Join Kaplan’s Director of Graduate Programs, Lee Weiss, to get answers to some of our most frequently asked questions from GRE students like you. This video discusses GRE FAQs including the exciting new GRE ScoreSelect option for submitting your best scores to graduate schools. We also address the common question “What is a good score?” It comes down to the best score for you, and for the specific programs you are applying to. Your GRE scores are good for 5 years from the day you test, and you can now retest every 30 days if needed.

If you have additional questions, please visit us on Facebook or Twitter. For more info on the New GRE, visit our GRE Test Info Center. If your GRE Test Taking skills need a boost, check out Kaplan’s GRE Advantage course, specifically designed to focus on essential tools for success on the GRE.

Join Kaplan’s Director of Graduate Programs, Lee Weiss, to get answers to some of our most frequently asked questions from GRE students like you.

This video discusses GRE FAQs including whether there is partial credit on the test and how to stay focused while taking a 4-hour exam.  Only the essay section of the GRE awards, in a sense, partial credit. However, there is not partial credit for any of the Quantitative or Verbal question types. You must select all (and only) the correct answers to get credit.

To stay focused throughout the entire test, you must practice beforehand with timed drills and practice tests. Building mental stamina is key. You can sign up for a free Kaplan practice test to assess your skills.

If you have additional questions, please visit us on Facebook or Twitter. For more info on the New GRE, visit our GRE Test Info Center. If your GRE Test Taking skills need a boost, check out Kaplan’s GRE Advantage course, specifically designed to focus on essential tools for success on the GRE.

Are you confounded by how the GRE is scored? If so, you are not alone. Recently, a student preparing for the GRE asked, “Is the percentile based on how well you do compared to everyone else who took the test on the same day you did? Or, is it just based on how many questions you get right in each section?”  

Scoring on the GRE is really complicated.  Neither way she described is the way the percentiles are derived. Remember, this is a multi-stage test (thus: MST). In the first set of 20 questions that count toward your score, the questions are at a mix of various difficulty levels in addition to a mix of different topics and types of questions. The mix of difficulty levels of the second set of questions (in the same area, Math or Verbal) depends on how many of the questions you got correct in the first set.

So, if you got very few correct in the first set, you’ll get a mix of lower difficulty questions on the second set (not all super-low; there will be super-low, medium-low, and barely-low); if you get a medium number right, you’ll get a mix of medium difficulty questions, and if you get lots of them right, you’ll get a mix of high difficulty questions.  But, even before you start that second set, the range of scores you can get as your final score is already predetermined. Lots of questions right on the first section means your final score will be in the upper range, medium number right puts you in the middle range, few right puts you in the lower range.

Then, depending on how many you get right on that second set and also on the difficulty level of the ones you get right on that second set (difficulty level right doesn’t matter on the first set; only how many you get right is what matters on that first set), your final score on the 130-170 scale is determined.  At that point, the score is compared to scores of other people who took the test for all time. Not just on the day you took it, but for every day anyone took it. That’s what sets the percentile. In other words, for instance, 56% of people who took the GRE got a score on the math section that is lower than a score of 151.

I know this is complicated, but I hope it’s clear to you. There are two main takeaways:

• First, you can’t go from the number of questions you get right on the test to figure out what score you got. Someone with lots of questions right on the first section, but few right on the second section might get fewer questions right than someone with few right on the first section and then many right on the second. However, that first person will get a significantly higher score than the second one.
• Second, you really can’t tell how you’re doing while you’re taking the test. The most important thing for you to do is to get as many correct answers as you can, managing your time so that you grab all the questions you’ll do well on first, using the Mark and Review functions to get back to the questions you’re less likely to get right.

Questions about scoring? Ask them here and we’ll answer.

It’s almost inevitable that at a certain point, you’ll get discouraged or lose motivation for your GRE prep for any number of reasons:  Maybe you’ve seen the word “perspicacious” pop up five times in your practice and you still can’t remember what it means, maybe your scores have leveled out on your practice MSTs despite the work that you’ve been putting in, or maybe you’re just struggling to balance your prep with school, work, and life in general. If this sounds familiar, or if you’re in a GRE rut for any other reason, don’t despair! Here are several things that you can do to get yourself back on track:

1)  Take a break.

Take a breather from all things GRE-related, to clear your head. Give yourself at least 48 hours completely free of GRE practice problems, vocabulary flashcards, and essay prompts, and do something that you enjoy – go to the beach, see friends, or just sleep in on a Saturday. While you’re not done with the GRE yet, reward yourself for the hard work you’ve been doing. Remember: “I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday.” When you get back to work, you’ll be refreshed and have a clearer perspective on where you are in your prep and what’s left to be done. And when you do get down to business again, be sure to build regular days off and other small bonuses into your study schedule – knowing exactly when your time off is, and having something to look forward to, will help you focus when you are working and prevent future burnouts.

2)  Reevaluate your areas of opportunity and how to tackle them.

Once you’ve taken a break and are ready to dive back into GRE studying, make sure that you’re working on the topics and question-types that 1) are your greatest areas of opportunity and 2) are the highest-yield topics on the GRE. Every Kaplan teacher’s motto is “Study smarter, not harder” – narrowing your focus to areas that will actually get you points is much more effective than trying to study sixteen different things at once, and the results will show in your scores. If you’re a Kaplan student, you can get personalized recommendations about how to improve upon your areas of opportunity in your Smart Reports. If are preparing on your own with books or other software, go with your gut: Based on the work that you’ve done, which topics or question-types consistently foil you? Focus on those until you can identify why they trip you up – once you’ve identified the problem, you’ll be able to move forward.

3)  Find a tangible reminder of your goal.

When you’re in the trenches of GRE prep, it can be easy to lose track of the big picture. You’re not prepping for this test as a goal in and of itself, you’re doing this to go to grad school. Find a way to remind yourself of that – it can be a picture of whatever your dream post-school job is (Professor? Therapist?  Linguist?), or perhaps of whatever experiences inspired you to pursue that path. A fellow teacher tells her students that when her PhD program was overwhelming her, she’d hum “Pomp and Circumstance” to herself – that simple reminder of the fact that she was in school to graduate and begin a career, not just to pass one exam at a time, made all the difference to her. Once you’ve found your own reminder, keep it handy or use it often to remember that the GRE is one small piece of what will hopefully be a long and fulfilling career after grad school.

4) Know that you’re not alone.

You are not the only person who is or ever has been stressed by the prospect of preparing for the GRE – more than 600,000 people take this test every year, and every one of them at some point hits a wall or has trouble fitting his studying into his schedule. It’s a natural part of the preparation process, so don’t feel as though GRE strain means that you’re not cut out for an advanced degree – it simply means that you need new mechanisms that will allow you to channel your energy in a productive way.

Have you had any trouble staying motivated in your studies? How have you been overcoming it? Let us know in the comments – your story could inspire fellow students!

When I first started teaching for Kaplan, I was afraid I might have students who were incapable of cracking the GRE. To date, over four years later, I still have yet to encounter such a student. Unfortunately, while I’ve never seen a student fail due to a lack of intelligence, I’ve seen plenty of students miss the mark due to a lack of motivation.

Motivation is a funny thing. As GRE students, you never admit to me that you aren’t motivated. You complain that your GRE score isn’t rising by as much as you would like, and when I ask how the homework’s been coming along, that’s when the comedy begins. “Oh, well, I haven’t really had time to study. I work, I play soccer, I volunteer…” Really? You don’t have time? So you wake up, microwave a Pop Tart for breakfast because you don’t have time to toast it, rush off to work, do your job, rush to some other thing, do that, rush home and leap into your bed with your clothes on because you don’t have time to take them off, and do it all again the next day, seven days a week?

What’s funny is that I know that you are not being honest about not having any time, because you have time to come to class. If your life is really a sealed-off vacuum tube of manic productivity, then how did you find five hours to attend my GRE class twice a week?

To be clear, I would never say that you are lying to me. You’re lying to yourself, though. It’s easy to say you didn’t do something because you couldn’t. It’s much harder to say you didn’t do something because you didn’t choose to. The GRE’s a hard test. To do well, you need to study. To study, you need to be motivated. And to be motivated, you need to begin by being honest with yourself.

First of all, be honest about the fact that you have the time to study. Don’t use self-inflicted commitments as an excuse. “I couldn’t study because I went to France for three weeks!” Who chose to go to France for three weeks? You did! You can choose to study, or you can choose to do other things.

Second, don’t wait for motivation to strike. Read the following scenario and tell me how often this happens: It’s late at night and you’re on Facebook, looking at wedding pictures of some kid you knew in high school you don’t even care about. All of a sudden, between Picture #112 and Picture #113, your hand freezes. WHOA. MOTIVATION HAS STRUCK! Time to close these photos and go study some GRE! How often does that happen?

Approximately zero percent of the time.

One of the best ways to generate motivation is to make a study schedule. Commit to certain blocks of study time each week. And when the time comes to study, don’t go on Facebook (or YouTube, or Twitter, or Instagram) in the first place.

And finally, if you do find yourself getting distracted, identify the cause of your distraction and actually do something about it. Don’t just say, “Well, in the past, I’ve always killed time by watching hours of cat videos on YouTube. But now, I just won’t!” How often have you said that to yourself? How often has it worked? Never! If you need help staying on task, download self-control software to block your favorite web sites for the hours that you’re supposed to be studying.

In sum:

1. You’re not going to convince me that you don’t have time to study. You have the time.
2. Don’t wait for motivation to strike. It won’t. Commit yourself.
3. If you have a motivation problem, identify its root cause and do something concrete to stop it.

And now, you’ve spent enough time reading this blog instead of studying. Go work!