Ok Guys.... I got in touch with a senior person "Rahul Pratap Maddimsetty" (through indirect references) who has scored 1600 in his GRE
exams... He has prepared a great study plan which i'd like to share with you. I do not take any credit for the plans made, i simply happen to come across this info and am posting it on the forum for everyone to see & apply in their GRE
preps.
I went through his suggestions & found them very helpful, so am sharing with all ma friends out here. This is the least i can do for RXPGonline community for all the good tips and tricks it's given to me. RXPG ROCKS!!!
The following is a direct copy paste from his info.txt file that i recieved
I was obsessed with the idea of doing whatever it takes to get a full 1600 in the GRE
from the very beginning. As a result, I worked about six months at it. However, most people in their right mind will keep all obsession out of this effort. The GRE
is only something you have to do because you have no choice. And a score of 1400 or more will not hamper your chances of getting a good university. A lower one might. So about two or three months of dedication should be enough for that good score. With the only difference that I never did more than a wordlist a day, here's my method which you could rather safely apply. If however, you wish to make a passion or obsession out of the GRE
or use it to salvage some lost pride, you should prepare real long. A special note for those who really want that 1600: ignore any shortcuts I may have prescribed here for the others - specifically, don't just use the spreadsheet that I prepared; make your own.
0. The guiding philosophy here is that you should allow your brain to forget so that it remembers better when it sees a word again. I'm sure you know how a buffer cache works. This is something like that. Your brain lets go of words at various levels. Some load is shed within a minute. So when you check again after five minutes and find that you've forgotten, you'll remember those words one shade better this time. After a day, some more load is shed. So by revising after a day you reinforce those words. And as you keep learning more and more words, the older ones get kicked out. So you have to revise again after every 12 wordlists or so. Just so you know, I read the wordlists, in effect, in four passes!
1. Scan through a wordlist. Take your time with it. Remember to be certain of the usage. Lots of words may be unfamiliar. No point writing out difficult words at this point. You'll end up writing all of them! When you're done, quiz yourself on the entire list. Don't do the exercise yet.
2. Get your mind off the wordlists completely. Allow your brain to be bombarded with new thoughts so it has an opportunity to forget, or at least so that it is put to the retention test. All this is training. It's valuable practice in itself. It's not counter productive. The more you train yourself, the better you will retain stuff in spite of all the new data being cached!
3. Before you start the next wordlist, do the exercise at the end of the previous one. Check your answers. Now again quiz yourself on the entire previous wordlist. You'll see how much more you remember and how much more you've forgotten.
4. Back to step 1 and cycle through.
5. At the end of every 12 or 13 wordlists, revise the entire previous quarter. Run through each wordlist completely and also do the exercise at the end of it.
6. Move on to next quarter. Steps 1 through 5 four times over.
7. Read the section on prefixes, word roots and stems, and suffixes. It's very helpful. In fact, by the time you've finished 50 wordlists, you would have developed a feel for a lot of these things and would have discovered a lot of those roots and stems and general patterns yourself.
8. Revise the high frequency list. You may start doing practice tests. And please, for goodness' sake, do as many quant tests as verbal. No misplaced disrespect here!
9. At this point, what I did was the most crucial revision. I sat over 10 days and made a huge spreadsheet in Excel that put the words into categories. As I was doing the lists, I noticed, for instance, that there are lots of words specifically for criticism, lots of legal terms, lots of literary, musical terms, etc. As I started to make the list my categories grew like crazy. I finally had about 300 categories or more, accounting for about 600 rows, with each row having at most 7 columns. As it turns out, I had independently discovered this very useful method. I later ran through the Kaplan book, and found that they had done the same thing - make categories, though nowhere near as numerous! Anyway, the point of this exercise was to cement my understanding of the words like nothing else can. I ran through all 50 wordlists again, word by word, and the mental exercise of categorising it made sure I'd probably never forget it again. Of course, I didn't put every word in the spreadsheet.
10. My fourth pass was about looking at this gigantic spreadsheet. Now I specifically noted words I had again forgotten and put them in another spreadsheet, without any categories. I don't believe I have ever forgotten them since!
So much for the wordlists. A lot of work has to happen in parallel with this. Once you're done with the wordlists, like I said, you will have to start on your tests. You'll have to also read the individual sections in Barron's, Kaplan (it has some very good stuff which I was lucky enough to read just 2 days before my GRE
and it helped tremendously), etc. You need proper strategies for every question type. Just a vocabulary won't get you anywhere. So your idea should be to get past step 6 soon and have a lot of time for tests and revisions. You are your own best teacher, and you have to know what mistakes you keep making so you can consciously rectify them.
As for instructions for work in parallel with vocabulary after step 6:
1. Go to www [dot] geocities [dot] com/greaids . Download everything there. You don't necessarily have to use everything, but some stuff like SuperVoca is pretty good.
2. You'll be exposed to a lot of NonBarron's wordlists. Please ignore people who try to psyche you with some crazy words you've never seen before. There's no end to this NonBarron's nonsense. Choose one NonBarron's list and do that if you have the time.
3. As you do tests, you will come across words that you didn't see in Barron's. It definitely makes sense to write these down with their meanings.
4. I expect you'll be doing the following kinds of tests:
Big Book (paper)
The Princeton Review (computer)
Kaplan (computer)
Powerprep (computer)
About each of them:
Big Book: Authentic. Compiled by the ETS people from actual GRE
paper based tests. However, they're easy and you don't want any false confidence. Besides, the computer adaptive test is quite a different ball game, as all the books scream out loud! Different weight for different questions, etc. Obviously, that isn't the case here. These are only for practice. They're not very good indicators. But given that everyone needs practice, this serves the purpose very well.
Princeton: Till date, I'm not very sure this damn thing is actually adaptive. In any case, it classifies as easy. The software will have four tests. Space them well. You want to do these adaptive tests closer to your GRE
.
Kaplan: Super tough. The practice tests are in the old paper format (i.e. 38 questions in verbal and 30 questions in quant) and are not adaptive. But the full tests are in the new 30 verbal and 28 quant format and are very very adaptive. These scores are real heartbreakers. On my last two Kaplan tests I got 1420 and 1480!
Powerprep: This is the most authentic. It's made by the ETS people and will be sent to you a week or so after you book your date. Two full tests (essays included). Do them last. You can do the practice exercises whenever you want.
You do NOT need to write everyday, but you do need practice. You need to just discipline yourself more. Take fewer liberties. Be sure of your spellings and punctuation, and most importantly, of your usage. It matters whether a word goes with 'to' or 'for' or 'with' or 'on' or 'about' or whatever else.
The point of the essay section is not to use the words you learn in the wordlists. It's to write coherently, logically, and most importantly, like an academic! Your writing must be plain and clinically precise. My rhetoric skills were no help here. In fact, personal style works against you. I know it worked against me. No creative and rhetorical devices are to be used. Your writing must emulate the academic (and yes, let's face it, dry and boring!) style of the Reading Comprehension passages. It's important that you learn the style of writing that the verbal section exposes you to. The reading comprehensions and sentence completion examples you see will help you a great deal. All they do is make a point and state it clearly. It isn't legalese either - heretofore, thereby, and other such stuff is out too! Your content is extremely important. So it will help to gather your ideas and opinions, perhaps even discuss them.
Use words like however, similarly, and other such logical connectives of the kind you'll probably see mentioned in the sentence completion tactics. And yes, for some strange reason, it helps to use the word specious in the argument essay! I didn't, and I got a 5/6!
--
Rahul Pratap Maddimsetty
August 2003
==============================
Caution with the Quantitative Section
# Look for information on sign of quantities
Very often, the question will refrain completely from mentioning the sign of a quantity. Be very careful about assuming it's positive. Similarly, for questions involving powers of a quantity, you need to know whether it is greater than or less than 1.
# Be careful with questions on multiples and factors
Apply those divisibility tests carefully. And some questions are about common factors or common multiples. It's easy to make mistakes with them. Double check your answers.
# Read graphs more carefully
Study each graph long enough so you can list all the quantities plotted on it, without looking. That way, as you answer each question, you can decide, in your head, which part of the graph you're going to read before actually looking at the graph. This is much better than groping around an unfamiliar graph looking for the words or numbers to strike you.
# Check units on graph
The question may just ask for or report numbers in different units.
# Check inequality strictness and inclusion of zero
There is a difference between 'greater than' and 'greater than or equal to'. Be particularly careful when zero is a permitted value.
# Remember can of carrots problem!
This was in the Big Book. Here, it isn't clear whether a can is a unit of weight or a unit of volume.
# Remember saplings problem!
The problem reduces to calculating how many saplings can be planted along a lane N feet long, with the spacing between each sapling being n feet. The answer is [int(N/n) + 1] and not int(N/n). Remember that the first sapling is planted at one end of the lane.
# Remember to use triangle inequality where possible
The sum of the lengths of two sides of a triangle is strictly greater than the length of the third side. This can be applied in the less obvious pure geometry problems.
# a/b > 1 is not a good test!
Tempting as it might be, to check if Column A / Column B > 1, this test breaks down if both are negative.
I can't vouch for this as the best way to remember all the words you need to know for the GRE
. I know I found the practice of making this table invaluable, as every single word passed through my mind in a way that no amount of glancing and rote can make it, as I tried to understand it, put it in a category, and economise on the total number of categories I was introducing.
This is only for revision. It serves to remind you of the words you ought to remember, and each category only suggests why you may want to remember it, or in what connection, along with which other words, etc.
Please remember that words in the same category are NOT synonyms. They are just together because they are related in subject and sense. Even the categories are not very exclusive. They can and do cross over into each other's territories.
Now this clearly isn't a comprehensive list, rather, tabulation. When I started out making it, I put in even words I knew and remembered all too well, as I thought I might as well leave this for posterity while I still had the enthusiasm for it. It was very clear I would never give these words another look after I took my GRE
. And yet, I wanted to contribute to the GRE
heritage. As I went on building it, I found myself introducing categories even for simple words, and my patience took a beating as the table grew unmanageably large. So I started screening words more by my own standards, so I didn't waste too much time on simple words and drawing up categories for them.
In conclusion, I would think that one must not take this table as is. First go through all wordlists. In the process, you will naturally identify a lot of groups and families that words fall into. While you revise, build a table in this way, using this one as a guide. You will find that you remember a lot of difficult words only because you typed them into that cell yourself, and they thus passed through your system in that same way I mentioned.
When you believe you're done, print it out and stick it on your wall. Don't just glance at it everyday. Study it. This isn't a giant table of flash cards. It's a little more. Learn not by familiarity, but by understanding.
And yes, this isn't something I could help, but American spelling has been used throughout!
All the best.
--
Rahul Pratap Maddimsetty
August 2003
==============================================
Phew!!!.. What a long list.. took me almost 5 min to copy paste... hehe... Anyways i hope that you guys get the most from these suggestions. In case you didn't get the link to the categorized wordlist, here it is again
Hey guys a little appreciation like a vote of thanks will be welcome too, if you cant find time to write in any more suggestions... hehe
Just kidding.. DO lemme know how useful did u find this post... I'm planning to add some of my additions to this list... Like a list of fully printable flash cards for quick revision
Excellent study plan. I don't think many will have the patience to complete the entire Barron's word list (it seems like most people on this site consider it an absolute necessity), but other than that I think it's a fantastic guide to follow.
I had a question. Does anybody know of where I can find the GRE
powerprep software? I dled the Kaplan GRE
guide through a torrent site, but I've already finished all their tests so I'm looking for more.
Its hardly 7 MB so pretty econimic to get it.
In my humble opinion, barrons wordlist is a must unless one is a wizard in literary terms and standard written english.
Hope this helps.
BARRON's WORD-LIST IS A MUST.... I wish i had a voice attatchment that'd should along as i write this out... hehe
No kiddind dude... Just read all the 50 word-lists. If you are short of time, i have some tips for you. Read the 333 High frequency words first. 70-80% words are from that list only. Study the reamaining 20% words from the 50 lists if you wanna score really good.
=================
Note to mleaspirant - Rightly said. One needs to be an expert at vocab or a fool to choose not to read Barron's Lists
================
Note to Ghil04
Try ets as recommended by mleaspirant... or try other torrent search engines... GRE
powerprep is relatively small app to DL
=================
Progress report on my Flash cards :
Have reached to WL-9 on ma flash cards list. Did not study at all for the last 2 days cause had an emergency in Hosp (some 400 pt. came in with food poisoning), so was in hosp for 48 straight hrs... And slept the whole day today... hehe
Good one mate.I plan to give GRE
later on this year.
i just had a query.how much will it cost me over there and what are the chances of getting scholarship(and how much) if i get a 1400+score in GRE
...
You doing a great job mate
Woah... some activity after months... Well it's good to know that ppl still take interest in my posts
Well I'll try to be as concise as possible - The total costs vary from university to university and your style of living as well (not to mention the city where you choose to study) for e.g. studying MPH in Alabama is way way cheaper then studying it in Philadelphia.
Getting a scholarship does depend upon your GRE
scores but that is not the only criterion. Your overall performance does count too (and that is the reason that most students do not get scholarships in the first semester). The guys at the university will oversee your performance for the first 6 months and then decide whether to grant you a scholarship or not.
That said and done, there are, however, a few universities, which will offer you scholarships on admission. These are, mostly, very substandard universities which do not get enough students and will grant you funds to allure you into their programs. So tread cautiously and do a thorough background check before finalizing on a university.
Your choice of major will also count towards scholarship. e.g. - public health dept in a particular university may never give scholarship to any student but Elec. Engg dept in the same uni may offer full tuition waiver.
All I can suggest to you at this point of time is to BE ALERT and do some serious sleuthing before zeroing in on any university as your final destination.
Thanks for your help mate.You cleared most of my doubts.I just had 1 more query.
You said to get into top universities you might have to pay for the 1st 6 months or 1 year.HOw much will that come upto overall mate??
Is it possible to get a loan to pay for that as I think that will be a big amount.
A rough estimate would be - approx 6-8 lakh - considering that most universities charge b/w 12-17k USD as their annual fees. Keep in mind that this is just a very rough estimate and actual costs may vary considerably.
You can get loans by 2 ways -
1). Student loan from India - Take this only if you're really short of funds and there is absolutely no way you can show sufficient money to the visa officer without it. I'd suggest that you consult a financial planner to arrange for some workaround to this aspect. The reason I'm suggesting that is that many times a loan creates bad impression on the visa officer who thinks that you don't have funds and might stay illegally in USA to earn extra money
2). Student loan from USA - This ofcourse is possible only once you've reached USA. You may show some sort of family emergency which resulted in a cash crunch and now you need money to fund your education. Students loans in USA usually don't have high interest rates and very long payback periods. Please confirm the details once again from a financial advisor cause I'm a doctor at the end of the day and don't know half the things about banking services.
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Phew!!!.. What a long list.. took me almost 5 min to copy paste... hehe... Anyways i hope that you guys get the most from these suggestions. In case you didn't get the link to the categorized wordlist, here it is again
