it’s still a task I avoid), I made significant progress with vocab (I had a first look at all the words I plan to learn), I finished reviewing Algebra, and I learned useful strategies for tackling reading questions. Oh, and I also received for free three months of GregMat+, which I’m finding extremely useful.

[kxowledge]

GREprep - Week 6

While I know I have studied a good amount of hours this week, it still doesn’t feel enough. Maybe it’s because I slacked off yesterday (still reviewed my error log! still revised vocabulary!) because I couldn’t focus after a paranoia-filled night I spent laying down awake, maybe it’s because I know that the upcoming week I won’t have time to study.

Keeping a record of what I have done gives me a reality check, the feeling of never doing enough is still there.

However, here’s what I have accomplished: I started focusing on quant strategies (as opposed to concepts), started exposing myself to harder problems, finished going through ETS Math Review booklet, started doing practice exercises from the Official Guides, and, on my single day of Verbal, I had a first look at the argument essay .

[kxowledge]

Brief update on how studying for the GRE is going: slow

(I knew beforehand that in these two/three weeks I wouldn’t be able to carve time for studying – after a detour to Riga, I’m finally in Italy. Here my concentration falters and I find I can only dedicate the early hours to studying.)

It is imperative I change this.