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I am taking the General GRE on October 31st. I have been trying to learn new words for two months.
Today I opened the book I bought from Princeton Review (contains practice questions), did some of them, and my feeling right now can be described by the following pictorial representation.
+ Show Spoiler +
I am doomed. 
Here's an example (analogies):
+ Show Spoiler +Minutiae : Details A) queries : rejoinders B) quibbles : complaints C) particles : materials D) approximations : estimations E) cells : organisms Poll: Answer is...?B (41) 62% D (21) 32% A (2) 3% C (1) 2% E (1) 2% 66 total votes Your vote: Answer is...? (Vote): A
(Vote): B
(Vote): C
(Vote): D
(Vote): E
Here's a second example (I copied the question down correctly; it doesn't really tell me what the fuck I should be doing):
PIQUE:
A) aggrieve
B) dulcify
C) shirk
D) aggrandize
E) rouse
Poll: The answer is....E (22) 67% B (5) 15% C (3) 9% A (2) 6% D (1) 3% 33 total votes Your vote: The answer is.... (Vote): A
(Vote): B
(Vote): C
(Vote): D
(Vote): E
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The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
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United States16368 Posts
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed.
Is the answer B?
+ Show Spoiler +
Minutae is like a small detail
Quibble is a minor complaint
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed.
But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics.
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The best way to do it in my experience is to not even attempt to learn individual words. Just learn the latin bases and extrapolate from there. Since all the questions are multiple choice, if you have that foundation you can normally get a good idea and use that to pick the right option.
Also, the verbal portion of the GRE (the part that the word meaning is) is by far the hardest part to score well on, and your performance is based on percentiles, so as long as you beat everyone else you'll be fine :D
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United States16368 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics.
I was applying to mostly Computer Science.
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I just took it and I did OK.. not great by any means
But honestly people do really shitty on verbal in general, so don't feel too bad 
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On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science.
Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you.
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United States16368 Posts
I think when I took it last year, 800 verbal was 92% percentile and up, and quant 800 was 99%. Just to give you some perspective.
Also, if you are taking the computer version, don't fuck up the first few questions (goes for both verbal and quant). If you do, the computer will think you are stupid and give you only easy questions...
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United States16368 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you.
I was accepted by CMU and Cornell. Got rejected by Stanford and UMich.
In general, I don't think your GRE scores matter too much. You just need to do reasonably well to let them know that you aren't an idiot. Unlike undergrad, you should have many more credentials when applying for grad school such as research, work experience, realistic future outlooks and aspirations, and more importantly, recommendation letters from professors.
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On October 04 2010 04:27 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you. Cornell CS.
O wow.....
Like I said I have spent a lot of time learning new words. I have about 1k-2k written down. So far I think I have already memorized about a quarter of them. As I review them everyday I will raise that percentage to (hopefully) 50-75%.
What you said is what I fear right now. I suspect many schools won't even bother to look at my GRE score, making all the time I invested to waste. On the other hand, if I do too poorly I am worried that it may affect my applications. It's really a dilemma for me right now as I really could have spent all of this time for something else, like reading some paper and identify some area of research I am mostly interested in, or just take an extra course.
EDIT: would you mind sharing what verbal score you actually got?
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United States16368 Posts
I edited my post. Read above.
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United States16368 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:30 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On October 04 2010 04:27 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:25 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:22 Cambium wrote:On October 04 2010 04:20 illu wrote:On October 04 2010 04:19 Cambium wrote:
What do you plan on studying in grad school? I wouldn't worry too much about the verbal section if you are applying to something like Engineering; just make sure to get perfect on quant.
My verbal section was such an abysmal failure lolol. FFFFFUUUU indeed. But where did you get into? I want to do statistics or biostatistics. I was applying to mostly Computer Science. Oh. I am interested in what schools accepted you. Cornell CS. O wow..... Like I said I have spent a lot of time learning new words. I have about 1k-2k written down. So far I think I have already memorized about a quarter of them. As I review them everyday I will raise that percentage to (hopefully) 50-75%. What you said is what I fear right now. I suspect many schools won't even bother to look at my GRE score, making all the time I invested to waste. On the other hand, if I do too poorly I am worried that it may affect my applications. It's really a dilemma for me right now as I really could have spent all of this time for something else, like reading some paper and identify some area of research I am mostly interested in, or just take an extra course. EDIT: would you mind sharing what verbal score you actually got?
Yea, I think I got 510, or something terrible. lol
What I dreaded the most, afterwards, was that I spent like 2 months studying GRE words, and spent literally 1.5 hrs on quant (did two practice tests) and got 800/510. w/e. It's all in the past.
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On October 04 2010 04:19 Thegilaboy wrote:
The hardest part of taking the GRE? Rewriting a paragraph in cursive for the form you fill out stating you won't cheat or tell people the questions. Study up on your cursive or just scribble jibberish like I did haha
that took me so long
omg
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
iirc I was accepted to Cornell EE masters with 800 math 660 verbal.
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I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\
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United States16368 Posts
This is what my room-mate told me to "console" me when I was bitching about verbal:
At least you can cram words, you really can't cram maths.
I guess it's fair =/
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United States16368 Posts
On October 04 2010 04:45 Slaughter wrote:
I freaking HATE this test...and I have to take it again after my masters when I apply to PhD programs...Blah =\
Isn't it good for 5 years?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://provideocoalition.com/images/uploads/fuuuuuuuuuu.jpg)
