pfhyper

I planned to study on my own and then take the GRE. I bought some books, found online resources, but never got any farther.

So I bit the bullet (and paid the money) for a GRE prep class.

First session was a week ago and we took a sample GRE minus the issue paper and analysis. Second session was today and we started working on the essay portion.

I did well on the sample GRE and I’m feeling confident that with just a bit of study I can get some decent scores. I’m shooting for 700 on the Verbal and 600 on the math. (I’ll be talking to the college at the U of MN where I’m applying to make sure these are OK scores.)

The teacher for the verbal/writing part is excellent. We’re using a seminar format with lots of discussion and small group work. He’s set up a web form where we can type a practice analytical paper and he’ll give us feedback.

He believes in using the ETS GRE prep material as much as possible as they own the test. We also got the Cambridge GRE TestPrep (7th ed). So far, he’s only told us to go through the word lists in Cambridge.

The third book for the course is Word Smart from the Princeton Review (3rd ed). He really likes this one for working on vocabulary. I guess there is a CD available too where you can get the words in audio format.

I’ve been monitoring ‘Take the GRE’ since I first joined 43 Things and it has helped to keep me at least thinking about doing it. Thanks for cheers and updates. Congratulations to Nikki who finally took it.

For those who are worried about the math (like everyone, right?), here’s a link to a math test at the U. They recommend taking this to see if you’re ready to take the GRE Prep class or if you should take a specific math prep course. It might help some of you judge where you’re at with math and if you should get some specific math help.

http://www.cce.umn.edu/testprep/

You’ll also find a few (mostly math) resources at my del.icio.us page.

http://del.icio.us/pfhyper/gre

Good luck everyone. I’ll try to post how it’s going here.

My plan is to set a date (July 1?), study, and then just take the damn thing figuring I can take it again if necessary.

I just discovered the book GRE for Dummies. Any opinions on it? It looks interesting and I will likely purchase.

I got a BA many years ago. I work at the U of MN and the Regents Scholarship program pays tuition. It’s silly not to go for a Masters. My current focus would be in the Instructional Technology area and I could get an M.Ed which doesn’t require the GRE but you have far fewer choices of courses to take. I want as much customization as possible in choosing courses. Plus it’s become a personal goal.

But I’m very stuck on learning the math part. I found a pretty good online resource—I’ll list it in a future post.