How to Score 329 on the GRE?

Mine is a pretty oddball kind of story, so I am not sure it’s the best example to follow. Nonetheless, here goes.

I initially planned on taking my GRE in the spring semester of my senior year. But I ended up taking on too much on my plate. Eventually, I dropped the idea of applying in that cycle anyway. But I did the diagnostic test. I believe I got early 160s for quant and mid 150s for my verbal  GRE score. I also coached GRE to an Instructor at my university, who was taking her GRE again for her Ph.D. applications.

I didn’t fully prepare for it, but I got some confidence and a clear idea of what the test looked like. I have a general knack for aptitude tests, so I was confident I could give it on two weeks’ notice.

I ended up taking my GRE 2 years later.

In the meantime, I subscribed to Scholarden and did some practice from ScholarDen. I had identified my weak areas (Geometry in Quant, Vocabulary in English), and I was confident I could cover them in a short period of time.

I ended up registering for a date one month later. I had a month, but really, I spent in total not more than five days of effort into it. I did it for a couple of days, dropped it, then picked it up 3 days before the actual test. I ended up doing a run-through of all maths content chapters, including all the rules (with a special focus on my weak areas), around 200 words, and two online practice tests in real time. I got a high score in my Quant in my practice test, and that was my focus, so I went into the GRE with some confidence.

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The test went more or less smoothly. The Math section was hard compared to the practice tests I had done. However, the last section was significantly more difficult than the first section. Verbal was exactly as difficult as I had expected it to be, but I gave it a good shot.

I ended up getting 168 Quant, 161 Verbal, and 4.5 Analytical Writing.

There’s probably just one lesson I can draw from my experience (and no more!):

Prepare smartly: get a sense of where you stand straight away. If you do not know how to prepare, contact experienced mentors on Scholarden. Do the diagnostic, do a couple of practice sets, skim the contents of all sections, familiarize yourself with the structure and content of the test, identify your weak areas, and then focus on your weak areas. Utilize ScholarDen content. Do real-time practice tests. Half the game is in identifying what to focus on based on where YOU stand.

Read on: GRE success story 323