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. The higher your GRE, the more confident a funder will be in your ability to complete the program.

With the GRE being so important for getting in and getting money, you need to submit the best score you can—and that takes time and preparation. The sooner you get started, the better.

If you have questions about your GRE preparation or about how a strong GRE score can help you, post them here and we’ll respond.

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 to phrase these questions. Here’s an example:

The first thing to do when you encounter a bolded statement question is to read the entire passage, considering the bolded statements in context. Reading only the bolded statements is a recipe for disaster, since the question asks you about the role of the statements in the passage as a whole. If you’ve taken a Kaplan course, you know that you must also map the passage according to whether it is an argument passage (like this one) or an informative passage.

Then, predict what the role is for each answer choice and search for a match in the answer choices. Remember: you are looking for one answer that adequately sums up the purpose of BOTH statements, so take them one at time. Predict first for sentence 1, and eliminate once and for all any answer choices that don’t work. Then, do the same thing for sentence two with whichever answer choices are left standing. The correct answer must be completely correct – if part of the answer choice is wrong, it’s all wrong.

This may seem like a bold statement, but if you really struggle with these and you aren’t shooting for a near-perfect score, your best bet may be to avoid them. This is because bolded statement questions hardly ever show up. If you find you always get them wrong, you can absolutely take a quick guess and then come back to them if you have time. On the other hand, studying them has other benefits since the ability to deduce the author’s purpose and to read for structure helps you on all reading comprehension questions.

If you follow my guidelines, you should be able to zero right in on the correct answer for the example question. Give this one a try – my next blog entry will walk you through the process for finding the correct answer.

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 take a quick moment to familiarize yourself with the different diagrams and data being presented.  Here, the pie chart on the left shows us the distribution of the TOTAL amount of National Park Land, while the pie chart on the right is simply a breakdown of the “Acreage of National Parks”.

The test-makers will first ask a few straightforward questions.  Let’s imagine that they ask you to determine the land area of National Monuments.  If you look to the pie chart on the left, you’ll notice that the land area of National monuments is 6% of 79.6 million acres.  Using rounding, you can determine that 6% of 80 million is 4.8 million, so the correct answer will be right around that amount.

Next, they might increase the difficulty level just a bit by asking you to determine the land area of Glacier Bay and Everglades.  Here, you will need to deploy a two-step process to answer the question.  Since Glacier Bay and Everglades are on the chart on the right, which is a representation of National Park acreage, you’ll need to find the total acreage of National Parks.  Looking to the left, you’ll see that 59% of 79.6 million acres is the total land amount of National Parks; using rounding, you can say that that amount is about 48 million acres.  The acreage of Glacier Bay (7%) and Everglades (3%) is a combined 10% of National Parks.  Therefore, 10% of 48 million is around 4.8 million acres.

It’s around this point that the test-makers love to throw a curveball.  Since they’ve been having you calculate values based off of percent values, they’re hoping that they’ve lulled you into a habit of simply finding a specific percent on the chart and calculating a value quickly.  So if you’re given a question like this, be careful.

How much larger is the acreage of National Monuments than the acreage of National Recreation Areas, as a percent?

A) 1

B) 3

C) 17

D) 20

E) 83

It’s very easy to look to the pie chart on the left and jump to the conclusion that because National Monuments are 6% of Total Acreage and National Recreation Areas are 5% of Total Acreage, then National Monuments must be 1% larger than National Recreation Areas.  Makes sense, right?  I mean, there is a 1% difference in the size of the two acreages.  But the test-makers aren’t asking you to compare the acreage of Monuments and the acreage of Recreational Areas to the Total Acreage – they’re asking you to compare those two areas to each other.  So in order to figure out how much larger the acreage of National Monuments is compared to the acreage of Recreational Areas, you need to find the difference between the two, then divide that amount by the smaller of the two values.  Using the values presented on the chart, we can determine that the acreage of Monuments is around 4.8 million, while the acreage of Recreational Areas is 4 million.  So there are .8 million more acres of land that make up National Monuments.  If we divide that value by 4 million, we get a value of .2, or 1/5.  Therefore, the size of the acreage of the National Monuments is actually 20% larger than the size of the acreage of the National Recreation Areas.

Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security or overconfidence when tackling Data Interpretation problems. Though many DI questions are easy and straightforward, be on guard when you notice a question that looks too easy.  Always slow down, pause, and double check what the question is asking.

Do you have questions about Data Interpretation problems on the GRE? Ask them here!

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 Day
• Watch video-based instruction and explanations featuring some
  of our top GRE teachers
• Learn more about the timing, breakdown, and scoring of the GRE

We’ve been working on mastering the GRE for decades—more than anyone else out there. Learn with us, and you’ll go into Test Day ready to score your best.

Have any questions about the new exam structure or about prep resources? Ask below!

“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 that professor. Everyone has the same exact score as they settle into their chair and click “start.” The score you leave with is up to you, and that score is determined in great part by your test-taking strategy.

According to www.gre.org, your score is based on the number of correct responses you make on the Verbal and Quantitative sections. What does that mean? Well, it means that you want to make as many correct responses as possible. In order to make as many correct responses as possible, you have to answer as many questions as possible. This, in turn, means that you must answer every question. Really.

“But, what if I don’t know the answer?” you ask. Pick one anyway! Take what you do know about the problem and eliminate as many answer choices as you can (even eliminating one will increase your odds of guessing correctly on a single-answer multiple choice question from 20% to 25%–or from 25% to 33% on Quantitative Comparison questions). Then, make a strategic guess among the answer choices that remain.

Leaving an answer blank is a guarantee that you will not be adding those points to your score. But choosing an answer—even an answer based on a strategic guess—increases your chances of earning as many points as possible on Test Day!

In order to answer every question, you need to have time to get to every question. On the Verbal section, you have an average of 1.5 minutes per question. On the Quantitative section, you have an average of 1.75 minutes per question. Time management is key.

I encourage my students to “teach” their brains what a minute and a half feels like. When you exercise, do run/walk intervals at 1.5 minutes each or spend 1.5 minutes at each stop in your “circuit.” Brush your teeth for 1.5 minutes. Find a song that lasts 1.5 minutes and sing it often. Train your dog for 1.5 minutes at a time. Push your kid on the swing for 1.5 minutes. Keep a timer with you and give yourself 1.5 minutes on each practice problem that you work.

The point is to have a good understanding of what that period of time feels like so that you do not invest 2 or 3 or 4 minutes on problem after problem. There will be some questions that require more time from you. But, on average, you should be spending 1.5 minutes on Verbal questions and 1.75 minutes on Quantitative questions.

So, the take away:  Everyone—everyone—walks into the GRE testing center with the exact same score. Your job is to work as hard as you can while you’re there, and to make an educated guess when you have to, so that you can answer every single question and leave with as many points as possible!