GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATION

Purpose

Purpose of the GRE is to help graduate school admission committees and fellowship sponsors assess the qualifications of applicants of their programs – it gives them another ASSESSMENT to divide people withIt is ANOTHER weeding out process!

Sources and Credits

ETS.orgETS Practicing to Take the GRE General Test 10th Edition

What you will see on GRE

GRE AnalyticalIssue Task (45 minutes)Argument Task (30 minutes)

GRE Quantitative (45 minutes, 28 questions)ArithmeticAlgebraGeometryData Analysis

GRE Verbal (30 minutes, 30 questions)AntonymsAnalogiesSentence CompletionsReading Comprehension

How it is scored

Verbal Score 200-800, in 10 point incrementsQuantitative Score 200-800, in 10 point incrementsVerbal and Quantitative Score combined to make total GRE score that schools see and use (ie. 1000)

Analytical Writing Score 0-6 score, half point increments

GRE-CAT

The Computer Adaptive Test is scored differently then the Paper-Based Test.At the start of each section, you will be presented with a question of medium difficulty. Depending on how you answer that question, you will get a harder question or an easier question. You cannot go backward, only forward, and you cannot skip. You will want to finish the test, but budget your time. Guessing at the end and also, not finishing will seriously lower your score.

Antonyms

PRECIPITOUS(A) Pleasantly Sweet(B) Overly Ambitious(C) Agreeably Situated(D) Publicly Known(E) Gently Sloping *Precipitous is sometimes meant to mean rash or

fool heartedly, but it’s central meaning is sharp drop off

GRE - Verbal

Many antonyms and analogies use second or alternate meanings!!!!!Use knowledge of word parts to figure it out if you don’t know the word

GRE – Verbal Analogies

One common thing not necessarily taught in every GRE prep course or book is to look for the ambiguous first word in analogies.

The first word in choice (A) will ALWAYS disambiguate the Analogy.Work across, not down

Analogy Example

Tango: Dance ::(A) arabesque : theme(B) tonality :instrumentation(C) rhyme : pattern(D) stanza : line(E) elegy : poem

Answer

Tango: Dance ::(A) arabesque : theme(B) tonality :instrumentation(C) rhyme : pattern(D) stanza : line

(E) elegy : poem *

GRE – Verbal Sentence Completion

Take out extraneous information to help find the important parts of the sentence

Tips

Memorize the format of the testMemorize the directionsPractice the math and verbal > schools don’t weight the analytical as muchInstead of memorizing tons of words, study word parts (prefixes and suffixes)

Common Math Problem Set Up

Column A Column B5% of 36 36% of 5

For the following question, select the best answer choice.

A. If the quantity in Column A is greaterB. If the quantity in Column B is greater C. If the two quantities are equal D. If the relationship cannot be determined

from the information given

Answer

Column A Column B5% of 36 =1.8 36% of 5 = 1.8

the two quantities are equal

Math Tips

Figures are not to scale, but data displays areAssumes lines are straightThe answers are there, look at the choices and narrow it down

Resources

ETS.org – examples of issue and argument tasks, powerprep softwareNumber2.com – math and verbal tutorialswww.msu.edu – prefixes and suffixes