Samir Menon, MS ‘09 in Computer Science at Stanford took his GRE back when he was in college in 2006. He scored 1570 which is quite impressive. We are grateful to him for sharing some of his thoughts on GRE in general and also sharing his approach to the test itself. Here is what Samir had to say:

The first thing that comes to one’s mind when planning one’s graduate school applications is the Graduate Record Examination or GRE. By virtue of being a requisite of the “grad-school app” for most US universities, taking the GRE has become synonomous with applying to graduate schools in the US. I clearly remember the palpable tension that used to grip the “GRE crowd” as the deadlines for the examination would draw close. I shall share my personal experience with the GRE and some strategies I pursued as I prepared for it. I hope you find this post useful while preparing for and taking the test.

I generally prefer to have interest provocating titles to my articles in order to encourage people to read through them. But let me warn you at the outset that if you are looking for a procedural way of putting together a good application packet, this article is NOT going to help you at all. The hard fact is that an application is only as good as the person who is evaluating the application thinks it is good. The only chance of a grad school aspirant is to prepare an application that is more likely to be evaluated by more people as good, which, in itself is a pretty daunting task.
The following discussion holds more or less both for students who …

GRE, I believe, is one of the easiest exams to get through - easier compared to what we have here in India. The mantra is to mug up everything and then practice, practice and practice.
Almost all universities in North America require applying candidates to write GRE as a qualifying requirement for their graduate courses. You can write the exam anytime in the year, and once in a calendar month. Yeah, that’s right, if you do not score well in your first attempt, you can always write it again next month (which may be starting the next day). This is the reason that it’s always wise to book the exam date in the end of the month. So, if you screw …

I want to share with you all our idea and motivation behind this project. Its simple really - we want to show people a dream - people who are like what we used to be not too far ago from now - we want to show students and young people a dream and show them a way to get there. Here is a quote from a book that has recently come out, which goes something like this: “You were created to dream, empowered to plan and blessed with the insight to accomplish”. Think of us as a train - which starts at your current location - wherever you are - and shows you where you can get - and takes …