I just came back from taking the GRE's. I did horrible 260-360V and 350-450Q. I thought I would do better on the verbal part...I don't really know what to do, other than retake this exam again.
There is PLENTY you can do to improve your score other than just taking the test again.
1. You need to figure out what you struggled most with on the test. For most people, the verbal is the most difficult, the GRE is way more difficult than the SAT verbal.
2. Get several different prep books, focus on the strategies (I used Princeton and Kaplan's strategies). I used Princeton's strategies for reading comp and Kaplan for everything else. You need to figure out what strategies work best for you.
3. PRACTICE using these strategies by taking many, MANY practice tests. These strategies help you when you don't know an answer to a question right off the bat. Practicing these strategies will make you a better test taker and help you when you DO take the test and you find yourself stuck with a question you don't know how to answer. Also, by taking practice tests, you become more familiar with the actual test. This helps with time management, easing of anxiety amongst others. Having poor time management and being anxious prior to and during the test will absolutely screw up how you do on the actual test.
4. Yes, memorizing vocab helps. I would memorize about 1000 words. Don't just memorize the definition as it will be harder to retain and apply for the test. Make notecards and write something like this: "My boyfriend is LACONIC, he doesn't speak much". Apply the word to something you are familiar with and include the definition briefly in the sentence. If you do see a word you don't know on a practice test (or the actual test), you just apply those strategies you learned in Kaplan (or Barron/Princeton). Kaplan has a five step rule for figuring out unfamiliar vocab.
5. Don't study for hours and hours. It will just stress you out and over time, you tend to lose focus and thus won't retain the information as well. Do like three hours a day and make sure you give yourself a day off every now and then.
6. View the GRE like a arcade game, you are trying to obtain the highest score and have fun while doing so. Find a way to make it fun-whether making funny sentences for your vocab words, playing word games, trying out different coffee shops while studying etc.
7. Enough about the verbal, I recommend the GRE Math Bible for the Quant. section. It's a 300 pg PDF file and often has practice problems that are harder than the questions you will see on the actual GRE. It covers EVERYTHING that you could possibly see on the GRE and offers many, many strategies.
8. Spend the money and get a math tutor, if you are broke, look for a tutor on campus, they charge about twenty dollars less (15 an hour) and may sometimes offer package deals. To save money, only go to the tutor with what you absolutely don't understand. Or if you have a buddy that is an engineering major or something quant. related-hit them up and pay them in baked goods.
9. Okay, so done with writing now. If anyone has questions, you can PM me. I'm only writing all of this (again) because I've been seeing people posting on here about their struggles with the GRE. The test is totally do-able. It's really just about beating the GRE at their own game.