Hello everyone, I usually never post, but just in case this might help/inspire someone I want to share my recent score and experience. I set four times, and while my score is nowhere near perfect it was a feat for me.To be sure, timed math tests always stress me, and I have to work hard to do above average.
- Attempt 1 Winter 2015: Q147/V159 AWA 4.0, Experimental cannot remember, but I think it was Quant
- Attempt 2 Winter 2016: Q155/V163 AWA 4.5, Experimental was Verbal
- Attempt 3 November 2017: Q154/V164 AWA 5.0, Experimental was Quant
- Attempt 4 December 2017: Q158/V167 AWA TBD, Experimental was Quant
For the quant, I used
Magoosh, MGMAT and Official GRE to help. Earlier on, I had a tutor but math is not a spectator sport, and I feel with intense self-study the marginal benefits of a tutor are just not worth the expense. I just had to really drill on the questions and try not to forget. Also, as I set for the test multiple times, some of your score just depends on whether or not you get questions that you excel at answering quickly. I also recommend getting as many of the ETS practice tests as you can; I used all of the free versions available and even purchased one of the ones released this summer - I recommend it.
For verbal, I did not really study for this portion beyond reviewing vocabulary words in the
Magoosh vocabulary app. This section is definitely challenging because often the text in blank (first questions of verbal section) either do not make immediate sense or could be subjective. However, I have a general good baseline mastery of the English language, which happens to be my native tongue.
For the essays, I did not really practice this either. What I did do was read the Score 6 essay examples in the Official GRE book while on the train on each test date for the last three tests that I took. My goal was to emulate stylistic/structure devices that worked for high scorers.
I hope this helps. I know my score is not the highest, but I did hit my goal with regard to the territory where I wanted to be for the quant, and I feel I put my best foot forward as it was thoroughgoing improvement. The catalyst was nothing more than the fact that I knew that I had more ground to cover, and I now feel as though I did it. Keep working at this. If you want improvement, you most likely possess the tenacity to yield just that.