GRE For Dummies Quick Prep E-Book

Ron Woldoff

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 180

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Your get-in, get-out resource for passing the GRE Are you getting panicky about taking the GRE? You're not alone! Offering proven strategies and tips to help you score your highest on exam day, GRE For Dummies, Quick Prep Edition sticks to the basics, leaving flowery, dispensable information at the door. Covering just what you need to know to prepare for the GRE, this no-nonsense guide gets down to the nitty gritty of the verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing skills you need to master in order to get into the graduate school of your dreams. The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for most graduate schools in the United States. If you're one of the more than 800,000 people prepping for the GRE this year and want to increase your chances of scoring higher--without spending months pouring through yet another tedious text--GRE For Dummies, Quick Prep Edition has you covered. * Includes one full-length practice GRE test, complete with answers and explanations * Competitively priced at $12.99 * Helps you master verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing * Prepares you for the big day by providing ample practice of GRE questions So, what are you waiting for? Grab a pen, gauge your readiness, and practice your way to test-taking perfection with GRE For Dummies, Quick Prep Edition.

Leseprobe

GRE® For Dummies®, Quick Prep Edition

Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Media and software compilation copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and may not be used without written permission. GRE is a registered trademark of Educational Testing Service (ETS). This publication is not endorsed or approved by ETS. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH A PROFESSIONAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone]. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014956252

ISBN 978-1-119-06864-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-06867-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-06883-9 (ebk)

GRE® For Dummies®, Quick Prep Edition

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/gre to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Cover

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Getting Started with the GRE

Chapter 1: Knowing What to Expect with the GRE

Signing Up for the GRE

Breaking the GRE into Manageable Pieces

Scoring Max: 340 and 6

Gimme a Break! GRE Intermissions

Chapter 2: Owning the GRE: Strategies for Success

Making the Best Use of Your Time

Repeating the Test

Reporting Test Administration Abnormalities

Using Old Scores

Chapter 3: Gearing Up for Exam Day

Gathering Your Stuff the Night Before

Knowing What Not to Bring

Training Physically and Mentally for Test Day

Test-Driving the Computerized Version

Bringing the GRE into Your Comfort Zone

Part II: Two Full-Length Practice GREs

Chapter 4: Practice Exam 1

Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 1

Analytical Writing 1: Analyze an Issue

Analytical Writing 2: Analyze an Argument

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning

Chapter 5: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations

Analytical Writing Sections

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning

Answer Key for Practice Exam 1

Chapter 6: Practice Exam 2

Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 2

Analytical Writing 1: Analyze an Issue

Analytical Writing 2: Analyze an Argument

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning

Chapter 7: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations

Analytical Writing Sections

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning

Answer Key for Practice Exam 2

About the Authors

Cheat Sheet

Advertisement Page

Connect with Dummies

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Pages

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

viii

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

103

104

105

106

Introduction

Welcome to GRE For Dummies, Quick Prep Edition. Don’t take the dummies thing personally — you’re obviously no dummy. You made it through high school with high enough grades and test scores to get into college. You then graduated to join the elite group of approximately 30 percent of U.S. citizens who hold bachelor’s degrees, and some of you already have advanced degrees. And now you’re ready to go further.

Between you and your goal is the GRE: a test designed solely to challenge your ability to remember everything you’ve forgotten since high school — material you haven’t touched in years. Maybe you feel confident that you know your stuff and don’t need to review right triangles, prefixes and suffixes, and tips on finding the main idea in a reading passage. If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place.

This book gives you an overview of the GRE in order to successfully reach your goal: admittance to the grad school of your choice and perhaps a scholarship to help pay your way. In your hands is a concise guide to the GRE that includes two practice exams to help you get comfortable with the test format and get familiar with the various content you’ll likely encounter on the exam. If you need a fast, effective introduction to the GRE, you’re holding the right book.

About This Book

In GRE For Dummies, Quick Prep Edition, I introduce you to the GRE, offer some test-taking strategies, and then present two practice exams that you can use to gauge how you’ll do on the test when it counts. After you take a practice exam, be sure to review the answer explanation for every question. If you don’t have time for in-depth studying, looking at the answer explanations may be enough of a refresher to help you bump up your score on the GRE by a point or two.

Foolish Assumptions

This book is intended to help you prepare for the GRE. I assume that you’re in at least one of these three stages of your GRE planning:

You’ve already scheduled the GRE, or are about to, and you want to sharpen your test-taking skills in preparation for the exam.

You have to take the GRE for acceptance into the graduate program at your preferred school.

You’re considering a graduate program or school that requires the GRE as part of the application process and want to know what the exam is all about and see how you’d perform on the exam.

Icons Used in This Book

Although everything included in this book is valuable, some tidbits call for special attention. Look for the following icons to quickly spot the most important information.

This icon indicates little bits of wisdom to make your GRE experience go more smoothly and improve your success.

This icon marks key points to remember while you’re taking the GRE, especially anything that’s likely to surprise you on the test. By knowing what to expect, you’re better prepared to handle it.

Where to Go from Here

If you’ve already signed up to take the GRE, you may want to jump right to one of the practice exams to see how well you do in a mock testing situation. After you take the test, be sure to review the answer explanations for all the questions — not just the ones you answered incorrectly. Reviewing all the explanations will reinforce what you already know, and you never know, but you may just pick up a new fact or two.

If the GRE remains a big mystery to you but you know you need to take it to get into grad school, start with Chapter 1 to get the lowdown on the exam. Then keep reading to get some advice about studying for the exam and preparing for test day.

If after taking the practice exams in Part II, you think you could benefit from some additional review in a particular area, I encourage you to pick up the latest edition of GRE For Dummies. That book includes detailed reviews of the various content that makes up the Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning sections of the exam; it also includes additional practice tests.

Part I

Getting Started with the GRE

Visit www.dummies.com for free access to great For Dummies content online.

In this part …

Get the details about signing up for the GRE, what’s on the exam, and how your score is calculated.

Figure out how to schedule your study time in advance of test day and get some pointers if you’re retaking the exam.

Know what you need to do to prepare for the exam (beyond studying) and find out what to expect on test day.

Chapter 1

Knowing What to Expect with the GRE

In This Chapter

Fitting the GRE into your schedule

Deconstructing the GRE to better understand what’s on it

Grasping the scoring system

Looking forward to intermissions

One of the easiest ways to reduce your test anxiety and optimize your performance on the GRE is to become familiar with it. Knowing what to expect gives you less to think about and fret over come test day so you can focus on what really matters — the test itself.

In this chapter, I encourage you to schedule your exam early so you can get a time slot that works for you. I also discuss the GRE’s structure and scoring system so you can build your strategies around them. With this guidance, you’re better equipped to avoid surprises that may throw you off your game.

Signing Up for the GRE

In most parts of the world, the GRE is a computer-based test, which makes it easier to administer to individual test-takers. Sign up early so you can choose the day, time, and place that work best for you. If you’re a morning person who’s sharpest at sunrise, you can schedule the test for early morning; if you’re a night owl who tends to sleep in, you can opt for late morning or early afternoon. Actual time slot availability varies according to the testing center, but you have more days and times to choose from than you do with paper-and-pencil tests, such as the LSAT and SAT.

The paper and computer versions of the GRE are slightly different. For example, the paper version has 25 questions per section, while the computer version has only 20. Don’t worry too much about the differences; your only option will most likely be to take the computer version.

To sign up for the GRE, see the current GRE Information and Registration Bulletin (available through most college admissions offices), register online at www.ets.org , or register via phone by calling 800-473-2255. You can also check the GRE testing center locations and available time slots at www.ets.org.

To help you get in the right mindset, take the practice tests at the same time of day you plan on taking the real thing. (Check out the practice tests in Chapters 4 and 6.) I’ve had students use this strategy to become accustomed to the effects that their circadian rhythms (hunger and nap patterns) have on their test-taking abilities. If you’re used to eating or relaxing at a certain time each day, make sure these tendencies don’t sneak up on you during the exam. One of your goals is to make the GRE as familiar as possible, or rather, to make the test-taking experience as less unfamiliar as possible. (See Chapter 3 for more on how to prepare for the GRE.)

Because the computerized GRE is administered to individual test-takers, testing centers tend to have few seats, and those seats fill up quickly during peak admission deadline months (April and November). If you’re planning to take the GRE around these months (to get your test scores in on time), schedule your test early and secure your ideal time slot. You can always reschedule, but the last thing you need is an inconvenient time or location. One of my students waited until the last minute to schedule his exam, and he had to drive from Phoenix to Tucson (approximately 120 miles) to take his GRE and get his scores in on time. He called me during his drive to review math formulas, but this wasn’t an ideal way to ramp up for the test.

Breaking the GRE into Manageable Pieces

Standardized tests tend to convey a sense of gloom and doom. Telling someone you have to take the SAT, ACT, or GRE usually elicits the same facial expression as saying that you need to have your wisdom teeth pulled. However, breaking the GRE down into its component parts makes it more manageable and less threatening.

Table 1-1 provides a quick overview of what’s on the exam. The essays are always first, but the multiple-choice sections may be in any order.

Table 1-1 GRE Breakdown by Section (Computer-Based)

Section

Number of Questions

Time Allotted

Analyze an Issue

1 essay

30 minutes

Analyze an Argument

1 essay

30 minutes

Verbal Section

20 questions

30 minutes

Math (Quantitative) Section

20 questions

35 minutes

Verbal Section

20 questions

30 minutes

Math (Quantitative) Section

20 questions

35 minutes

Discreetly Unscored Math or Verbal Section (may be earlier in the exam)

20 questions

30 or 35 minutes

At close to four hours long, the GRE challenges your stamina as much as your ability to answer the questions. No matter how solid your math and verbal skills are, you must maintain the concentration and focus needed to do well for four hours, which isn’t easy on a challenging task such as the GRE. You can build your test-taking stamina by practicing in four-hour stretches and taking multiple timed practice tests.

The GRE includes one unscored Math or Verbal section in addition to the scored sections. So you actually have three Math or three Verbal sections, with one of those sections unscored. This unscored section neither helps nor hurts your score. The GRE may indicate that the section is unscored, but usually it doesn’t, so be sure to work all of the sections to the best of your ability.

Unlike other computer-based tests (such as the GMAT and TOEFL), the GRE allows you to skip questions and return to them later, as long as you’re still in the section. When you reach the end of a section, the GRE displays a review screen that indicates any unanswered questions. If you have time remaining in the section, return to these questions and answer them as well as you can. This feature is nice because you can knock out all the easy questions before spending time on the hard ones. (See Chapter 2 for tips on managing your time during the exam.)

In each section, the questions are worth the same number of points, and within that section, they don’t become more or less difficult based on your performance. However, on the computer version of the exam, your performance on the Math or Verbal section determines the overall difficulty level of the next Math or Verbal section. For example, if you do extremely well on the first Math section, the GRE makes the second Math section harder. Even if you don’t get many questions right in the second Math section, your score may be higher than the score of someone who answers more easier questions correctly, because GRE scoring accommodates for the difficulty level of the questions.

So exactly what types of questions and how many of each type can you expect to run into on the GRE? Check out Table 1-2 for the answers.

Table 1-2 GRE Breakdown by Question Type

Type of Question

Approximate Number of Questions

Per Math Section (20 questions each)

Multiple-choice with exactly one correct answer

6

Multiple-choice with one or more correct answers

2

Fill-in-the-blank with the correct answer

2

Data Interpretation (based on graphs)

3

Quantitative Comparisons

7

Per Verbal Section (20 questions each)

Text Completion

6

Sentence Equivalence

4

Argument Analysis

2

Reading Comprehension

8

These question types are mixed throughout their respective sections, so you may encounter them in any order. Sometimes the software groups similar questions at the beginning or the end. For example, if you’re halfway through a Verbal section and haven’t seen a Text Completion question, you soon will.

Scoring Max: 340 and 6

With the GRE, you receive three separate scores: Verbal, Math, and Analytical Writing. Although you get your unofficial Verbal and Math scores immediately after taking the test (as explained in the following section), you must wait 10 to 15 days to get your Analytical Writing score in the mail. The following sections explain in depth some important scoring details you may want to know.

Understanding how the scoring breaks down

On the GRE, you can score a maximum of 340 points on the multiple-choice and 6 points on the essays. Here’s the scoring range for each of the three sections:

Verbal:

The Verbal score ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. You get 130 points if you answer just one question, which accounts for about 80 percent of a job well done. It doesn’t help much, though: You need to score as well as or better than most of the other people who took the test to improve your chances of being admitted to the school of your choice.

Math:

The Math score also ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments.

Analytical Writing:

You get 1 to 6 points per essay, with 6 being the highest. Each essay is graded separately, first by a trained evaluator and then by a computerized essay-grading system. Your score for that essay is the average of the two. If the two scores are very different, then another human grader steps in, and your score for that essay is the average of the two human scores. Finally, the scores of your two essays are averaged for your Analytical Writing score of 1 to 6. Essay responses that are blank or off-topic receive a score of 0. (The paper version of the GRE essay is scored only by people, not the computerized system.)

So in essence, if you perfectly ace the Verbal and Math sections, you get 170 points for each, for a total of 340. If you’re perfect on the two essays, you can get an essay score of 6. The three scores are separate: You get a Math score and a Verbal score, each from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments, and an Analytical Writing score of 0 to 6, in half-point increments.

On the multiple-choice questions, you earn points only for completely correct answers. If the question requires two or more answers, you have to get all the answers correct; you don’t get partial credit for a partially correct answer. However, you don’t lose any points for wrong answers, so guessing behooves you. See “Playing the guessing game,” later in this chapter, for more on this.

Calculating your score

Within each section, each question counts exactly the same toward your score. An easy question is worth exactly the same as a hard question. Because you can move back and forth within each section, a good strategy is to skip around and answer all the easy questions first; then go back and work the hard questions. Quite simply, in each section, the more questions you get right, the higher your score for that section.

When you complete a practice test from Part II