About me:

Hi, my name is Shreyas and I am from Bangalore, India. I have been working for about 4 years now and have diverse work experience in IT and finance. My undergraduate major was Computer Science. I never miss the opportunity to drive my car around town and love traveling.
My GRE prep was exclusively through Magoosh — I watched a lot of the video lessons and did all my practice problems online. I have a demanding work schedule and wouldn’t have enough motivation to open a book to study – Magoosh was the fun way to learn. After answering a set of questions, I would go back to the dashboard to see how my score ranges have changed and how I was doing on time compared to others’ pace. Also, I found the Magoosh team very forthcoming with their advice whenever I reached out to them, with a special mention to Lawrence.

My biggest challenge:

I knew the the verbal section would be difficult for me, especially since I am not a voracious reader. I found the reading comprehension section particularly tricky and would take a lot of time to answer the questions (most of them incorrectly, I should add!). I was gradually able to improve by practicing a lot of questions and by applying the strategies on the video lessons.

If I could have a study do-over:

I would have planned my schedule better and given myself more study time – maybe followed one of the study plans diligently. I signed up for the Magoosh program in June, studied for a few weeks using the 3 month study plan. I was forced to take a break as it was a very busy time at work and couldn’t push myself to get back to studying till the beginning of August, and by then I was way off track on my study plan and had to improvise.

Helpful tips for other students:

I would say take a diagnostic test to find out where you stand before starting out your study and spend more time on your weaker areas. Plan a schedule and try to stick to it (I am guilty of not doing this) and a write a few practice tests before the D Day. In case you are hard pressed for time, and cannot study for more than a month, identify your weaker areas and practice a lot of questions. I have read posts about students working through 1000+ words to build up their vocabulary for the GRE. If you don’t have the time (like me) to go through such an ordeal, I would recommend sticking to the Magoosh flashcards with focus on the Basic & Common word categories.
For the amount of time and effort I put in, I am quite satisfied by the outcome: 325 (166Q, 159V).
- See more at: http://magoosh.com/gre/2014/gre-student ... caa3c.dpuf