gre hell

[quellers]

So I'm scheduled to take the GRE on the 25th, which is now a week-ish away. I'm doing fine with verbal, but the quantitative section is really killing me. I haven't taken a math class since high school, haven't done math without a calculator since middle school, and generally feel math illiterate. I've been working primarily with Barron's GRE book

Comments

[adequaticus]

Do you think you have the fundamental math knowledge/tools ( basic geometry, algebra, etc) to solve GRE quant problems? If so, and you can barely break 400 after a lot of practice, sounds like your math intelligence may just be pretty low. Can that be fixed at your age? I don't know, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

My suggestion would just be to keep on practicing, and make sure you have all the basic knowledge you need. GRE quant questions usually have a bit of a 'trick' to them to separate the good math brains from the poor.

[quellers]

I'm a little (ok, a lot) rusty, but I think I have the basics down now. I didn't admit this in my post, but my very first diagnostic test in June before any sort of review was a ridiculously low 270. Whoops. So yeah, I definitely have a very poor math mind. I hope I can do better. Thanks for being so realistic with me.

[adequaticus]

Thanks for not taking offense. Keep on trying to see if significant improvement is possible. I'm curious.

[getlucky_1]

I feel your pain <3. I used mostly the Princeton Review book to help me learn some tricks, and when I took my first Powerprep test my quant score was a 380. I drilled that Princeton Review (Cracking the GRE) book, as well as using number2.com, and even though I know I didn't get much down, I took the GRE for real and got a 560. It's possible. I really focused in on it with about a week of studying to go, and I raised my score. Yeah, I know my score isn't very good, but it shows you can raise it! :) Best of luck to you! :)

[quellers]

I'd love to get your score; it's not bad at all! thanks :-)

[happy_endings]

Hmmm...I wonder if you're focusing too much on the tips and strategies at this point and less on the math. I would consider sitting down and maybe doing one practice test, as slowly as you need. Try to actually solve the problems and not just use strategies. They are very important, but if you learned those before you really learned the math then that may be why you are running into a lot of problems. This may be preventing you from truly understanding the problems

[cork118]

I agree with this comment. Sit down, work through all the problems nice and slow, and see what you get with that. If your score improves, then that would indicate that your problem is with the tricks/speed and not with the math itself. If your score stays the same, it's the math itself.

And also-- try to calm down! :) Put the GRE in perspective, and realize that an awesome score doesn't mean you'll get in to any schools, and a poor one doesn't mean you'll be flat-out rejected. If you've got solid recommendations, experiences, research, and so on, you have a fighting chance.

[ladra_di_vento]

I'm a math hater myself. I did the conquering gre/gmat math book, and it actually really helped me a lot. I just went from front to back and it lays out all the math with explanations and questions. I never got the questions in barrons right either, and I never understood the explanations. I didn't rely on the practice test scores because I figured since it relies on the first 3 questions what's the point?

I've also found that it helps to become one with the math. By this I mean, stop fighting the math and seeing it as your enemy, embrace it, doodle I <3 Math, and it actually gets kind of easier.

[sporkgoddess]

[adequaticus]

Seriously? Studied for *TWO YEARS* and took a PR course? Wow... It's just a silly test... Why??

[sporkgoddess]