How I Scored 332 in The GRE
What is the GRE?
GRE stands for Graduate Record Examinations. It’s a standardised aptitude test conducted by the ETS (the same guys conducting SAT for undergraduate admissions). It measures ability in analytical writing, verbal and quantitative reasoning. The test is mandatory for applying to graduate programs in the USA.
About me
Before I give out any advice, it’s worthwhile to clarify why my advice has any value. I took the GRE test once in June 2018 and scored 332/340. My scores:
Verbal reasoning: 168/170–98th percentile
Quantitative reasoning: 164/170–84th percentile
Analytical writing: 4.5/6–81st percentile
View my results here (please don’t judge my naive choice of universities)
I prepared for the exam for about 2 months, using 3 books. However, I had also been memorizing vocabulary in an on and off manner for several months preceding through an app.
How hard is the GRE?
The GRE test aims to quantify your ability in writing, English and math. Though the exam is meant for those intending to proceed to graduate programs, the standard of the questions is low enough that even a high schooler could do well.
Analytical writing
Analytical writing is less about your ability to write flowery prose and more about your ability to logically pick apart the question prompt. You’ll have to learn to make reasons to support or oppose an argument; and how to find flaws in an argument’s conclusion. Thus, it’s more important to develop logical reasoning than writing skills to do well at this.
Verbal reasoning
This section more or less tests your knowledge of English vocabulary and your ability to comprehend complicated passages. Most of the effort needed to ace this section involves memorizing 1000–2000 words.
Quantitative reasoning
This section covers a variety of topics under math such as geometry, statistics, algebra, etc. However, the level of questions is lower than in high school. There are no advanced topics such as calculus and no complicated formulae that need to be memorized. The standard of this section is equivalent to 10th-grade math.
The official GRE test guide by ETS goes into more details about the topics and types of questions covered in each section.
Do you really need the GRE?
Given the low standard of the questions, the GRE test can’t say much about your qualifications as a candidate for advanced graduate courses. The test doesn’t test you on subjects or skills that may be important for your degree.
Rather than an admission test, the GRE should be thought of as a qualifying test. It’s the minimum bar that you need to clear to apply. How low that bar is depends on the university and course you’re applying to.
For example, for STEM majors, verbal reasoning score isn’t considered important. You should check the GRE score requirements from the website of the university or the department you’re applying to. Sometimes there won’t be a specific minimum requirement. Instead, you can see the average scores of current students to form an idea of what to aim for.
While a good GRE score certainly doesn’t harm your application, it’s not a replacement for more important qualifications such as research or work experience, past projects, and your statement of purpose. This is especially true for PhD. applications. I have friends who’ve scored lower than me but got admission offers from better universities due to having more relevant experience.
How to study for the GRE?
Resources used
- ETS GRE Guide: This guide does a good job of explaining the structure of the GRE test and the difficulty level of the questions. Use this as a starting point to understand the test and what you need to study for it. There are also a handful of sample questions of each type and difficulty, and a few practice tests. However, these alone aren’t sufficient enough to prepare and practice for the test.
- 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems: This book by Manhattan prep is the most important book for preparing. If you only get one book, make sure it’s this one because it covers almost everything. Not only does it have a ton (or 5 lb. to be more exact) of practice questions with answers, but it also explains the reasoning behind the answers. It helps you to learn from your mistakes and improve on your own.
- GRE Answers to the Real Essay Questions: I used this book by Mark A. Stewart to get an idea of how to structure and write essays. The previous two guides also have a handful of essay questions with sample responses but this book tackles many more topics. I read several answers to naturally adopt the style of writing and the thinking patterns involved. The book is a fair bit old so the topics might be outdated.
- Magoosh GRE Vocab App: This app, available on both iOS and Android, lets you learn vocabulary for the GRE through flashcards. There are about 1200 flashcards in total which should cover about 70–75% of the words that advanced words that appear in the GRE.
Analytical writing
My essay scores weren’t the highest so take all the advice in this section with a grain of salt. My only guess is that my plain writing was, in part, to blame for bringing it down. This section is the hardest to evaluate by yourself so try to find an authority to help you practice (friends validating your ego don’t count).
I started preparing by reading the essay answers from the ETS GRE Guide. For each question, there is an answer that corresponds to each grade level, from 1 to 6. By reading and comparing all of them you come to understand what differentiates good essays from bad ones and good ones from better ones.
With that understanding in my mind, I proceeded to read several essays from GRE Answers to the Real Essay Questions. The essays showed me how the same principles behind a good answer apply across a variety of topics that cover vastly different situations. After reading dozens of these, I came to intuitively understand how to plan and structure my essay regardless of how familiar or unfamiliar I am with the topic of the question.
After I got comfortable with the format, I practised writing several essays within the time limit. All questions in the actual test are chosen from a pool of topics available here and here, one for each essay question type. I wrote an equal number of essays for both types which resulted in 30–40 essays in total.
Verbal reasoning
It’s not hard to do well in verbal reasoning, it’s just really cumbersome. The first step is to memorize all the words in the Magoosh GRE Vocabulary app (iOS and Android). This will cover 70–75% of the strange words you’ll come across.
Then it’s time to start practising questions from the 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems. Make sure to look up all unknown words as you come across them, even the options that aren’t the answer. If you’re particularly studious, you can turn these into Anki flashcards.
To further bolster your vocabulary, you can check out the list of words at the end of the book. You could also look for more GRE vocabulary decks on learning platforms such as Memrise. I’d avoid the list of words from Barron’s guide because I found that it was too long and had many words too esoteric for even the GRE. Judge the efficacy of new lists you discover based on if you’ve found words from them in your practice questions.
Finally, during the actual test, don’t be stressed out if you find words you don’t know. I did as well. Just trust your instinct and intuitively choose an answer. After practising many questions and coming across hundreds of words, you’ll intuitively know things that you may be having a hard time consciously recalling.
Quantitative reasoning
For people in STEM majors, the quantitative section of the GRE is hardly challenging (we’ve been through hells much worse). I even have friends who’ve scored almost perfectly without studying. None of the topics exceed 10th-grade level math in difficulty. You’ll hardly find anything new.
Not wanting to be overconfident, I worked through all math chapters from the 5lb book. It’s best to attempt sections without any preparation first. According to how well you do, you can decide if any topics need revising.
You might find other guide books that are full of challenging questions but such difficult questions are few and far between on the actual test.
Revision
I completed the 5lb book all over again after finishing it once. In the verbal reasoning section, coming across the words again in the questions helped me to remember them better. For the math section, it helped me to review the concepts I was weak at and see if I improved.
Practice Tests
After completing the revision, I started doing practice tests to gauge how well my preparation was. I timed myself and completed mock tests from the ETS Guide and 5lb book. I was scoring close to full each time so I concluded that I was well prepared.
How long does it take to study for the GRE?
How long you’ll have to study depends on where you’re at and where you want to be. Regardless of that, if your aim is it to go the full mile and score as high as possible, it’ll probably take no more than a month or two of intensive studying.
Evaluating yourself through practice tests is a great way to grasp where you stand and decide if you’re ready or not.
When to apply for the GRE exam?
The GRE exam can be taken at any time of the year. When I took it, slots were available from Monday to Thursday with a morning slot from 8:30 am and a day slot at 1 pm. You can book your test even just 2 days before the exam. Obviously, it might be harder to find seats on such tight notice during the busy applications season so plan accordingly by checking the site. I applied for the exam in June once I felt prepared and ready.
Another thing to note while applying is that the test location shown on the map can be inaccurate. Search for the test centre on Google maps by address to be sure.
Score select
Immediately after the test, you’re informed of your score in the verbal and quantitative sections. You can decide to have your score sent to 4 universities for free. The score is sent 10–15 days after the test, once your analytical writing section has also been evaluated and the official test result is out.
You only have 5 minutes to choose your universities so try to find them as soon as possible. You can search by name and state. If you’re a monster, you can have the ETS codes of your universities memorized beforehand and use those.
Scores can also be sent after your official results come out, in which case each report will cost $27 to send. Therefore, it's nearly $108 that you’re getting to send scores on the day of the test.
Conclusion
The GRE test is just a small piece of the larger admissions puzzle. Aim to do well but don’t obsess over it to the detriment of more important metrics.
