155—> 169 Q, 166 V - Thank you GregMat!
Hi! :) I'm mainly writing this because Greg Mat is awesome and I'm really grateful for the resource. Hope everyone studying can feel encouraged knowing they have the same resources for just $9.99!
Was able to take a 155+14 = 169 Quant In just over 2 months. The diagnostic was a week into studying, my verbal diagnostic score was 163 and I’m not super happy w 166 but it’s not bad. Not sure of AWA grade bc I took the test today, but have some thoughts on AWA prep below as well.
Background:
- 28 years old
- Majored in international relations/business, hadn't taken a formal math class since high school
- Avid reader
- Naturally comfortable with standardized tests
- Had never studied for the GRE
How?
- GregMat's 2-month study plan - Use PrepSwift, and then watch the additional longer format videos on topics you struggle with. Have to be honest, I didn't watch many of the reading resources, and I still found the plan pretty challenging with working. To make it work I studied early in the morning and after work. Definitely pays dividends.
- Foundation + diligent note-taking - Greg talks about foundation pretty often. I watched every single PrepSwift video and took two rounds of notes: (1) Casually, while watching the video, then (2) formally, after taking the respective quiz, into my notebook After finishing all of the material I would read my full notes (34 pages) every day, and starting week 6 I revisited each of the flashcards, and took each flashcard quiz. Greg covers so much helpful, less obvious information that makes the exam easier, I.e., Pascal’s Triangle.
- Drills - Greg uses his professional athlete analogy of drilling in a couple of videos- it works. I made it a practice to look at a question and file through the appropriate strategies: "Given Information", "Pick numbers", "Simplify / manipulate QC", etc. I didn't buy the Manhattan 5-lb until week 7, and used the drill mentality for all of the practice problems there. I didn't finish the entire book but I did the sections I wanted most practice with (math properties, ratios, combinations, probability). Also did most of the problems in the ETS quant reasoning which is obviously the greatest resource for quant.
- Simulating test day - Starting ~week 6 I tried to get as comfortable as possible with the exam format. I would write a full essay and go straight into verbal / quant sections, all timed. I would do large chunks of the Manhattan 5 lb at a time, all timed (26/15*# of questions), and practice skipping. To get comfortable with AWA, I wrote at least one essay a day, and then closer to the exam I would write an outline for 10 prompts, 3 min each, a day. This was mainly because I wanted to start the quant/verbal sections on a positive note. Felt like it was important to write a good essay and have positive momentum. When I started practicing AWA, getting to 500 words was hard. It felt so rewarding to see the word count go up!
- Reading for leisure - Again, I'll be honest I didn't do much studying on verbal, but I did appreciate Greg's Attack from Both Sides and Pairing strategies. I also used his vocab list- I made my own Google sheet of the vocab I needed to memorize. There's a book I recommend that has a ton of GRE words, and also primes the mind with examples for the AWA prompt: Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen.
Photos are:
- a couple pages of my notes
- Screenshot of my diagnostic on May 3rd, 2024
- Screenshot of my PrepSwift videos marked as read
- Screenshot of my Google Doc outline of AWA essays
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has asked for more information on a quant question on Reddit and to everyone who responded. Thank you!!
