How to prepare for the GRE-

I am writing this from my personal experience. I basically studied for 3 months straight and got the
desired results. Here are my suggestions for the exam-

Verbal:

Books (just the list of common books, don’t need all) –

1. ETS official guide**

2. ETS official verbal reasoning book**
3. Manhattan 5 lb(RC only)
4. Princeton cracking the GRE
5. Magoosh videos**
6. Magoosh premium account**
7. Grockit**
8. Aristotle(Verbal grail) (RC only)
9. RC 99(RC only)
10. Manhattan 7 & 8
(** means most important)

For words-

1. Word smart 1 & 2

2. Magoosh 1000 words**
3. Manhattan 1000 words
4. Barrons high frequency word (both 333 & 800)**

For getting a good score in verbal only memorizing thousands of words is not enough, as most of the
questions are context based. So it’s better to start reading more, it doesn’t matter what you read, just
read novels, newspaper, journals etc. Try not understand what the author is trying to say, and look for
how the words are being used, which word is used in what context. As for my preparation, I only
memorized about 800 words from Word smart and Magoosh. I practiced from Aristotle (The lengthy
passages will really help for the exam), Manhattan 5lb & grockit. Grockit had lots of questions and the
questions were closer to the real exam. As for the other materials, none of them are exam standard.
And most importantly, go through both the ETS guide and the ETS verbal practice books at least twice.
Quantitative:

Books-

1. ETS official guide**

2. ETS official practice book**
3. Manhattan 1-6**
4. Manhattan 5lb**
5. Nova math bible
6. GMAT club math formula books**
7. Magoosh videos**
8. Princeton 1007

For quantitative, Manhattan is without doubt the best material out there. First go through the basics in
Manhattan 1-6 books and then start practicing from 5lb, always mark the problems u find problematic
and be sure to go through them later on. This should be enough for getting 160+. You can also practice
from Princeton 1007. Nova math bible is not mandatory. Use the GMAT books for some short cuts and
formulas which might come in handy in the exam. If u are looking for even better scores then go for
Magoosh Premium account, grockit and GMAT materials.

One thing that really helped me was a facebooks group named ”NEW GRE”. I solved problems posted
there and it really helped me a lot, and its highly recommaned.

Analytical:

As I didn’t prepare much for this part so I wont be able to say much here. But make sure to go through
the issue topic list in the ETS website and practice at least writing 3-4 issues and arguments before the
exam. U can follow the structure provided by Upoma apu, its in the file section in the group.

Mocks test:

Take at least 7/8 mock tests before your exam. Take the ETS Powerprep first test atleast 2 weeks before
the exam, and the second one 1 week before the exam.

Also try out the Kaplan tests, the quantitative section is fine, but the verbal section is not exam standard.

Prniceton tests are not good enough, the only good thing is that they grade your analytical section, so u
can practice that section here.

Take no tests from 2 days before the exam.