Studying for the GRE's
 

I'll be taking the general GRE's on October 16th. Most people I have talked to say you should pretty much start studying for it in utero. I have been substantially less wise. So far I have purchased a Kaplan book about the test, but still need to get reading. Does anyone have any tips on cramming for such an important test? Can anyone who has taken the test relate to me their GRE experience?

I did much the same by waiting to the last minute to study even though I had the study material for months.

I took a practice test, then spent the majority of my time boning up on my weakest subject. (Math of course). I spent a short time reviewing Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes to enable quick word recognition for the vocabulary section. A review of the solving strategies for the types of logic questions that would be asked wrapped things up for me.

If you don't have a major problem area like I did, I would still recommend dividing up your study time based upon your strengths.

Good Luck:thumbsup:

Ah, so I'm not only procrastinator to take the GRE's. If I may ask, did you do alright?

what I did was get a book that helps you understand how the test is organized and paced so that you beat the test instead of cramming all this knowledge into your brain trying to relearn everything you probably haven't studied in 5 or 6 years.

I unfortunately don't recall the book. All I remember is that the quantitive stuff in the book saved my ass when you realize how to beat the test instead of trying to do mathmatical alphabets

Amen to that, sir. You can't catch up on years of stuff; you simply must depend on a review of the "rules, laws and helpful hints" available for review.


I think I would be less bashful in a pm, but you asked the question this way.

I scored vocab and logic in the mid 90th percentile, without much work. My full concentration on Math thankfully brought me up to the 50th percentile. I would have never gotten into grad school, given all the stats classes I had to take, without bringing Math up to at least "average".

That is why I recommend putting more energy into any areas of weakness that a practice test reveals. Also, learn what are the important GRE outcomes that are important to your university of choice. My chosen Master's path placed great importance on Math & Vocabulary, and less so for Logic. (Logic, however, won the entire game played by my Psych Chair) :suave:

I was probably about halfway betweene don't study at all and beat the test. I am an excellent student GPA wise, so I use that in my favor when submitting test scores. I honestly don't remember how I did - I would have to pull out my test scores to see.

I don't recall my scores but it was well within the numbers required for my masters program

I signed up for the test and took it within 24 hours, never studied. Of course, all I needed was to have TAKEN the test to get into my grad program, as opposed to needing specific scores

Prinston Review, studied a week, score qualifed me for mensa.

I found the Prinston Review very good because it helped show how you should look at the questions, and what they are looking for, plus the practice tests are always good to do. I don't think you can really 'study' for the GRE, either you know it or you don't by now, you should focus on studying for the TYPE of test it is.

I also did the computer practice tests provided by the GRE.

Princeton Review..... but someone in MENSA would know that right? So you were just testing everyone. :thumbsup:

As for the GRE's from what I have heard from people at work, they all agree with Elph. Study what your weaknesses are and just keep refreshing your strengths.

I'll be taking mine soon so let me know how you did.

Never ceases to amaze me how many "genius" types cant spell...

My best tip... get a good nights sleep before the test. :)

wadda ya meen, spel? :D

Surely it is a rule for card carrying members of MENSA to have to be able to spell.

Once again they just dont make things like they used to. *Shakes head sadly*

Alas young one! Best of luck on your test. May you score well and have a blast!

Spelling is for secretaries, I have four:thumbsup:

the importance of the gre tests varies considerably as a function of what field you are going into. what are you planning to study?

Four? Isnt that a bit excessive?

You never did tell me what those competitive horus were. :) Competitive hours are a brilliant marketing strategy... color me curious!

Warning threadjack....

Not for three offices.

I must have missed that one, what was it in relation to?

End thread jack, begin tangent....

Interesting when I took the GRE, I found it somewhat horrifying that education majors scored the lowest as a group. I also found it equally horrifying that my math score was equal to the average engineering majors math score, this is horrifying because I am horrible at basic math.

End tangent, begin talk to op...

At this point its to late to ‘study’, you know what you know, but its not to late to learn how to take the test. Do practice tests, and make sure to time yourself (but now that they took the logic section out, the only part that required you know how to think and guess which section I scored a perfect on *grumble*, its not as bad in timing.).

The GRE is not a very hard exam, it requires very little knowledge.

Just look at it like this man, it's just the ACT/SAT only at the next level. Since you have completed the level required, you'll know what you'll need to. I have faith in you, you found TFP.:thumbsup:



Just so people know the truth, you're GRE score doesn't qualify you for MENSA nor has anything to do with Mensa...... Ustwo must have been making a funny.

Pan you make it too easy....

Thats off the main MENSA page, I took it 9/99 before they took out the analytic, and yes, I qualified thanks.

Mensa has no other eligibility requirements other than IQ testing. However, many tests are not valid for people under the age of 16. You should contact the nearest Mensa office for more information.

From the home page of Mensa.... http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=10

Ummm ok, I'll pretend thats germane to the topic and you had the last word :thumbsup:

no really, white devil--what are you going to study?

Can I see your MENSA card? I have never seen one and wonder what they look like. It is a very prestigious honor to be considered a member of MENSA, so of course if you qualified you joined. You must be so proud. :)

Cute, but as I posted in another thread in this forum I never joined. I looked up the Illinois chapter a several years ago, and decided it wasn't a fun crowd so why pay annual dues for something you wouldn't use? That would be pretty stupid now, don't you think?

MENSA is not very hard to get into, while its the 98 percentile in IQ, that roughly translates to about a 92-94% on a national standardized test like the GRE.

http://www.chicago.us.mensa.org/slid...cmgsliders.jpg

Sign me up!!!

People who want to hang out with others only because they test well isn't going to be a fun crowd.

I view it more as a last ditch social club for adult nerds, but its also something that everyone would recognize as being a good score. Saying 'I studied only a week for the GRE and still qualified for the masters program for every orthodontic school I applied to' doesn't really say much to someone who doesn't know the standards.

Lately though I have been thinking of joining, I'd need to retest, the GRE doesn't have scores earlier than 2001 anymore for some reason. I would do so just so I could impress some of the less educated potential patients that come into my office as its almost universally recognized. Personally I think it would be a bit pretentious so I haven't made up my mind yet.

All I know is that they don't have my kind of parties, for one thing no one is naked, for another I don't want to see them naked.

http://www.chicago.us.mensa.org/feat...ages/KF-10.jpg

Thrilling! A CSI party!

They haven't changed apparently since I thought I might join in the 90's :lol:

Wow, how sad... I would think a well known multitalented person such as yourself would enjoy being surrounded by people with the ability to better understand greatness. Just think! Being able to be around people one doesnt have to :redneck" explanations to. Dues are so very cheap. Abouts $50 if memory serves. Much less than a book for a class or even a parking pass from back in those college days.

I understand though, I think, with all the continuing education classes and seminars that a career such as yours demands. At least they seem to offer them all around the same times and same times of week to make them easier to attend. :)

As Kermit the frog once said... its not easy being green. :)

Mr. Devil? When is your big day?

Sorry about the delay, I had a nice hard drive crash to go along with my test anxiety :p

I'm a Psychology major and I'm trying to get into the Master's program at Cal State - Sacramento. I've been told they're looking for around 650 each section.

I've been studying Kaplan's book (an excellent guide) and learning a lot of test strategies. I've also brushed up on a little vocab and some math principles. I took an ETS sample test earlier today and I'm up to V 650 Q 680, so things are looking decent. My test is early Monday afternoon, so I am cramming like nuts this weekend.

You've got your practice scores up there! You'll do find on Monday. :)

I know its easier said than done, but a good nights sleep will help more than that extra couple of hours of studying. Good luck.

^^^ A very true statement. Also, take some deep inhales and exhales (5 to 10) just prior to starting the test. It should reduce anxiety which is not helpful in good performance.

Best to you, once again. And let us know tomorrow how you felt you did.:thumbsup:

for once, i agree entirely with ustwo.

Hi everyone, I think I did pretty good. I got a verbal-650 and a quantative-700. I'm still trying to figure out how those are on a scale of okay to definately getting in to grad school, but at least one person I know is jealous, so I'm happy :p

Congrats! :thumbsup:

lol, that reminds me of these two guys I couldn't stand that were part of a larger group of people I used to hang out with. One had a masters in Music performance and they used to like to talk about how smart they were. They never directly said it but they'd try using obscure words and try to sound all intellectual. I always wanted to tell them that if they were half as smart as they thought they were then they would have gotten real degrees and also wouldn't be 33 yr old bartenders at chain restaraunts. Luckily, I was able to restrain myself.

They tried to get into Mensa but couldn't. Both were very socially stunted.

I guess this is somewhat related to the GRE, so i'll add it in here.

I'm going to be taking my GRE in a couple of months. I tried out some sample questions on the GRE website and I found that I can answer pretty much all their questions. The only problem is the analogy section, not because I don't know the analogy, but because I sometimes don't know what some of the words mean.

So what i'm looking for is a way to help increase my vocabulary. I already do some reading (newspapers, some books) and i'm not really getting what i'm looking for. I was thinking about going onto an online dictionary every day and looking at their word of the day because they usually have unusual words.

As an aside, I plan to take those classes regarding the GRE, anybody else have any tips? Based on how I did on the questions, I should be in good shape already, but I want (need) to do well.

Siege - there are books specifically written to help you advance in the analogy section of these exams. I'd check those out. The dictionary thing is almost a waste of time - GRE/SAT have specific words and word families that they love to harp on. The odds that you'll see more than one of these words in "word of the day" and remember it are very small.

I studied with a book that had online test sections to supplement the printed material. It worked out quite well for me - though I typically feel comfortable with standardized tests.

I say buy a couple of books for 40-60 bucks and put the time in on your own. The only reason to take the class is if you know you won't have the discipline to study correctly on your own.

Siege, there are books that specifically list the "100 most common" or "500 most common" (etc.) words used on the GRE. Those are the kinds of books you want to look into as you prep vocab for these tests. Words of the day are fun, but they won't be nearly as useful.

Thanks for the replies you two. I didn't even know they had those kinds of books. Time to hit the local Chapters I guess :thumbsup:

Hello everyone,

I'm going to start studying for the GRE? Does anyone know of any good books that are high yield?

Thanks,

I'm a fan of the Princeton Review books (I used them for both SAT and GRE), but it's entirely up to you. I did very poorly on the math section, mostly because I suck at math, but rocked the other two.

For verbal, I went through as many word lists as possible and typed up a list of all the words I found that I didn't know, then posted it (in small print) in the bathroom for a very long time. So I had to study it every time I brushed my teeth, showered, went to the bathroom, etc... which added up to a substantial period of studying each day. ;)

The two things that helped my vocabulary scores the most in exams such as these were (a) taking Latin and (b) performing in many Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. There were 3 words on my SAT that I only kind of knew, but recalled the stanza from the G&S songs, so I was able to work them out in context.

Of course, these two steps require more than a week of exam cramming. :D