the GRE

Smish · Aug 5, 2009

How do you prepare for it?

I'm a lawyer, so I'm no stranger to exams. However, I have no clue about the GRE or the best way to prepare for it. If I'm going to give up my career to go back to school, it has to be for a very good program, so I'm aiming for a minimum score of 1400.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Smish

Deleted member 42 · Aug 5, 2009

Plan on taking it at least twice, at least three months apart; six is better, a year best of all.

Buy either the exam prep books, or the software, and use them, regularly.

Study the information about how the exam is scored, so you know when to skip a question and when to make an educated guess.

Find out if you have to take a subject exam; depending on the degree, you may have to.

Smish · Aug 5, 2009

Medievalist said:
Plan on taking it at least twice, at least three months apart; six is better, a year best of all.

Buy either the exam prep books, or the software, and use them, regularly.

Study the information about how the exam is scored, so you know when to skip a question and when to make an educated guess.

Find out if you have to take a subject exam; depending on the degree, you may have to.

Thanks for the advice! I hope I only have to take it once, though, because the deadlines for the programs I want to apply for are mid-December to mid-January. If you do take it more than once, does the second score replace the first, or are the two averaged?

Good info about being able to skip questions -- I didn't realize that was a technique.

Deleted member 42 · Aug 5, 2009

Smish said:
Thanks for the advice! I hope I only have to take it once, though, because the deadlines for the programs I want to apply for are mid-December to mid-January. If you do take it more than once, does the second score replace the first, or are the two averaged?

Good info about being able to skip questions -- I didn't realize that was a technique.

You need to check Princeton's site for the latest data, but last I knew they only reported the higher score, and way back when, the chances of a second test being markedly better were very very high.

The subject exams are very much worth cramming for. Find out if the school and program you are applying to uses the GRE as a cutoff (minimum score for consideration, for example) and how it affects financial aid.

If you've got a law degree look into doing pro bono stuff for students as a work study or tuition waiver opportunity--it's fairly common. Most of the questions students have are about landlord tennant stuff.

Palmfrond · Aug 5, 2009

I took the GRE a few years ago, and it was done on a computer. The first questions were medium difficulty. If you answered them correctly, you got harder questions; if you answered the first questions wrong, it went to easier ones. You could only get the highest scores if you got the FIRST questions right. I don't know if it is still set up like this - the prep books will probably tell you.

Just for interest: I took the GRE in 1978 and again in 2003 and got exactly the same score. Weird.

Smish · Aug 5, 2009

Palmfrond said:
I took the GRE a few years ago, and it was done on a computer. The first questions were medium difficulty. If you answered them correctly, you got harder questions; if you answered the first questions wrong, it went to easier ones. You could only get the highest scores if you got the FIRST questions right. I don't know if it is still set up like this - the prep books will probably tell you.

Just for interest: I took the GRE in 1978 and again in 2003 and got exactly the same score. Weird.

Yes, that's still how it is, according to the GRE site. It freaks me out. I'm more afraid of this than the bar exam! But at least it's not two days long & you don't have to wait two months for the results! Still, I think I'd rather take the bar again. There's very little math on the bar exam!

Smish · Aug 5, 2009

Medievalist said:
You need to check Princeton's site for the latest data, but last I knew they only reported the higher score, and way back when, the chances of a second test being markedly better were very very high.

The subject exams are very much worth cramming for. Find out if the school and program you are applying to uses the GRE as a cutoff (minimum score for consideration, for example) and how it affects financial aid.

If you've got a law degree look into doing pro bono stuff for students as a work study or tuition waiver opportunity--it's fairly common. Most of the questions students have are about landlord tennant stuff.

Great info! Thanks!

Puma · Aug 5, 2009

I took the GRE ages ago - way before computerized tests. But, my experience on the subject exam might be worth mentioning. I took the exam in history. I had gone to a very small liberal arts college which didn't have the luxuries of the larger universities with courses from around the world - we could major in European or American history - period. On the GRE subject test I took, I could count the questions related to the courses I had taken on my hands - and that's even with Greece and Rome, Russia, and Latin American history thrown into what I had taken. There were almost no questions on American or European history. So ... if you're taking a subject exam and went to a small school, check out what's being offered at the big universities and make sure you have some idea about questions their courses might generate. Puma

Deleted member 42 · Aug 6, 2009

Smish said:
Yes, that's still how it is, according to the GRE site. It freaks me out. I'm more afraid of this than the bar exam! But at least it's not two days long & you don't have to wait two months for the results! Still, I think I'd rather take the bar again. There's very little math on the bar exam!

I took the GRE twice, several years apart. I don't remember my scores--I pretty much failed the math part. I suspect any score I got at all was based on pity.

But in my case, an English degree, no one really cared at all how I did on the math part. They wanted the verbal scores and the subject test scores.

If you're worried about the math, I'd urge you to look for the practice software--lots of public libraries have a CD-ROM tutorial. It not only gives you practice exams, it explains how to answer the questions, with little math tutorials. Lots of my students have used it with good results.

ColoradoMom · Aug 6, 2009

I don't think it is that big of a deal - get one of those prep books and learn the math tricks, those help a lot. I only studied for 2 weeks. It took about 1.5 hours to finish and the most important thing is to get the first 5 questions right on each section, those are the highest scoring questions. After that they tailor them to your level and they are worth less.

NeuroFizz · Aug 6, 2009

I agree with the advice of doing the practice exams. The standardized tests that are focused on this level of education will assume (and test) a background level of knowledge as well as some higher level stuff. Cramming probably will only be good for a few overall points, though, unless one has totally forgotten about something like algebra. This all reminds me of the qualifying oral exams for Ph.D. students which do much the same thing. Cramming will not help all that much since there is so much to test covering such a wide field of basic to advanced information. (Lisa is probably giving a grimacing nod.) What the practice will do on the GRE, which is possibly worth more than just a few points, is get one used to the type of questions asked and the kinds of information and information analysis these exams are designed to address. The practice exams may even help one identify areas that need that cramming.

Deleted member 42 · Aug 6, 2009

Puma said:
So ... if you're taking a subject exam and went to a small school, check out what's being offered at the big universities and make sure you have some idea about questions their courses might generate. Puma

For English, the questions are entirely based on the canon--mostly English lit, but American is important too.

You can absolutely ace the English exam by cramming, if you already have a background in English. Get the Norton Anthologies of English Lit and the Norton Anthologies of American lit, and memorize the head notes and introductions, and familiarize yourself with the major poems and such.

Puma · Aug 6, 2009

I probably would have done better on the English test when I took it in history; I know I would have done much better on the Spanish test.

On the math, I tested out of college math and took none. I aced the GRE in math, and I mean, really aced it. But of course, as I said, that was ages ago. Puma

Smish · Aug 6, 2009

Thanks for all your responses and suggestions. I'll order a GRE prep book from Amazon today. I'll probably also get some sort of math workbook, since I really haven't done much math since high school.

FWIW, I'm looking at Social Psych PhD programs (I'm particularly interested in mixing this with my legal background -- interrogation practices, eye-witness testimony, jury selection, etc.). I've been in school practically all my life, so I'm not sure if I'm really going to apply or not, but I am going to go ahead and take the GRE just to see what my options are (if I bomb it, I won't bother applying. If I do really well, I'll probably send in a few applications).

Thanks again,

Smish

Puma · Aug 6, 2009

Good luck, Smish. We'll be pulling for you. Puma

Smish · Aug 6, 2009

Awwww. Thanks!

backslashbaby · Aug 6, 2009

Yeah, practice the math problems from a GRE prep. That's all that's on there for math, so you'll know what you are getting into, absolutely, beforehand.

Good luck!

StephanieFox · Aug 6, 2009

I took the GRE back in the late 1970s. I was terrified and could barely sleep the night before. I remember finishing the first section and looking around at the other test takers. I was the only one finished. I rechecked all my answers. I looked around. I was still the only one done. I knew I must be doing something wrong.

Turns out that I had the highest score of any of the applicants to my school that year. I thought the GRE was easier than the SAT, probably because a number of years filled with learning experiences had gone by between graduating college and going to grad school. Not so true for a lot of the other hopefuls.

My study technique was to go over and over those books with sample tests. If you get the rhythm of the tests down, they are easy. Oh, and since I am a math phobic, I hired a friend to go over basic math problems with me, explaining 7th-grade math. I ended up being (just barely) in the top half. One of my professors told us she was in the bottom seven percent in math but still got into journalism school. The social sciences don't need you to be a math whiz, either.

A lot of questions give you hints. If a blank answer counts as a wrong answer, answer everything. If you have no idea about the answer, try to narrow your answer down to two, so you'll have a 50/50 chance.

You probably already know this stuff. You just need to get comfortable with the test.

Good luck!

Smish · Aug 6, 2009

Thanks. Yeah, I need to just figure out the format, do practice tests and figure out how to manage the time. I appreciate all the helpful tips and the encouragement.

Namatu · Aug 7, 2009

Medievalist said:
I took the GRE twice, several years apart. I don't remember my scores--I pretty much failed the math part. I suspect any score I got at all was based on pity.

I only took the GRE once, but your math scores sound a lot like mine. One word: Geometry. My test's math portion contained mostly geometry.

the GRE

Smish

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Deleted member 42

Smish

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Palmfrond

cereal killer

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Smish

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Puma

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Deleted member 42

ColoradoMom

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Deleted member 42

Puma

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Smish

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Puma

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backslashbaby

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StephanieFox

Maybull the Bulldog

Smish

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Namatu

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the GRE

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Deleted member 42

Reads more than she writes.

Deleted member 42

cereal killer

Reads more than she writes.

Reads more than she writes.

Retired and loving it!

Deleted member 42

The grad students did it

Deleted member 42

Retired and loving it!

Reads more than she writes.

Retired and loving it!

Reads more than she writes.

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Maybull the Bulldog

Reads more than she writes.

Lost in mental space.

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