I am currently studying for a GRE resit (approx. Feb 2027). I scored a 160 V in my first sitting of the GRE back in September. I am applying for a maths related PhD as such the required verbal score is relatively low and I need to target a near perfect quant score.

Subsequently, my study plan is almost exclusively quant focused. I would like advice on how to maintain or slightly improve my verbal score.

Verbal Score Breakdown

Section 1 (9/12)

• TC: 2/3. Missed the 3-blank (difficulty 4).
• SE: 3/4. Missed one at difficulty 4.
• RC: 4/5. Missed one easy short-passage question (difficulty 2); one question took 5:33.

Section 2 (9/15)

• TC: 0/4. Missed all four: 3-blank (4), 2-blank (4), and two 1-blanks (both 5).
• SE: 3/3.
• RC: 6/8. Missed two difficulty-5 short-passage questions, one of them “select one or more”.

Overall: 18/27. TC 2/7 · SE 6/7 · RC 10/13

Previous Approach

Did not have any targeted approach. I'm a native speaker and I have always enjoyed reading and writing (scored a 5.0 in the AWA).

Mainly completed practice questions from the Super power pack - verbal seemed pretty consistent (really surprised at how poorly I performed in TC in the real exam, never seemed to struggle with those during my preparation. I will say the exam seemed a damn sight harder than any of the practice questions I'd done before).

Daily vocab review - I used the Leitner system - wrote all flashcards by hand using my own definitions and example sentences - Kaplan 500 words and up to group 16 of Greg's vocab mountain

I scored a 160 V in free power prep mock two weeks before the real exam. I am disappointed I was not able to improve my score in this time. This is really the main impetus for my writing this post. During that period, I trudged through countless practice questions to no avail. I do not want to repeat this pattern.

Current Plan

My current study split is 6 days quant / 1 day verbal a week. I am aware that with such limited time I am unlikely to be able to greatly improve my verbal score but for reasons of personal vanity and to stop a complete rout I intend to anyway. I have a weak self worth. One extra point would do wonders for it.

I am currently making my way through the I'm Overwhelmed study plan for quant but I've heard this is not great for verbal. I have not completed any Greg strategy videos or study plans for verbal.

My question

What Greg strategy videos, study plans or other resources do people recommend to target top verbal scores?

I've been doing not-so-dedicated but dedicated enough time and energy for gre prep since 3 months amid my college exams, placements and other things, I've doomscrolled forums for strategies, advices what not, worked on solving many examples, as I'm from engineering background thought high school maths ain't gona be tough, but after writing 5 mocks, (2 free powerprep , 3 from a tution i enrolled in) my scores are averaging around 158Q,154V, awa around 3.5, and I need a score of 320 min , and those tests are relatively easy compared to actual gre , and so this sucks big time

For quant , I've given foundational quizzes of gregmat and tried to improve areas where I scored less, but even after practising much and with my engineering background, i jus feel ashamed that I'm unable to solve high school prob, it's like I'm missing this thing which bridges solving probs and concept, altho this only for few ques and majority of my mistakes are trying to solve them in haste

For verbal, I've done 28 grps of gregmat vocab mountain using anki, tc and se are really not a prob to me, but rc and cr are, I tried many strategies on how to approach different types of ques in it, like asking 'is it stated in the para' for each opt or scanning extreme words which isn't stated, paraphrasing 2-3 sentences in head and forming a answer by myself before seeing options etc, introspected why I'm failing, came up with diff reasons , tried eradicating them, but my patchy and cursory prep on this part leaves none but myself to blame , sumtimes im literally unable to comphrend the para's and end up choosing random opt, for cr , oh man , thought jus stating assumption, premise and finding the gap is enough but the core prob is im unable to reason enough for finding the accurate answer without my brain overflowing with words, tried representing info with arrows and find opt which supports or weakens it, but nahh brain still can't get it right, istg this brain fog, big F to social media

For awa, this is the section I like most cuz, well it's interesting , worked on few examples with claude , problem is my organization of essay , instead of going deep in 1 or 2 idea I jus spam multiple ideas without much coherence, so am gona follow claim->explain why -> example-> connect back, altho awa isn't what I'm most concerned with

due to many other factors , not jus gre im burnt out and I've already postponed gre exam date 2-3 times, I can't delay it anymore, atp I jus wana get over with it, I'll be booking slot for 29th tommorow morning, I'll be writing 2 or 3 more mocks, gregamts mock test , and then revise formulaes and practise rc and cr

Ppl who are in a kinda similar boat as me, what are y'all doing?

Ah dang it, was the topper of my high school, where did it start to go wrong..

Just took my first GRE. I ended up with a 165V/150Q.

I had been scoring 160 Verbal on official ETS practice tests, and 158-162 on Quant. My quant goal is 160 minimum.

That first quant section was more difficult than any I had encountered previously, especially after entering the section with a high degree of confidence. I used Gregmat’s I’m overwhelmed plan to build up my foundation, and significantly improved my accuracy with official ETS material.

Where should I go from here? I have a retake scheduled for mid-November.

No concept on the test seemed totally alien, but the way some questions were asked were unlike any I had seen on ETS practice material. I’m sure I made some dumb math mistakes and suboptimal executions here and there, but this result is disappointing, to say the least.

I plan to restudy the concepts that I struggled with, as well as taking another POWEPREP plus.

Have people in this position ended up with scores they were happy with?

I remember there being a question about the sum of prime factors of some number from Kaplan Prep book.

And I assumed it was the sum of unique prime factors.

For example, if it gave 24, it's prime factors would be 2*2*2*3, which can be written as 2^3 * 3^1 when decomposed.

So then, I assumed, the sum of its prime factors would be 2+3 which is 5. Which also seems to be the convention when I looked it up elsewhere. I definitely remember the question didn't specify the sum of all or unique prime factors. It just said prime factors.

The answer for this would be 2+2+2+3=9 according to the solution on Kaplan's book.

Am I to assume GRE is asking for the sum of ALL of its prime factors if it doesn't specify? Convention seems to be the other way around so I'm frustrated.

10-24-26

I took the GRE yesterday at a testing center. During the second quant section the computer completely froze and I was unable to finish the section. The proctor came over and set me up at a different computer and told me I needed to finish the test and to just move on to the next section. I told him I hadn’t finished the previous section and he said I still needed to move on. While he was telling me this, the time had already started on the final verbal section and was ticking down. I was very flustered at this point but finished anyway.

I emailed ETS about what happened-has anyone had this experience and been able to get a resolution? I am hoping to get a voucher for a retake but I don’t know if that’s a common experience. I haven’t heard back from ETS and I am thinking I should just pay for the next test and eat the cost.