THIS IS NOT A LOT OF STUDY. Just a rather descriptive post.

I did most of this in

less than a week, but with long, intense study hours. Two or three weeks of
relatively less manic preparation will easily finish all I've mentioned.
This is not going to tell you what the GRE questions look like - all books do that,
have a look before reading this. These are just a few things I observed and
practised while studying for and taking the test.

Schedule:
I wouldn't recommend following the schedule I did. It was five days of very
intense studying. Too much pressure and no fun at all.
Three to four weeks would be ideal to prepare without panicking. Take a
diagnostic test - found in almost all GRE books, to assess what you need to study.
It's basic math and english, so studying things you already know is definitely a
waste of time. Identify weaknesses and study those. Whatever you are good at
can be revised later on.

Quantitative Reasoning:
So this is 7th grade Indian middle school math. No exaggeration, but one might
have forgotten certain things. So a quick revision might help. Statistics,
probability, geometry, arithmetic and algebra are covered. No trigonometry or
calculus - but extremely basic trigonometry sometimes helps with the triangle
questions, even though it's not prescribed to study.
The best way to do this would be to do several practice sections and then revise
whatever you don't know.
Data interpretation questions are sometimes confusing and require practice, if
only to see what they look like. There are several types of graphs that can be
given and interpreting them may require different methods. These questions
sometimes take longer than others, so I always left these to solve last.
Quantitative comparison questions often have corner cases that you may not
consider if you haven't practised them enough. There are two quantities given
and they are to be compared. So do plenty of these questions in order to
understand what sort of values can be used to test the quantities. Generally
important are using values like 1, -1, 0, negative and positive fractions apart
from other real numbers/integers.
This is true of the GRE in general, but more so in quant. Do not assume anything!
Figures are NOT drawn to scale. Something that looks like a right angle is NOT a
right angle unless it is marked or specified.

The rest of quant is basic math, make sure every topic is refreshed. It shouldn't
take too long, if you were good at high school math. If a lot has been forgotten,
practice! Quant is definitely the easier GRE section for a large percentage of test
takers.
What most people realise is that the quant sections are extremely easy, but it's
also very easy to make (incredibly) silly errors. Quant sections are 35 minutes,
20 questions. Most questions do not take over a minute to solve. I tried to solve
all questions within 20 minutes and use the remainder to solve ALL the questions
again. I changed a couple of wrong answers in my actual GRE on doing this, so
it's rather important to CHECK each answer at least once. Do not check passively.
Check a problem by solving as if it's the first time you're seeing it - in practice
tests as well.

Verbal Reasoning:
Verbal reasoning questions are text completion, sentence equivalence or reading
comprehension.
I won't describe what these questions look like, but what I studied and practised.
Reading comprehension (RC) - none of my practice tests (Barrons, ETS) had RCs
as difficult as the ones I saw on the GRE. The multiple choice questions have
confusing, convoluted answer options - and often, two answers seem equally
likely. In my opinion, the only way to overcome this is by doing a few *difficult*
RCs and looking at answer explanations, understanding why one option is more
likely to be correct. I did not do ANY practice comprehensions that were as
difficult as the actual test, but ETS Powerprep comes quite close.
Another thing with RCs is that some of them are long - over 6 paragraphs. It is
important to know how to handle such passages without losing track of the
content while reading - so practice doing these questions.
NEVER assume anything in RCs. Everything you need is in the paragraph. They
are not asking for your opinion or assumptions. If something is asserted in an
answer choice, but it is not implied from the paragraph - it is wrong, no matter
how logical/correct/appropriate it may seem to you. The world is ONLY the
respective reading matter and not the world around you. It has to be implied or
mentioned by the passage.
Coming to text completion and sentence equivalence, blanks need to be filled in
with appropriate words. This is one of the most challenging parts of the GRE
because the answer options are words that might not be present in an average
vocabulary.

Improving ones vocabulary is best done by reading plenty. But GRE prep time
may not be sufficient for reading a lot, so other sources can be used.
Apart from actually *knowing* a word, context and elimination of other options is
VERY useful. In sentence equivalence, you have to select two equivalent options.
If an option is not similar/equivalent in meaning to any other option (IN THE
CONTEXT), eliminate it. Read the sentence/text to be completed and understand
the context before selecting options.
In the GRE I wrote, all words except ONE were found in the following sources:
1. My pre-GRE vocabulary
2. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
3. Barron's 1100 Words You Need To Know
4. Magoosh Basic Wordlists and Common Wordlists
5. Barron's 333 high frequency words

When I took the diagnostic test, I identified vocabulary as my weakness and

concentrated most efforts on that section (so my initial vocabulary wasn't
spectacular).
I covered the other sources in their entirety. It does not take very long if you can
do 300 words a day, but that is rather painful. If you have over two weeks, do 2050 words a day and keep revising. WRITE DOWN words you don't know with their
meanings. It is so much easier to revise from your own handwriting than from
print. I can't stress that enough. Revise all previously done words every day.
Rote learning of words will NOT HELP. The ETS is testing your English skill and
NOT your learning-of-definitions skill. So it's very important to learn words in
context. Barron's 1100 does exactly this and I highly recommend it for everyone.
Words are given in a (funny) story and I often remembered several words
because of the stories I learnt them in.
Word Power Made Easy is also brilliant. It takes a bit long to read, but keep at it.
It teaches word roots so deciphering unknown words becomes easy. Apart from
roots, several common GRE words are taught as well - in a format that is
structured. Again, no word-definition pairs. It's interesting with plenty of
humourous examples.
Magoosh's flashcards are GREAT on the go! Android and iOS have an app.
WinPhone users (like me!) can use any third party app that extracts flashcards
from Quizlet.
They *are* word-definition pairs and are not sufficient to learn context properly.
But I used them simply because I always had my phone around. Any free fifteen
minutes was spent revising a few words. Basic and common Magoosh lists are a
must-do. I did not touch the advanced words at all.
Flashcards at: chloemoreno | Quizlet
Also on the Magoosh website.

Barron's 333 high frequency words are a quick revision of supposedly common
GRE words.
The vocabulary isn't extremely challenging. These are words used in everyday
high-level conversation. I did not see more than two or three advanced words on
the actual test. Again, all words except one were from the sources studied. Know
the basic words before you move to advanced in any wordlist!
Alphabetical wordlists are confusing and rather painful, in my opinion. But if you
can bear with them, go for it.
I wish I had had time to make synonym trees. Try doing so -How to Tidy up the
Vocab Clutter-Synonym Trees (Part 1).
Barron's 800 essential words is useful too, I have heard. I did not have time to go
through it.
For verbal as a whole, do timed practice sections. See where time is being
wasted and try to cut down. With confusing answer choices, several minutes are
lost in debating with yourself - try not to do that. Mark the question (the software
allows marking) and come back to it later.
30 minutes, 20 questions - one minute per question would be great. I always did
text/sentence questions first (as they were quick) following which I did RCs in
increasing length of reading matter, simply because I didn't want to spend initial
time reading long passages. Figure out a pattern in your practice sections that
works well for you and follow it.

AWA:
AWA is supposedly not very important for engineering programs (I don't know
how far this is true). However, ONE practice essay of each type (Issue,
Argumentative) is a must. ALL possible topics are already on the internet,
published by ETS themselves - check the official website. Unfortunately, there
are around 200 for each essay type, so practising all of them is near impossible.
Writing in 30 minutes is not easy, so practice at least once.

Issue essay - read sample essays (from ETS and the internet) and figure out what
pattern of paragraphs you want to use.
The essay is essentially asking you to analyse an issue, take a stand and support
with examples. The stand does NOT have to be either for or against the issue. It
could be inclined towards one side or even ambivalent, if you can substantiate
it.

I used introduction, brief body about my opinion and example 1, example 2,

example 3, contradiction and justification, conclusion - 6 paragraphs.
Contradiction is a paragraph where you approach the opposite stand and justify
your stand with that view - like arguing with a completely opposite opinion.

Argument essay - read samples (from ETS and the internet).

Also, definitely look up the kinds of logical fallacies common to GRE argument
essay topics. There aren't many (maybe five or six) and are easily identifiable. If
you can detect three or four logical fallacies, you're set to write the essay.
Pattern I used - introduction, fallacy 1, 2, 3, recommendations, conclusion - 6
paragraphs.
GRE ESSAY GUIDE
Top 5 Strategies for the GRE Argument Essay
Barron's Test Prep Blog - Online Education and Test Prep
Long essays are preferred for both topics - look at ETS samples. 5-6 paragraphs
is sufficient.
<begin Anjishnu Kumar>
The first thing about the essays - They are NOT testing how great of a creative
writer you are. Do NOT try to use them to express your originality.
They are testing articulation, perfect grammar and logical structure - so use
simple language as far as possible and easy to understand sentences.
Have a relatively rigid sentence structure for your essay - you then can devote
more time to coming up with points to write and less time thinking about how to
start the essay and conclude.
Spend the first few minutes thinking about what you are going to write before
you start typing- finish with time to spare and spend a few minutes proofreading
what you write. Practice writing with a 20 minute time limit, it's OK if you
overshoot a bit.
BTW, they aren't important for MS programs, but PhD programs look at AWA
scores very seriously.
<end Anjishnu Kumar>

Other:
Powerprep II, the ETS Software - available freely on their website
athttps://www.ets.org/gre/revised_....
MUST DO. The software is exactly what the computer GRE test uses. The
standard of questions is very similar as well.
Make sure all questions in the ETS textbook are done as well - easy, medium and
hard. Standard is like the GRE. Sample essays from this book are a must-read.
TIMED PRACTICE SECTIONS are very important. The GRE is equally about speed
and accuracy.
I also took a few Barron's practice sections just for more exposure to different
questions.
I have heard Manhattan's practice tests are of high difficulty. They can be used if
you are comfortable with everything else. I did not use them, though.
Read Quora answers/blogs/Facebook help pages for recommendations on other
practice resources. I only did timed section practices as I did not have much
time. But for familiarity with questions, several huge question banks (Manhattan
5 lb, for example) are available.