Study tips for the GRE General Test | Schaal Road Studio

Is graduate school in your future? If so, that probably means you?ll have to take the Graduate Record Exam, or GRE. This test is produced by the Educational Testing Service (the same company that produces the SAT). I took the GRE last year and I want to share some information with you that I found helpful in my studies. Just as a disclaimer: I?m not an expert when it comes to education, standardized tests, etc. I can only speak from personal experience as student who took the GRE general test.

General Things You Should Know Upfront

Scoring on the GRE is much like the old SAT in that scores on each section range from 200 (if you get nothing correct) to 800. A combined score of 1600 is the best you can get.
Different schools weigh the GRE test differently. Schools also look at other factors when deciding whether to admit you, including your GPA, Statement of Purpose, Letters of Recommendation, and extra-circulars. Point being, if you end up with a less than brilliant GRE score but you?re strong in other areas, you still have a chance of getting into graduate school.
You will get one verbal, one quantitative and one analytical writing (which involves writing two essays) section that will count towards your score. You will also see another experimental section which WON?T count towards your score, but you don?t know for sure when in the test the section will appear so it?s a good idea to do the best you can on all sections.
In many test centers, the GRE is being administered on a computer. One question appears in the computer at a time and you must answer the question before you can move on to the next question. The first question you see is one that the average person (earning around a 500 on the section) should answer correctly. If you are able to answer this question correctly, you will move on to a question that the computer considers to be slightly more difficult. Once you select an answer and move on, you will not be able to go back to the question.
Companies like Kaplan, Barrons, and Princeton Review publish study guides for the GRE which can be very helpful. A word of caution, however: all these companies are in business to make money. If you take practice tests produced by these companies, take their results with a grain of salt. My experience, as well as the experience of other people I know has been that the results on these practice tests are significantly lower than my actual test scores. Think about it: they want you to think you?re doing worse than you actually are so that you go out and buy their materials. In my opinion, the best thing you can do when it comes to taking practice tests is to do the PowerPrep tests which can be downloaded for free from the ETS website.
Study aids by companies like Barrons, Kaplan, and Princeton review can still be helpful in their study tips and practice questions. They can be expensive, however, and if you can?t afford to purchase them see if you can borrow them from the library or from your school.

Study Tips for the Verbal Section

What struck me about the verbal section was that it basically felt like a really big vocabulary test and I felt like I probably would have gotten most of the questions correct if I knew the vocab. The only exception to this is the reading comprehension questions.

The best way to expand both your vocabulary and your reading comprehension is to actually go out and read as many books as you can about as many different subjects as you can over a long period of time. So, for example, if you?re still in the early part of your undergraduate career (or in high school) and think that graduate school is in your future, it?s wise to start reading as much as you can in your free time as possible.

If this is unrealistic, never fear ? there?s hope. Many test prep companies have studied the GRE and come up with lists of words that come up most frequently on the test. If you?re going to go out and buy a test prep book for this purpose, I highly recommend the GRE book published by Barrons. They have tons of words in there. Another thing you could do (which Barrons can help you with) is study word roots and stems. If you see an unfamiliar word on the test, but know what the root or the stem means, you can probably get an idea for what the word means.

I also think it?s a good idea to practice as much on a computer as possible, since you?ll probably be taking the test on the computer. You can practice your vocabulary on several websites, including freerice and number2. There are other websites out there, but these are the ones I used and found helpful.

Study Tips for the Quantitative Section

The good news about this section is that you probably learned most of the material that?s in this section before you graduated from high school. The bad news is that if it?s been a while since you graduated from high school or you didn?t really do any math during your undergraduate career (like me), you might have forgotten some of this information. The resource I found best helped me for this section was the Kaplan GRE Exam Math Workbook. This book featured all question types on the test and included tons of practice questions.

Study Tips for the Analytical Writing Section

You will have to write two essays for this section. One essay will ask you to provide your perspective on an issue, while the other will ask you to analyze the logic behind an argument.

How much does this section really count? It can be difficult to know how the admissions committees at graduate school weighs you score on this section. The best answer is that it depends on the types of programs you?re applying to and the school in particular. Keep in mind that a potential graduate school can request a copy of your essay. This doesn?t mean they will, but they can. So it?s in you?re best interest to do the best you can. ETS has a list of question prompts for this section at their website and you can practice writing responses in advance. However, you won?t be able to take notes with you into the test.

If you don?t consider yourself to be a good writer, check out Princeton Review?s Cracking the GRE. I personally found their tips regarding the Analytical Writing Section to be very helpful.

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Source: http://www.schaalroadstudio.com/2011/education-2/07/study-tips-for-the-gre-general-test

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