I took the GRE yesterday after studying for a few months. I was consistently getting around 150 or above on the quantitative sections but when I took the actual test I made a 145 and was not getting hardly any questions I’d practiced over and over. When I did practice sections I would get similar questions and got quite good at doing those questions but didn’t see them on the actual test. This was very confusing and disheartening as I put in a lot of effort to study but didn’t end up seeing those same types of questions on the exam. I’m not sure if I was just not doing enough practice tests to get a wider variety of questions or what happened. I just wanted to voice my concern about this because I don’t know if ETS has changed how common each question type is or if they’ve started including things that aren’t in the practice sections often.
Hi @Maisy, I’m sorry that you didn’t get the score you hoped for, but I’m glad that you reached out. The GRE is a randomized test, both within the sections, as well as across different sections. Our course teaches the techniques covered throughout the sections, but it’s hard for us to write quizzes for every way a concept might be tested on the real exam. Our course is fundamentally about drilling the core techniques, but I can understand how sometimes it’s difficult to draw the connection to not-yet-seen questions sometimes. We are continually writing more quizzes and growing our question bank to give more examples and hopefully a more broad viewpoint on how to apply them to new situations. I’d love to set up a call to hear more detail about your feedback and talk about the best path forward - I’ll email you!
Hello! I felt the same way about quantitative questions. I took the GRE a couple of days and my score was 143 
…. I was sad that I didn’t get the score I wanted. I did well on the achievable app where I was getting at least 160 or more. The questions on the exam were completely different than the questions here.
Hi @Polancas, I’m sorry to hear that as well but also glad to hear your feedback. I’ll DM you in a moment to see if we can set up a call as well - I would love to hear more directly.
We take feedback on improving our courses very seriously and we’re actively working on increasing both the variety and complexity of the questions:
- We’ve added about 110 new quant question templates
- We have about 200 more planned, at a rate of about 10-20 per week
The new questions are available in our GRE v2 course, which we’re offering for free to anyone who purchased the GRE v1 course - please DM me for additional information.
I just tested today and had the same experience. I was consistently scoring 163-168 (90%) with time left over on practice Quant sections with Achievable. On the real thing, though, I barely managed 151. The questions were nothing like those on any of the Achievable practice sections (which get repetitive pretty fast!). I scored a 170 on the verbal portion, but came away feeling pretty disappointed with my performance and Achievable’s preparation. Before the test, I actually recommended the program to several people because it seemed very targeted and effective. I’m going to have to rescind (or at least qualify) those recommendations now, unfortunately.
Hi @F_R, thanks for reaching out with your feedback as well. Success on the actual exam for everyone who uses our program is our topmost priority and it’s been an all-hands-on-deck situation to address these concerns in our new v2 course. I’ll follow up with you directly in a moment as well.
Hello @Justin,
I took the GRE recently and I didn’t get the quant score that I need. I started looking at other options to study, but I again found many reviews on how good achievable was, so I came back to these practice tests. The thing is that I keep getting the same questions over and over again, I’ve learned the strategies, but I know there are some questions that I get right because I remember the exact question. Plus, I’ve done a buch of official practice and I would say that the data analysis questions of achievable are not even close to the real test, and are aaaaaalways the same (miles per gallons, and bonds, mutual funds etc). I’m a little concerned and don’t know if it’s a good idea to trust achievable for the second time around… as I know I will be getting better scores because questions are repeated, or because data analysis part specifically does not follow the same strucure that the actual test (which is 4 questions based on the same graphics).
I hope you can help me or give me your thoughts on this.
Best!
Hi @Gerard_Jenkins, thanks for reaching out.
You’ll come across some questions on the real exam that are nearly identical to ours, and you’ll also come across questions that feel completely new. Drilling the techniques is a proven strategy to increase your score, since you’ll essentially have practiced parts of every question you’ll see. However, if you’re aiming for a top percentile score, you’ll also need to be able to understand how to apply those techniques to questions you haven’t seen before. Every question will be solvable using these core techniques, but identifying how can be a bit tricky given the time pressure of the exam - and that’s why it’s so important to know the concepts inside and out. You want to be able to focus your time and energy on figuring out how to solve those questions rather than working your way through the core math. The real test goes by very quickly, and every second counts.
The side effect of drilling the same questions is that your scores will definitely be higher on those questions you’ve seen 10x than on ones you’ve never seen before. The ETS does give you two free practice exams (and three additional paid ones), and those are better benchmarks for the score you might get on the real one. Take a look at “PowerPrep Online” here if you haven’t already - POWERPREP Practice Tests: Prepare for the GRE General Test
Still, despite us writing hundreds of questions to mirror the exam closely, the ETS is constantly writing new questions, and there’s an infinite number of ways to test math concepts, so it’s impossible to have seen every variation prior to going into the exam.
Our course is highly effective, as proven by thousands of learners, which is why we offer the best score improvement guarantee on the market:
- +8 for “before” scores below 300
- +6 for “before” scores below 315
- +4 for “before” scores below 330
We guarantee you’ll improve your score significantly after studying with us, or we’ll refund your purchase. Just DM me your scores!