Hello folks, here is some information,tips from my own experience that will no d oubt help you succeed on the

gre . I am not a super brilliant student or a clas s topper. I want to share with you some of the things that helped me score more than 325 in the GRE and i believe it will benefit everybody ,irrespective of you r level of understanding and preparation. You do not have to be brilliant to sco re well in the gre .All you need to be is a little smart,that s all. Study smart a nd you are on your way towards your goal of 325 plus. Preferably,study for about 2 months.Take a n. see where you stand .I suggest take one est to the actual GRE(since ETS themselves ow where you are weak, it s much easier to The materials I used1 2 ETS OFFICIAL GUIDE BOOK KAPLAN mock test before you start preparatio powerprep test because it is the clos make the powerprep tests).Once you kn attack that section and improve.

3 I had joined Dilip Oaks academy in Pune so I also used their material for t he verbal section. 4 - Used Princeton review. But not much . 5 - Some online stuff from google

VERBAL SECTION

OK,here is a bitter truth Your english is not going to improve substantially in the preparation period of say 1.5 3 months before your GRE.Being proficient in a ny language takes years. So in order to score well on the verbal section ,you wi ll have to practice a lot. In the quant(math)section you can learn 10 formulas a nd get 20 questions right but that s not something you can do in the verbal sectio n.Get used to the question formats ,types and how to respond to them. SENTENCE COMPLETION AND EQUIVALENCE (i.e all fill in the blanks questions) WORDSI have been asked many times . How many words should one prepare? How to prepare? etc

Learn anywhere between 3500 to 4000. Use flash cards, softwares ,mobile apps ,an ything that is suitable for you. The only way which is the most straightforward and beneficial when it comes to learning words is MUGGING EM UP! yes, MUG THEM UP ! RATTA MARO!!! I had prepared about 4000+ words from the barrons word list, kaplan ,etc. When i t comes to fill in the blanks questions , 65 percent of the problem is that you do not know the meanings of the words that are given. Once you learn the number of words i have suggested above, there will never arise a situation wherein you wi ll not be in a position to get the meaning of a word correct. 35 percent of the task in getting sentence equivalence or completion questions correct is understa nd the sentence and the context in which the words have to be selected.That will only develop by practice.Some students use word roots ,mnemonics to remember wo rds.If that technique works for you,well and good ,but I am pretty skeptical abo ut using word roots while learning words.This is because the same root can have different meanings in different words so you cannot associate a fixed meaning wi

th a root .This may lead to confusion when you come across words having same roo t but different meanings.Using mnemonics to remember words can be helpful but it may take a lot of your time. So in reality the best way to learn words is just to mug them up .Don t forget to revise the words as often as you may forget them a fter a few days. Give anywhere between 1-2 hours everyday for learning words.

READING COMPREHENSION- Probably the toughest thing in the verbal section. Again ,you have to practice a lot so that you can get better at your reading skills l ike reading fast, understanding content quickly. Always TIME YOURSELF when you s olve a passage. If you are an avid reader ,your reading speed will be good and t hat will earn you brownie points in this section. Here are 3 tips that are very importantWhile answering questions, never go for extreme answer options,i.e, the answer o ptions that have words like = the most, the best, worst,etc.For example ,if a pa ssage is about the architecture and design of the Taj Mahal and a particular qu estion based on the passage has two options 1) Taj Mahal is the most beautiful structure in the world. 2) Taj Mahal is a good looking structure. You may be tempted to select the first options but note that the passage will on ly be discussing the Taj Mahal ,not any other structure ,so how will you know th at it is really the most beautiful structure when no information is given about other structures? You will have to go with option 2. This is just a rough examp le of how extreme option choices are used to tempt test takers into selecting wr ong options. Never assume . Use only the data that is given in the passage. Let me give you a rough example.Suppose a passage talks about Albert Einstein he lping poor children and contributing to society. If you are asked a question abo ut the qualities of Einstein and you have these 2 among your answer options1 ) Albert Einstein helped the needy and was really concerned about the welfare of society. 2) Apart from being a great scientist ,he was also a philanthropist. You may be tempted to select the 2nd options since the word Philanthropist- a cha ritable person, one who contributes towards welfare of the society covers the ent ire idea of the passage.HOWEVER, the passage doesn t mention Einstein as a scienti st.So even though the entire world knows that Albert Einstein was a great scient ist, its not given in the passage, so you can t assume that Einstein was a scienti st and therefore option 2 will be incorrect. Again ,this is just a rough example of never assuming while solving passages. Pace yourself- don t waste your time on one particular problem.If you dwell too mu ch on one question ,you make not get sufficient time to answer other questions.I f you are unsure about a question ,mark your answer, don t leave it blank. You hav e a 25% chance of getting it right. ESSAYS- the most important tip I can give you when you write essays is do not gi ve examples which are related to Indian figures or something that has to do with religion etc.I had written many many essays and they were very good but in my G RE I scored 3.5 in the awa section .I expected at least 4.5. The ets people who rate your essays are after all humans and may have prejudices. Although ets will never admit it ,some test takers may be racist and biased,you never know. Whil e giving examples, try to stick to international figures or happenings.My essay topic was related to heroes and how they change society. I had given examples of Anna Hazare and Mahatma Gandhi . India suffered greatly under the tyrannical Br

itish rule - a sentence i had used in my essay. Now, if my essay checker was a Bri tish person,he MAY have a biased view towards my essay. You never know.Again i r epeat that ets test checkers are human beings after all and may have preferences and prejudices and we are well aware of the fact that unfortunately racism is p revalent everywhere. So to be on the safe side, stick to international events or figures while giving examples and don t touch any sensitive topics.

QUANT SECTION MATHS! This is where you can improve your score by leaps and bounds! Before prep aration ,in my first mock test i scored about 75 % in the quant section .After p reparing and all, in my GRE, i scored 98%+ ( 167/170 )in quant. So as you can s ee you can raise your score like anything by scoring well in the quant section. Firstly,download the maths review pdf from ets website. It has all the topics on which questions will be asked in the gre.You DO NOT have to learn anything apar t from the topics that are there in the maths review pdf.The pdf file also has s ome interesting tips and formulas. Go through the pdf once every week. I used kaplan extensively for maths. You can use Princeton review as well.Really helpful. Give a lot of importance to probability as you make get a lot of question (somet imes even 6-7!) based on probability. ALSO TIME YOURSELF WHILE SOLVING. It is essential that you maintain speed . I al ways had difficulty in completing the quant section in time. Even in my GRE I di dn t get time to attempt 3-4 questions. Usually the questions at the end are very easy. If you don t pace yourself, you ma y not get time to solve those easy questions at the end. Don t waste too much time observing the charts and graphs ,if you are taking more than a minute to solve a problem based on the graphs and charts, then that means you are going wrong so mewhere. A very important thing that you can do is learn tables till 20 .This is very han dy. You will have to multiply almost everywhere in the quant section. Suppose yo u spend 4 seconds on carrying out a multiplication on the onscreen calculator ,t hen say for 12 questions you will spend about 48 seconds on just multiplication. By knowing tables by heart, you can save those 48 seconds and use them to solve 2-3 problems or revise the answers to questions which you are unsure about. You may write down all the formulas in a book.This will make formula revision ve ry easy and convenient.

1-2 WEEKS BEFORE YOUR GRETake a mock test every day. Every single day. Get used to sitting at one place f or 4 hours. Remember gre is not only an academic test but it also tests your end urance. Sitting in a place for 4 hours can be tough.So get used to it. Preferably,give your mock GRE tests at the same time as your actual GRE. eg if y our actual gre is at 11 am ,then give your mock tests at 11 am as you will get u sed to the time and will be confident and comfortable on the real gre day.If you r main gre is at 10 am and you have been practicing mock tests at 6 pm in the ev ening ,then you may not feel comfortable at giving the gre at 10 am as you are u

sed to giving it in the eve or at a different time. Try giving tests on a different computer, different surroundings .Distractions w ill be there on your test day and giving your mock tests in a different environm ent,away from the cozy comfort of your room can really prepare you to handle dis tractions well and concentrate on the test.Keep revising the vocabulary and math s formulas. ON TEST DAYIf your gre centre is in a different city, travel to the city a day or two befor e your test day. Don t revise anything on test day. Don t stress yourself.Remaining calm and focussed is the most important thing as it can directly affect your per formance on test day.Afterall,remember that the gre is just a test.If you don t sc ore upto your expectation,it doesn t mean the end of the world.You can retake the test after 30 days.But i am sure if you study hard,NO , study smart,YES, you wi ll definitely score above 325!