GRE Preparation: Possible Loopholes

I write this post to be a help to anyone who intends to pursue their masters in US and are skeptical about the process.

Disclaimer: I am still awaiting my Visa, so I really dont know how itll be until I get there. I am also not mentioning obvious stuff like ‘ GRE has a Verbal and a Quant section etc etc’. I am assuming that you have some basic idea about stuff.

The pursuit for an American Masters degree begins with GRE. Most universities have a certain GRE cut off, some consider only Quant marks as their criteria for selection, some give importance to AWA. But generally, 9 out of 10 universities dont disclose their parameters. It is my understanding that Universities have to address several issues like cultural diversity, male/female ratio and a host of other issues. There is no way they are disclosing all that.

Preparation for GRE:

Depending on your academic footing, the approach might be different.

If you were a topper all your life, went to a school where English education was serious and you loved Mathematics all through school, then you dont need coaching. (This however is somewhat risky, because when you join a coaching, you not just attend classes and read books, you live in a ‘culture’ and that does help.)

If you were an average guy and need some help/need to get in the flow, coaching is strongly recommended. On the other hand, coaching is not the answer to a good score just like going and sitting in a corner in a gym will give you six packs.

The SPOILER ALERT is that RCs in the Verbal section will trouble you a lot. Even those who think they read books, newspapers and have done hell lot of RCs in their school will find them disturbing. For GRE Verbal, all you need to do is FINISH BIG BOOK. Every coaching material, every Barrons, every Kaplan is derived from the Big Book. So if you finish Big Book, its like you have done everything. Finish it inch by inch, every word, every possible meaning, every possible approach in the RCs.

Yet another realistic but slightly pessimistic approach is that you know you are anyways going to screw up your Verbal, so why not focus seriously on Quant. Big Book Quant is not very charming. GRE Quant has improved over the years, its not as easy nowadays as it is in the big book. Revise high school fundas, solve some problems and eat well on the day of the exam, thats it.

As for AWA, start preparing about 15 days before the exam. Most of us have so much pending Verbal and Quant to read that we just forget AWA, thats also cool because a) not many universities give a damn about it and b) there isnt much you can do anyways.

Practice POWERPREP on the computer, if you are a book nerd, itll be very difficult reading stuff off a computer during the exam. The exam font can be described as ‘disturbing’ to say the least.

GRE preparations takes 4-5 months if you are an average student with average enthusiasm, 3-4 months if u are smart or have very high enthusiasm. IDEALLY you must prepare for six months. Studying for anything less than 3 months is JUST NOT RIGHT. (This is only home study I am talking about, excluding the coaching etc)

Best of luck and if you still have any more doubts contact me.

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