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. At the end of the post - there is a link where you can discuss stuff about this post on kaaledge forums. Meanwhile 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 synonymous 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.

The GRE, at the time I gave it, consisted of a verbal and a quantitative section of eight-hundred marks each. The test was computer based and adaptive. Starting from a medium level of difficulty, it would present you with a harder or easier questions depending on whether you answered previous questions correctly or incorrectly. An incorrect answer on an easy question would cause you to lose greater marks than an incorrect answer on a hard question. It was possible to obtain a full eight-hundred score with up to one or two questions wrong. I had one question wrong in the quantitative section and two wrong in the verbal section and ended up with a score of 1570 (Q:800,V:770). It is noteworthy to remember that while a very good score doesn’t increase your chances of acceptance significantly, a very bad score reduces your chances to a fair degree. Losing marks on the quantitative section will hurt you more than losing marks on the verbal section. Most good universities don’t give much credence to the GRE and I personally feel that it merely embellishes your application. At the same time, given the highly competitive nature of graduate school applications, you should have every possible advantage on your side.

I shall now outline my preparation for the verbal, quantitative and writing sections:

1. Take a practice test
I would recommend taking a full practice test before you start off with your preparation. This will give you a rough idea of where you stand and how much you need to work to get up to par. I personally recommend using one of the two ETS tests since they closely parallel the real test.

2. Go through the Kaplan GRE software
I found this to be an excellent resource while preparing for the GRE. It is very user friendly and has a lot of practice questions and tests. This effort should move in parallel with the rest of your preparation.

3. The Verbal Section
This is usually the hardest section for most people coming from an engineering background. Specially international students who have trouble with English. The best way to improve your score on the verbal section is to go through the whole Barron word list and to take lots of sample tests. There is no better way of doing this. I went through the list and wrote down the words and their meanings since I recall things better after I write them down. I later went through a second pass of the first list and a third pass of the second. I went from the whole list (4000+ words) after the first pass to about 800 words after the second to about 250 after the third. It is good to keep attempting practice questions while you prepare for the verbal section since they provide a change from the monotony and help you apply your newly gained knowledge.

4. The Quantitative Section
I paid the least attention to this section since the math seemed quite easy. Personally, I would not recommend spending too much time on this unless you come from a non-engineering background or unless you get a low score (<700) on the first practice test you took. I believe that taking the practice tests in the Kaplan software are enough to help anyone get a good quantitative score.

5. Sample tests
These are very important and I would recommend taking one every week while you prepare. It is a good idea to save about 3-4 timed tests for the end since they help you prepare yourself for the real test. Keep in mind that you have only two ETS tests so it might be a good idea to use one right at the end. I took the second ETS test one day before the exam and scored a 1520. At the same time, it also might be a good strategy not to look at your score when your exam date is near. If your score is lower than what you expect, it might discourage you. I strongly feel that the process of preparing oneself is unique to each individual and would recommend that you do what suits you best.

6. Taking the test
Ah well! Keeping the stereotype in mind I thought I might as well throw in a “sleep well and reach on time” suggestion.

Best of luck!

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