1410 in 20 Days

That was my GRE score and that was how long I took to prepare for it. This post is about that journey.

The first step I took was to select a good date. I was glad to have my father beside me when I chose the date because it turned out to be an excellent choice. I set it on 21st of August. Firstly I didn't have any exams or major deadlines nearby and I had a 4 day holiday stretch before the test. I think a good date has made my preparation a million times easier and more organized.

What to study: My learning is improved when I actually participate in the learning process and hence a software was a natural choice. Also I spend a lot of time in front the PC and a book would keep me away from it, which mentally for me would be a big chore and hence my mood would go down when I switch to books. Using a software I can just switch from a web page to GRE preparation whenever my mood swings without any overhead. After trying out a bunch of stuff, I started my preparation on August 1st with a software called SAT GRE Crash Course.

Initially I started with 40 words per day, doing all the exercises in the software. After two days, increased it to 80 words. And later I started adding a wordlist from Barrons to this (I think it has about 85 words per list). Eventually it reached to a stage of 200 to 250 words per day. I really had fun working with the software and after I got into a rhythm, I could do a wordlist in 20-30 minutes.

By 14th August, I completed all the words in the software (840 in total) and 4 wordlists (didn't like to switch to the book). That is when I relaxed a little and lost 2 days. A little panic crept in on 16th and I took Word Power Made Easy and completed all the words in the back of the book (I think there were 800 in total) during a pre-placement talk of Texas Instruments. I came back from the lecture and also completed the 300 Barron's high frequency words.

By 17th August, my preparation was mostly complete, or so I thought. That is when I talked to Santosh, he suggested me to check out: ExamBell, GRE Verbal and an Orkut GRE Community. I stared reading these sites but not so seriously. But I found one great source: Number2. I registered an account and started working out those exercises. Their questions and most importantly their analysis of my wrong answers (and their praising for the right ones) completely changed my mind about the test and helped me get into that mindset. I was so fascinated by their analysis that I took a number of screenshots and mailed them to friends (with subject titles like "how the hell could it read my mind?", "the machines have taken over our us" etc).

But the preparation turned suddenly when I started taking the practice tests (about 2 days before the exam - on 19th). I was surprised by the number of mistakes I made both in the math and in the verbal. It took me the whole of two days to just make myself patient enough to read the questions completely before jumping to answers. Here is a break down of my scores:

• PowerPrep test 1 - 1340 (verbal: 590)
• PowerPrep test 2 - 1380 (verbal: 600)
• Kaplans test 1 - 1380 (verbal: 610)
• Barrons Verbal test 1 - 610, test 2 - 740 (a fluke obviously but which surprised many people).

The day before the test, I made sure that my ride to the test center was arranged, that all my documents were ready and that the date indeed was on 21st August. This helped me a lot on the day of the test as it started raining pretty heavily the whole day. I went to the center an hour before my appointment, got used to the atmosphere (which was really good by the way) and got in front of the PC half an hour later.

Since I signed an agreement in the test which actually forbids me from revealing any questions, I can't post the actual questions. But reading the blogs and threads in Orkut really helps during the verbal. A lot of words were from the those sites (hmm... coming to think of it I knew the words anyway, so they didn't matter that much but still...). The reading comprehension questions were surprisingly easy (which makes me think I goofed up somewhere in the beginning of the test). In math, I spent too much time making sure I got the right answers (doing the same problem in different methods etc.) and I had to put random values in two graph analysis questions to make up for the time.

I was very surprised in the end that I got 800 in math (happy) and 610 in verbal (not-so-happy) but overall I was quite fine with the result. I wish they told me my score before the research section for I would have done it with more patience and with less sarcasm in it (instead of arguing about traffic problems in a town, I started writing about my own models which will rid the town permanently of traffic ;)). Phew! got test done, came back, threw the books over the window (kidding - gave them to Pyr0) and have been having fun ever since.