u/PhysicalSalamander16

Hey everyone. Just wanted to share my journey from the last couple months for anyone that might be getting stuck. Massive thank you to GregMat for making the whole process so much more enjoyable, the guy is seriously endearing.

Favorite moment is Greg describing verbal choices as “high on drugs”

I just took my official GRE today and scored 163Q 159V, pretty much exactly what I was aiming for. Would have liked 165Q, but I’m not too angry about the 2 point differential. If that is what changes my admissions outcome then something else in my profile or essay needed to be much clearer

My journey was as follows:

Early May - PP2: 152V 152Q
June - PPP1: 154V 157Q
July - PPP2: 163Q 161V
A week ago - PPP3: 161Q 153V
A few days ago - PP1: 334 (GregMat calculator, but was wayyyyy easier of an exam than any of the others. Not very representative)

Tools used:

TTP for quant understanding and drilling, as well as official materials.
- TTP was really really helpful and really had a lot to offer with a super comprehensive and easily followed plan. The downside is the price point and a bit of information overload. I was able to dedicate around 6 hours per day to studying along with a full time job, so I was able to complete the full course. It really does touch on everything you need, but official material is where you are going to learn what you really need to continue honing down.

GregMat for Verbal RC/TC and general vocab
- Did all groups of the vocab mountain, memorizing nearly all 1060 something words. Wasn’t super important for my actual exam, but knowing the 10 words that you need to know on the test kinda makes it worth the time investment of around a month doing 30 new words a day. For TC/SE the practice question they have are really really solid, highly suggest them. For RC, which I struggled with a lot, I just used only official materials. The preswift and strategy videos for verbal from Greg are also golden, it’s a must. Once you have completed around 16 of the word ground, I’d start glancing at the SE and TC strategy prep swift videos. Super affordable and great quality, huge shout out to Greg.

Biggest Takeaways:

Test anxiety is a solvable and practicable issue. I focused really really hard on mindfulness and meditation leading up to my exam, and have never felt so calm despite it meaning so much to me for the programs that I am basing a lot of my future on. Please please please, take the time to sit quietly and meditate or something, just get your mind right. Even if it makes you feel silly or stupid, WHO CARES ITS ALL FOR THE BIGGER GOAL!

Quant on the test felt debatably easier that some of the official mocks, much much easier than the GregMat mocks. Time management is the most difficult thing once you have a solid foundation and can consistently enter the hard second section. Being able to let go of questions that you don’t have a high chance of getting right is a MUST. That was really hard for me, but on the actual test I think that was one of the reasons that I was able to achieve my goal score of 320+ on my first attempt. Remember that each section is completely done once you click next, forget about it and don’t worry about it, it’s over. Just try your best and if it doesn’t work out then go back to the drawing board.

Hope everyone gets the score that they are aiming for, just remember that this whole experience is teaching you more than you know, beyond what loquacious and quixotic means and the probability that Bob and Jon will sit next to each other.

Best of luck!

Hey everyone. Just wanted to share my journey from the last couple months for anyone that might be getting stuck.

I just took my official GRE today and scored 163Q 159V, pretty much exactly what I was aiming for. Would have liked 165Q, but I’m not too angry about the 2 point differential. If that is what changes my admissions outcome then something else in my profile or essay needed to be much clearer

My journey was as follows:

Early May - PP2: 152V 152Q
June - PPP1: 154V 157Q
July - PPP2: 163Q 161V
A week ago - PPP3: 161Q 153V
A few days ago - PP1: 334 (GregMat calculator, but was wayyyyy easier of an exam than any of the others. Not very representative)

Tools used:

TTP for quant understanding and drilling, as well as official materials.
- TTP was really really helpful and really had a lot to offer with a super comprehensive and easily followed plan. The downside is the price point and a bit of information overload. I was able to dedicate around 6 hours per day to studying along with a full time job, so I was able to complete the full course. It really does touch on everything you need, but official material is where you are going to learn what you really need to continue honing down.

GregMat for Verbal RC/TC and general vocab
- Did all groups of the vocab mountain, memorizing nearly all 1060 something words. Wasn’t super important for my actual exam, but knowing the 10 words that you need to know on the test kinda makes it worth the time investment of around a month doing 30 new words a day. For TC/SE the practice question they have are really really solid, highly suggest them. For RC, which I struggled with a lot, I just used only official materials. The preswift and strategy videos for verbal from Greg are also golden, it’s a must. Once you have completed around 16 of the word ground, I’d start glancing at the SE and TC strategy prep swift videos. Super affordable and great quality, huge shout out to Greg.

Biggest Takeaways:

Test anxiety is a solvable and practicable issue. I focused really really hard on mindfulness and meditation leading up to my exam, and have never felt so calm despite it meaning so much to me for the programs that I am basing a lot of my future on. Please please please, take the time to sit quietly and meditate or something, just get your mind right. Even if it makes you feel silly or stupid, WHO CARES ITS ALL FOR THE BIGGER GOAL!

Quant on the test felt debatably easier that some of the official mocks, much much easier than the GregMat mocks. Time management is the most difficult thing once you have a solid foundation and can consistently enter the hard second section. Being able to let go of questions that you don’t have a high chance of getting right is a MUST. That was really hard for me, but on the actual test I think that was one of the reasons that I was able to achieve my goal score of 320+ on my first attempt. Remember that each section is completely done once you click next, forget about it and don’t worry about it, it’s over. Just try your best and if it doesn’t work out then go back to the drawing board.

Hope everyone gets the score that they are aiming for, just remember that this whole experience is teaching you more than you know, beyond what loquacious and quixotic means and the probability that Bob and Jon will sit next to each other.

Best of luck!

Hey everyone.

I just took PPP3, I’m exactly 1 week out from my exam. For some context, here are the previous Official Mock Scores if gotten:

PP2: 152V 152Q (3 months ago)
PPP1: 154V 157Q (1 month ago)
PPP2: 161V 163Q (1 week ago)

And now:

PPP3: 153V 161Q

AWA: 5.0 all the way through

I’m going to do a deep dive review tomorrow, but I wanted to get some advice as to whether this has happened to anyone before their exam and what to do?

Both first sections felt slightly harder than previous, but I got 10/12 for both.

Second section Verbal was super super hard, and I got only 3/15 correct. To me that feels statistically improbable, so I’m not really sure how to move forward. I’m going to review and then continue doing TC/SE on GregMat and official guide and then RC on official guide.

Second section quant I got 10/15 correct. It felt pretty similar to other second sections I’ve had, had a slight pacing problem I suspect, but that doesn’t alarm me tooooo much given that I still got a 161Q.

I’m applying to masters programs that care far more about Quant, and a 161 would be fine, though I prefer closer to 163-165. On that front I’m gonna just keep practicing timed official sets. I’m just worried about how horrible I did on verbal, and whether 153 is close to what I might get next week, because that would likely be super low for my programs.

Any advice appreciated, good luck to everyone studying for this thing.

Hey everyone.

Been on the sidelines and enjoying reading everyone’s post for these past two m months I’ve been studying. Thank you to everyone sharing stories.

I just took the Magoosh Free Full Length, only doing the quant section because I’ve heard that doing off brand verbal isn’t useful. I scored a 162Q. My last PPP exam (1) I got a 157Q, but since then I’ve completed almost all of the TTP quant material, I’m going to take PPP2 this coming weekend to see where I’m at.

I just want to seek advice for anyone who has taken the Magoosh Full Length vs the real thing or an official mock, was your score similar? Did you feel that it was easier or harder? Was it a good reflection of your current preparation level?

I’m looking to end up with around 320, with hopefully a 161+ Q score, I don’t really care too much about verbal or AWA. Just want to know how I should interpret this improvement, especially considering I took the GregMat Quant Full Length like a week ago (granted before I did Geometry chapter) and scored a 156Q which scared me.

Thanks to everyone that participates here, WE WILL PREVAIL JUST TIME AND DEDICATION!

I got 76th percentile DI, 15th percentile Quant (Was so rough LMAO), and 56th Verbal

79 DI, 71 Quant, 80 V.

I have all summer to study and will be putting in around 3 hours before/after work during the week and 5-7 hours per day on weekend. I am gonna get TTP and the prep questions from GMAC. What are peoples thoughts, I need an 80th to 85th percentile (615ish) to get into my target programs.