Verbal GRE preparation for an international applicant

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vvega
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:13 am

Verbal GRE preparation for an international applicant

Post by vvega » Fri Jul 03, 2009 8:15 pm

Hello,
I'm not a native English speaker and after around one week of practice I got 410 at the verbal part of the general GRE. I have the intention to take the test again though still taking a short time for the preparation. Looking at the 2009 profiles I see that almost all the international applicants got more than 500, so I wanted to ask: how long did you take to prepare for the verbal part, what was your approach and which books did you eventually use?

Thank you,
Paolo

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Helio
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: Verbal GRE preparation for an international applicant

Post by Helio » Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:16 am

Well I got a 480 and did my undergrad in the US. And in general the international applicants are not really judged by their verbal GRE score but by the TOEFL

blackcat007
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:14 am

Re: Verbal GRE preparation for an international applicant

Post by blackcat007 » Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:51 am

vvega wrote:Hello,
I'm not a native English speaker and after around one week of practice I got 410 at the verbal part of the general GRE. I have the intention to take the test again though still taking a short time for the preparation. Looking at the 2009 profiles I see that almost all the international applicants got more than 500, so I wanted to ask: how long did you take to prepare for the verbal part, what was your approach and which books did you eventually use?

Thank you,
Paolo
Paolo i think it would be better to take the GRE again. my friend who got 990 in PGRE got only 1100 something, he had perfect recos from renowned profs here in india, he himself did his MSc from TIFR (a top institute in India), TOEFL 108
he didn't get a single admission.. so i think it was his general GRE that kept him back..

but yes this is just my suggestion..

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Helio
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:11 pm

Re: Verbal GRE preparation for an international applicant

Post by Helio » Tue Jul 07, 2009 5:57 am

blackcat007 wrote:
vvega wrote:Hello,
I'm not a native English speaker and after around one week of practice I got 410 at the verbal part of the general GRE. I have the intention to take the test again though still taking a short time for the preparation. Looking at the 2009 profiles I see that almost all the international applicants got more than 500, so I wanted to ask: how long did you take to prepare for the verbal part, what was your approach and which books did you eventually use?

Thank you,
Paolo
Paolo i think it would be better to take the GRE again. my friend who got 990 in PGRE got only 1100 something, he had perfect recos from renowned profs here in india, he himself did his MSc from TIFR (a top institute in India), TOEFL 108
he didn't get a single admission.. so i think it was his general GRE that kept him back..

but yes this is just my suggestion..
with 1100 he might have had a low Q score, which is what might have kept him back instead of the verbal score. I had a total of 1250 and got into places, so it must be the Q score



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