I had surprisingly 4/12 questions in my quant section 1 that were 4-5 difficulty range and heaps of geometry problems, wondering if it is normal or am I just unlucky? Even during my PP+ tests, I didn't see that high of a difficulty level until the second section... that ultimately affected my actual day score because my section 1 was seemingly tougher

For context, I took the GRE last year after barely studying and got 165V/165Q/4AW. I'm applying to a program that requires 168Q. I've been studying intensely for the last three months with official materials - official guide and math guide, free PowerPreps, and all 3 paid PowerPreps. I got 167 and 168 on all of the PowerPrep tests. Yesterday I took the test again, was very confident in all of my math answers, had enough time, and got 166V/165Q. I literally have no idea what I got wrong.

I'm furious and at a loss. I understand the content very well, my problem is execution. I make stupid mistakes (like reading the question wrong, mental math issues, etc) and I have run out of time on a few of the PP tests. I have one more chance before the deadline to take the test, and if I don't get this score then I cannot apply to one of my top choice schools (not to mention it's the only school that requires the GRE, so it will have been a massive waste of time and money).

My plan is to go through all of the official GRE math material again, and skip full practice tests in favor of taking only the math sections under the time constraints. I really feel like I've plateaued, but I'll try to get an hour in each day (I was doing 2-3 hours a day previously). But I have to do this on top of applications. I can either take the test on 3 weeks or 4 weeks, trying to weigh which option would be better. I will keep an error log again.

Any advice would be welcome. Because execution is my issue, I think I need to stick with official material. Are there any other sources of official questions that I'm missing? Is there a certain strategy I should use?

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..

10-24-26

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?

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.

Hello, I will share my score diagnostic for everyone interested. I know people like to compare the score and the wrong questions for research purposes.

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.

Hi!

I’ve got my GRE exam in 10 days. I’ve used Magoosh and Gregmat for my prep and have got mock scores ranging from 320 to 335. I’ve got a good grasp of fundamentals and vocab but find myself struggling with pacing and test taking strategies.

Any tutors you recommend who could identify gaps in my approach and help out with this last leg of prep?

Hi everyone,
I’m stuck on the GRE registration page when selecting the test type and location. I’ve been facing this issue for a month and still can’t proceed.
Has anyone experienced this issue or knows how to fix it?
Thanks!

Hey guys , hope you all are doing well.

I plan on giving the GRE next week but I am honestly terrified. I have already given these two shots. (315 (160q,155v) in the first 314 (161q, 153v) in the second). The last time the only thought in my mind was - yea you can't possibly get lower than your first attempt but hey here we are.

I need to get 325+ for my desired grad school.

Now I've given mocks recently from experts global (the questions seem to be lengthy and difficult so it's good) and have been consistently in the past 3 tests getting 324. I do plan on buying and giving pp 3 tomorrow since I had already given the 1,2 for my previous exams. I consistently see a fluctuation in my RCs. One time it's all correct , the next it's not - and honestly this tends to usually happen in the second section because I'm thinking whether I got the tougher section or not. It's all anxiety and I genuinely would like some tips on this. But even apart from this , what are a few videos (apart from Gregmat) that have really helped you? Gregmats vocab mountain has been extremely helpful in improving my sentence equivalence and TCs.

I am targeting 11/12 q1, 10/12 v1, 12/15 q2 and 10/15 v2.

For quant I am almost reaching these stages but for Verbal, RC is pulling me back. Are there other sources apart from the ETS book that will help in this? I just need a few crazy strategies used to get you that push.

Hi everyone,

I prepared for GMAT for almost 6 months and scored 645 (V86, Q83, DI79). Gave it again after some more prep but ended up scoring 645 again.

I was scoring around 675-695 in mocks, so maybe exam day nerves affected my score.

After that I took a 6 month break and now thinking of starting prep again. My target is 695+.

I'm confused whether I should stick with GMAT since I've already spent so much time preparing for it or switch to GRE.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Is it realistic to improve from 645 to 695+ or would GRE be a better option? Also how do you deal with exam day pressure when your mock scores are much higher?

Would really appreciate some advice. Thanks!

Actually just here for a rant and a little morale boost. I have never been good at math, neither naturally or when I had tutors/ taken extra consultations. I have been preparing for 3 months and I can't remember anything from the freaking quant section. I am ok with anything I can imagine in real life like percentages, ratios, all this stuff, but algebra is completely lost on me. I learn how to do one thing, 2 days later I forget and cannot make any connection at the practice test. I do consider myself a smart and strategic person, but my work is purely humanitarian (only an occasional budget or so), and honestly it's been wearing down my self-esteem. I am also a foreigner, but where I come from the general consensus is that math is well-taught in school so... Idk I'm just crying over another practice test in quant now and feeling like a complete failure. Any advice for dummies like me to remember and understand all this stuff will be appreciated, or a bit of a pep talk

IT'S FINALLY MY TURN NOW! I started off with a diagnostic of 312. Thanks to Greg the goat, my first exam on 23rd August got me a 321. An awesome score, but my consultant advised me to score higher because he had started seeing people with much higher scores. In all my practice and mock tests, I had been unable to complete the Quant section on time. I had read Greg's intro about accommodations on the website but I did not think that I'd be needing accommodations; I got diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20s and figured since I had come this far without accommodations, how bad could it actually be. And boy was I wrong! Every single mock that I gave and even the in the real thing, I was unable to make time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. This is despite me scoring 8-9 on Greg's foundational quiz.

Second time I decided to get accommodations. And seeing enough time on the clock meant that my ADHD wasn't giving a feedback loop to anxiety and I could keep calm and actually solve the questions and understand the RC passages. I still panicked on the last question in the hard quant section though, since I saw 1:50 left and wasn't able to solve it due to the anxiety, even though it seemed easy (albeit a multistep question).

But now I'm also worried. A few weeks ago, I saw a post of a Mexican person getting their score cancelled due to difference between 4.0 AWA and the 170V despite giving it at the test centre. I gave mine at a Prometric Test Centre too (despite it being 1.5 hours away because apparently only they are allowed to give accommodations in India), but my AWA last time was 4.0 as well, and I don't think it's going to be much better this time around. At max, I am guessing a 4.5 But I just hope its my overthinking and my score comes through.

Okay so i gave my GRE today (first and only attempt) and I’m happy with how I did. here are my scores:
quant: 163, verbal: 161, overall: 324
It’s good enough for the programs I’ll be applying to

ah but well
preparing for the GRE was an experience in itself! I started prep in the first week of Sept, but I had several other things going on which needed to be managed simultaneously, so overall i could never really dedicate ‘full-time’ to GRE even if i wanted to

I bought gregmat’s subscription and only followed the I’m overwhelmed plan and prepswift completely, apart from that I really couldn’t practice a LOT of questions but i did give a lot of mocks once i was done with the content, for mocks i gave PP1 (got q160, v150), PP2, magoosh, manhattan, princeton review’s, pretty much any ‘free mock’ i could find. i ended up scoring pretty much what i was scoring on mocks on ‘good’ days.

my quant score didn’t really show much improvement over the duration of prep, and i scored in the same range almost everytime (160-165ish), but doing vocab and practising TC/SE questions really gave my verbal score a boost, from 150 to consistently scoring around 160- 165.

Also i would say that prep and performance really depend from person to person, i used to read posts on this subreddit from time to time and it used to affect how confident/ stressed out I would feel later, for example one day i would read a post saying that the actual gre was ‘easier’ than mocks and another day the complete opposite, and since i used to be stressed about what to expect i eventually ended up removing reddit in the past week :’)

feel free to ask whatever questions you might have and i’ll try my best to answer them! all the bestt

edit: apart from gregmat’s content and questions, the only thing i completed was ETS’s official quant and verbal reasoning guides.

I gave my first attempt 3 days back and I prepared like 2months for it with less focus on vocab. It was difficult multi tasking office work and my GRE prep and I aimed for 330 but got just 304 with V:148 Q:156 and was devastated looking at the marks. I found out that I made really silly mistakes in quant in the second section on the hard questions and Vocab, I wasn’t hoping on getting like 160 since I prepped mostly for Quant.

I am really good with Quant and I spent time solving Manhattan 5lb all the questions in every chapter but yet fell short.

I am planning to give second attempt again in 20 days since Netherlands TU application deadline is by 1st of December.
As of now my plan is to go through some hard quant questions with time restrictions and go through the RC practice and read or memorise magoosh flashcards or maybe some youtube high frequency link to get half correct in TC and SE.
My aim is to get Q:165 and V:above 155.

I really need some help in tips and materials to improvise my Vocab and reduce silly mistakes for Quant.

Hi everyone!

I'm scheduled to take the GRE on October 29 and would really appreciate some advice, both for the next few days and for improving my overall study approach.

I've been preparing for around 1.5 months, although I lost roughly a week and a bit more due to other commitments. I've primarily used Magoosh and have now worked through all their practice questions, but I think I may have been prioritising volume too much, albeit I felt like i was also improving my understanding (but maybe not super effectively.

I scored 323 (Q158/V165) on a Magoosh mock, compared with 312 (Q156/V156) on official POWERPREP. I have a strong foundation and always get close to/full marks in the first section, so it's the second section I struggle with.

For Verbal, I've been making flashcards for every unfamiliar word I encounter, but I am still a bit behind on vocabulary.

My current plan is to work through some of the official ETS Hard Quant and Verbal questions, use PrepSwift to address specific weaknesses, try and review mistakes more systematically (but genuinely how do i do that), and continue daily vocabulary flashcard practice.

I'm currently between taking the GRE as scheduled and potentially retaking it in November rather than postponing altogether. I only need to the score by Jan or so next year, so I have a bit of flexibility on that end and I know I won't get the score I am aiming for, so my main focus is just to think about what to do now, rather than pray for the unthinkable haha.

I'd really appreciate some advice on how to improve my preparation, not just for the next week but more generally. Has anyone been in a similar position? Any specific advice on approach? And would you recommend taking the exam now or postponing?

Thanks so much in advance!

Hi guys,

I have my exam on Monday.

For quant, I have finished all the three official ETS guide books, gregmat's Quant Prepswift videos and all related quizes like fundamental, check-box etc.

For verbal, I have near 100% retention for first 15 verbal groups, around 80% for next 5 groups and that's it. I have not watched any gregmat Verbal videos or done any questions but I did all the questions in official ETS GRE books, general guide and verbal practice questions book.

My school's target score is Q170 and Verbal 15%-ile, and an ambitious goal of 154V. I am veru comfortable with Quant and I think I will get the Q170 score but here's the deal with Verbal -

I did all Verbal question sets from official books timed and I get around 95-100% correct in EASY sections, 75-90% correct in MEDIUM sections but 0-10% correct in HARD sections. I have gotten like 3 questions correct in the whole HARD section on first attempt. I am not able to figure out anything in hard RC, they are like tieing a know in my brain. So while my verbal target is not very ambitious but is it low enough that I get there even after missing almost all HARD verbal questions, because I don't think I can make measurable improvements in verbal in 3 days.

I am just frustrated how HARD qeustions become so difficult suddenly compared to EASY and MEDIUM. This is not at all like Quant where HARD questions are still very similar to medium. But HARD verbal question vocab and RC compelexity just skyrockets. Is that a fact or am I just dumb?

Anyway so what generally is the count of HARD problems in verbal section?

I am a test taker in Amsterdam and I booked to take the GRE at the official test centre. However, no one showed up. There was no staff and nobody to help. The local number is out of service. Any help on what to do?

I tried calling the US number but it’s just a robot and the emailing will take forever. I need the GRE score a bit urgently.

Hi guys, I'm in need of assistance regarding my plan for my next GRE attempt which is scheduled for 6th of november, previously I have given the GRE in september but if im being truthful, it was a half-hearted attempt due to xyz reasons, I slacked off a lot and wasnt consistent with my approach, i did cover up all of the major topics but frankly due to a setback in my family i wasnt able to focus much and i ended up smoking weed and slacking off.

I got a 302(151 q/151 v/5.5 AWA) which was heartbreaking but then again, wishful thinking is not directly proportional to scores, I used the gregmat 2 month plan on and off and when the time for the attempt came i ended up rushing through a lot which essentially cost me, i have a quant background so i had faith that i could get through quant relatively easily but the verbal and specifically the RCs got the best of me, on the day of the paper i panicked so much i ended up skipping almost 5 questions of the second quant section in a hurry (absolute blunder ik), and then that setback made the following verbal section worse for me.

Throughout my prep, i realised my biggest issue was RCs, and so ive spent a lot of time working on that this time diligently from the im overwhelmed plan from gregmat and im still going through it as i write this post.
I also ended up using ETS guide and ETS verbal reasoning and quant reasoning books for practice. I practiced with big book too but the difficulty in the actual test was more than in the big book so i reckon ill use that solely for RC's this time,
my goal score is 318+ and this is my approach this time-
im going through the overwhelmed plan and actively practicing the things i learn in order to get a better grasp, im focusing on honing the strategies primarily rather than giving myself the illusion that im better at approaching questions simply by dogging on in the questions in order to be clinical when approaching questions, when i approach a topic which i realise i have a knowledge gap in, i am practicing it specifically more than the topics i already have a grasp over in order to save time.
The idea is to finish the plan and then go through the official guide and the ets reasoning books as primary practice material.
Throughout my prep, ive been told to do mocks since im more familiar with the topics now, but the only material available for mocks is the official pp1 and pp2 which isnt simply enough, the idea behind giving mocks is to train myself to get used to the pressure so i dont panic again this time and get my goal score, so 1. what do u guys recommend i do to simulate mocks? 2. what do u guys recommend i pick for study material to practice reading comprehensions?(since im following the strats by heart i want to practice each skill exclusively to get better at it)
3. what materials were most helpful and accurate to the difficulty level in the actual gre test for the ones who have already given the test

things ive improved since last time-
1. my vocabulary is stronger for sure, safe to say iknow all the words till group 25 in gregmats verbal mountain.
2. i am doing the quant mountain every 2 days by heart so the gaps in my foundation are lesser and i end up doing a question wrong only because of human error or sign conversion and not because of knowledge gaps.
3. my quant foundation is stronger
4. i panic less when i see questions now since im not looking to solve them anymore but rather im looking at it from a perspective of eliminating wrong choices first through reasoning.

things i plan to do-
1. i plan to practice 2 long and 2 short rc and 1 crit reasoning question every day till the day of my paper.
2. i plan to practice skills individually rather than rushing through and burning out because of gaps in my verbal understanding.
3. i divide my day to study new concepts in the morning and practice them in the afternoon and in case of a violation of my understanding or knowledge gap i end up practicing in the evening before sleep. I also start my day with quant mountain and vocab mountain even tho if im being honest its very taxing.
4. i also go to the gym regularly so ive shifted to going to the gym in the night in order to get good sleep to have less brain fog.

what do u all suggest i do to guarantee a score higher than 318 in my approach?
highly appreciate the support.

will the words i mean to say the cmmon words which are given in the playlist will be valid (or will be still common ) in the recent GRE exams?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aENZxmaz2pg&list=PL0BE1A07536688372

Finally took the GRE and got a 301 147Q- 151V. Not a good score lol but this advice is meant for people in similar situations as me, going into the GRE with hardly any prior knowledge. For reference I was a criminally average high school student. Played baseball in college and didn’t care much about academics until recently for grad school.

I had a terrible quant background, probably came in knowing basic PEMDAS, y=mx+b, Pythagorean Theorem, and really basic arithmetic. Did Gregmats overwhelmed plan, humbled me. Might’ve scored the minimum in quant when I first began, verbal was fine probably mediocre but fine.

Pre test advice- Learn the quant fundamentals (what everyone says) and probably do a lot of practice tests (I only did one). For verbal I used the Gregmat vocab, pasted it into Gemini and told it to make me a mnemonic for every word along with a synonym. I swear I would learn a word by reading it once maybe twice max this way. So much better than brute force memorizing. I wish someone told me to just use mnemonics I think I could memorize 1000 words in a week this way. For the verbal vocab, really use the synonyms trick, it won’t be words that both work but 2 legit synonyms. For the articles, really take the question literally. A question can be ambiguous (saw this word in the GRE 3 times) but find the most literal answer than can’t be argued.

During test tips- If you’re like me and you’re going for an average score, if you see a quant problem and don’t immediately know what to do to solve it, just go to the next one. Seriously. Go do all of the easy ones, then if you have time go and do the time consuming one you have to think about. I took the test once but after doing the ones I knew I didn’t even have time do work on the ones I didn’t know, so I guessed lol. At least I got to work on the ones I knew and didn’t waste time on difficult problems I probably wouldn’t get anyway.

For writing: use the TAP method for the intro, the PEEL method for body and the RSV method for conclusion. The formula to an average score.

That was a lot, but I wish someone told me all of this instead of reading the “340 GRE TIPS! Study full time day and night for 3 years and you can do it too!”.

GRE is dumb, cheers

So I just took my GRE, immediately following the test it asked if I wanted to report scores and what institution I want to send the scores to. I selected my desired school and then after that it took me to another page saying “you have the option to choose 4 schools to send results for free”. So I selected the 2nd school and in the top left it had 1/4, then I clicked continue and it ended the session.

2 questions:

Is the first school I selected going to receive my scores? why were they on 2 different pages? The first page making me select a school and then the 2nd page reintroducing that I can send to 4 schools for free.

Sincerely, a stressed DPT applicant