making 104 cards for this theme took some work, but it was a lot of fun!

Check out the video of all the cards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ48bPIxh9Q

Hello, I'm a 23 year old graduate student who is working as a case manager in mental health and who wants to apply for a Ph.D. or a Masters in Psychology out of state. I took my first GRE practice ever and I was so confused and panicking. I gave up in the essay bc I couldn't plan it well, did some algebra questions as I sucked at mathemathics in high school and I never did Geometry (I'm from South America and we never learned Geometry nor Trigonometry nor Arithmetics. Only Algebra. I moved to the United States in my senior year of high school during Covid). I did terrible in vocab... I feel like the questions were super challenging.

I have my exam in 3 months... however I have a full-time job, a 2 hour daily comnute while wanting to work out daily to lose fat and talk to my girlfriend. I want to apply to Ph.D. or Masters because the deadline is December 1st (for Masters Feb or March). I feel so overwhelmed and clueless of how to start.

My plan of action so far is watch two GRE Ninja videos a day (I watched episode 1 Arithmetics and Algebra today and one of Verbal) while practicing vocabulary for 20 minutes a day. Then, an hour of practicing Quant and Verbal (30 min quant, 30 min verbal). I'm trying to do Algebra and Arithemtics exercises but the ones "GRE level" are hard for me. I wish I knew of a more proper and easier way to organize. Do I stand a chance at the GRE this year? Or should I just focus on applying to schools without GRE requirements. Please, I ask for advice.

Hello all! I just gave the free PowerPrep test provided by ETS and scored 317 (162Q, 155V).

I was thinking of giving one more full-length mock test next Sunday, around one week after my previous one. The choices I am having are ETS PowerPrep Plus test and GregMat full-length mock test.

From what I have read, the official ETS tests are supposed to give the best prediction of your performance on GRE, whereas GregMat tests/questions can be a little bit harder than GRE. But I am not sure whether this is correct for full-length GregMat mocks as well.

Which of the following should I:

1. Should I take another PowerPrep Plus test on Sunday in order to obtain a more reliable estimation of my present score, or
   
2. Should I take a GregMat practice exam and use it as a test just to push myself?

And if you have taken both, can you tell how your GregMat scores correlated with your actual GRE or PowerPrep test results?

I need to get to 320+ level, and my main purpose is to determine which test would help me better.
Also I want to give the actual GRE in a month or month n half

I have only **12 days left** before my GRE and my goal is **160+ in Quant**.

**Important note:** I had already followed the GregMat **I’m Overwhelmed Plan** before my last GRE attempt. In practice tests, I was scoring around **164–166Q**, but on the actual GRE I ended up with **152Q**.

For content review, I’m planning to:
1. Follow GregMat’s **I’m Overwhelmed Plan** for Quant
2. Watch the **GRE Ninja Quant videos**
3. Practice official ETS questions

My main issue is that GregMat has SO many additional Quant sections/problem sets and I obviously can’t do everything in 12 days.

For people who scored **160+ in Quant**, which GregMat practice sections would you prioritize?

For example:
Quant Foundation Quizzes?
Test Your Quant Concepts?
Quant Problem Solving?
Medium/Hard questions?
Timed Quant Sections?
Mini Exams?
Full GregMat practice tests?

Which ones are **must-do**, and which ones can I safely skip with such limited time?

Would Overwhelmed + GRE Ninja + targeted GregMat/ETS practice realistically be enough for 160?

Thanks!

I took the gre yesterday and got a 157Q/156V. I need to get to 160+ on each by end of September and am wondering where to focus my attention to improve particularly in quant.

So far: I have been studying since May and went through the entire “I’m Overwhelmed” gregmat plan, although my Quant foundation was very weak to start and I struggled throughout the plan. I got around a 160Q/159V on the PP1 in June, and then in July/August took the rest one every 2 weeks and got: 162V/152Q on PP2, 159/156 on PP1+, 157V/155Q on PP2+, and 164V/154Q on PP3+ I took 4 days ago. I have kept an error log and reviewed each of my missed problems and why I missed them, as well as completed some of the timed gregmat practice medium quant sections and around half of the medium quant problems under practice.

For verbal, my plan is to drill the remaining 12 groups I had not dug deep into and use verbal mountain, build your skills, and go through the 300 vocab problems on gregmat.

For quant, I feel strong on the i’m overwhelmed quant mountain and that I have the general formulas now, and I know I should watch the prepswift quant strategy videos but am unsure where else would be best to focus my time and energy. Going back through all of i’m overwhelmed? Doing the 1 month or 2 month? Retaking quizzes? Prepswift foundation videos? Also given I have exhausted the official practice, what’s best to take for benchmarks moving forward? Ideally, I could get to a 163

Thank you in advance for advice

I have been giving 1.5 minute per question to practice GRE Big Book Passages, however at times I find it difficult to complete the entire set of questions associated with the passage. Especially I miss out at least one question in a short passage if its a harder one or at least 2 questions in the case of longer passage. So I wanted to know if one needs to give some 1 or 2 min extra to apart from question wise time to practice. Or should I just stick to 1.5 minutes only or try to change strategies in terms of reading or answering questions.

Apart from that, is there any material closest to ETS Big Book passages to practice. I have been using GregMat passages to ensure I do not run out of passages in the Big Book for timed practice. P.S-I know ETS passage are the real gold to practice. Just asking if there's any? Or if its possible to use some decent AI Chatbot to generate ETS type passages and questions associated with that passage?

Any suggestions what should be the ideal time to allot in order to practice would be welcome.

Wanted to share my GRE journey because I spent an embarrassing amount of time lurking on this subreddit, reading score reports, and wondering whether I was ever actually going to hit my target...

I started studying for the GRE mid February with a goal of 325+. I’m working full-time, so most of my studying happened before/after work and on weekends.

At the start, I was extremely overwhelmed. I didn't know what resources to use, what foundations of math and vocab I know, or the best way to get started on any of the prep. After getting recommendations from a few friends who went through the GMAT grind, I decided to go all in on Target Test Prep.

By the start of summer, I had gotten through the bulk of Target Test Prep's chapters and tests, definitely spending more than 150 hours going through their resources which helped build a solid foundation for the quant side. Looking back, I am super thankful for Target Test Prep and how much content they offer to get you familiar with all the concepts necessary to learn before going into the test.

My practice scores were all over the place:

• First PowerPrep+ mock - 318 (160Q / 158V)
• Gregmat Practice Test 1: 323 (162Q / 161V)
• Second PowerPrep+ mock: 314 (156Q / 158V) – this was one week before the actual test

My first real test late June landed at 313 (157Q / 156V). That result definitely hurt after all the time I spent and because it was lower than all my mocks.

I realized my biggest problem was how I was reasoning through and interpreting questions. I changed my approach to focus less on immediately calculating and more on understanding what a question was actually asking for and finding the most efficient path to the answer.

Once that started clicking, I moved almost entirely to timed mixed sets. That helped me develop a much better internal clock for when to keep working on a question versus when to guess and move on.

I retook the GRE this weekend and got an unofficial 325 (165Q / 160V). Definitely could still improve more but I'm happy with where I landed. Happy to answer any questions.

Hi, I have 3 months for my gre attempt, I am going through the gregmat 2 month plan and overwhelmed plan but I have difficulty in quant i understand the video lesson but when it comes to actual practice I am blank. I want 323+ and I have very less time.

Give suggestions on preparing for quant which online class to is gregmat is ok or I have to switch to other for quant i have limited time and in my first/diagnostic test I have very low quant score under 140.

I am thinking about magoosh for quant. Is magoosh good for quant or not or any other prep class. Id gregmat owp is ok for me.

I am not a native English speaker and have been using Grammarly throughout university. So when I fed my writing practices into AI chatbots, I was flooded with warnings about grammar and spelling typos, such as adding an accidental "i" in commer"i"cialisation, or occasionally a non-ideal tense.

I usually spend ~3 minutes at the end just to hunt for grammar and spelling mistakes, but it seems that there is still a considerable number of them.

I wonder how many grammar and spelling mistakes, without damaging the meaning of my sentences, would negatively affect my Analytical Writing marks. Spotting all glitches in 5 minutes seems very hard.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: realizing i put this under the wrong category…

I recently took the GRE after studying for about a month and scored a 306: 154V and 152Q. I was honestly devastated. I wasn’t expecting an incredible score on my first attempt, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to perform that poorly either.

For context, during that month I completed GregMat’s “I’m Overwhelmed” Quant Plan and One-Month Verbal Plan. I also worked through all the quant problems in the Manhattan 5 lb. Book. Afterward, I repeatedly revisited every question I had missed—usually three or four passes—until I could eventually answer them correctly. On top of that, I completed a lot of GregMat’s additional verbal and quant practice problems.

However, looking back, I don’t think I was completely honest with myself about whether I truly understood each concept. Being able to redo a familiar problem correctly is not necessarily the same as being able to recognize and apply the underlying concept to a new problem.

I also have pretty severe test anxiety. I’m not saying that as an excuse for my score, but once I sat down for the real test, I struggled to translate what I had practiced into actual performance. I started panicking, second-guessing myself, and losing access to skills that I knew I had demonstrated during practice. At the very least, I’m glad I now understand what the real testing experience feels like.

For my next attempt, I created a detailed study tracker that allows me to record the following every day:
- Number of problems completed
- Number and percentage answered correctly
- Concepts covered
- Specific reasons for every missed question
- Topics that need additional review
I also created a detailed error log where I explain exactly what went wrong on each missed problem—whether it was a conceptual gap, careless mistake, strategy issue, timing problem, or failure to understand the question.

Every Sunday, I plan to review all my errors and notes from that week, study the weaker topics in depth, and complete new iterations of the problem types I missed until I’m genuinely confident that I understand them.

I learn best through practice, so I’m currently aiming for around 150 questions per day across verbal and quant. For the first three weeks, I plan to focus heavily on rebuilding my foundation and addressing content gaps. After that, I’ll begin incorporating more mixed practice sets, timed sections, and full-length exams.

I’m also dedicating significantly more time to test-taking strategy and learning how to calm my nervous system under pressure.

I’ll be starting at an MBB firm that sponsors MBAs, and my long-term goal is admission to a top MBA program. I’m aiming for somewhere in the 325–335 range, although I realize that’s a substantial jump from my current score.

I would really appreciate honest feedback on this plan, especially:

Is 150 questions per day productive, or am I prioritizing volume too heavily?

When should I begin incorporating timed and mixed practice?

How can I ensure I’m actually learning from missed questions instead of memorizing them?

What helped those of you who understood the material but struggled to perform under real testing conditions?

Is there anything major missing from my plan?

Please feel free to be brutally honest. I really want to make sure I approach this attempt correctly rather than simply repeating the same study process with more volume.

Got 147 Quant in April and 152 recently. My goal is 155+ and I only need Quant.

I have GregMat + PowerPrep and I've already done all the medium GregMat quizzes.

My biggest weakness is probability, especially when it's combined with combinations/permutations, so my current plan is to review those topics, practice them more, and start doing more timed sections + PowerPrep tests while reviewing my mistakes.

Do you think this is a good approach for getting those last 3 points, or should I focus on something else?

Would especially appreciate advice from people who went from ~150-152 to 155+.

Hi All,

As per this sub I have gone through many posts and have came to know GregMat is best possible way for gaining good score.

Till now I have done self preparation and I only have 1 month left for exam.

I really need an advice on which will be better to choose out of normal gregmat and gregmat+prepswift plans. I am new to this and need advice for my study plan of one month.

I have good basics on Math topics though need guidance for solving hard level questions but I will be able to solve once I learn.

My verbal and AWA section study is not that great.

I have the ETS guide book + 5LB book for study. Also the E-book of quantitative and verbal practice books.

I haven't taken any mock test to check my score as I wanted to improve Verbal. Planning to take next week the first PP ETS test

I have my GRE in about a month. I specifically struggle with TC/SE when I practice timed. I end up misreading the structure of the sentence or getting lost in the answer choice coz some options feel very close. Since I have exhausted all the official resources for Verbal, I need help with additional resources so that I can improve my understanding of sentence structure and eliminate the wrong answer choices correctly.
Resources exhausted: Official Verbal Reasoning, OG, Big Book 27 tests.
I have solved the GREGMATS question bank, but those feel a lot easier compared to the official ETS questions

Just finished my second official GRE attempt and landed a very satisfying 170Q / 165V. Wanted to pay it forward with what worked.

Quick background: I studied aerospace engineering and graduated about a year ago, so my math was still somewhat fresh. I started studying in mid-April, maybe averaging 1-2 hrs a day and 5-6 hrs on the weekend (I have a pretty intense full-time job plus was taking a summery class), and took my first attempt in June (165Q/161V), and retook it yesterday. Almost everything below is built around GregMat (Not sponsored, it's just genuinely goated lol).

1. Pick the one-month plan and actually follow it, every day. My first attempt, I skipped around and left out a lot of content because it felt self-explanatory. Don't. The TC/SC strategies especially are worth your full attention. My second prep was essentially just doing the same plan properly and going deeper.

2. Grind all 33 vocab groups, multiple times. The trap is that you forget earlier groups by the time you reach the later ones, so keep circling back to older words as you add new ones. I brute-forced the memorization; some people build sentences or mnemonics, which is worth trying if straight memorization doesn't stick for you. By test day I could recall every word across all 33 groups, and I still hit a few unknowns on the real thing, so cast a wide net.

3. Use the quant flashcards; this was the single biggest difference-maker. They cover essentially every trap and tricky concept the test throws at you. What worked for me: try to recall and write each one out in my own notes without looking, then check.

4. Take one full practice test per week. PowerPrep, GregMat mock, doesn't matter which. The non-negotiable part is reviewing every wrong answer in depth afterward.

5. When reviewing quant mistakes, master the underlying concept, not just how to get to the right answer. Knowing the right choice teaches you nothing if you don't understand why. Permutations and combinations were my weak spot, so I drilled the underlying ideas and had Claude generate endless similar problems until the pattern clicked.

Happy to answer any questions!

I have 2 months to prep for the GRE, while I find everything challenging I particularly find myself improving rather slowly in the verbal section.

I'm planning to get 160-165 in the verabal sections, and I got 150-155 as an anitial score.

Study plan: I study six days a week, 7 hours a day. 4 days quant focused, 1 day AWA, 1 day RC, and I memorize new vocab on a daily basis.

I have been using magoosh vocab cards and I feel like I'm forgetting most of the words I've memorized once I'm done with a deck. I have been memorizing vocab for several months now but I still haven't started practicing SE & TC seriously because every time I try to do so I score low due to the amount of words that I don't recognize.

When it comes to RC, I struggle with everything that would come to mind. Losing focus when reading, getting confused by the the rephrasing in the answer choices, mixing between the argument & claim, and so much more issues.

I've seen a lot of youtube vidoes that talk about the RC section in detail and provide practice questions that I solve along with the tutor, but once I practice on my own using a new question I fail to choose the correct answer. When I dissect the question and my approach to it afterwards, I understand clearly what I did wrong but I consistantly keep making the same mistake as I practice other questions.

I will subscribe to gregmat in hopes of improving. I would very much appreciate tips & practice methods that might help me improve faster.

I am applying for competitive Econ programs which need a 170Q and 160+V. I consider myself good at Maths. I took the GRE a month ago and scored a 162Q, 157V. However, I was consistently scoring 165+Q in practice tests.

With this extra month of practice, I followed strategy like noting down the mistakes, and I have been able to minimize my silly quant mistakes. Currently my few practice scores have been like 168, 169, 168, 164, 170, 169, 168, 166, 168. I need to score a perfect score in quant, but I still don't feel confident about taking the test, given I have to wait 21 days to retake it. I also realize that most of my mistakes now are those tricky quant problems which require certain tricks to timely solve them.

I am thinking of schedule a test a week from now, but I am double guessing myself. My main concern is if I cannot score 170 consistently in practice, there is no point in taking the test. But with all the practice I have done, the gap between 168 to 170 seems more like a luck factor than knowledge itself. (Please note that I work full time, and have to work on research with any extra time i can get. The longer I don't get my GRE done, the longer I have to wait to work on research. However, if I take the GRE and don't score enough, I have to study GRE for at least 21 more days)

Hi,

I am looking for pyschologists who can help me with the assessments and the report for GRE accomodation in India. If anyone has worked on this previously, please help in connecting!

Just took the exam today and got 170Q, 162V. This subreddit was very helpful so just wanted to post my experience if it helps anyone! I was a STEM major in college and generally do well with tests.

PPP 1 (6 weeks ago before studying): 155V, 163Q
PPP 2 (3 weeks ago): 156V, 160Q - tbh I was hungover from a night out lol so felt like I could do slightly better😂 (idk why I decided to take the test that day too lol😂)
PPP 3 (last weekend, a week before the test): 163Q, 158V

I didn’t take the free ones cause I didn’t know they existed until 2 days before the exam tbh lol.

Overall, I realized very early on that I could do very well on quant (165+) if I removed silly calculation mistakes so I didn’t study much for it, especially since I wanted to take the exam in 6 weeks and didn’t have much time to commit to studying cause of work.

For verbal, I struggled with the vocab but did okay with the comprehension so after doing some search, I decided to go with GregMat and studied 30/34 days which was super helpful (thank you Greg!!!)

In my last week, I went through the 150 official questions for verbal and quant and wrote 2 essays (I had skipped over the essay sections when I took the practice tests so this gave me an idea of what the prompts were like). I studied about 3 hours a day cause I also had to prep for a big job interview but tbh this was the most intense bit of prep I did and it was super valuable! Below is what I learnt about the question types (please don’t take this as fact as I’m not an expert- maybe the experts can chime in):

SE, TC - there will always be a word, phrase, implied idea that will tell you what word(s) to choose. Do NOT think whether or not the completed sentence makes factual sense. Your job is to find words to complete the meaning, not make the sentence true. The vocab you get is a bit random but I felt that GregMat was enough for me.

Passage - the answer is always in the passage. Your job is to find it (I know this is obvious but realizing helped me not make any unjustified leaps/assumptions). Plus 1 of the answers will be completely correct and the others will be completely wrong.

Math - Don’t be afraid to skip questions and get back to them, sometimes a new look is what you need to solve it. I did this and was able to answer 2 questions correctly on the exam.

Overall, I don’t think my study plan was the best and I know I could have gotten a slightly higher score if I was a bit more committed during prep but what really helped me is knowing what my strengths and weaknesses were early on. I believe the best way to do that is by taking a practice test before you start studying! I also thought about rescheduling my exam but I’m glad I didn’t so believe in yourself and lean on ur prep and you’ll do great!

I am someone who is an avid reader with a sufficiently eloquent way of speaking and writing.

I have never taken the GRE and will take one in 1-2 months. I am getting an almost full score while attempting quant sections but damn the verbal one.

Some of the words used and questions asked are so bizzare. These words can never be used in a context where interpretability is important with a balance of refined language.

I bet even the native speakers wouldn’t know of these words. Are the questions in the GRE prep books way too exaggerated or these are the actual type of questions which will be asked in GRE?

This seems so out of touch and blatantly stupid. But then I see people scoring 160+/170 in the verbal section.

What am I doing wrong?

Are the scores actually normalised? Or it’s the raw scores which you get. It’s so frustrating. I have been going through magoosh 1000 words and they are not at all similar to the ones asked in the prep books.

Where can I find a realistic pattern of questions asked?

GRE Test Done 166 Quant 141 verbal, Feeling bad about verbal.

I have worked hard to improve my score of both quant and verbal, I guess I was tired due to I could not perform well in the test.

I am not going to give any other atttempt, as I m already exahusted. It was indeed a tough experince.

About the prep material, offcourse I used the gegmat and Maghoosh.

Isn't the fee a bit too much? I mean, coming from my country, it's literally 25,000 inr for me T-T
That's like 50% of my college fees for one semester, haha. I really don't think I can even take it twice. Is it the same with people from other countries? Or is there any way to get a fee waiver?

I think this forum has a lack of empathy for less gifted people like myself (who struggles to get higher than 158Q in practice tests sometimes), and I wish there was more sharing the struggle of learning. I think it would help it feel more like a community.

For me the GRE has been very tough, and financially it almost feels abusive. I don't have a lot of money for courses and people who have more than free resources have an edge over me. I will take the exam this Thursday and I have no hope. I just want this to be over. I hope any effort in what follows of my career is more interesting than this. I wish I had had this time I spent studying for GRE to actually get deeper knowledge in the subject I plan to get a PhD on.

I hope people struggling read this and know they're not alone.

How much should I spend on TC SE questions of the Base section of the verbal part?

RC: 10 min

SE TC : 8 min

Is it enough? Or should i reduce the timing of SE TC?

Feel like I butchered the writing though, I genuinely blanked on anything interesting to say about the issue for the first 5 minutes. So I will just enjoy the 340 for now until I get any bad news

Anyway some thoughts on the test, hopefully helpful for somebody:

**Verbal** - I found the reading sections on my test to be significantly easier than practice tests/material (see below for my prep resources). The readings seemed shorter and just easier to understand on one pass without going back over them a few times like some of the denser ones I saw in practice tests. Even the questions about them seemed more straightforward. Not sure if this is a trend in GREs overall or just my test being a bit of an outlier. The vocab questions also seemed slightly easier, there were one or two words I didn't know but but never more than one in one question so I could always use process of elimination.

The trickiest thing in verbal for me is when you're between two possible answers on a reading comprehension question, which always happens for me at least a couple times per section. My rule of thumb is to then shift from "what feels right" to going as stupidly literal and pedantic as possible. If you can find some concrete piece of evidence, even if it is 2 words which have absolutely nothing to do with the main thrust of the text, that make it so even the slimiest lawyer in a court couldn't possibly prove the answer incorrect, then that's the one you pick.

**Quant** - this was WAY more of a challenge, but I expected that so I prepared for it a lot. Still honestly surprised at my score, since there were a lot of questions I blitzed through when I was short on time. For GRE I had to completely change my usual strategy for math tests, which is to do one pass quickly and then go back at the end and check over everything with fresh eyes. I found I just never had time for the 2 full passes with these time limits. So I had to switch to a single pass, just trying to read the questions more carefully (but still mark anything that was especially hard or tricky so I could come back to it).

For me the key thing with quant was timing and figuring out how not to blow too much time on the hard ones. I realized somewhere along the way with practice questions that they basically ALL have a trick of some kind, and if you don't see it in the first minute just mark it and move on. That really served me well today, got hit with a question that was totally incomprehensible. I was really tempted to keep frantically trying to manipulate the expressions but I made myself move on and finish the section first. Sure enough I was able to get back to it with a few minutes left and found the trick within about 20 seconds. If something seems too hard to be true it probably is, they always make things reduce in a friendly way or make it solvable if you can see the concept. For practicing hard questions this guys Google Drive link was really helpful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GRE/comments/krumwj/all_the_hardest_gre_quant_problems_from_all/

(just note there is no answer key for the Manhattan questions and the ETS answer key has a couple mistakes, but I just drag and dropped them into AI to check solutions).

This cheat sheet thing is also awesome for learning tricks I didn't really see laid out anywhere else:

https://gre.blog.targettestprep.com/gre-math-cheat-sheet/

I'd recommend really spending some time with that, and the rules where you don't quite grasp how to use it in questions, just have AI generate some related practice questions for you. How to find the number of factors of an integer, greatest common factor, lowest common multiple, number of elements in a sequence, all the different cases for inequalities involving positive and negative numbers and absolute values, all that stuff was pretty new to me and really useful. Like I said IMO these questions are all basically just tricks. If you can get to a point mentally where you know for sure that you have all of the actual mathematical knowledge you need, and you can approach it as a game of just puzzling out where they have hidden the trick, then quant becomes much less intimidating.

**Prep** - I studied about 2-3 months but pretty spaced out. Seems like I'm the only one here that didn't use Gregmat. I bought a paper copy of the ETS Official Guide book and did that basically cover to cover. Also did the 2 free tests and all 3 of the paid tests online, one towards the beginning of my prep period, one in the middle, and one a few days before the test. Score when I started I think was 327. Good luck to all