I noticed a few posts and mails asking me how I prepared for the GRE.I
had written a post earlier mentioning what I did to study Quant and
Verbal but I guess it got lost in the deluge of congratulatory mails.
1) Verbal
a) Wordlists : I believe this is the most crucial part of your
verbal preparation .You will have to find a way to memorize all the
words and ensure it sticks in your head.What I did was to go through
all the word lists and mark the words I didn't know .Then I took 5
word lists at a time and typed out the words which I had marked along
with their definitions and any secondary definitions.When I was
finally done I had 10 pages named liked this
wordlist1-5.txt,wordlist6-10.txt and so on.I took a printout of those
pages and when ever I had free time I spent some time studying
them.Please note you will have to find the method which suits you best.
b) Analogies and Sentence completion - The GRE big book
containing 27 real question papers can be your best friend for
this.You should be able to get it from esnips.com .Also do a Google
search for GRE verbal questions.You will be able to find a lot a
practice material
c) RC's - I think the big book is the best source for RC's and you
can always get material from other GRE study books.The GRE throws
rather abstract subjects at you so try to widen your range of
interests by taking an active interest in science,art and
literature.The New York times is a very good site to frequent and so
is the editorial page of the Hindu
d) Antonym's - It basically depends on your vocabulary,so work on
covering the word lists well and improving your vocabulary.
2) Quant - I really cant give much advice on this since I struggled
badly with it in the exam but please note it has become harder than
what the test papers and the powerprep softwares suggest.However
a) Be clear with your concepts and definitions ,if you dont know
what a prime number is or that 1 is not a prime number then you are
asking for trouble
b) Ensure you know your formulas well
c) Practice as much as possible
Raghu had posted a very good suggestion regarding how to prepare for
Quant,I would like to post it here with his permission " For those
that are yet to take the GRE, here's a little tip from me: for the
quant, try ALSO to practice from books that train you for the CAT (the
Common Aptitude Test, entrance exam for IIMs and many other
B-schools). These books typically have a lot more than necessary for
the GRE. So, practice only relevant sections. The problems in these
books are rather hard and the GRE these days requires one to have this
kind of muscle"
3) Essay writing : The best thing to do is to Practice and do try to
do the essay under timed conditions so that you get accustomed to
it.Also check out the sample essays in powerprep to see what standard
they anticipate
Books used by me :
1) GRE Barrons 17th edition
2) Barrons essential words for the GRE by Philip Geer
3) Norman Lewis - Word power made easy
4) Time (CAT) material for permutations and combinations and
probability
5) Quantitative aptitude by RK Aggarwal - Used this mainly as a
formula reference
6) Some GMAT study material I found on the net for mathematics,You
can find it on esnips
Softwares
1) GRE bible
2) Powerprep
3) Kaplan GRE 2005 CD
4) Vocaboly
Suggested websites :
1) http://www.merriam-webster.com/
2) http://www.nytimes.com/
3) http://www.esnips.com/
had written a post earlier mentioning what I did to study Quant and
Verbal but I guess it got lost in the deluge of congratulatory mails.
1) Verbal
a) Wordlists : I believe this is the most crucial part of your
verbal preparation .You will have to find a way to memorize all the
words and ensure it sticks in your head.What I did was to go through
all the word lists and mark the words I didn't know .Then I took 5
word lists at a time and typed out the words which I had marked along
with their definitions and any secondary definitions.When I was
finally done I had 10 pages named liked this
wordlist1-5.txt,wordlist6-10.txt and so on.I took a printout of those
pages and when ever I had free time I spent some time studying
them.Please note you will have to find the method which suits you best.
b) Analogies and Sentence completion - The GRE big book
containing 27 real question papers can be your best friend for
this.You should be able to get it from esnips.com .Also do a Google
search for GRE verbal questions.You will be able to find a lot a
practice material
c) RC's - I think the big book is the best source for RC's and you
can always get material from other GRE study books.The GRE throws
rather abstract subjects at you so try to widen your range of
interests by taking an active interest in science,art and
literature.The New York times is a very good site to frequent and so
is the editorial page of the Hindu
d) Antonym's - It basically depends on your vocabulary,so work on
covering the word lists well and improving your vocabulary.
2) Quant - I really cant give much advice on this since I struggled
badly with it in the exam but please note it has become harder than
what the test papers and the powerprep softwares suggest.However
a) Be clear with your concepts and definitions ,if you dont know
what a prime number is or that 1 is not a prime number then you are
asking for trouble
b) Ensure you know your formulas well
c) Practice as much as possible
Raghu had posted a very good suggestion regarding how to prepare for
Quant,I would like to post it here with his permission " For those
that are yet to take the GRE, here's a little tip from me: for the
quant, try ALSO to practice from books that train you for the CAT (the
Common Aptitude Test, entrance exam for IIMs and many other
B-schools). These books typically have a lot more than necessary for
the GRE. So, practice only relevant sections. The problems in these
books are rather hard and the GRE these days requires one to have this
kind of muscle"
3) Essay writing : The best thing to do is to Practice and do try to
do the essay under timed conditions so that you get accustomed to
it.Also check out the sample essays in powerprep to see what standard
they anticipate
Books used by me :
1) GRE Barrons 17th edition
2) Barrons essential words for the GRE by Philip Geer
3) Norman Lewis - Word power made easy
4) Time (CAT) material for permutations and combinations and
probability
5) Quantitative aptitude by RK Aggarwal - Used this mainly as a
formula reference
6) Some GMAT study material I found on the net for mathematics,You
can find it on esnips
Softwares
1) GRE bible
2) Powerprep
3) Kaplan GRE 2005 CD
4) Vocaboly
Suggested websites :
1) http://www.merriam-webster.com/
2) http://www.nytimes.com/
3) http://www.esnips.com/
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