Hi, my name is Vijay Reddy and I have scored 337 (Verbal 167, Quant 170) in the GRE

exam (March 2024), at a Test centre in India. This is my second GRE test. I’ve previously
taken GRE in 2020, where I scored 327 (Verbal 157, Quant 168). I was able to
comfortably get good score in both attempts with just 1.5 months of preparation due
to the rigor I followed, and the strategy that I used.

Shorter GRE have made life easier on the Verbal sections, as they have completely done
away with the long passages which used to eat sizeable amount of time on verbal
sections.

The new Shorter GRE, however, made Quant seem a little more difficult than earlier,
even though the question pool is the same. Let me explain. Most Asian students (like
myself) have very good accuracy and speed with maths. But for you to get that sweet-
sounding perfect score of 170, you have to work on the 1 or 2 bouncer questions that
are specifically aimed at eating your time. In the earlier format, anyone who have
decent comfortability with math would be able to solve easy and medium math
questions faster than the average time allotted for each question (1 min 45 secs),
thereby accumulating extra time to solve those 1-2 bouncer questions that I talked
about. In my first attempt in 2020, I remember spending 7 minutes on 1 bouncer
question after finishing all the other questions. But I do not have the same luxury in
the shorter format, as there are not enough easy and medium questions to accumulate
that extra time.

• Also, difficulty of Quant section has increased in comparison to the PowerPreps

• More hybrid questions (single question based on multiple concepts)

• Q1: Single Blank TC

• Q2: Double Blank TC
• Q3: Triple Blank TC
• Q4: Short RC Passage 1 Q1
• Q5: Short RC Passage 1 Q2
• Q6: Sentence Equivalence
• Q7: Sentence Equivalence

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 • Q8: Sentence Equivalence
• Q9: Sentence Equivalence
• Q10: Short/Medium RC Passage 2 Q1
• Q11: Short/Medium RC Passage 2 Q2
• Q12: Short/Medium RC Passage 2 Q3

• Q1: Single Blank TC

• Q2: Double Blank TC
• Q3: Triple Blank TC
• Q4: Triple Blank TC
• Q5: Short RC Passage 1 Q1
• Q6: Short RC Passage 1 Q2
• Q7: Short RC Passage 2 Q1
• Q8: Short RC Passage 2 Q2
• Q9: Short RC Passage 3 Q1
• Q10: Sentence Equivalence
• Q11: Sentence Equivalence
• Q12: Sentence Equivalence
• Q13: Critical Reasoning RC Passage
• Q14: Short/Medium RC Passage Q1
• Q15: Short/Medium RC Passage Q2

• Q1: Quant Comparison

• Q2: Quant Comparison
• Q3: Quant Comparison
• Q4: Quant Comparison
• Q5: Multiple Answer Question
• Q6: Data Interpretation Q1
• Q7: Data Interpretation Q2
• Q8: Data Interpretation Q3
• Q9: Problem Solving Question
• Q10: Problem Solving Question
• Q11: Problem Solving Question
• Q12: Numeric Entry

• Q1: Quant Comparison

• Q2: Quant Comparison
• Q3: Quant Comparison

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 • Q4: Quant Comparison
• Q5: Quant Comparison
• Q6: Problem Solving Question
• Q7: Problem Solving Question
• Q8: Problem Solving Question
• Q9: Problem Solving Question
• Q10: Problem Solving Question
• Q11: Multiple Answer Question
• Q12: Problem Solving Question
• Q13: Problem Solving Question
• Q14: Numeric Entry
• Q15: Multiple Answer Question

• Verbal: 1 min 30 seconds per question

• Math: 1 min 45 seconds per question

• As you already know, the level of your second section of Quant and Verbal
depends on your performance in the first section.
• 0-35% Accuracy in Section 1 will give you an Easy Section 2, 35-75% accuracy
in Section 1 will give you a Medium Section 2 and 75%+ accuracy in Section 1
will give you a Hard Section 2

Even though most of the questions do not need more than class 10th standard of math
concepts, most of us do not continue math as one of the subjects in the coursework
since then. Hence it is important to have a quick brush-up of the concepts before we
start practising. For this, I have used the Official Math GRE Review along with
ManhattanPrep’s Math Strategies Book. If you have good amount of time for
preparation start with the Math Strategies book, if not you can directly start with the
official ETS GRE Math Review.

Magoosh GRE Portal has a wealth of reliable math questions that comes closest to the
actual question difficulty/format. If you can afford it, it is the best source of practise.

How to Use Magoosh:

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The best usage of Magoosh portal is by choosing Custom Practise and picking 15
questions set, at a time, with 26 minutes timer. This approach will do wonders for you
in adjusting with the exam timing and handling questions when the clock is ticking.

Magoosh has a total of high quality 1038 math questions. Solve every question under
the clock. Do not cheat.

The best part about Magoosh, also, is that it gives you additional 160 official ETS
licenced GRE questions (80 Quant, 80 Verbal).

• 4 Sets (20 Q per set, old format) of Maths. 1 Set is of Medium Difficulty, this is
like your Section 1 in real exam. The other 3 sections are (Easy, Medium,
Difficult). You can have any one of these three sets as Section 2 in real exam
based on your accuracy in Section 1 (as mentioned previously)
• Similarly, 4 Sets (20 Q per set, old format) of Verbal. 1 Set is of Medium Difficulty,
this is like your Section 1 in real exam. The other 3 sections are (Easy, Medium,
Difficult). You can have any one of these three sets as Section 2 in real exam
based on your accuracy in Section 1 (as mentioned previously)
• The best part is you have direct access to all these 8 sets (20Q each), and you
can get a fair assessment of how section adaptability works in real exam.
• If you are averaging around 325+ in Mocks, I suggest you pick up 1 Medium
and 1 Hard set, each of Math and Verbal and attempt these 4 sets combined as
a Mock Test with real-exam environment. The rest 4 sets (1 Medium and 1 Easy
set, each of Math and Verbal) can be solved for practise.
• If you are averaging around 310-325 in Mocks, pick 2 sets of Medium for Verbal,
and 1 Medium and 1 Hard Set of Math, and combine these 4 sets as a real-
mock test. The rest 4 sets (1 Hard and 1 Easy set of Verbal, and 1 medium and
1 Easy set of Math) can be solved for practise.

The single-most important source of practising for GRE is the ETS GRE Official Guide
(OG). No GRE Prep institute/portal is able to match the quality of these questions.
Hence, each question from the official test-makers is a gold mine. I call it OG for this
reason. Additionally, there is a separate Official Guide for Quantitative Reasoning
(QOG) that comes with 150 Official GRE Quant questions.

• OG has 4 sets of practise questions across 4 sets of Easy (14 Q), Medium (14 Q),
Hard (15Q), Data Analysis (4 Q)
• QOG has 4 sets of concept-wise practise questions of Arithmetic (19 Q), Algebra
(17 Q), Geometry (13 Q), Data Analysis (26 Q)
• However, the most important questions in the OG are from the 2 Paper-based
Practise Tests at the end of this book. You’ll get a total of 100 most reliable math
questions from these 2 tests (25 Q x 4 sets)

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 • Similarly, the most important part of QOG is the 3 mixed practise sets given at
the end. You’ll get a total of 75 official questions across 3 sets (25Q x 3)
• My advice Is that do not touch the official books unless you are thorough with
your math concepts and feel exam ready. So, start your preparation with
Magoosh portal (or any other source like Manhattan 5lb or Gregmat)

How to Use Official Guides:

The 7 sets of 25Q across OG and QOG must be taken in the real exam atmosphere i.e.
you have a timer running, and you have a pencil and scratch paper in your hand. Do
not check answer key after solving 1 set, finish off atleast 2 sets (like the actual test)
before you check your answers. The more accurate you create the real exam
atmosphere, the better.

Keep atleast 2 minutes at the end of each section to review your answers. It might be
the case you might have read the question incorrectly or you might have read wrongly,
the instructions on numerical entry questions. So, it is always better to have a quick
review at the end to ensure you are not committing any silly mistakes.

Remember in the old GRE format, 1 silly mistake used to cost you approximately 1
point, but due to reduced number of questions in shorter GRE 1 silly mistake will bring
down your sore by 2 or 3 points, and 2 silly mistakes takes away 5 points. And a score
of 165 in Quant is very average, it is at 76% percentile. So, 2 silly mistakes are all it
takes you to pull you down to 76%. Be very cautious. The following table shows you
the scaled score vs percentile in Quant and Verbal

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One important observation in new GRE format is that most questions are application
oriented. Rather than giving an algebraic expression explicitly, they can give you a
story from which you have to extract the algebraic expression.

Also, more frequent in the new format are the hybrid questions. Questions that have
more than 1 concept in the same question. There was one question in my math section
2 that had 3 different concepts question (Standard deviation, Profit and Loss,
Geometry) in a single. You’ll have these questions in your Hard Section 2. Magoosh
Web Portal have some good questions that can replicate this difficulty level.

Use the mark and revie option to your advantage, in final exam. Do not waste your
valuable seconds on a problem that is not giving you any direction, mark it for review
and come back to it later with fresh set of eyes.

Get handy with some values like root 2, root 3, 2/3 = 0.66 etc. Also, be flexible to
convert decimals into percentages and vice versa when the situation demands.
Example: 78% increase of a number is equal to 1.78 times that number.

Do not use calculator for simple additions or multiplications. It can take more time
than solving it yourself, or even worse, you might accidentally input wrong value.

In my opinion, the quantitative comparison questions are the toughest math questions
in GRE. Unless, solving gives you a definite value for Quantity A and Quantity B, you
have to make sure that you test the given comparison by plugging values from all
permissible ranges. Testing the given comparisons on special cases like 0, -1, +1, 0-1
range, boundary values, max value, min value is very important.

As some quantitative comparison questions might not give definitive values for the
Quantities A and B, they might eat very precious minutes, as you have to test using
multiple values. Hence, there is no better feeling for the quantitative comparison
questions than getting 2 conflicting situations of A>B and B<A, that will ensure
definitively that your answer is D.

Personally, I used to approach the quant comparison questions with a pessimistic

attitude. Unless I have evidence to prove otherwise, I used to start the question by
assuming the answer is D (relationship cannot be determined), and then picking values
to disprove my answer. This negative approach trained me to think of possible values
that might give conflicting relationship.

Another important strategy for quantitative comparison questions is to assume as little

as possible. Do not assume anything unless it is specifically mentioned. Example:
Geometric figures in GRE are not drawn to scale; The average speed of two trips is not
the average of individual speeds etc.

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If you are someone who is aiming for 170 in Math you have to take the extra mile. By
extra mile, I mean getting accustomed to concepts that are not explicitly in the scope
of the GRE Exam, but can help significantly if you know these concepts.

Even though trigonometry is not part of GRE test, I made myself familiar with basic
trigonometry knowledge that might help me to solve questions easily. Example: Slope
of a line that is making 30-degree angle with x-axis is 1/root(3), as tan (of an angle
between a line and x-axis) gives you slope and tan 30 is 1/root (3). It comes handy if
you can stretch your knowledge a bit wider than GRE syllabus, to get that perfect score.

Some other additional concepts you can familiarise yourself are the different forms of
line and circle/parabola equations in co-ordinate geometry, calculating sum of first n
natural numbers using the formula n(n-1)/2, Arithmetic and Geometric
Progressions/Series, number of diagonals in a n-sided polygon is n(n-3)/2, calculating
standard deviation and variance etc. I can say with 95% probability that you might not
need this additional knowledge, but just to be on safer side, it is good to push your
knowledge limits a little further.

During your practise, whenever you come across a good problem that challenges your
quant skills, immediately screenshot it and save it in a separate folder named “For Final
Review”. I had close to 40 such Quant Questions for Review, which I used to frequently
revisit.

Scoring good on math all boils down to your presence of mind on the moment. No
matter how hard you prepared, if you stumble upon 1 question and lose track of time,
it would create a domino effect on other questions. Hence, be humble and Mark for
Later questions that are really challenging. Come back to them after you have secured
correct answers for all other questions. Each question carries equal marks, so no point
in persisting with 1 question, without securing others first.

There is no specific refresher/review, as such needed for Verbal section. But it is

important to learn the high-frequency GRE vocabulary.

I have used Magoosh Vocabulary Builder App (Free) for learning new words. Do not
overwhelm yourself with too many words at a time. Our brain can take in only limited
new words at a time for maximum retention. Do sets of 5- words per day. Your goal is
not just to byheart the dictionary definition of words, but to be able to use the word
in a sentence. Pay close attention to the example sentence given on the Magoosh
Vocabulary Builder App.

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I follow the learning theory of Active Recall and Space Repetition (Google them!),
not just for GRE but, to learn anything new. This proven strategy helps you to learn
maximum new words with maximum retention.

The single most important advice for learning vocabulary is that you should not just
know the meaning of the word, but very importantly its contextual meaning. You
should have an idea of the context in which a particular word has a particular meaning.
Look at the following examples:

• The word apprehend/apprehensive can mean 3 different things in 3 different

contexts
1. To learn and understand
2. To arrest someone
3. Anxiety

Similarly, you should be able to make close matches of the word with the given context.
For example, In the context of a political debate, even though virulent and polemic
have similar meaning. The word polemic is almost exclusively used in this context.
Hence it is an even closer match in the context.

The best way to learn contextual meaning is by looking at how the word is used in
sentence. Use Google and Magoosh Vocabulary Builder App for the usage in a
sentence.

Further, screenshot words from Magoosh Vocabulary App, that you are repeatedly
failing to grasp. As your preparation moves forward, closer to the final exam, the
number of screenshots in your gallery should also decrease proportionally.

If you aim to score upto 162 in verbal, the 1000 words from Magoosh Vocabulary
Builder App along with new words you encounter during your preparation is sufficient.
But, if are aiming for even higher scores, I can advise a strategy that is rigorous and
painstaking.

The disclaimer to this section is that, this is very rigorous task, and be very careful to
incorporate it in your preparation. Additionally, what worked for me might not work
for you, given the different ways we look at vocabulary learning. That being said, this
is what I followed for vocabulary.

I picked each word from the Magoosh Vocabulary App and Googled “<word>
synonyms”. I surfed the Merrian-Webster, thesarus.com, Collins Dictionary,
Cambridge Dictionary to pick words that have closer meaning to my word. It is
important to observe that I mentioned closer meaning but not synonyms, as some
words are closer synonyms than other words. The degree to which these words match

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with my word, may vary from high to low. So do not assume them as synonyms (in
dictionary sese), rather consider them as worlds that have closer meaning.

My next task was to create a word document (I named it “CLOSE WORDS”) that
captured different scenarios. For example, my scenario can be “Deception”, I collect
and record all the closer meanings to “Deception” from the sources mentioned above
like this:

The closer words for Deception can range from “Dupe” to “Treachery”. That’s quite a
range because if you look at individually Dupe and Treachery are nowhere close, but
they all fall into the context/scenario of “Deception”. Likewise, I created many different
scenarios like “Make Angrier”, “Disrespectful” etc. This exercise gave me a whooping
10,000 words. Don’t be intimidated by the number, as atleast 4000-5000 words would
be the words that you already use in everyday context.

If you insert a word that you do not know amongst the words that you know, your
brain will create a mental map of where you have seen the word, and will throw you
the context or the immediate neighbours of the unknown word. This can be very
helpful to get the closest meaning of the unknown word.

Knowing just the spin (positive, negative or neutral) of the word, sometimes, is
sufficient to eliminate or pick in Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence.

This rigorous exercise, in itself is a sort of preparation. When you take up this tedious
task of preparing a word document, you’ll encounter with the unknown word
repeatedly across different dictionary sites, and you look at the word chilling with its
cool neighbours (words you know). Repeated exposure to the mysterious word will
give it a permanent seat in your brain.

Highlight or bolden the words that you fail to pin down repeatedly. Carry forward these
highlighted words into another short document (Level 2) that has only such
highlighted words. You visit this shorted document (Level 2) more often than the

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bigger document (Base level). And if you feel the need to do so, create level 3 by
highlighting that are even more difficult from level 3. I have created a total of 5 levels
for this exercise.

Again, this is a very rigorous and frustrating strategy, if your goal is to score a total or
upto 330, you might not need this rigorous process at all. You’ll just be fine with the
Magoosh Vocabulary Builder Words, so be very very cautious with this approach, and
do not waste your valuable preparation time on this, if it does not fit well with your
purpose

Your success on these sections depends on these five important tasks:

Learn to break down complex sentences into smaller manageable chunks. Familiarise
with the academic style of writing that you encounter most frequently in GRE Verbal
section. The obscure academic method of writing might add complexity to the
paragraph and create a serious impediment to your comprehension of the given text.
Hence, learn to divide and conquer: breakup the sentence whenever necessary.

• Example: To the extent that it foresaw the effect the Internet would have on
society, what makes the Frankfurt School—an early 20th century school of
thought concerned with how rampant consumerism harms the self—(i) _______
is not so much that it explodes much of what has sometimes proven to be a
symbiotic relationship between our “real selves” and our “digital selves” as that
it imagines a world so positively (ii) _______ that it becomes but a(n) (iii) _______
of the times in which we live.

Trust me, this is not a paragraph, but a single sentence. It was made complex with the
usage of hyphens and commas. The best way to read complex paragraphs that have
hyphens is to ignore the part between the hyphens in the first read and comeback to
read the text between the hyphens later. In the above example, you can ignore the
hyphens in the first glace and read as “… what makes the Frankfurt School _______ is
not so much that it ……” Later read the text between the hyphens as “The Frankfurt
School is an early 20th century school of thought concerned with how
rampant consumerism harms the self”

For the text completion and sentence equivalence questions, assume as little as
possible. Do not create your own stories in your brain. What you need to fill in the
blank is completely dependent on what is there in the text, not on what you assumed
it to be. No matter how well the word fits in the blank, do not pick it if it is not justified

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with the clues given in the text. Remember, the clues are always given. So don’t create
them in your head.

Think from the perspective of the test makers. GRE have to pick sentences that contain
definitive proof for what has to go in the blank. It's not just context or support that's
needed. It's the proof. The proof is always there. If there is no proof, GRE would never
pick those sentences for Text Completion or Sentence Equivalence questions

Another important strategy for these questions is to identify and understand the switch
words that determine what word goes into the blank. Switch words are words like
however, since, yet, because, notwithstanding etc. These switch words are like the turns
on your road journey, if you miss them, you might fail to reach your destination. Also,
the switch words, more often than not, determines the spin of the word. These switch
words can be used to contrast the blank with the clue given in the text. In such cases,
the blank has a negative spin to your clue word.

The single best advice for these question types is to come up with a Filler Word: a word
that you anticipate in the blank, that completes the paragraph/sentence more
coherently.

Filler word is really nothing more than the proof in the sentence. If the word to be filled
is a synonym or antonym of existing word in the clue, recycle existing words as filler
word. This instinct will keep you from straying too far from the given message of the
sentence. Remember, no new ideas!

• Label them as: Good (Y), Bad (X), Sort of (~), Unknown (?).
• What you want for your fill-in is complete predictability and redundancy.
• No new ideas! No interesting stories! There should be no more surprises in the
blank

• Do not hesitate to pick a word you haven't read (or don't know its meaning)
once you have eliminated the other possibilities
• No matter how confident you are of filling the individual blanks, please ensure
you reread the complete passage at the end to make sure it makes sense
• Don't just try to fill in the first blank automatically. Look at all the blanks and
figure out which one has the easiest proof. Then create a fill-in and use that fill-
in as extra proof for the harder blanks.

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 • Generally, the easiest blank is often the one that is surrounded by most text,
one that is far from the other two blanks and thus has the most potential proof
located near it.

The guideline to tackle sentence equivalence questions is that you need to find exactly
two good answer choices that are near-synonyms out of the six. ETS insist that the
two answer choices don’t have to be precisely synonyms. "Do not simply look among
the answer choices for two words that make the same thing. Rather try to find two
choices that both lead to a complete, coherent sentence and that produce
sentences that mean the same thing.”

The correct answer choices really need not be synonyms, but must share some
common, key feature. i.e. they are at least as closely related as possible. You can call
them "Near Synonyms"

The Word Document (CLOSE WORDS) that you create from the vocabulary rigor that
I mentioned above will be of utmost help for sentence equivalence questions. With
knowledge of the spin of many words, and the close meaning of such myriad words,
you can arrive at the answer in less than a minute, thereby saving precious time for
Reading Comprehensions

• Look for obvious synonyms in the options, and see if they fit into the contextual
meaning of the sentence.
• Be careful, sometimes even though there is a pair of synonyms, both of them
might not fit into the sentence’s contextual meaning. This is a trap. In this case
read all the options and pick the answer that best carries the contextual
meaning and makes sense in the sentence.
• Hence, it is important not only to memorise dictionary definition of words, but
also to be able to use those words in context in a grammatical correct way.
• Sentence Equivalence answer choices generally follow the 2x2 pattern i.e.
among the six given choices, there are two pairs of synonyms and two
additional loose, unrelated words
• In tough sentence equivalence questions, you might end up with a closely
related pair and a less closely related pair. The more closely related pair is more
likely to be the correct answer
• Occasionally, three words will seem to match up (a triplet). Usually in this case,
two are really synonyms, and the other is off, in terms of spin or strength. The
triplet will be false
• In some cases, you might not find a pair. Glance through the options and see if
any of the word carries a secondary or additional meanings.

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 o Example: affords has primary meaning of "being able to pay", but it also
has secondary meaning of "providing"
• Look at all possible answer choices before finalising a pair
• The pair that you pick should not only make sense in the sentence, but also
should make same kind of sense. You should be able to substitute one word for
the other without changing the meaning of the sentence as a whole

The biggest challenge with Reading Comprehension (RC) questions is the unfamiliarity
of the topics, coupled with the fact that they are written for educated post-college
audience, adapted from journals published. Further, the status of your exam at the
moment, your energy level and your processing time might pose additional challenge.

GRE often opens passages with long, opaque sentences with dense academic style. To
unpack an academic style sentence, turn it into a few simple sentences that express
essentially the same meaning. Knowing how to breakdown a complex sentence into
its component ideas can help you read more efficiently.

Your attitude towards the Reading Comprehension (RC) questions depends on your
level of comfortability reading new topics and your reading habit/hobby (non-fiction).
Personally, Reading Comprehension is my favourite task in the entire GRE exam, as I
always approach the RC as an opportunity to learn new phenomena/historical
event/historical figure/discovery etc. The GRE RC passages have quite a range, from
archaeology, history, arts to environment, science and technology.

If you have a negative or fearful attitude towards the RC questions, you have to
overcome it. Pretend to be curious about the subject of the paragraph even if you are
not. Pretention is the key, fake your enthusiasm and curiosity to read the RC. One way
to do this is to, treat the entire RC exercise as a treasure hunt. The Paragraph is the
clue, the question is the mystery, answer choices are your suspects, wrong answer
choices are distracters and your job is to stay away from them to solve the mystery.

Your attitude towards the RCs also determines whether or not to take any notes for
the RC. Note-taking for RC is a funny thing, because it is quite unlike the notes you
take for other purposes. All your life, you have taken notes for future reference and
revision at a later time, but the purpose of GRE notes is to refer them, then and there,
and they are of no use beyond the 3 minutes you engage with the RC.

This should clarify two things: First, take as little notes as possible (if you are
comfortable with not taking any notes, it is even better). Second, the level of note
taking. Your notes should not be more than a table of content/reference guide for your
actual RC. Your RC notes, at a maximum, should capture the addresses (paragraph
number or line number) to where you find a particular concept and the main idea or

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purpose of the passage. Anything beyond this is wastage of time and effort. Further,
since the long passages are thrown out of the window in the new shorter GRE, I
personally suggest not to take notes for RC altogether.

The single best advice for RC questions is to look for answer choices that are moderate
and harmless. Let me explain. ETS (maker of GRE) does not want to pick fight with any
group or individual, hence they would not give any answer choices that is too
harsh/critical or too extravagant/pompous. The correct answer choice is always a
middle path. They contain the most harmless words and does not make any strong
judgement about anything within or beyond the passage.

Further, do not look for an exact copy paste of evidence from the paragraph. Most
often, the evidence for the answer is buried deep inside the complexity of the
sentences, or it is implied without explicitly mentioning it. Some answer choices could
be tempting as they contain words that are explicitly mentioned in the paragraph but
does not answer the given question. These are trap answer choices, be careful.

Like with the rigorous exercise that I mentioned for vocabulary, I followed a rigour for
the RCs. Let me call this “The Karakoram of Reading Comprehension”

While the RC paragraphs are such that, they can be answered by anyone without any
special knowledge on the subject. But wouldn’t it be helpful to have an extra context?
To me, Yes, it does. Imagine reading a RC about Neutrinos, without knowing what a
neutrino is. While, the RC provides you enough context to understand what a neutrino
is, wouldn’t it be a luxury to know that neutrinos are talked about in the context of
space and participle science? Also, having this little context to the subject of the
paragraph makes you curious to read the paragraph with real enthusiasm. The known
is always comfortable than the unknown.

Hence, what I have done – and what I advise you to do, if you have time and effort –
is to familiarising yourself with certain thematic topics that are more frequently seen
in the GRE RCs. Some examples include: The plight of the African Americans in the US
History, The different Artistic Revolutions (like Renaissance, Romanticism,
Expressionism, Cubism etc.), Climate Change and Global Warming, Space Exploration,
Archaeology, New Discoveries etc. The goal here is not to learn anything new about
them, but to familiarise yourself with the context in which these themes appear. Trust
me, this helps a lot.

Since, RC paragraphs, though written by a subject specialist, are targeted for a general
audience, having a general understanding on some important fields of study is an
added advantage. I have personally used ChatGPT extensively to understand the basics

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of various fields like environment, archaeology, arts and culture, US history, Space
science etc. I know this could be overkill, but you have to go with a no-holds-barred
approach if you are aiming 162+ in Verbal.

Further, if you have subscriptions for NYTimes, The Economist, Wall Street Journal etc.
please read two articles per day from diverse fields. The language used in the op-ed
sections of these journals/newspapers matches with GRE RC level. If you don’t have
the subscriptions (or if you don’t know the workaround :p), Arts and Letters Daily
(aldaily.com) is a very good source of such articles.

• Justify every word in the answer choice

o Every word must be completely true and within the scope of the
passage
o If you cannot justify every word in the answer choice, eliminate it
• Justify extreme words
o GRE prefers passages with moderate language and ideas. Eliminate
answer choices that go too far.
o Of course, occasionally you are justified in picking an extreme choice.
But the passage must back you up 100 percent in such cases
• Infer as little as possible
o An inference is an informed deduction. RC inferences rarely go far
beyond what is stated in the passage.
o If an answer choice answers the question, and can be confirmed by
language in the passage, it will be the correct one.
o Eliminate answer choices that require any logical stretch or leap.
o You must be able to prove the answer, just as if the question asked you
to look it up in the passage
• Preview the question
o Quickly click through to see how many questions are associated with
each passage, and then go back to the first question.
o Before reading the passage, read the first question.
o Reviewing the first question will give you a good sense for what you
can expect in the passage

The Issue essay is very much like every other five-or-so paragraph academic essay
you’ve ever written

Official GRE Note to Graduate Schools: “A GRE essay response should be considered a
rough first draft since examinees do not have sufficient time to revise their essays

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during the test. Examinees also do not have dictionaries or spellchecking or grammar-
checking software available to them.”

Graduate schools to which you send your GRE scores will be able to read your actual
essays. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want the admissions committee to read.

In Issue Essay, you will be presented with a statement or a claim. Your job is to agree
or disagree with the statement, and then write a compelling essay to support the
position you’ve taken.

It is critical that you pay attention to the specific instructions given along with the
essay, which may affect how much or how little you have to write about the side of the
argument you are not in support of.

You don’t always have to argue "For". Some GRE topics are actually phrased in a pretty
extreme way, such that they would be difficult to defend.

Use a six-paragraph structure as a baseline. Many high-scoring essays contain six to

seven paragraphs, actually, but the basic structure is an intro and a conclusion
sandwiching three or more main examples or reasons, each in its own body paragraph.

Even when ETS says that essay length doesn’t matter, it does. A lot. Write as much as
you can in the time allotted!

• Always go with evidence-based reasoning to support your claim/thesis

• Use academic (formal) tone throughout your writing
• Use logic and reasoning to support your position while addressing the
complexities of the issue involved, to create a convincing argument
• Imagine yourself as an expert on the given topic, your task is to convince your
audience about your analysis and position
• Use a counter-example to acknowledge the other-side (Keep it minimal)

• Don't just drop examples, give the relevance of the example to the context
• You are not required to use example after example in your essay. You are also
perfectly welcome to use well-considered reasoning. However, some topics
lend themselves better to examples, while other topics lend themselves better
to argumentation.
• Examples need not be real-world viable. Feel free to quote from fictional
elements from books and movies (Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, George

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 Orwell’s 1984 have many key insights than can be implemented on diverse
essay topics.
• Prepare some examples that can cater to different scenarios (like Scientific
Discoveries, World War II, Hitler etc.). ChatGPT can help in giving good examples
for different scenarios. Add them to your notes
• If you are able to draw many examples always chose examples from diverse
fields like arts, literature, history, technology
• Generate examples from historical figures, historical events. And if you are short
of examples, come up with hypothetical examples
• Use the slippery (subjective) terms in the prompt to think about
counterexamples

• Use transitional words and phrases (both inter-paragraph and intra-paragraph)

• Tie one sentence to another sentence with a logical chain to get higher score

• Clear and concise language to get your point across

• Use the big words/jargon only if you are familiar and comfortable with its usage.
Don't get into the trap of using big words to look smart. Don’t use your fancy
GRE Vocab if you cannot use them in context
• Avoid long and eloquent sentences, use precise and clear sentences.
• Make sure you allocate at least 2 minutes to edit at the end for spellcheck and
overall read

• Insightful position on the issue at hand

• Supporting the position with compelling reasons and persuasive examples
• Well-organised and logically connected ideas and analysis
• Expressing ideas fluently and precisely, using effective vocabulary and sentence
variety
• Demonstrating facility with the conventions (i.e., grammar, usage, and
mechanics) of standard written English, with possibly a few minor errors

• Brainstorming: 3-5 mins

• Writing: 20-25 mins
• Editing: 0-2 mins

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• After looking at the prompt, start brainstorming on the lines of “For” and
“Against”.
• Try to come up with 4-5 points for each position.
• Choose your position only after brainstorming the points on each position. Let
brainstorming guide which side you will argue for.
• Argue for the position that you are easily able to brainstorm.
• After brainstorming for/against and ready with examples, prepare a rough
outline of the structure. Which point/which example to be used in which
paragraph. What would the introduction and conclusion be.

• Introduction should have maximum of two to three sentences. One sentence

must always be thesis. Take a clear stand in the thesis statement.
• Develop interest in the topic through your introduction.
• In the introduction briefly restate the issue with the goal of demonstrating to
the grader that you understand the topic. Do not simply repeat the prompt.
Define terms (if needed), acknowledge complexity, and establish your “take” or
thesis on the issue.
• A good standard to test the tone of your main thesis is to use the Dinner Table
Test. Imagine yourself presenting your thesis at the dinner table with your
friends in college. You would not want to take a stand that would either
embarrass you or a stand that would offend your friends
• In sum, your thesis or main idea shouldn’t be something so extreme that you
can’t defend it, but it also shouldn’t be something so humdrum and obvious
that a reasonable person couldn’t take an opposite view. Don’t oversimplify the
topic.
• Optionally you can outline the points you are going to discuss in the essay in a
sentence in the introduction
• If you freeze when trying to start your introduction, write something else first!
Just pick whichever example seems easiest to write and dive in!

• Each paragraph should focus on one point.

• Keep avoiding broad analysis. general statements about a claim are not as
convincing as detailed and thorough analysis.
• Your first body paragraph must include your strongest point that is supported
by atleast two convincing examples
• In the body paragraphs, don’t spend too much time making a single point or
you will run out of time!

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• A top-scoring essay has body paragraphs that lead logically into one another.
You can create this chain of logic by arranging your examples or reasons in a
progressive way and by using transition phrases and similar signals.
• Example: The obstacles toward international cooperation include not only [the
stuff I discussed in my last paragraph], but also [the stuff I’m about to discuss
in this paragraph].
• Transitions are usually located in the first sentence of a new body paragraph.

• First 1-2 statements should explain in detail the point that you would like to
make.
• Next use a sentence to connect your point to the example that is to be followed
(contextualising and foreshadowing the example). This may usually be done by
narrowing your point to the example that is to be followed.
• Then present your strongest example with logic and reasoning.
• Lastly use another example to make your point stronger.

• Use it as an opportunity to acknowledge that there is another side to the

argument, but that side is inferior
• Moderate or "qualify" your position in the counterexample paragraph by
addressing the challenges
• Arguing the counterexample too strongly dampens the energy that you have
put into strengthening your position. So, develop the counterexample in a
limited way to show that you are aware of the other side, but it is inferior.

• 1st sentence: Transition sentence that states that there is also a counter-side to
the given issue.
• 2 sentences to describe what the proponents of the counterexample are saying
about the issue. If you have a legitimate source like an author or a body
report/survey, use it.
• 1 Sentence to acknowledge that there is some merit/truth to this
counterexample argument
• 1-2 sentences to quickly switchback (transition) to your main position and give
reasons for why your position can overcome these challenges in the long-
term/overall
• If you are running short of time, you can club the counterexample and
conclusion in the following format:

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• Though ______ is the correct position on this issue, some believe that ________,
thinking that ________. However, this viewpoint on the present issue is negated
by ________. Rather, ____________. In conclusion, in the long run, ___________.

• The bulk of your essays should be your body paragraphs, conclusion is to

summarise and wrap up your essay
• Restate your thesis and each point in the body paragraph at a very broad level
(within 1-2 sentences)
• While a new insight would be nice in the conclusion, it may not realistically
happen. Don’t stress. In general, if you are running out of time or are stuck for
a final concluding sentence, try something along the lines of “In order to have
a better world in the future, we must do X.”
• Keep the conclusion optimistic and forward looking
• Quotes are by no means mandatory, but it looks great if you can throw in a
relevant quote you’ve memorized, in the conclusion. That said, do not stress
about having a quote—if this feels unnatural or cumbersome to you, feel free
to skip it.

• Write a lot. No matter what the official rules say, longer essays get higher
scores
• If the essay shows the complexity of the issue and how it applies to
contemporary life, it earns a better score.
• Pay attention to specific instructions: Test-takers are warned that even if they
write an otherwise perfect essay, they will not score higher than a 4 without
addressing the specific instructions provided in the question prompt
• Use the slippery (subjective) terms from the prompt to add complexities into
your response. Use your imagination to expand or narrow the scope of the topic
• When a topic is phrased in an extreme way (“everyone should do X”), don’t
ignore practical issues.
• There’s no specific rule against saying “I,” but don’t be too informal.
• Don’t try to be funny. Keep the tone serious and academic.
• Don’t repeat the exact same words! Paraphrase yourself across the essay
paragraphs. But don’t get too distractingly creative (calling our environment
as Mother Earth, Gaia, the rotating blue orb we call home).
• Aim for a mix of long and short sentences. Throw in an occasional semicolon,
hyphen, colon, or rhetorical question. Make sure you know how to correctly
use any punctuation you decide to include, of course.

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 • Very few test-takers will have time for significant proofreading. Keep in mind
that the graders are aware of your time constraints. The most important part
of proofreading on the GRE is to check that you responded to the specific
instructions that were presented in the prompt. Beyond that, just try to put
yourself in the shoes of the grader, and check that all of your points are stated
clearly
• Finally, as a reminder: Length on the GRE essay is highly correlated with
scores. If you had a choice between checking your spelling and punctuation
and writing another paragraph, it would probably be best to write another
paragraph

Identify your comfort zone: an area that you think will fetch you more marks. Allot
more attention (and additional time, if needed) to these questions. Three Blank Text
Completion was my weakness and I have not wasted my time to get a correct answer
for these questions, at the cost of other questions. These Three-blank questions are
the least rewarding, if they take beyond 1.5 mins to arrive at an answer.

Use mock tests to put your strategy into practise, do not try any new strategy in the
final exam. The final exam is all about execution of all the planning you have done in
mocks. Prepare in advance the sequence in which you want to answer the questions.
For verbal I used to complete Text Completions and Sentence Equivalence in about
40% of the given time, and finally allocated the remaining 60% time for Reading
Comprehensions. Any such strategy should be implemented from mocks itself, no new
ideas during the final exam.

Your GRE preparation should end with the official guides, no matter how it began.
Handling the actual GRE level questions requires a mindset that can be trained most
accurately by the official questions. You should treat the final exam just as an extension
of your Official Questions and Mocks (PowerPrep).

Plan your mock tests wisely, your initial mocks can be from any unofficial sources (like
Kaplan, Manhattan, Princeton Review), but your mocks must end with the official tests,
as closer to the actual exam date as possible.

Do not attempt the Paper-based Tests from the OG without full preparation, they are
the closest to actual questions and hence should be take n closer to the exam date, in
a real exam environment. The official questions are the Bible/Quran/Gita/Torah of
your GRE preparation, so use them most optimally.

Also the 3 Mixed Practise Sets from QOG and 3 Mixed Practise Sets from VOG can
together be considered as one official test.

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 • 2 Official ETS GRE PowerPrep Tests (Free)
• 3 Official ETS GRE PowerPrep Plus Tests (Paid)
• 2 Official ETS GRE Paper-based Tests (from GRE Official Guide)
• 6 Manhattan Tests

• Princeton Tests
• Kaplan Tests

SNO TEST QUANT VERBAL TOTAL AWA

1 Princeton 1 169 157 326 N/A
2 Princeton 2 167 159 326 N/A
3 Princeton 3 166 162 328 N/A
4 Manhattan 1 167 164 331 N/A
5 Manhattan 2 163 162 325 N/A
6 Manhattan 3 170 162 332 N/A
7 ETS Paper 1 170 165 335 N/A
8 ETS Paper 2 170 161 331 N/A
9 ETS Paper 3 167 165 332 N/A
10 PowerPrep Plus 1 166 161 327 N/A
11 PowerPrep Plus 2 169 160 329 N/A
12 Manhattan 4 166 157 323 N/A
13 PowerPrep 1 168 162 330 4
14 Manhattan 5 168 162 330 N/A
15 PowerPrep Plus 3 168 164 332 N/A
16 Manhattan 6 168 162 330 4.5
17 PowerPrep 2 170 163 333 4.5
Actual Test 170 167 337

Date Tasks

12th March • Complete OG Math and QOG. Mark or take a picture of

tricky questions
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS

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 • Take Kaplan Free Test
th
13 March • Take Powerprep 1 and review
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
• Finish Quant Leftovers from PPP1, PPP2, Manhattan 1,
2, 3
• Review Issue Essay material
14th March • Review Magoosh, Manhattan, Barrons Vocab
• Finish VOG
• Take Manhattan 4 Test
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
15th March • Finish Verbal from OG
• Review Math Notes
• Review All marked Magoosh Math
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
16th March • Take PPP3 Test
• Review all Marked Magoosh Verbal
• Review Issue Essay Material
• Do Verbal Leftovers from PPP1, PPP2
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
17th March • Take Manhattan 5 Test
• Review Magoosh Verbal and Math
• Review Math Notes
• Review Issue Essay Notes
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
18th March • Take PowerPrep 2
• Do Verbal Leftovers from PPP3
• Do old format questions from PP1, PP1 (Verbal, Math)
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
19th March • Take Manhattan 6 Test
• Review OG Marked Questions
• Review Magoosh Marked Questions
• Review Marked PPP Questions
• 1 Essay
• Review CLOSE WORDS
20th March Revise… Revise... Revise... Strategies, Formulas, words

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 • ETS Official Guide to GRE (OG)
• ETS Official Guide to Quantitative Reasoning (QOG)
• ETS Official Guide to Verbal Reasoning (VOG)
• Magoosh GRE Portal
• Manhattan 5lb
• Manhattan Verbal Strategies
• Manhattan Math Strategies
• Magoosh GRE eBook (short read)
• GRE-Verbal BTS (short Read)
• Magoosh Vocabulary Builder App
• Quizlet App (to create my own wordlist)
• GRE Cloud App (has collection of popular wordlists)
• ChatGPT for by RC rigour, and evaluating my Issue Essays
• CLOSE WORDS Document that I created from Merrian-Webster, thesarus.com,
Collins Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary

No matter how hard you prepared, it is normal to be overwhelmed on the exam day.
But the key to success in any standard test is to have a level-headedness while solving
the questions. Do not think of the consequences of your score while still giving the
test. Do not create unnecessary burden on your thinking ability by making the exam
look like a life-or-death situation. The best way to approach the exam is to completely
detach yourself from the consequences and repercussions (Nishkama Karma). You
have control over only the controllables, namely your thinking ability, presence of
mind, level-headedness etc, but not over the uncontrollables (namely the choice of
questions, the consequences of your test score etc). Enjoy the 2 hours of your exam,
and think of it as an opportunity to exercise your mind.

Finally, I hope my strategy adds value to your preparation and helps you achieve the
success you aspire for. I have made it as extensive as possible, but if you were to have
any further doubts, queries or guidance, you can mail me at
[email protected]

Thank You, and Good Luck!