Ask a 340 GRE scorer: What are the best tips to get a 330+?

hi my name is Philip and I've been a professional tutor for about nine years did I really get 3:40 out of 340 on the GRE yes I did and I'll be showing you my school report to prove it in a second before that here's a little bit about me I've tutored and taught in a public school in London for about five years and since that time I now tutor privately for the GMAT the GRE and about 20 different exams in total from medical entrance exams to consulting exams could almost say that I like doing exams does that make me unusual yes it makes me strange and I'm kind of proud of that but you didn't click this video to hear my life story you want to get to the bit about the GRE and 340 white because that's why you clicked on the title so let me cut to the chase here's my official school report for the GRE and you're probably wondering am I peed off that I didn't get six out of six on the essay and instead I got a 5.5 and the answer is not at all I'm just kidding I'm really annoyed about it and I wish I could have done better but oh well I'm dealing with it I'm getting therapy I'll come through this okay five point five is not too bad but how did I get that 340 that's what you want to know well for the low one-off price of 999 dollars you can find out I am kidding there isn't a price I'm just gonna give you some tips and pointers about what I did having worked with over a thousand students across ten thousand hours of tutoring these are the tips that I think are best for you to improve your score too and get that 320 or 330 plus it boils down to three words practice practice practice now wait before you close this video I know that super cliche but I mean each of those words individually what is the first practice stand for it stands for practice questions exams like the GRE and the GMAT they ask questions in a different way so most exams you've seen before it's not a rote memorization test or pure math test it's closer to a set of riddles that you need to untangle the GRE is like a triathlon it tests specific skills in specific ways for a specific time duration that's why practice questions are so important there's no substitute for preparing for the race that you're going to be in if you haven't done several hundred if not a couple thousand practice questions then your brain just isn't sufficiently adjusted to the test that you're going to face before I get to the next practice let me just say one thing here intensity matters I condensed my studies into two short months and while I had many other advantages to help me get the 340 out of 340 I really think has helped me pick up on the nuance of each question type in the GRE I always say to students it's like kicking down a door it's no point giving it a hundred little taps and hoping it will fall down you need to give it one big kick and the same thing for your study try to build up a certain intensity to your study and that will allow your brain to spot pans that it might not have otherwise spotted for example I appreciated the quantitative comparison questions so much more when I realized how easy it was just to pick numbers most of the time I learned to notice the mistakes I was consistently making with sentence equivalence and how to avoid them and what you need to remember when you're doing practice questions are that wrong answers are your best friend wrong answers contain nuggets of wisdom about what you need to focus on in your ongoing study instead of being embarrassed about wrong answers or disappointed about romancers you need to seek them out because they are the best opportunity to learn too many students when they've made a mistake and a practice question on the jury just move on because they don't want to think about it but I encourage you to dwell and reflect on each mistake and write up what you could do differently next time maybe you took too long because you didn't pick numbers maybe you're reading the passages too hastily meaning you have to go back and read them again there are many common mistakes you might be making and you're not gonna really understand those mistakes until you focus down on why you're getting the questions wrong remember wrong answers are your best friend except in the real test obviously in which case wrong answers are not your friend you want to kind of avoid them if there's one thing honestly that separates a 320 or 330 plus student from the rest it's a relentless hunger to never make the same mistake twice that's one of my biggest secrets honestly to getting a 20 40 every time I made a mistake because I would make plenty of mistakes in practice questions I would sit down and be honest with myself why did I make a mistake what can I do differently next time why will I never make that same mistake twice which brings me to the next practice self practice give yourself micro questions to test individual skills time your speed answering them for example can you find 20% of 600 now in the next 3 seconds you don't want to be fumbling with a calculator you want to be getting the answer right instantly just to take that example how would you do it first you'd find 10% of 600 which is 60 and if 10% is 60 20% would be 60 times 2 which is 120 boom 5 seconds and we've got the answer no need to click on a calculator also no need for those pesky decimals or fractions I see a lot of students using honestly a question like 30 percent or 700 you should be able to do that boom in your head or take increasing a number by 15% either in your head if it's an easy number or using your on-screen calculator you should be able to do that in five seconds or less and if you can't set yourself 20 micro questions to do increase a certain number by 13% decrease another number by 12% and take times tables you need to know all of them instantly and yes that includes 8 times 7 and 11 times 12 the two worst enemies of any student every single second can and the final practice in my trio of practice practice practice is practice tests I will be doing a whole video on this later but suffice to say that practice tests are the best way to test your skills and stamina for the full duration there is no substitute for doing practice tests again that is a huge differentiator between the students who do worse and the students who do better I did plenty of practice tests you've got the official power prep ones and you've got Manhattan ones all very very good quality I did loads of practice tests and I didn't always get a340 the mistakes I made on those practice tests and a stammer that I built up was invaluable to me getting that perfect score aim for 10 practice tests before the real thing yes I know they cost money and it's an investment that is truly worth it for number one not having to do the tests again for example we can even save money you might do really well on practice questions and self practice but until you've logged those hours doing practice tests without pausing you're not going to really know what your current level is and you're not gonna have maximized your potential so if you started on a three hundred-plus just doing these three types of practice practice questions self practice and practice tests can have you well on the way to a 320 or 330 plus but before I finish I'm gonna be real here the test is four to four and a half hours and that can be quite grueling your performance really can fluctuate and you might end up doing better or worse than you did in your practice tests that's why you shouldn't be embarrassed about doing the real thing multiple times yes I know this is not ideal I have seen students score 20 points higher when they haven't even done much extra revision how just the natural variance of exam performance can explain those swings I don't know hypothetically maybe one test played to more of your strengths than another one maybe you got more sleep on one of the days in the other days or maybe you just didn't have as many distracting people in the surrounding because whatever the case is don't be embarrassed about doing the test multiple times so many people do it yes it's four hundred six hundred dollars and ten fifteen hours of your precious time but if it boosts your score by ten to fifteen points it is so worth it so those are my very quick tips for studying for the GRE and getting a three thirty plus they may sound simple but surprisingly few students actually follow this advice you can really set yourself and your score apart by following those tips at this point in the video I probably should be asking you to like the video and comment and subscribe I might even at the end what is this YouTube channel anyway the honest truth is that this channel is my way of giving you some of the tricks and tips that I give to my feed paying students but for free I know not everyone can afford a tutor so if you can't afford a tutor these videos and these tips are aimed right at you yes you Billy at the back but what distinguishes me from all the other channels out there first I don't want to just focus on individual math or verbal topics I want to take you through the whole test-taking experience and beyond I want you to comment with questions about the GMAT or the GRE or how to revise better or even life stuff like getting enough sleep exercising and even budgeting yes I even to two people about how to save money I kind of choose it everything basically I want to tailor the channel to the questions that you don't have to pay people to ask second I think my scores in the GRE and Jima and many other exams show that I can work the walk and not just talk the talk getting a 340 out of 340 shows that I know at least a little bit about how to perform well in the test I think I can really say that I understand these tests and testing in general quite well its secrets its flaws its opportunities third I want to make your journey through these tests and beyond just that little bit more entertaining and instructive than they might have otherwise been and if I can achieve any of those things or none of them I'll be happy wait not none of them that would be really disappointing yeah no definitely I want to achieve at least one of those goals so yeah leave a question like the video subscribe to the channel and enjoy your day

Channel: The Tested Tutor

Views: 175,378

Keywords: 340 gre score, 340 gre tutor, perfect gre score, 330 on the gre, 320 on the gre, gre practice questions, gre practice tests, gre top tips, gre tricks, best gre score, gre tutor, best gre tutor, gettin

Id: IckG0Y0ZhpE

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2019