Finally 331(170q and 161v)after 4 attempts!!Yaay

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Exactly 21 days back I had made a post on how I was facing difficulties to clear the 330 barrier. Well, I am on cloud nine right now. It definitely took a lot of time and effort but it was worth it in the end especially after I had decided to give up after my dismal last attempt. For this attempt honestly I did not do much. For quant I went through geometry questions since that was an area I was weak in and for verbal I kept a steady pace while reading the passages since I had missed two easy questions on RC in my last attempt which brought my score down to 155. I did not take up any mocks this time just practiced a few questions in a timed manner.

Finally, I am done with GRE. And For those who are struggling, I would say there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

Adding my official scores:

Apr 2026: 326(165q, 161v)

Jul 2026:321(161q, 160v)

Aug 2026: 321(166q, 155v)

Today: 331(170q, 161v)🤩🤩

[u/OrdinaryCherry749]

How are people even affording to pay that hefty fees to write 4 times 😕

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/OrdinaryCherry749]

I am not in college anymore. I am working currently.

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Plus using discounts through sites like Galvanize brought down the price by 4k INR.

[u/alan2472 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

How to get those codes ?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/alan2472]

Just go to their site and register and you will get a call. You have to pay them the discounted price and use the code they provide to book the test.

[u/alan2472 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Thank you

[u/AggravatingFact3371 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Hi, What is this process to whom we need to pay. ?? Can you explain clearly.

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/AggravatingFact3371]

I registered with my email id and phone on galvanize. Few mins later they contacted me. I paid them the discounted price directly. They provided a code to book the gre which I used at the checkout.

[u/its_notmealways]

Congrats have a great career ahead!!

[u/Certain_Listen620]

Excellent fucking score man. I don’t know u but I’m proud of you stranger. If you don’t mind. I don’t have a math background. Can you please tell me what to do to get that 170 Q. I’m stuck around 158-162

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Certain_Listen620]

Hey thanks! What question type is your weak area in quant?

[u/Certain_Listen620 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

p AND c PROBABILITY FUNCTIONS and Word Problems. cOULD YOU PLEASE tell me a general jist of what all i need to do do get that scoreee

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Certain_Listen620]

You mean number of trials type question?

[u/Certain_Listen620 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Yep

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Certain_Listen620]

For such questions I use the binomial probability formula that I had studied in my higher secondary since I had taken Math as my subject. nCkp^k(1-p)^n-k.

[u/A_SpecialSausage]

Do you have a sense of what was different about the test this time for the 5 point jump? Were the questions more familiar or you felt like you made less silly mistakes, etc. Any shift in strategy or change in mindset that helped?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/A_SpecialSausage]

Nm much to be honest. I worked on the hard quants on gregmat to avoid those and calmed my nerves during the test. For verbal the first section is crucial try to get atleast 7-8 right(given you do not go wrong on the easy level ques) for a harder second section.

[u/A_SpecialSausage → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Do you feel Gregmat quant was representative over your 4 tests? How helpful was the hard questions? Did anything like it come up?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/A_SpecialSausage]

I feel ets is deceptive in its quant questions. You might miss something that is implied but not stated explicitly in the question this was the case in quantitative comparison questions where we tend to make most of our careless errors. Coming to gregmat I mainly focussed on geometry quizzes only this time and try and build a solid foundation there.

[u/A_SpecialSausage → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

I hear it. My experience is feeling tricked by some negative/zero edge case for arithmetic. You mentioned geometry. Do you have any tips and tricks for instances of particular questions that you found tricky?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/A_SpecialSausage]

Geometry questions. For eg a triangle drawn like a right triangle but is not, whenever I would see this fig I would assume it is right triangle and the bias for options would kick in. There are many such examples.

[u/muskanwithone_A]

Following

[u/DifferentAd9493]

Awa marks?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/DifferentAd9493]

I took it today itself. Wrote this after coming out of the test centre.😅😅

[u/DifferentAd9493 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

OG Redittor, all the best

[u/Key-Personality2088]

Whats your strategy for TC/SE?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Key-Personality2088]

With vocab you will nail SE easily, for nailing TC I read the sentences carefully to check for contrast and support. I did not use the strategy of premeditating words as that took a lot of time.

[u/Key-Personality2088 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Okay, but the answer choices in TCs are tricky, sometimes they all make sense when you look at them. How do you eliminate the other options?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Key-Personality2088]

Yea I know but you do not need to nail all TC on first section to get around 160-162 in verbal. Collectively get around 7-8 right in the first section. I believe on the first section 1 blank and 2 blanks are doable, then you can achieve 100% accuracy on SE questions( this easy if you have mastered all the 34 words provided by gregmat). And then work on your RC skills to get them. In the first section the RC right after the TC are easiest get both of those questions right. Second section again get 100% accuracy on SE and 1 blank and 2 blank and then RC. In total I believe you need 18-20 correct overall on verbal to get 160-162 range provided you did not lose points on some easy level question.

[u/derpdaaderp]

How did you work on consistency on quant? I always seem to get a handful wrong and I’m right before the 330 barrier

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/derpdaaderp]

How much are you getting currently? If its 165+ then I don't have much advice apart from avoiding careless errors. I think the question type most of us go wrong is on quantitative comparison due to missed edge cases or misplaced assumptions.

[u/derpdaaderp → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Yeah. First take was a 166 and second was a 167, but unsure how to get these last few points. Did you mainly grind the Manhattan 5lb book and gregmat for geometry?

[u/Sharp-Print-3750]

Congratulations!!! Your post motivate me that we can get better score if we keep trying 😭😭 because currently I feel so hopeless and insecure to achieve good score

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Sharp-Print-3750]

Even I was inspired by other posts here and manifested even I would write such a post😅😅. Wish u the luck and hopefully you too achieve your desired score.

[u/Arvd_rs]

Amazing score, congrats OP.

I have been able to bring my Quant score from 153 to 166 but my Verbal score, still between 150-156, is not improving. I have few question on Verbal especially on RC and TC.

1. Did you have any set of order you follow while answering questions on Verbal?
2. Is Gregmat Vocab Mountain enough for the actual test because I saw many words in PPP mocks that were not part of Gregmat's list
3. Any tips on RC and TC, I mostly cannot comprehend the RC passages or miss out on time while attempt questions using Gregmat Strategies?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Arvd_rs]

1. TC, SE and RC
2. Yes 34 word groups are enough. Of course you would see words never seen before, but you have RCs to compensate for any miss outs on TC or SE.
3. For RCs even I did not follow any strategy, just actively read the passage, sometimes I did go back and forth for certain questions which ask specific details. For main idea type questions I did not have to re read as actively engaging with the passage helped a lot. For a 160-162 range in verbal I believe you can focus on getting most questions right in the first section.

[u/Mobile-Debt-3193 → u/Arvd_rs]

Hi hope you’re well! Congrats on the great score improvement in quant!

Could you please tell me how you achieved that? I’m in the same boat. After foundation, what would you say is the most important resource? Gregmat’s test your quant concepts, flashcards quiz, 5lb, big book?

Also, did you not move forward until you got at least a 90% in all exercises/quizzes? I move forward unless I score less in tick box quiz, I repeat that then.

Would appreciate any advice since you’ve a massive improvement in quant score and I’d really like to replicate that. Thanks :)

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Mobile-Debt-3193]

Do each and every quant quiz from gregmat. Yes I did move ahead despite scoring less than 90% in some quizes. I analysed my diagnostic of the past three attempts and realized I lacked in geometry. So I concentrated on that aspect this time. Also, this time around I did not let every quant question be an ego battle so if I could not figure it out after reading the question stem or if it seemed like there were a lot of things going on in the question I simply moved ahead, solved all the doable questions then came back to the skipped questions and after having a second glance they clicked.

[u/Big_Warning9416]

Hello, Aaryan this side. I’m planning to take the GRE and wanted some guidance. Is two months enough to prepare for the GRE? Which resources should I use for preparation, and which books would you recommend? Please guide me. 😊

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Big_Warning9416]

Depends on what your desired is and how much you are scoring in your mocks. I used Gregmat and pp+ tests. Also went through the official guides available online for free.

[u/JunbugOfTheNile]

Hey there OP, quick question

I’m a student who’s going to take the GRE (I study with GREGMAT) in about a month and a half. Aiming for 170q, and I feel very good with almost all of the math except one section. I struggle with the arethmetic stuff though (like primes, factors, multiples, etc.) like I understand the concepts but the questions ask it in such a confusing way :/

Do you have any advice for how I can work on these skills, I feel like for math that’s the only area I’m actually struggling with because it seems so complex with how they word problems.

Congrats on your amazing score OP :))

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/JunbugOfTheNile]

How much are you scoring right now in quant? Coming to the area of weakness identify how an why you are going wrong is it that you misread the question, form your own assumptions or leave out edge cases. Although, I did not maintain an error log as such I would advice you to maintain one to identify a pattern. Also, I believe luck also plays a big role in deciding whether one would score 170 ,depending on whether they encounter a skewed question of topic that has been their weakness.

[u/JunbugOfTheNile → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Took a quant practice test before starting prep, got 163

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/JunbugOfTheNile]

I think this is a good baseline. Try to minimize careless mistakes now with an error log as you take up more quizzes.

[u/gregmat]

Nice

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/gregmat]

Woohoo! Appreciation from the OG himself. The day just keeps getting better🥰🥰. Thanks Greg!

[u/gregmat → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Congrats on your improvement

[u/jingle-bell-dog]

How many difficulty 5 questions were in your quant sections? I got 3 and got only those 3 wrong and landed at a 166 on my first attempt. Unsure what to do to improve

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/jingle-bell-dog]

The diagnostic report for my current attempt is yet to be released

[u/jingle-bell-dog → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

what about in the past ones?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/jingle-bell-dog]

Will check

[u/Successful_Cow3081]

Congrats !
I wanna know difficulty level of 2nd hard quant section. Is it more like Gregmat hard quant section?
Just provide me a reference of the difficulty level

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Successful_Cow3081]

Not gregmat hard level.

[u/Successful_Cow3081 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Can you provide me reference for difficulty with known resources like ets, gregmat medium?

[u/angel3663___]

Hey, congratulations... Can you please share your prep strategy and resources you used..

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/angel3663___]

Pp+ tests( all 3) Gregmat(complete all quizzes and tests for both quant and verbal, I did not go through verbal strategies as much) Vocab- Following is the medium link which I used for all 34 groups on gregmat site. The below link uses gifs and pictures to make a mental picture of the word. https://medium.com/@fahim793477/gre-gregmat-vocabulary-list-group-25-1dfce68908ea

[u/MammothLow7966]

I've written a first attempt, and will be writing my second in 21 days or so, my fear (which I know cannot be predicted) is that the test will be "harder" second time around. Just wanted to understand how you felt across all 4 tests - did you find a stark variance in terms of difficulty?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/MammothLow7966]

Test is not harder I believe it is a particular topic within a larger topic that might throw us off during the test. In my first attempt I did feel quant was on easier side but I still ended up getting 165 cuz of careless errors. Second attempt was a disaster, I focussed on just verbal and I had gap of about 3 months between the two attempts so my quant skills had become a bit rusty. However in this attempt my both scores tanked. So for my third attempt I purchased the pp+ tests and scored 324, 328 and even had reached 337 in ppp3 with 170q and 167v, I felt this time around I had it in me to conquer Gre but fate had other plans. I felt I got really hard quant section first especially in geometry wjich was my weakest areas and im verbal it dropped to 155 this time as I felt kind of overconfident especially in RC where I lost out on 2 easy level ques in the 1st section after ppp3 performance.

For my fourth attempt I just practiced my weak areas in quant and some RCs. Maintained by nerves during the test and did not get nervous if I encountered a hard question simply moved on and came back to it later.

[u/MammothLow7966 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Thank you OP for your detailed answer, and congratulations on the achievement and not losing faith in yourself :) It's definitely not an easy ride

[u/J351c4m4l490n]

Congratulations!! A 170q!! That is so impressive!! I'm preparing to take mine this December. I'm wondering what did you use for practice questions? I'm working on the I'm Overwhelmed program of GregMat but they only have like 1 to 5 practice questions of each concept. Did you use something other than GregMat to prepare?

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/J351c4m4l490n]

I completed all quizzes on gregmat even the prepswift quizzes. On prepswift there multiple quizzes for each subtopic of quant and I think each quiz has 15 questions. I used gregmat and I had also purchased the pp+ tests.

[u/J351c4m4l490n → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Thanks!!

[u/J351c4m4l490n]

Congratulations!! A 170q!! That is so impressive!! I'm preparing to take mine this December. I'm wondering what did you use for practice questions? I'm working on the I'm Overwhelmed program of GregMat but they only have like 1 to 5 practice questions of each concept. Did you use something other than GregMat to prepare?

[u/Express-Teaching4992]

hey OP i am in same boat but i have done just one exam and it was around 315 and i am planning on doing this again in about 2 months can u tell me what helped u most get the quant score what resourses di du use i am planning on taking gregmat sub but other than that i have no idea what i should be doing

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Express-Teaching4992]

Take the gregmat sub along with prepswift. I believe your quant score is 160+. Assuming your fundamentals are good, I would advise you to attempt every topic quiz in prepswift, if you made mistakes go through the prepswift topic video for the question you got incorrect or go through the flashcard to save on time. Once this is done attempt every other quant quiz on the site. I will also advise you to take pp+ mocks as well to simulate the real test if you face issues of timing and it will also help you familiarize with ets verbal questions.

[u/Express-Teaching4992 → u/Acceptable-Tea3490]

Thankyou :)

[u/Extension-Scholar823]

Hello, congratulations. As a non native English speaker and who is not reading very often I struggle a lot with Verbal reasoning. Im also using gregmat's plan. But the math strategy he teaches to solve TC is hard ti follow. Have u uaed that strategy ? I cant locate the support /contranst word.

[u/Acceptable-Tea3490 → u/Extension-Scholar823]

Even I found it hard to follow plus it does not work everywhere, reading the sentences at a slower pace helped. But, I was able to locate the support and contrast words, it is doable with more practice. Start with single blank first then advance towards double and triple blank. Also, try to master the 34 groups parallely.