Can anyone advise me on how hard GRE is and how long it takes to prepare for this exam? Any useful tips would be much appreciated. Thanks.

like SAT, if u're good ..doesn't take long. Preparation is always good...the longer the better ..

online preparation things, and GRE books.. practice tests from past years

Check out http://www.gre.org/

These days people use computers for the GRE. Why you young whippersnappers... :) in my day, we had to use pencils to fill in the bubbles on the paper sheets.... and we had to cut down the trees for the wood for the pencil AND the paper, mine the graphite for the pencils, pulp the wood for the paper, AND find oil for the petroleum to make the damn erasers! And we liked it! :d

Frankly, a good book (and maybe some practice software) will help you out just as much, and cost MUCH less. Or you did take a classroom-based preparation course but I haven't seen any evidence, either statistical or anecdotal, that indicates you'll get more out of those expensive courses than more simple preparation "regimens." IME, of course.

Now, if you have trouble with motivation, or have some doubt about your ability to stick to the exercises in any books you pick up, you may get something out of the courses. Otherwise, I'd save the money for graduate school.

Good Luck...

GRE=>> "GUFF ra ENGLISH":P

Buy Barron's GRE, arguably the best book for practice. Also get the CAT (Computer Adaptive Test) software and practice the tests. If you have a strong English vocabulary then it should not take long to get a good score. In any case, 1.5-2 months practicing (GREing) should be enough. Also there are many online practice softwares available which are helpful.

HTH

I took it long back from now but i have recently helped one of my friends and she made relatively decent score on her GRE last month with less than one month of preparation. She studied Kaplan's vocabulary workout book (especially for Verbal and analytical writing section) as well as Kaplan’s general GRE test of course Barron’s GRE general text book, these three books would be adequate for most of the students though it depends upon amount of knowledge one has acquired in English and Math throughout his/her academic carrier.

Some advices:
1. First take GRE test from GRE POWERPREP software made available free by ETS to evaluate yourself so that you can guess the level of preparation that you need.
2. Go through each word list from Barrons and skim and skip the words that you are familiar with and make flash cards of words that you get confused or don’t know.
3. For math, its pretty easy (that’s what most of the students say) review barrons math review and also from the Kaplan’s 100 tips/review or something that on math. And practice some exercise in barons and other books. I guess that may be sufficient to get a score of 700 and above!
4. Practice GRE tests as much as possible. You will be pretty done and hopefully get a decent score in the real test

Good Luck and if you needed any specific suggestions feel free to write to me.

Thanks everyone especially to Hunk and Nut. I appreciated the information that you have provided here. I will be sitting for the GRE at the end of April and am currently preparing for it.