Background: I have taken GMAT around 3-4 years ago to study Master in Management, and my goal is getting a reasonable overall score as a competent student who can handle both quant and verbal (btw, I took GMAT Classic back then). However, my goal this time is different. To apply for a PhD program, GRE is the requirement instead, and for quantitative programs like Economics or Finance, a perfect or close to perfect quant score is a MUST whereas verbal and AWA seem to be less important (but still a reasonable score will prevent you from being rejected anyways, so a good score is still beneficial in some sense).

Preparation for Quant: Quant is extremely important for some quant programs, and careless mistakes will cost you another 250 dollar, so I am super careful in preparing for this part.
1. For the first few weeks, I need to preview all possible topics coming up on my exam.
- I recommend watching GMATNinja-GRE playlist: the team is doing a pretty good job in reviewing concepts by twisting them in a GRE fashion.
- Also, the Tested Tutor is recommended in case one needs prep in specific topics, like rate and mixture. You must have a solid foundation in ALL TOPICS before speeding up or eliminating careless errors.

2. To build your muscle, I recommend moving on to GMAT playlist as GMAT questions are tougher, and they are good practice questions if you want a consistent 167-170 Quant score.
- Again, kudo to GMATNinja-GMAT playlist: they will show how to solve GMAT-style questions via "clean steps", eliminating careless errors and solving them under 2 mins (for GMAT).
- If you need some specific prep in some topics, I use Manhattan 5-lb book (quant only, verbal a big NO). They have 20-30 questions on a single topic. Remember the real GRE exam is way harder than this, but you need to make sure you catch your behavior of committing careless mistakes at this stage.

3. It is time to exploit a question bank (even before going to PowerPrep Test).
- This forum and GMATClub are both useful for question banks. Make sure that you see many question types so that a new question comes up, you will have no excuse of not having seen this style before.
- For Data Interpretation, I suggest going through GRE Big Book. It is quite similar to PP and real tests.
- Another set of very challenging questions is Bunuel Questions (GMATClub) and advanced GMAT questions book.
- At a first look, it seems like DS style questions in GMAT are irrelevant for GRE. But it is not. I can twist these questions for GRE style, and making it QC questions or choose one-or-more options questions.
- The most important is that you need to see a wide variety of questions, leaving no stones unturned, even for a rare topic like overlapping sets or train questions.

4. Take PP Mock Test and official questions (not many of them, so I finished all in a few days). Although they are known to be easier than the real one, but if you commit some mistakes there, I think there is something you can still learn. And what I consider harder in real one is not the topic or the style of questions, it is just a few more lines of algebra or questions are a bit wordier, that's it.

Verbal Preparation: Although verbal is not that important for people shooting for highly quantitative programs (econ/finance), I guess an elite range that will not surely kick you out (a sufficient condition) is around 160, which requires at least some preparation. But honestly I prepared a lot because the test fee is quite expensive lol.

1. I prepare all three parts (TC, SE, RC) simultaneously because they kinda reinforced each other pretty well. A reasoning test means that you cannot bring outside knowledge to answer these questions and everything needs to be based on what the passage or prompt says (no brain for common sense in this type of exam).

2. For vocabulary, choose only one list. My recommendation is either GregMat or Magoosh (basic and common only). Try to find a way that is suitable to you as there are so many methods in remembering around 1000 words within 1-2 months by heart. Then, you can start practicing for TC and SE. One problem is that we do not have lots of these questions from OG and personally I found TC from Big Book too far from current version in its format and solving strategies (but you should try them also to see how they use evidence-based reasoning). However, you do not need to practice a lot on these as you will get this kind of skills from RC also. For third-party material, if questions try including lots of advanced vocabulary, you can avoid those, but if you need more practice, I guess this is the only option after OG and Big Book.

3. For RC itself, this requires lot of practice, but make sure the questions come from official guide only. Notice I said official guide, but I didn't specifically say "GRE Official Guide", so any official guides from a real test writer should be useful, including GRE OG itself, GRE Big Book, GMAT OG and even official LSAT question bank. No third-party please, even you found them on this forum or another forum, and I guess you will not run out of the question bank anyways, because what I have listed should be MORE THAN ENOUGH.

4. Take PP Mock Test. Timing is super important for verbal, and if you find difficulties solving certain types of questions (e.g. three-blank TC), then avoid it on the first try. You can try changing your strategy after your foundation is solid to see which one is the best for timing.

AWA Preparation: Two things. First, do not raise any red flags to any adcom, so basically anything above or equal 3.5 should be fine for this kind of programs. Second, make sure that this part does not drain much of your energy since it will be the first section, so practice can help you about this. I recommend free GregMat video on this, and you can watch about 2 weeks before an exam.

My Experience: I started from GMAT because I will apply for MiM (they accept both, but I am just too lazy to remember vocab), and I switched to GRE (obviously due to PhD requirements).
- GMAT (Classic) Taken 3-4 years ago: V35 Q49 Overall 700 (AWA 6)
- GRE PP I (two weeks before exam): V166 Q168 obviously due to a careless mistake (and I have seen some questions from verbal in some GRE OG before)
- GRE PP II (one week before exam): V160 Q170 score dropping at verbal 6 points is a bit scary for me lol, but the hard section seems too tough (tougher than real one)
- GregMat Mock I: V160 Q170 (great for stamina building in case you want to try your different strategies)
- GregMat Mock II: V160 Q169 (I missed so many quant questions in a hard section of GregMat, obviously way harder than the real one)
- REAL EXAM: V167 Q170 (AWA 5). Hooray! I guess I achieved my goal now.

In case you have any more questions, feel free to leave your questions here, or contact me via other ways like FB, LinkedIn, Mail, whatever. I will make sure to answer your questions.

Btw, wish me luck on PhD application. I just finished the test, so I am not sure where they will accept me, since it highly depends on research experience and university ranking, but I guess this time should be enough for the next few attempts on my app.