GRE Preperation Suggestions

[MoonGuardian]

Hey, I have plans for Grad school, and im wondering, those of you that took the GRE (general) before, what ways did you prep for the exam? Any suggestions, things you wish you had done?

I have to take it electronically, I'm worried about that in not having the easy access for scratch work beside a problem, anyone done it electronically yet?

[dook]

i took the general exams (electronic) and the math subject (paper). when you take it electronically you get scratch paper to work with in front of you so don't worry. you just have to hand it over when you leave. the upside is that they tell you your score as you walk out the door. oh, and MAKE SURE YOU GET THE EARLY QUESTIONS RIGHT. my understanding is that the early questions determine what questions you get asked later... get early ones right and later you get hard questions with the assumption that you're a top student; fuck up early and you'll get easy questions with them assuming that you suck.

as for studying, i'd say buy practice books and take exams. the general exam was easy (i pulled math 800, analytical 800, verbal 730). it's basically a SAT for people going to grad school. the math subject test i wish i had studied a little for... along with the questions covering the whole undergrad curriculum, they throw in a question or two from each grad level class an undergrad might take to separate the top students. these are ridiculously easy questions if you've seen the material but on the other hand you'll miss it if you don't know the basic concept they're testing.

anyway, the goal is to familiarize yourself with the types of questions asked, especially on the general exam. i doubt you can magically go from sucky to awesome. you just don't want to walk in and say wtf style question is this.

[stas]

take dooks advice. i took the GMAT (which i thought was a piece of cake, though it tested different things) but theres a guy at work here studying for the GRE so i just talked with him about it. he told me pretty much the same stuff dook did. it really looks like a grad school SAT with reading comp, analogies, fill in the blank, synonyms etc for the verbal. i haven't seen the math section because thats all my friend has done.

i do question what he said about early/later questions and their decision based on the early ones. i imagine its computer adaptive (like the GMAT), so it will probably adjust depending on how you do and you are scored accordingly (and therefore not punished for where you got your questions wrong, so much as what you missed).

[Telos]

the math is incredibly easy (especially since you are a science major). I would spend maybe an hour just to remember those little tips and tricks you needed for the SAT. Its a lot easier than the SAT math section was.

Verbal is harder than the SAT was, but its the same shit. I assume you did well on those, so just prepare the same way.

[5p`]

i took the GMAT too... which, as mentioned before, is adaptive. i used the princeton review guide to the GMAT, and it helped a LOT. the actual GMAT was way easier than the review book.


go to your local library and see if you can check it out...i studied it all for free.

[wads]

most schools have prep classes taught by the faculty for the GRE. they're a big help.

[Stayne]

You may want to plan on taking it twice (unless you just knock it out of the park on the first one). The first time you see how it works and learn what to expect. The second time you are ready just to do it and the novelty of the testing situation has worn off. Scores tend to improve slightly for the second testing.

The other thing to do is look at the schools to which you will apply and find out what scores are required. Know what you need to get in order to achieve your goals. The GRE is usually used as merely a filter, nothing more. Meet the requirements and move on. No need to over-stress yourself on something that is, in the grand scheme of things, a single hurdle in a long race.

[pitsniper]

^^ don't plan on taking it twice, thats a terrible idea.

I don't think you need books or courses. It's really just SAT part two, only thing is you have learned more while the test basically stays the same. As for most most standardized tests, download the previous tests from their website and take it. Also, time yourself! The GREs and LSATs (haven't taken the GMATs, so I can't comment on them) are really not that tough of tests if you are untimed.

In terms of scores, I'm not sure what your field is so its tough to say. The sciences care more about math and analytical (or whatever they changed the test to) and less about the verbal.

[stas]

i agree a little with stuff posted above. grad tests cost a bit of money, so unless you have it to spare, just prep well and take it once.

definitely time yourself, great suggestion.

id also recommend getting a book or borrowing one because you not only have the benefit of practice questions and test taking strategies and tips, but they offer diagnostic tests so you know what sections you should polish up on. the one thing i wouldnt do is waste hundreds of dollars on a kaplan course or something like it. if youre halfway intelligent and disciplined enough to sit down and go all the way through the book, that should be sufficient.

while stayne is also somewhat correct about this not being a big deal, dont blow it off. some schools use test scores as a screener for scholarships and fellowships as well as admissions. take it seriously enough to put yourself in contention for those things.

[MoonGuardian]

Sadly, I've never taken the SAT. UND only required me to take the ACT which I only took once, score well enough to receive scholarship, and that was obviously well above the required entry score.

I have to take it so that I can be paid to go to grad school (In Space Studies, here at UND) while I do research. Graduate Research Assistant basically. *shrug*
And it's just a requirement to -take- it supposedly, problem is it would be nice to score well on it, in case any of the other requirements are not fully met. I also don't have to take the subject specific one either (on physics, thank god, because that one SUCKS).

There are exams online, and I plan on taking those, biggest concern is anything to do with reading comprehension, and vocabulary.... Which I can't easily prepare for over the course of a few weeks prior to the exam....

Thanks for the info all.

[BigSerd]

The first thing you should do is go out and buy a Kapaln GRE prep book and make sure it comes with a CD for you to install the computer programs to help you study. It is worth every penny to go through the practice tests and make sure you understand the types of questions that are asked and how the test is scored. The first time I ran through the diagnostic test, I got destroyed for make small stupid mistakes in the math section especially. Having multiple practice test to know the common tricks that some of the questions use is a necessity. It also gives you a practice test right away and then tailors a study plan for you. If you do well on math and crummy of verbal, you'll get more practice lessons to do in the verbal and less in math. I can't say enough good things about this book/CD. I went through the lessons over the course of a summer but there's no reason why you couldn't run through the programs in about two weeks. If you're still in school and trying to finish up I'd say do one or two lessons a day and it'd take about a month.

http://www.amazon.com/Kaplan-Exam-2008-Premier-Program/dp/1427795029/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205884481&sr=8-1

I thought the verbal section on the GRE was much harder than the verbal sections on the SAT (I have an engineering degree).

The writing section was challenging but with the Kaplan book it made me much more prepared than I would have been taking it cold.

The comment about making sure you get early questions answered is absolutely correct for taking the electronic version of the test. The computer gives you 10 questions and the based on how well you do on those, it starts to give you harder questions. The harder the question, the more points you get for answering it correctly. It is entirely possible for two people to answer the same number of questions correctly and get drastically different scores (50-100 points) if one did poorly on the first 10 questions and one did very well.

Hope this helps

[Hellsy]

I got a perfect score on the analytical writing.

It isn't terribly hard, but take it seriously. I didn't take the math seriously and suffered as a result.

Study vocab. They have GRE vocab books that are inexpensive.

Brush up on math. Just like the SAT, they have cheap books that tell you math problems they've had in the GRE for the last X amount of years.

The writing:

-Remember what doesn't follow from premises and remember what the premises actually state-- don't extend them farther than the facts they actually endorse. For instance: If the claim is that horse-racing as a sport is doing well because the "attendance is high", you would point out that simply because attendance is high doesn't entail that the sport is doing well-- the people may simply be interested in enjoying the outdoors, or the park, and not care much or at all about horse-racing itself. Hell, zombies or the government could be forcing people in at gun-point-- that would fill seats but doesn't mean the sport is doing well. You really need a claim that flat out gives you empirical evidence that the sport is doing well, like "57% of people in America say they LOVE horse-racing and have several horse-racing shirts!"

-Know how to make a weak argument stronger (sophistry).

[MoonGuardian]

Im correct in assuming this electronic thing, as the this scheduling website is listing anyday (except most weekends) and has like 2-3 time slots available. So I can schedule a few months in advance from now, on any time, any day, and if they accept this scheduling request, I get a confirmation in the mail?

I just don't want to f'up really. haha, and it wasn't staright forward enough for me...

[Phazex3375]

The GRE prep books help. I tried sitting through the practice tests but its just so draining. Best advice get a good night's sleep and study the basics ->properties of math like transitive etc, geometry and algebra reviews (shit that slips you mind after you start taking higher up classes) Also roots/prefixes of words helps without having to study oodles of words.


i got about a 1100 (650 math 450 verbal) and passed the writing (but I have conditional acceptance so as long as i hit 1000 i was okay)

gl