The Prep

A Small Piece of Advice

According to me, to get a decent enough score it is always better to start at-least a month before the scheduled test date. If you are writing the GRE to apply for an Engineering related course then I would encourage you to not take your math prep lightly. Engineering/Science Universities give a higher importance to your math score over your vocab score. Getting a score of 160 would really give you an edge compared to getting a higher vocab score.

The Battle Plan

1. Improve upon your vocab by learning at-least 50 words everyday (Totally 1500 words in a month). In-order to accomplish this with ease try using any flashcard app (like Magoosh’s flashcards app or their Vocabulary builder app). Please avoid using Word Lists/Dictionaries as your source for words since this leads to problems while trying to remember them again. Flash cards intuitively make learning words more fun. And since it’s an app it can be used anywhere anytime.
2. Try to use those words in your day to day conversations to etch them onto your mind.
3. Learning vocabulary does the major heavy lifting when it comes to the Verbal section prep. Vocab helps in sentence completion questions and in the difficult comprehension questions.
4. When it comes to sentence equivalence questions try to use the method of elimination rather than directly selecting the 2 options. Eliminating other words first before selecting the 2 right ones is the right way to go. Sometimes the GRE test setters are really smart, they add words that tend to sound like the right answer phonetically but would literally mean the opposite.
5. When it comes to math, try to avoid the use of the on screen calculator. If you end up using the calculator for calculations as small as 16/4, then you’ll be wasting a lot of time. Try to learn shortcut alternatives to trivial calculation techniques. There are multiple ways to solve a division(some of which take a fraction of time) in an equation rather than just directly dividing. This helps you a lot since Math sections generally take a lot of time and people usually tend to run out of time.

The Pre Test-Day Practice

Practicing generally is done in parallel to prep through talking and frequent writing for verbal and doing practice problems from sample questions for quant, but it is always advisable to do a complete Mock GRE paper before the actual test. Personally completing around 2 tests would give you the gist of what to expect and how to manage time in general. Managing time is one of the key things about GRE. GRE doesn't only test for answers but also how one would answer under stress(on time).

The GRE is a section level adaptive paper. This means that the questions generated for each section depends on your performance on the previous sections. Say your performance was very good in a section, then the difficulty of the next section increases and vice versa. Keep this in mind since if you find a section hard then that implies that you have done the previous section quite well. An overview of the GRE test pattern is shown below :

• Essay Writing : Issue Essay & Argument Essay = 60 mins
• Verbal/Quant = 30/35 mins
• Quant/Verbal = 35/30 mins
• 10 minute [optional] break
• Verbal/Quant = 30/35 mins
• Quant/Verbal = 35/30 mins
• Verbal/Quant = 30/35 mins

The Test Day

CALM DOWN… I KNOW IT IS THE TEST DAY… BUT YOU HAVE TRAINED FOR THIS BATTLE…

There are a few things to know about the test day:

1. Don’t carry anything except for your passport, a hard copy of the confirmation mail, and other things like a small bottle of Gatorade and a bar of snickers (in-case you are hungry)
2. Everyone is given a locker to keep your personal things (Like passport and wallet etc). Remember not to keep any food items inside since one is not allowed to open the locker during the optional breaks.
3. Between every section there is an optional 1 minute break. I would strongly advise you to take that and not skip it. It really refreshes your mind and prepares you for the following section.
4. As soon as you finish the first 2 sections after your AWA your 10 minute break starts, raise your hands and the attenders will assist you out. Once you’re out, go to the restroom. Although 10 minutes seems like a lot of time, it isn't. Try to have a few sips of Gatorade (minimize liquid intake in-case you have bladder problems) and eat that bar of snickers. Make sure you don’t waste a lot of time doing so. After this rush back to the test room. They do frisk you again before letting you in, so make sure you are a bit early.
5. After the test is done we have an option to send the scores for an undergraduate program. SKIP THIS!!!. After that you are given an option to send your scores for postgraduate courses. You can choose up to 4 universities for free. If you want to apply to more you would have to pay around 27$ per university.

That’s pretty much it guys. All the best!! :D