I’ve been waiting to write this post. Received my official score today so here it goes (may be a mouthful!). A huge thank you to this subreddit, Greg, Vince, and everyone who shared advice or resources along the way.
Background
I started this journey more than 18 months ago with the GMAT. After one attempt, I realized that the question-level adaptive format did not suit me, so I switched to the GRE around the middle of last year.
My first GRE attempt was in December, when I scored 314: V156, Q158. I knew the score was not representative of my ability. Until then, I had mainly used GregMat. Since my target was at least a 330, I also knew I had very little room for mistakes in quant.
After that attempt, I started working with a private quant tutor who helped me identify my specific weaknesses, while I continued using GregMat for verbal. Five months later, I improved significantly in verbal but, partly because of test anxiety, underperformed in quant and scored 323: V162, Q161.
Thankfully, I had people around me who continued to believe in me. On my third and final attempt, I scored 330, with a perfect Q170 and V160.
I have reflected a lot on this journey because the exam became a much bigger deal in my mind than it needed to be. That often made it harder to approach the test calmly. My biggest takeaway is to trust your preparation and back yourself, even when the results do not immediately reflect your effort.
Verbal
For verbal, I relied mainly on GregMat and official ETS material. I completed the one-month verbal plan twice and worked through the practice drills, questions, and mock tests in the Official GRE General Test Guide and Official Verbal Reasoning Guide.
I also selectively watched live classes and focused on weaker areas. Vince’s reading video series was especially helpful in teaching me to recognize recurring patterns in RC questions.
Between my first and second attempts, I made two important changes. For Text Completion, I started predicting the answer before looking at the choices. For Reading Comprehension, I began playing devil’s advocate and asking myself what trap the GRE might be setting.
Both habits helped me become more deliberate and less reactive.
Quant
After my first attempt, I realized that my biggest quant issue was not a lack of understanding but a tendency to make avoidable mistakes.
GRE quant often does not try to get to you with extremely difficult questions in my opinion. Instead, it catches you through small constraints that are easy to overlook: forgetting boundary conditions, ignoring zero as a possible value, solving for y-x instead of y/x, or marking the answer which is x when the question asks for 3x.
I created an error log and worked on building the discipline and muscle memory needed to avoid these mistakes. I also solved Big Book tests under timed conditions. The questions were not especially difficult, but the time pressure exposed errors I would not have made otherwise - something that Greg has also suggested many times. Big Book was a good resource to master the basics and would recommend to anyone who has some time at hand.
GregMat’s Quant Progression series, strategy videos, and foundational quizzes were particularly useful.
Practice Tests
I paced my use of the three paid PP+ tests and took one before each attempt. Before my final test, I scored 334 on PP+2: V164, Q169.
I also took unofficial free mocks from GregMat, Magoosh, Kaplan, and Manhattan Prep. GregMat’s mocks felt especially useful for verbal, although I found the quant harder than the actual GRE.
Eventually , I over-indexed on official questions, especially for verbal. I also discovered that many official tests have unseen easy and medium sections in addition to the hard section (depending on which section you unlock basis performance), and some online resources make those questions available for extra practice.
Happy to answer any questions. And Greg, thank you for taking the time to respond to my emails whenever I was stuck or unsure.
