Why is the GRE so important?

When asked which graduate school admissions factor is most important to them, more admissions officers selected “the GRE” than any other.

The GRE serves as a common yardstick for admissions officers to compare you to other applicants, regardless of experience, undergraduate major, or undergraduate GPA. Designed to predict success in the first year of graduate school, the GRE serves as a critical piece of evidence to show whether you have what it takes in the classroom and beyond.

Not only a factor in your acceptance, a high GRE can qualify you for merit-based scholarships: More than 2/3 of admissions officers from top graduate school programs report that GRE scores are an important factor in deciding merit-based financial aid.

Your GRE will likely be evaluated as you apply and compete for scholarships.

There are a few good things about those tricky bolded statement passages:

1. They are very rare.
2. They are very easy to identify; the bolded statements act like a flashing neon light identifying them.
3. The question stem is very similar for all bolded statement questions.

There are also a couple of tricky things about them, which can cause them to be your less-than-favorite question type.

We can categorize Bolded Statement as a “Logic” Reading Comprehension question type. In other words, these questions require you to think about the structure of the passage and why, rhetorically, the author used the referenced information in the way that he or she did. In still other words, you must consider the “purpose” or “role” of the bolded statements, which is how the makers of the GRE tend

In my last couple of posts here and here, I’ve discussed strategies to tackle Data Interpretation problems.  For the most part, test-takers find these question types straightforward and easy to handle, but there are some difficult questions sprinkled amongst the easy ones.  As you tackle Data Interpretation problems, be cognizant of the fact that it’s very easy to get into a groove and become over-confident.  The test-makers love to present a tough problem right at the moment when you think you’re crushing all of the questions.  However, as long as you stay alert and on the lookout for difficult or oddly worded problems, you’ll be okay.

Let’s take for example the following pie charts.  As I discussed in my earlier posts, the first thing you want to do when faced with Data Interpretation questions is

Many Kaplan students start out intimidated by the GRE, and with good reason: the GRE is designed to challenge even the most adept test takers by customizing sets of questions to match a test taker’s level of performance.

The “new” GRE, launched in August 2011, assesses your critical reasoning skills and is used by graduate schools—and many business schools—as a key factor in admissions.

Split into verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing sections and delivered on the computer, the GRE takes about 4 hours to complete and measures your reasoning, writing, time management, and stress management skills—the same skills that you will need to succeed in graduate school.

Here are some ways for you to start familiarizing yourself with the test:

• Sign up for our GRE Question of the

“Ask me the questions, bridge keeper. I am not afraid.” -Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Do you remember your first day of college? Not the day you moved in, but the first day of classes?

I do. I was sitting in Biology 141 at 9:00 in the morning. My professor walked in and proceeded to tell us that if we hadn’t started reading our Biology textbook yet, then we were already behind. She went on to say that all of us were currently failing the course. We were all starting with the same score—a big, fat 0—and it was up to us to earn the score that we wanted.

Sick, huh? (I later learned that she got a secret kick out of this “welcome” speech. And I came to respect her greatly. Honest.)

Well, the GRE is like

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. ~ Abram Maslow, famous American psychologist

GRE students who master one type of question sometimes get in the habit of treating every problem as though it’s that type, with predictably unfortunate results. I see this effect occur most frequently and most clearly on the GRE analytical writing section, which contains two very similar-sounding — but completely different — essay prompts. I’ve seen students write an Issue essay as though it was the Argument essay, and I’ve seen students do the reverse. Both flip-flops are disastrous to your GRE essay score, so I’ll show you how to avoid making that mistake.

To be sure, I tell my students the difference

It’s not another test change, but ETS has made a few newsworthy announcements about changes to the GRE program that you need to know about.

Our team of GRE experts recently attended a virtual conference held by ETS and we are eager to share the full implications and timeline of these changes and how they will affect the graduate school admissions process.

1. ScoreSelect.  Starting in July 2012 (exact date to be announced in June at www.ets.org/gre – we’ll report as soon as we hear), ScoreSelect will allow GRE test takers to choose—after viewing their scores—to report to schools their scores from only the most recent test they took, or from all of the GRE tests they have taken in the past 5 years.  Additionally, if a student sends

My students always ask how to manage their prep in between the end of their Kaplan class and test day.

If you are in a Kaplan class, we recommend that you test 2-4 weeks after your last class. If you are prepping on your own, you too will need to shift the focus of your studies in the homestretch.

This is because you want to hit test day at your peak performance. You’ve been studying intensively for a month or two, but you still have some test-day realities to face.

On test day you have timing limits, and you need to have all the information memorized. There is no peeking at a dictionary or formula sheet. Also, you will have to test for four hours straight, and stamina may be an issue.

So how do you organize your studying

One of my students and I recently encountered a problem type that was persistently confounding to him. His math skills were strong, and the math in the problem was quite simple — but nevertheless, it took him a lot of effort to wrap his mind around the questions, which illustrate exactly what we mean when we say that the GRE Quantitative section is a critical thinking test, not a math test.

Here’s what one of these problems might look like:

Every employee at a certain company has either a regular bus pass, which costs $3, or a Deluxe bus pass, which costs $4. If the number of employees is as small as it can possibly be and the total cost of all the bus passes is $49, then how many employees have a regular

One of the common frustrations that I hear from students regarding GRE Data Interpretation questions is that they seem to require an excessive amount of time and calculation.  Considering that these questions show up at the end of the GRE Quantitative sections, many students get flustered or nervous when they see the clock ticking down.  “I only have two minutes to answer these last four questions – how am I supposed to quickly calculate all of the correct answers?”

There are a couple of things to keep in mind.  First of all, as I wrote in my last post, one strategy is to simply skip ahead to the GRE Data Interpretation questions.  I recommend this strategy to any students who enjoy the DI questions, but who find that they are rushing at the end and struggling to devote enough time to these question sets.   Since