r/GRE

This is a long-pending post, so please bear with me.

My GRE journey started in October 2025 after I decided to switch from the GMAT (I’d scored a 615 in my GMAT attempt in June, and kept procrastinating a retake). For context, I come from an engineering background, with work experience across consulting and VC.

I subscribed to GregMat’s one-month plan and took my first GRE on November 28, 2025, scoring 323 (158V, 165Q). I’d done around 800 of the words from GregMat, and a PowerPrep+. I had 7 mistakes in Verbal, with 4 in SE, so figured my words were the issue.
I wasn’t disappointed with the score itself for the prep I had put in, but I knew it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I had always expected quant to carry me a little more, and I knew I had left points on the table.

For my second attempt which I started preparing for properly at some time in March 2026, I decided to slow down and actually build my fundamentals properly. I subscribed to the I’m Overwhelmed plan, went through the material, did all my words (thank the lord for my excel skills to cull out words that I had to practice), completed all of Greg’s questions, took all the GregMat mocks, and also did two PowerPrep+ (1 and 3) tests. My mock scores consistently sat around 330-335, so I felt I was finally where I needed to be.

I took my second attempt on May 31, 2026. 324 (159V, 165Q). That one really hurt.
A one-point improvement in verbal and no movement in quant after months of preparation was honestly devastating. The worst part was that my practice scores simply weren’t matching what was happening on test day. This time, I had 10 wrong in Verbal, with 6 in RC and 2 in SE.

I chose to work the 21 days before what would be my final attempt before application season, and decided to stop chasing more questions and instead focus on execution.
I went back through GregMat and revised my fundamentals again. I wrote down every methodology, every recurring mistake, and every technique Greg teaches.

For quant, I realised that most of my mistakes weren’t conceptual, they were in Quantitative Comparison. I simply wasn’t testing enough cases before deciding between A, B, C or D, and that was costing me 2–3 questions every exam.
For Verbal, I wasn’t applying the RC strategies, and was trying wing it for lack of a better word, so I went back to the official prep books, and Gregs videos, to catch what I was doing wrong and fix it.

I also started using Vince’s flashcard app whenever I had free time during the day, in the cab to work, while eating dinner alone, any free time tbh, which helped keep vocab fresh without feeling like another study session.

A day before the exam, I took another PowerPrep and scored a 334, which finally gave me some confidence.
Fast forward to June 28, 2026.
I reached the test centre in Delhi in nearly 40°C heat, which wasn’t exactly the ideal start to the day.
My sections were AWA – Verbal – Quant – Quant – Verbal.
The moment I started my second verbal section, I knew I’d gotten the harder module. Some of those questions were rough, especially the three-blank text completions. I just kept reminding myself to trust the process and go one question at a time.

I made one change that helped me a lot with quant. Across my mocks and past two attempts, I usually finished with around five minutes left, so instead of ending early, I re-read every single question to make sure I hadn’t missed any information or made a careless assumption. That alone probably saved me a couple of questions.

When I clicked Report Scores, I genuinely thought I had a shot at 330+ because it felt like one of my better attempts.
The screen came up, with a 330 (162V, 168Q). It was so unbelievable that I kept doubting the score till today, when I received my official report (with a 4.5 AWA)

That was the exact score I’d been chasing throughout this entire journey. Not a point higher, not a point lower.

Looking back, the biggest lesson for me was that doing more questions wasn’t what moved the needle. Understanding why I was making mistakes, slowing down, and trusting the methods I’d spent months learning made all the difference.
A huge shout-out to Greg, Vince, Scott, and honestly this entire subreddit. Reading discussions here over the last eight months taught me almost as much as studying itself.

Good luck to everyone still preparing. Happy to answer any questions if my experience can help someone else.

Hi guys. I am planning to take my GRE in October and I'm genuinely worried about verbal. And I mean, it's funny because I've always been good at English and sucked at math, so it should be quant I should be worrying about the most, but the thing about quant is that I can improve with practice, all it requires is practice. But TC and SE are already a bit tricky to understand, and I'm a bit worried about not being able to retrieve vocab that long-term. I'm sorry for the anxiety dump lol, but I don't want to bombard myself with a lot of resources.

I am currently using GregMat's list and would probably resort to Magoosh vocab. However, I'm not sure. Last time I started prepping for the GRE but stopped because of my ongoing undergrad degree back then, and I ended up with a lot of resources: Manhattan, GregMat, Magoosh, and Princeton, which made me end up burnt out.

I get the recall-vocab-everyday thing, but I am still worried since I'm bad at cramming. Any sort of advice, tip, insight, anything would help.

TIA!!

To give a little context

I gave my last GRE on the 27th of June - I scored 315 (160Q, 155 V)

My goal by the end of July (planning to rewrite on the 8th of August) is 325-330. So I am trying a 5-7 point increase in quant and 5 in verbal.

In my previous mocks - I did score between 323-326 , but I panicked before the exam. Haven't yet received my diagnostics.

I have subscribed for Gregmat and everyday this is what I'm doing

1. Vocab groups - 30 words everyday - except Sundays where I review the words I have done. In this way , I would hopefully cover at least 2800 words.

2. RC - 3 RCs on the weekdays (I work a 9-5 job) and as much as I can on the weekends.

3. TC, SE - 5 on the weekdays , as much as I can on the weekends

For Quant

1. Geometry is my weak point so conceptually get that cleared and hence keep practicing

I want to give at least 4 mocks before the exam as well.

Any suggestions to make this better? I really have to get this score for my desired college. What is the best way to keep momentum? And while practicing how do I stop thinking about the result? How do I consciously tell myself that - yes you are weak here - focus here or you are strong here, focus later? I understand these are basic questions but the mistake I made last time was just blindly solving questions..

While booking the test, its instructing you can go ahead and book online with your approved accommodations but whenever I am booking for any date this is the issue showing up (Refer image)

Action plan:

1. Called ETS helpline - India, US, Prometric testing center - everybody is giving each other's number to resolve this.

2. Tried to book for different dates, different cities - nothing is working

If someone has faced the same issue, please let me know the experience via dm or comments on how to resolve this problem as I am running late now to book it

https://preview.redd.it/1hlc9vqwbkbh1.png?width=1794&format=png&auto=webp&s=a59ffe360d076d5900bab4d4ce070ac98c301b5d

I have taken the GRE about 3 times now and honestly all three times my scores have been not the best.

GRE 1: This was more like an expensive practice test because I was not ready or where I should have been at all. I ended up getting a 155V and 156Q

I went back and began to take it more seriously using GregMat One Month plan and doing regular practice test alongside ETS Practice Plus 1 and 2. For Practice Test 1: I got 153V and 155Q. That was kind disappointing since I believed that I had done enough and understood the concepts really well. For Test 2 I got 158V and 162Q.

GRE 2: This time I went in more confident but still a bit nervous since I had barely made the cut off for the 320. I ended up doing better in verbal but did not improve at all for Quant with 158V and 156Q.

After that I went back saw I was having issues with qualitative comparison problems in quant, but my major issue was that I did not learn any of the test taking strats for quant and spent too much time on certain problems. I went back and did timed practice from GregMat, 5LB book, and any other book that I could get my hands on for Quant, but kind of ignored Verbal practice and test taking strats. I did look at it the week before my test by reviewing all of the GregMat Prepswift content as a refresher for Verbal. By the end of this 40 day period I was able to get around 162-165 for most practice material with my lowest score being an 20/25 in one of the Kaplan ETS Books.

GRE 3: This time I was really confident. I applied some math strat for verbal, I summarized the RC passage, and I did the matching strat for all the vocab. For Quant I felt great only marking 3 for review. I haven't gotten my official score, but this time I ended up getting a 152V and 161Q. I am very disappointed because I thought I was applying the proper strats just like Greg taught me.

Application deadlines for the school I want to get into are August 1, so there is one more potential window for me to take the GRE on July 23. That give me 18 days from this post to raise my score from 313 to 320+.

My current plan and please correct me if this is the route to take or not:

• Verbal
  • Use Big Book to review RC and Vocab based questions
  • Try to summarize in 5 words and include the function of each passage/sentence as Greg mention
  • Try and read longer articles to get better reading comprehension as it seems like I struggle with this the most
• Quant
  • Continue to review problems as to not loose my edge on these sort of problems
  • Maybe use Big Book to ensure that the foundations are good
• Overall - Talk to tutor from GregMat as I am unsure what else I can do beyond this.

Is 320 even possible in 18 days from 313? Any and advice is appreciated.

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I'm having trouble following the plan, as it looks like there are three separate video series going on. Currently I'm following the top-most video "Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence (TC and SE) Session 1", but then am i supposed to complete the other two as well, or do they have update tips/tricks or how it's supposed to work?

Also, can someone tell me how much time they've given on this 1 month daily?
I'm just in need for verbal, as I'm switching from GMAT so my quants is pretty good. Just need a plan for verbal, but these words and vocab feels too much to remember. TIA

I took my first test in May, mostly as an expensive practice test because I didn’t take any practice test before this attempt. Scored 159V/152Q. I mostly used Gregmat’s Prepswift videos to review the concepts. My curent plan is doing more practice tests. I spent June reviewing math concepts and solving Gregmat’s quant foundation tests. I have bought the Power prep+ tests and want to attempt them. But given the praise I have seen on Gregmat’s exams, might it be worth focusing on Gregmat’s timed medium and hard for quant before moving to ETS tests. That’s my current plan but frankly, Gregmat always gives me anxiety and I am worried about this affecting confidence. I am angling for 325+ for an R1 application round. Given that I have just 20 days I want to optimise as much as possible. Gregmat is definitely great for pattern recognition and learning possible traps, but I’m torn between whether solving Gregmat’s test questions which are signifiantly more difficult is the most optimal use of my time vs getting a lot more ETS practice. Any thoughts are welcome.

#ets #gregmat

Please don't use AI to write or format posts or comments per our spam rule - we'll remove that kind of content going forward.

Hello! I have been a professional lurker on this sub and thought I’d pay it forward by sharing my experience.

Background: I am applying to residency programs that uncharacteristically require the GRE for admissions. If the past is any indication of performance, I’ve been an above average test taker (2220 SAT, 24 DAT). Since I work full time, I figured that I would spread my studying over a longer period of time. English is not my first language, so I anticipated that the verbal section would be my greatest challenge.

Goal: 160+ on both sections, 4.0+ AWA. The GRE is not heavily factored at all in the admissions process for my programs, so I didn’t necessarily feel the pressure to score crazy high. At the same time, a decent score can make you stand out!

Study Timeline: I started studying in February 2026 and took the exam in July 2026. My study blocks, however, were sporadic! A lot of life events (getting engaged, moving states, starting a new job, planning a wedding, etc) occurred within this time frame. Thus, I’d find myself studying intensely for a week and then not picking up a single study resource for a month. Having a longer study period worked for my particular situation, but it could’ve easily been condensed into 6-8 weeks. My most fruitful studying occurred in the two weeks leading up to my exam.

Study Materials:
-GregMat (Greg, if you’re reading this, ily)
-GRE Big Book
-Official Guide to the GRE
-Official GRE Quant & Verbal Questions
-Manhattan 5-lb book
-ETS Pool of Analytical Writing Topics
-Powerprep Practice Exams

Study Plan: I followed GregMat’s 2-Month Study Plan and spread it across several months. I personally loved having a plan to stay on track. However, I could have been more strategic with my studying by focusing on my weaker areas (RC, vocab, probability, triangle properties) from the very start.

Practice Test Scores:
PP1: 160V/167Q
PP2: 156V/166Q
PP1+: 159V/156Q/5 AWA
PP2+: 160V/164Q/5 AWA
PP3+: 157V/167Q/5 AWA

Biggest Takeaways:
-Go over the ETS pool of analytical writing topics. One of the prompts that you will get on the actual exam will be contained in that 40-page document. (Read: the prompt is not a surprise). I would go through each prompt, outline in my head how I would structure my essay, and then move on to the next prompt. If I was unsure how to interpret the prompt or couldn’t think of personal/historical examples to support my argument, I’d plug it into ChatGPT to get an idea on how to approach it.

-Simulate actual testing conditions. There are no official breaks in between sections. During my practice exams at home, I’d take a sip of water or use the restroom. I paid the price on the actual day of exam by holding in the urge to go during the last two sections… I may have made more careless errors in those sections.

-Spread out the practice exams evenly across your study plan. Yes, you should build a firm foundation first before burning through official questions from ETS, but my biggest mistake was waiting until the very end to take the PowerPrep practice exams. It takes time to review your mistakes from each exam, and it can help you identify your trouble areas much sooner.

-Write down ANY unfamiliar vocab word that you come across. I used GregMat’s Vocab Mountain (1000+ words) and reviewed it every single day for the two weeks before my exam. In addition, I went through practice exams and wrote down any unfamiliar vocab words that popped up in answer choices. This added another 100 words to my list. Funnily enough, two words from my makeshift list popped up on my exam.

Final Thoughts: Given the time and effort I put in, I did about what I expected. I would constantly remind myself that the questions on the GRE are meant to be tricky and they are trying to rage bait you lol. Taking the GRE is a skill, rather than a formal assessment of intelligence. Treat it as such, and you will realize that you likely know everything to succeed—the determining factor lies in how you apply that knowledge.

I’m glad to (hopefully) put this exam past me once I receive my writing score. Happy to answer any questions about my experience.

I recently completed my first attempt at the GRE and received an unofficial score of 163V 155Q. This post is a means for me to reflect while the testing experience is still fresh, and also as a form of accountability for my future self!

Reflections:

• To be extremely frank, I can't be disappointed by my results because my studying was lackadaisical. I did not put in the effort required for a higher score (especially in Quant).
• I prepared for the GRE during a rare window where I had a break between graduating from college and starting an intense job. Thus, my focus was on resting and travelling, which meant that I actively deprioritised prep.

Timeline and resource:

• Studied for a month - initially highly inconsistent + I didn’t put in the hours; I ramped up closer to the exam date

Practice test results:

• PP2 (no background on GRE): 155V/155Q
• Magoosh: 158V/158Q/5.5AWA
• PPP2: 161V/156Q/5AWA

Testing experience:

• Check the requirements for your local test center! The reporting time for the test center was different from what ETS states in the reminder email. Moreover, the test center only accepted one form of identification (while ETS stated that various forms of ID were accepted for my country).
• My program crashed midway through the second Quant section and it required a few minutes to restart... accidents happen

Moving forward/Other thoughts:

• I will definitely retake the GRE at some point! However, my future plans are quite nebulous: I have no idea if I'll still be interested in grad school a few years later, and my timeline for applying is up in the air. I expect to gain some clarity after spending time in the workforce.
• Similar to going to the gym, the GRE is something where you need to put in the reps. I didn't do that and it clearly shows in my Q score.
• Quant wise, I plan to relearn my fundamentals. My approach was super spotty in that I didn't systematically go through each topic; rather, I focused on the topics that I was weaker in and jumped across various concepts for other areas. I will definitely be more thorough in the future.

While this was a painful lesson, I don't regret the time that I took to leisure and travel. Personally, I felt that these extended periods of rest are going to be hard to come by, and I would rarely ever have the same level of flexibility. Regardless, I do have to take accountability for the trade-offs from my actions, and I will prepare for my next attempt with a more focused approach.

If grad school is still in my future plans a couple of years from now, I hope to provide an updated check-in with improved scores!

Hi! I took the GRE general test a little over a week ago, and today, my official scores, including my essay score, have finally been released! 167V 170Q 5.0AWA!!! I'm really pleased with my score, considering how nervous and unconfident I was about verbal and essay writing in particular. I honestly was not expecting this score; I was aiming for something like a 160V 165Q 4.0AWA. Definitely not complaining though!

I already made a pretty in-depth post with my tips and advice (which I'll link here if you're interested in reading about my strategies, resources, mock test scores, etc.), so I won't go into much detail about my study materials here. Instead, I want to share more about the experience itself.
I was so, so, so scared. I could barely fall asleep the few days preceding my test date, to the point where I was worried that my own lack of sleep would negatively affect me on test day. It also didn't help that I was taking summer courses at the time, and I had a major school exam less than a week before. On the night before my test, I remember falling asleep at maybe 2 or 3 AM, and jerking awake at around 5 AM despite my test being at 11 AM. I couldn't even stomach my breakfast, and I didn't speak a word in the car ride over because I thought I would either burst into tears or puke.

It feels silly looking back now, but I felt very underprepared because it seemed like everyone else had studied for much longer than me. Heck, I didn't even know what the GRE was until May! I just knew that I had to do it to apply to my dream schools, and that it costs a ridiculous amount of money. Redoing the test was not a realistic option for me, not only because of the price, but also because I would have no time to study for it again, given my schedule for the latter half of summer. Essentially, I knew that I had one shot to take the test and not fuck it up. I never took a standardized test before, so I didn't really know what to expect going in, which kind of made the nerves worse.

But then I checked in at the test centre, I sat down at my spot, and I put on the noise-cancelling headphones. Despite all the nerves and test anxiety from the days beforehand, seeing the familiar interface on the screen seemed to calm me down a lot, and it just felt like I was doing another practice test at home. (Thus, I highly recommend doing a paid ETS PowerPrep Plus practice test! It's definitely pricey, but it really familiarized me with the exact test interface and exam difficulty.)

I don't know what my body does when it's under pressure, but it seems like the anticipation is always the worst part, because once I started the essay, I felt like I was on a roll! My hands stopped shaking, my brain cleared up, and by the end of the essay, I felt pretty sharp. I think the essay is a nice warm-up for the rest of the exam. Then I just went through the same strategies that I used during practice, and it was all smooth sailing from there. Seeing my unofficial scores flash on the screen honestly made my day, as it was proof that all my stressing and studying paid off in the end!

Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night. Probably the best sleep I've had since I started studying for the GRE a month ago.

Hopefully, this post finds people in similar situations -- extremely stressed, overwhelmed by work, and feeling underprepared. You can feel all those, and still do really well!

Im retaking my GRE in 10 days and am still struggling with the quant section.

Since then, I know I needed to work on my time management and keep doing practice problems; however, I have ran out of medium level questions on magoosh.

I still struggle with getting medium level questions correct and am unsure where to go from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I gave the GRE last week and scored 316 (162Q, 154V). Before the exam, I took 2 PowerPrep tests and 1 GregMat mock, and my scores were almost identical (159–162Q, 150–154V). It feels like my scores have plateaued despite a month of preparation.
I’m planning to retake the GRE on 31 July and am aiming for 325–330, with 165+ in Quant.

Verbal
I completed all GregMat Verbal videos, finished 20/34 Vocabulary Mountain groups, practiced TC/SE on GregMat, and used the Big Book for RC.
My plan is to finish all 34 vocab groups and continue practicing TC, SE, and RC. I think this should be enough unless I’m missing something.

Quant (Main Concern)
I’ve completed all GregMat Quant videos, solved the Manhattan 5 lb. exercises, and spent the last few days before the exam doing GregMat Quant practice.
My biggest issue is that I barely finished the Quant sections on time. GregMat’s strategy suggests having 4–5 minutes left for review, but I had none.
I’m not sure what’s holding me back:
Am I still using traditional methods instead of GRE shortcuts?
Do I take too long to identify the concept being tested?
Is my overall solving speed just too slow?
During mocks, I noticed that whenever I tried to speed up, my accuracy dropped. So I switched to solving more carefully, which improved accuracy but left me with no buffer time.
For the next 30 days, my plan is to mainly do timed Quant practice/tests on GregMat. I’m also wondering whether I should redo the Manhattan 5 lb. book focusing on faster methods, or use some other resource.
For those who improved from ~160–162Q to 165+, how did you practice? What would you do differently over the next 30 days to improve both speed and accuracy?

ETS has released their latest percentile data: https://www.ets.org/pdfs/gre/gre-guide-table-1a.pdf. Notice that a 170Q is now only the 89th percentile. The median is still ~160Q.

This is the second report since the pandemic started. If you're applying to universities that require a certain percentile, you may be in trouble.

Same post last year

Hi all,

I had my GRE today and it went better than I expected. I scored a 160Q and 158V.

My scores were a big surprise because my PP2 mock and other mocks put my Verbal right around 165, with a 155Q. Something I noticed only now was that I worked on the wrong things for my Verbal prep and the right ones for quant. Please don't make the same mistake by negating certain areas completely like I did!

For Quant, I went from barely being able to do basic questions to a 160Q which seemed in the realm of impossibility for me, I have flunked math all my life! I was able to do this by doing three things: firstly, using prepswift to drill fundamentals. Secondly, maintaining an error log to identify which areas are weakest. Thirdly, drilling medium and hard questions for each topic and then spending a lot of time understanding my mistakes. An error log is everything!!!

On Verbal, I made the mistake of thinking my RC was my weak point, whereas I was actually also bleeding away crucial points on SE and TC. My SE and TC are very strong but I seem to bleed away a couple of points on them here and there, enough to decrease my score.

Overall, I'm surprised and relieved at the score I have obtained. It has shown me that even someone like me, who has been the worst at Math, can succeed! If you're unsure whether to take the GRE for the first time or to take that retake, please do! The GRE journey is ultimately not just an exam, it is transformative in the fundamental skills it can endow you with over time, something that will come in handy not just for your academic but professional life too !

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Here is how I thought of it: Patients who stop taking antibiotics when symptoms subside are doing something they shouldn't do because they advance the drug resistance of that certain bacteria. So naturally I though oh they are doing something so harmful, it is harmful because something so basic something so benign even passes through. Like if I am writing how harmful is the thing that people are doing. I would write that it even spares the most childish easy going bacterias. Like why is the answer robust bruh. Ofcourse robust would be spared by an incomplete treatement, but if I am describing something like this I would assume it is going for something maximally negative which in this case would be that even the most benign bacteria passes through, bad.

Looking for study buddies!!!

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The book marks answer C as correct. Which is obviously wrong, because in the paragraph it is said the stories share a common time. In the option it suggests that short story collections can take place in different times. Help me with this please.