Here’s Umul’s advice for preparation and test day, based on his exam experience. If you’d like to read others like these, or submit your own write-up after you take your exam, head over to our Student New GRE Experiences page. Enjoy!
“Hi, this is Umul from Pakistan. I took my new GRE today, and I feel I should write about it so others can learn from my experience just like I learnt so much from them.
I previously took the old GRE and my score was a 1160, a 700 on math and a 460 on the verbal around early 2009 (i.e. almost 2.5 years ago). I messed up both of my sections pretty badly, since I totally ran out of time on the math section and the verbal section I just did not get. After landing the Fulbright scholarship, they asked me to retake my GRE as they wanted me to improve my quant score for getting into better universities. I am going for a Masters in energy resources, hence my math (I am guessing) was not competitive enough as a foreign student. Also, my undergraduate degree was a BSc honours in Mathematics from LUMS in Pakistan.
I have been working for the past three years and had to retake my GRE on short notice, so I prepared in a roundabout way for a month: for verbal, I mainly used word lists from Barron’s and Kaplan’s high frequency list, which I think was enough, as I knew most of the words on the test.
My first section was math, which went very well. The questions were easy, since I had really practiced my math timing: I prepared according to the 30 minutes for 30 questions strategy. which made it easier, since the actual test is 35 mins and 20 questions. The second math section was tougher, which I could tell by the difficulty level of the questions.
The second section was verbal, which I completely messed up! I think I hadn’t practiced verbal timing much, although I had practiced doing questions a lot. I panicked and guessed on about 5 to 6 questions on the first section. However, ETS was very helpful, they gave me a baby-level second verbal section, to help me get through the exam, so the second verbal section was very easy and I am guessing I did fine on that one after messing the first one completely. So, people out there, don’t be scared– if you mess up , the program makes sure that if you’ve panicked but still know your verbal, you won’t automatically drop to a 130-type score!
So my final score was 150(450)on the verbal and a 163(780) on the math. I was expecting a bit better on the math as it went extremely well, and was relieved by the verbal 
. But (oh well) my target of improving my math score had been met.
What would I do differently? I wish had worked more on the Verbal timing than doing the actual questions as I didn’t think the timing would be a problem. The new GRE expects one to comprehend stuff really fast and makes you do lots of critical thinking!
The best place to practice is the 23 Tests by ETS– it gives loads and loads of practice material and it has an old Analytical ability section, from which lots of one-sentence critical reading passages are given. Also, practicing on the comp is a must. There’s very limited software available, but I guess one has to make do!
Anyway, best of luck to all you future GRE takers!”
Nida and Harsha, following is the book’s description. Hope you guys manage to find a copy!
GRE Big Book, published by the Educational Testing Service.
It contains question papers culled from the paper and pencil avatar of the GRE over
several years, and is published by the same people who set the tests, ETS.
This book is a must-have!
ETS was probably in a good mood when they released this book to the public–ETS
rarely releases so much official material at one time for such a low price.
Like all official materials, this book is unbeatable for quality of questions. None of the
other practice books can come close to the quality of questions you will find in this book.
Unsurpassed quantity: This book contains 27 actual, full tests that were administered in
the past. This number of tests is more than most people would ever need to practice.
However, this book contains NO explanations or strategies–it’s pure practice. If you need
strategies or explanations, you will have to look elsewhere.
Hi Umul,
Can you please tell me the name of the book with 23 or 27 old GRE tests?
Thanks
hi umul ,good luck for your future. .hope you get into a good university, can you tell me one thing? how can i get those 23 old gre tests? hope you reply soon. thanks in advance.
Hi, no hamza i don’t mean the power prep II. This is a hard copy book , it is by ETS itself and it has 23 or 27 old GRE tests, this mainly gives lots of practice material!
Hi! Good to hear you got your target score. Kindly elaborate the following.
Quote:
“The best place to practice is the 23 Tests by ETS…”
Are you talking about Power prep II? That only has 1 complete test. Where are the rest of the 22 tests?
Regards.
Hello Umil, Thanks for the brief.
I am guessing you are applying to Stanford University’s Energy Resources Engineering, which I am applying to as well. I will be writing my GRE on 5th of January and I am just gathering Momentum. I hope for the best, and your article had further pointed me in the right direction for good success.
THanks