the 2 free powerprep practice tests on ETS

tineann · Jul 18, 2007

Hi,

I took the GRE's last December and I recall them being fairly close to my actual score - I think within 30 points or so on both Math and Verbal? Without a doubt, the best prep for me (after initial reviews and vocab drills) was taking many timed tests.

Good Luck!

megamiepona · Jul 18, 2007

Hi,
I took the GRE's last December and I recall them being fairly close to my actual score - I think within 30 points or so on both Math and Verbal? Without a doubt, the best prep for me (after initial reviews and vocab drills) was taking many timed tests.
Good Luck!

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Thanks for responding so quickly tineann! Aside from utilizing those 2 free ETS tests, what other sources did you use as practice tests? At the moment, I'm only studying from the Barron's GRE book, but I heard their Model Tests are not aligned with the real deal.

tineann · Jul 19, 2007

Hi,

I had 3 review books - Barrons, Kaplan and then one other that I can't recall (I dumped them all after the test - sort of therapeutic!). I think the combination was helpful - that aside, I think Kaplan was probably most helpful to me. I purchased the one with the most practice tests and was glad that I did. Amazing to me how much I was able to improve with just repeated testing. Practicing vocab was very helpful as well.

When do you take the test?

Asherah, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2007

I'm taking the GRE in early October, and am hoping that two months of focused study time will be enough as I'll only have one shot to take it before I need to report my grades on November applications.

I'm holding off on starting my prep now due to the fact that I'm finishing up two summer session courses that I need to do well in as they are my last pre-reqs.

I'm still debating which prep book(s) to use, but I'm going to take as many timed practice tests as I can to help deal with the stress of a 4 hour exam!

shortcake15 · Aug 4, 2007

i didn't find the 2 free powerprep tests in the ets CD to be that indicative of my actual GRE score at all. 1st practice test, my verbal score was 520 and math was 680. 2nd was 560v, 630m. i also took the princeton review GRE prep course and went through 4 practice tests... at best my scores were 610v, 630m and I took the last practice test a week and a half before my real test. my actual gre scores were 670v, 720m which really surprised me because I figured I would get something in the low 600 range for each section based on the practice tests.

I definitely recommend studying using princeton review, kaplan, and barron's books. Each has a different approach although they all share similar strategies such as plugging in answers instead of working out actual problems, etc. Princeton review mainly teaches strategies that you can use to solve a problem without having to actually work out the entire thing. Kaplan is similar although not as straightforward.. it's a mix of both working out probs and using strategies. Barron's is simply working out problems but it's more comprehensive (and sometimes more complicated) and provides the best explanations for when you really want to know how to work out a problem.

Above all, practice using a lot of timed tests. Even though i took 6 practice tests in all, I still ran out of time on the actual GRE and had to resort to randomly picking answers for the last 6-7 questions on both sections without reading the actual questions. Good luck!