How Harsha went from 298 to 325 in 60 days!
Harsha was a typical engineering student looking to pursue a master’s degree in the US.
Like most engineers, he was good at quant, but had trouble scoring well on the verbal section. He had already taken the GRE a few months prior to his joining CrunchPrep, and scored a 298.
Now, Harsha was not at all happy with his performance because the colleges he wanted to apply to require a higher score, somewhere around the 320s. And his undergrad GPA (7.0/10) was not helping either.
He was planning to offset his low GPA with a pretty high GRE score. And obviously, his 298 score is not going to cut it.
He knew he needed to improve a lot if he wanted to go anywhere close to 320. And then one day, his friend forwarded one of my emails to him, and he was impressed by the free strategies we gave out to our students.
Harsha immediately wanted to give CrunchPrep a try. Here’s the rest of the story, in his own words.
——–
First Attempt – 298
Time spent: 2 months.
I started off my preparation during my final year of graduation. I had taken up coaching at a reputed offline coaching institute, and I was given some study materials to prepare. I had spent almost equal time on both Math and Verbal, simply because that was what my coaching institute asked me to do. I had weekly assignments and that meant I could not study what I wanted, and skip what I did not want.
It took about 6 weeks to finish the entire course, and in the last two weeks, I sat down to take 2 practice tests every week. Two of them were from PowerPrep where I was scoring around 300-305, and the other two were from my coaching institute, where I was scoring around 310 – 315. There was a lot of disparity in the practice scores, but anyway I went on to take the test, expecting at least 315.
To my surprise, I saw a 298 on the screen on my official GRE, and I felt really bad. I felt so dejected that I wanted to throw all my books out of the window. I had decided to retake the test since I have at least one more year to go. I also had a job in hand, so I was not in a hurry to go for Masters.
Second attempt – Improving to 325
Time spent: 2 months
After I finished my graduation I joined my job, and got busy with work and couldn’t concentrate much on my GRE prep. But suddenly one day I realized time was running out for me, and I didn’t know what to do: whether to apply with my existing score, or to retake the test. But I was so sure that I won’t improve by much, so I reluctantly decided to go ahead and apply with my 298 score. I guess that was around the time when CrunchPrep was in beta, and my friend forwarded me one of their strategy emails that he was receiving since he subscribed to CrunchPrep. I really liked the in-depth strategies on RCs and I too subscribed for their mails. Somewhere, the hopes of getting a better score were sprouting inside my mind.
Since then I religiously followed all their mails, and wrote down strategies in a separate notebook. Then one day I got an invite to join the beta course, and I immediately signed up.
To be frank, I did not expect much from CrunchPrep back then because it was a new course, and on top of that it was in beta, which means it was not perfect yet. But I was wrong!
Like I said, I was initially very demoralized, and told my mentor Sachin that I had lost all hope of improving my score, but he was very friendly and helpful. He helped me set up a good study plan based on my needs, and assured me that I will definitely reach 320, but only if I follow the plan without fail.
I did not want to take chances this time and waste some more money and time on the GRE, so I studied religiously every day. I got a call from him every other day, and initially I thought he was calling to market his course or ask me to refer to people, but surprisingly, all his calls were about me and my prep.
He called me frequently to find out if I had any questions or issues. But I didn’t have many, because frankly the course was really smooth. The lessons were excellently explained. I solved each and every question on CrunchPrep. And I followed every strategy that was explained in the lessons.
CrunchPrep completely changed my outlook towards GRE verbal and made it easy for me to score higher. Their printed flashcards were very useful to me since I could take them anywhere I went. Prior to CrunchPrep I never knew that Reading Comprehension could be so simple. Now, for me it is the easiest section to master. Anyway, my verbal score shot up during these 2 months, and I wanted to share with you what I have learnt.
Here are a few tips that I learned that helped me improve:
Reading Comprehension
RC is something that you can improve in a short amount of time provided you know the basics. The key here is to spend focused effort. There are three challenges that you need to overcome to do well in RC. They are:
- Ideal reading speed: We are all used to reading at a certain speed. Unfortunately that reading speed does not apply to GRE RC since we need to comprehend while reading. Even in topics where I was more comfortable, I realized that to do well, I needed to recognize where the author was presenting cause and effect reasoning, contrasts and comparisons, drawing conclusions, sequential events etc. I had to slow down a lot more in topics that were more foreign to me. Initially, as I breezed through the passages, I drew a complete blank while attempting the questions and had to go back and refer to the passages. This took more time and I made more mistakes. I recommend using CrunchPrep’s RC speed reading strategies while reading the passage. They really helped me identify the ideal time to read.
- Think ahead: I found it helpful to think the answer ahead while reading questions regarding Main Point, inference and also most detail questions. It is a super time saver strategy that I learnt from my mentor, and it helps boost your accuracy as well. While you are reading the passage itself, figure out the main point and the details so you won’t have to go back the passage once you read the questions. This will help you save time. Thanks for the tip, Sachin.
- Reading the answer choices in isolation: I initially found answer choices in RC to be very tricky just because the volume of information present in an RC passage would make every choice seem correct, even those that are out of scope for the passage. However I found that eliminating choices became very easy once you read them in isolation and then ask a question whether the passage talks about it. Similarly it is very important to understand the difference between evaluating, criticizing and contrasting, defining and presenting, author’s viewpoint vs someone else’s viewpoint etc.
The Mental side of the test
While it’s important to master the various sections, there is a mental aspect that is truly important and which we need to master. Here are some things that I learned.
- Leave ego aside: There are things that may come naturally to others which may be very difficult for you. I experienced that during my preparations and during some CrunchPrep practice tests when at first I could not answer even the easy level questions. Initially I felt embarrassed but I told myself that I am here to learn. All of us have some super power or the other. For me, I realized that while I took longer than average to understand a concept, once I did the same, I made very few mistakes.
- Accuracy First, Timing Next: This is a difficult one. I used to fret over timing during my first attempt and it did me no good. Get the method right. You only get marks for answering a question correctly. Another thing that you will notice is that increasing accuracy will sometimes lead to increase in time required as you start getting a more difficult section the next time. Don’t worry. This is a good thing as this means that your score is improving.
- It is alright to skip some questions: If you cannot get the gist of a question in under 2 minutes, have the heart to mark it for review and then skip it. Trust me, it is much better to spend time on questions that you are confident about.
- Monitor Percentage Time Spent: This helped me a lot, since I used the analytics in CrunchPrep to track the percentage of time spent in answering the questions correctly. Make sure that your total time spent on answering right for every section is uniform and no sudden changes. If this is not the case then you are not attempting the exam as per your ability. Ideally, your total time spent on getting the right answers should be better than 60%. Mine was less than 50% in my first mock test, and I improved towards the end to about 75%.
- Recognize your mental state: As you approach the end of any section, your mind would start to go slow. In my case, I found that relaxing for 5 seconds by closing my eyes paid made me stay alert and commit fewer mistakes towards the end. Also taking more practice tests helps address this issue. In addition, make sure that you make good use of the breaks. Think about a happy memory.
- Own your Weakness: This is very important. The key to improving is isolating your weakness. I spent time in isolating my weakness and used CrunchPrep’s target practice sessions to solve only problems in my weak areas. I focused on official questions from CrunchPrep and also from the official guides.
A list of useful resources:
Here are a few useful resources that I think will definitely help you. I used them very effectively thanks to my mentor, but if you can manage doing it by yourself, you can definitely see an improvement.
- Official Guides – Including separate Math and Verbal guides: These are excellent sources of quality GRE questions and will help you understand how real GRE questions look like.
- PowerPrep: Take both the PowerPrep tests at strategic times to analyze your performance and improve your scores.
- CrunchPrep 6 month course: Even though I only had 2 months to study, I signed up for the 6 month course because it gave me 6 full length adaptive tests, which proved to be very important for me. I needed a lot of real-time practice, and CrunchPrep tests gave me what I wanted. I took almost every practice test available on the internet and I would say only CrunchPrep, and Manhattan full length tests match the quality and difficulty level of ETS PowerPrep tests.
- CrunchPrep Guides: I really learnt a lot from the free guides on their blog like RC guide, AWA guide, and GRE 330 guide. Of course, their paid content has tons of additional strategies and lessons, but these free guides are a good place to start for new test-taker.
- Internet: Apart from CrunchPrep and official guides, I used some other resources on the Internet like Quora and Quizlet. Quora helped me somewhat understand what other test takers are doing to get high scores, and Quizlet helped me learn some new GRE words, although it is not that necessary since CrunchPrep gave me verbal and math flashcards. I just went through Quizlet for some extra vocab knowledge.
Almost every question I solved on CrunchPrep was so good, I found most of them hard to solve, so I can say, they are better than PowerPrep, and certainly way better than my previous coaching institute. Those hard questions in fact helped me prepare better for those 320+ level questions on the GRE.
With the help of these people, I was able complete my preparation easily within 2 months. My mentor was with me throughout, making necessary changes to the plan and to the course as and when I required. It was a really cool experience.
So, that’s all about my story. In the end, I have learned a lot from CrunchPrep and owe my success to these guys. I know 325 is not the highest score in the world but I can say for sure that I would have never even dreamt of a 325 on my GRE. But now I am confidently applying to top 20 universities.
Thanks to CrunchPrep for allowing me to share my story with many other students like me. Don’t worry guys, you may be tensed today, but one day, you will also write a success story like this. I am sure. And I would really recommend CrunchPrep to anyone looking to improve your score. Certainly, if it can help someone like me improve by 20 points, it can definitely help any test taker. Good luck with your GRE prep!
——-
So, that was an inspiring story from Harsha and I thank him for sharing his experiences and tips with us.
Stories like this make me work harder each day. And the reason I shared this story with you is because if someone like Harsha – who lost hope of improvement, and shed his dreams of applying to top universities just because of his low GRE score – can do it, then you too can!
So, sign up right now and improve your GRE score. We also have a discount that is going to end soon, so start taking action.
Click here to sign up for CrunchPrep.
P.S. CrunchPrep is backed by our 100%, 7-day guarantee. The best way to decide if the course is right for you, is to try it. You can take the entire course, and then decide. I hope to see you inside.
Cheers,
Sachin
Harsha was a typical engineering student looking to pursue a master’s degree in the US.
Like most engineers, he was good at quant, but had trouble scoring well on the verbal section. He had already taken the GRE a few months prior to his joining CrunchPrep, and scored a 298.
Now, Harsha was not at all happy with his performance because the colleges he wanted to apply to require a higher score, somewhere around the 320s. And his undergrad GPA (7.0/10) was not helping either.
He was planning to offset his low GPA with a pretty high GRE score. And obviously, his 298 score is not going to cut it.
He knew he needed to improve a lot if he wanted to go anywhere close to 320. And then one day, his friend forwarded one of my emails to him, and he was impressed by the free strategies we gave out to our students.
Harsha immediately wanted to give CrunchPrep a try. Here’s the rest of the story, in his own words.
——–
First Attempt – 298
Time spent: 2 months.
I started off my preparation during my final year of graduation. I had taken up coaching at a reputed offline coaching institute, and I was given some study materials to prepare. I had spent almost equal time on both Math and Verbal, simply because that was what my coaching institute asked me to do. I had weekly assignments and that meant I could not study what I wanted, and skip what I did not want.
It took about 6 weeks to finish the entire course, and in the last two weeks, I sat down to take 2 practice tests every week. Two of them were from PowerPrep where I was scoring around 300-305, and the other two were from my coaching institute, where I was scoring around 310 – 315. There was a lot of disparity in the practice scores, but anyway I went on to take the test, expecting at least 315.
To my surprise, I saw a 298 on the screen on my official GRE, and I felt really bad. I felt so dejected that I wanted to throw all my books out of the window. I had decided to retake the test since I have at least one more year to go. I also had a job in hand, so I was not in a hurry to go for Masters.
Second attempt – Improving to 325
Time spent: 2 months
After I finished my graduation I joined my job, and got busy with work and couldn’t concentrate much on my GRE prep. But suddenly one day I realized time was running out for me, and I didn’t know what to do: whether to apply with my existing score, or to retake the test. But I was so sure that I won’t improve by much, so I reluctantly decided to go ahead and apply with my 298 score. I guess that was around the time when CrunchPrep was in beta, and my friend forwarded me one of their strategy emails that he was receiving since he subscribed to CrunchPrep. I really liked the in-depth strategies on RCs and I too subscribed for their mails. Somewhere, the hopes of getting a better score were sprouting inside my mind.
Since then I religiously followed all their mails, and wrote down strategies in a separate notebook. Then one day I got an invite to join the beta course, and I immediately signed up.
To be frank, I did not expect much from CrunchPrep back then because it was a new course, and on top of that it was in beta, which means it was not perfect yet. But I was wrong!
Like I said, I was initially very demoralized, and told my mentor Sachin that I had lost all hope of improving my score, but he was very friendly and helpful. He helped me set up a good study plan based on my needs, and assured me that I will definitely reach 320, but only if I follow the plan without fail.
I did not want to take chances this time and waste some more money and time on the GRE, so I studied religiously every day. I got a call from him every other day, and initially I thought he was calling to market his course or ask me to refer to people, but surprisingly, all his calls were about me and my prep.
He called me frequently to find out if I had any questions or issues. But I didn’t have many, because frankly the course was really smooth. The lessons were excellently explained. I solved each and every question on CrunchPrep. And I followed every strategy that was explained in the lessons.
CrunchPrep completely changed my outlook towards GRE verbal and made it easy for me to score higher. Their printed flashcards were very useful to me since I could take them anywhere I went. Prior to CrunchPrep I never knew that Reading Comprehension could be so simple. Now, for me it is the easiest section to master. Anyway, my verbal score shot up during these 2 months, and I wanted to share with you what I have learnt.
Here are a few tips that I learned that helped me improve:
Reading Comprehension
RC is something that you can improve in a short amount of time provided you know the basics. The key here is to spend focused effort. There are three challenges that you need to overcome to do well in RC. They are: