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.

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.

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!

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.”

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!

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 several times, and it’s written in their Kaplan course materials. On the Issue essay, you make up your own opinion and defend it. On the Argument essay, you critique someone else’s opinion and defense. The problem is that these descriptions, while accurate, are abstract. On the Argument essay, isn’t my critique of someone’s opinion…an opinion? And aren’t I defending it? And on the Issue essay, isn’t my opinion in reaction to the prompt given?

To neutralize this abstract quandary, I’m going to offer you a sample (and silly) prompt, then write a mini-Issue and a mini-Argument essay in response to it. When you see the two different essays in response to the same prompt, it should clarify for you the distinction between the GRE’s two essay types.

Prompt: Snickers candy bars are nutritious and good for your health. The nuts in them contain protein, and the chocolate contains calcium. Furthermore, they are cheap and delicious.

Here is an excerpt from a possible Issue-style response:

Snickers candy bars are not a good food item for the health-conscious eater. They contain a ton of calories, most of which come from sugar and fat. There are good and bad kinds of sugar and fat, and Snickers candy bars are loaded almost exclusively with the bad kinds. As a result, someone who eats a lot of Snickers candy bars will gain weight and endanger their heart.

Some people may argue that Snickers are beneficial because they contain protein and calcium. This naive argument points out the positive qualities of Snickers while ignoring all of the negatives. One could easily obtain just as much protein and calcium by eating other foods that don’t contain nearly as much sugar and fat.

And now, a portion of a possible Argument-style response:

The author argues that Snickers candy bars, despite being candy, are actually good for your health. Her evidence is that Snickers contain certain valuable nutrients (protein and calcium), and that Snickers are inexpensive and taste good. This argument has no merit because its evidence is at best inadequate and at worst completely out of scope.

The author cites the protein and calcium content of Snickers to support her claim that they are nutritious, but this evidence is insufficient to justify her claim. For starters, the author doesn’t say how MUCH calcium and protein Snickers have; if the amount is trivial, then the argument falls apart. Furthermore, the author never states what unhealthful content, if any, is present in a Snickers candy bar. If Snickers are loaded with sugar and fat, for example, then it’s possible that the beneficial effects of eating a Snickers will be overridden by the negative effects.

Finally, the author’s last two pieces of evidence — that Snickers are tasty and cheap — are completely out of scope. The taste and price of an item are irrelevant in an argument about that item’s nutritional value.

I hope that clarifies the different tasks you’ll have to perform on Test Day. Note especially how the Issue essay relies on factual, outside information, while the Argument essay does not, focusing instead on possibilities. On the Issue essay, you should use whatever knowledge you have to support your thesis. On the Argument essay, you shouldn’t: your task there is to show that the author’s evidence doesn’t prove her conclusion, not that her conclusion is false.

If you still have questions about writing your GRE essays, let us know in the comments!

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 score reports after Test Day, the student can have full freedom over which scores to report: from any testing administration(s), not just the most recent. Test takers cannot report only Quantitative Reasoning scores or only Verbal Reasoning scores from a given test—results from any testing administration must be reported intact.  For more on the ScoreSelect option, go to:  ets.org/gre/scoreselect
2. Taking a GRE test again.  Since the launch of the revised GRE in August 2011, test takers have only been able to take the GRE once per 60 days.  Effective July 1, 2012, individuals may take the new GRE once every 30 days, which is a big win for test takers, especially if they are late in the admissions cycle and are brushing up against application deadlines.  For more on the retake policy, go to: www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/register
3. Another free practice test from ETS.  When PowerPrep II was released in July 2010, it contained only 1 full-length practice Multi-Stage Test.  In July 2012, PowerPrep II version 2.0 will be released, and it will contain 2 free full-length MSTs.  This software will be available for download from www.gre.org and will only work on a PC.  (Our realistic practice tests can be taken on a Mac or PC.)  There will also be an updated Official Guide coming out in August 2012 containing 2 additional practice tests (TBD if the 2 additional tests are paper-based or computer-based.)

Please post comments or questions about these changes on this blog page, or ask us via Facebook or Twitter.

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 now that you’re in the homestretch?

1. Timing
You probably had to take it slow as you were remembering math and mastering new methods. That’s fine at the outset, but you have to face the clock on test day. Timed practice gives you a feel for pacing, and you learn when to guess strategically or skip questions. Good time management is key to maximizing your score, so practice it!

2. Stamina
You can schedule some study sessions for 3-4 hours long, so your brain gets used to working that long. If not, start immediately. Also, schedule your study at the same time of day as the test. If you usually burn the midnight oil, your brain might not function as well at 8:30 am on test day.

3. The Mighty Practice Test
Practice tests should form the backbone of your study between now and test day. They are the most test-like experience you can get, and Kaplan’s Practice Tests give you a good idea of what you would score on a real GRE. So, they are instrumental in assessing your progress. However, don’t burn through them, taking five practice tests in one week. In between, read the explanations (even to the questions you got right) and do any Smart Report recommendations. Think about how you could have done problems more efficiently, with strategic elimination, backsolving or picking numbers. Think about how you might have visualized a problem differently, if it was over your head. Use flash cards to memorize formulas and vocab that gave you trouble on the practice test.

Once you’ve completed this process you can test again, and you should see your score increase. One practice test a week is a good pace.

Here are some resources for practice tests:

• You have access to 5 practice tests as a student enrolled in a Kaplan class,
• You can sign up for a free practice test with Kaplan.
• You can download one from ETS. (In July, you will be able to download two practice tests from the testmaker.) This practice test mimics the interface you will see on test day.

We recommend scheduling your official test for 2-4 weeks after your Kaplan class ends so you can complete ample practice and hit the test at your peak. If you test too soon, you won’t have time for enough practice. If you test too late, you may start to forget what you learned in class.

Let us know how that strikes you… and good luck!

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 bus pass?

A) 1

B) 2

C) 3

D) 9

E) 10

I call this a “Most” problem, since the key to solving it is that you need to set one of the quantities to be the most it can possibly be. Although the problem requires nothing more than arithmetic and trial and error, it’s challenging when you first encounter it, as lengthy word problems often are.

When you encounter a problem like this, ask yourself this question: Which quantity do I need to max out? This is where the GRE test makers really test your logical reasoning ability: to reach a particular dollar cap, you can either use many cheap items or a few expensive items. So, if we want the number of employees to be as small as possible, we want as many of them as possible to have the Deluxe pass, which is more expensive.

Pause here! If that concept doesn’t make sense, then read the last paragraph over until it does, or write us a note in the comments. If you’re confused at this point, the rest of the problem won’t make any sense either.

Once you realize that to meet the conditions of the problem you need as many Deluxe passes as possible, the math is easy. Here’s a quick recap of the relevant information:

Total cost: $49

Deluxe cost: $4

Regular cost: $3

The most that $4 can fit into $49 is twelve times, so our trial and error should begin there.

If we have 12 Deluxe passes, that’ll put us to 12 x 4 = $48, leaving $1 left over. That doesn’t work.

If we have 11 Deluxe passes, we’ll be at 11 x 4 = $44, leaving $5. That still doesn’t work, since 5 isn’t a multiple of 3.

If we have 10 Deluxe passes, that costs 10 x 4 = $40, with $9 left behind. $9 divides nicely into 3: 9 / 3 = 3. So, there must be 10 Deluxe passes and 3 regular ones.

Click choice (C) and move on — and make sure to duck the trap choice (D), which is the cost of the regular passes, not the number; and (E), which is the number of Deluxe passes, not regular passes.

The pattern on these problems is always the same: first, use critical thinking to deduce which quantity you need to max out; then, start your trial and error at the biggest possible value and work downward until you find one that works. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments, and otherwise, enjoy getting a few extra easy points on Test Day!

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 you are able to hop around in a section without consequence, skip those probability or permutation questions (or any other question types that you find particularly difficult), tackle the DI questions instead, and then work on the toughest problems in the section with whatever time you have left.

Another thing to consider when tackling your GRE Data Interpretation question sets is that a great many of the problems do not require precise calculation.  Instead, you can use strategies like rounding, approximation, and simple estimation to help us get to the correct answer quickly and efficiently.  Let’s take for example the following pie charts.

As with all GRE DI questions, let’s take a quick moment to familiarize ourselves with the different diagrams and the data being presented.  The pie chart on the left shows us how the TOTAL amount of National Park Land is distributed.  Notice how the biggest slice of pie is National Parks.  The pie chart on the right is labeled “Acreage of National Parks”.  In other words, the pie chart on the right is basically a “blow-up” of the biggest slice of pie on the chart on the left.  You’ll find that this is a common relationship between diagrams on the GRE.  One chart will be an overall snapshot of something, and the other chart will give you a more detailed look at one part of the larger chart.

So, ok, now that you have a general idea of what’s going on in the diagrams, we can move on to the questions.  Suppose you are asked to find an answer for this question:

Approximately how many acres of National Park land is designated National Preserve, in millions?

Note how this question asks for an approximation, not a precise answer.  That means we should be able to use rounding to help us quickly get to the right answer.  First, let’s figure out which chart we’re looking at.  Since the question asks us to determine how much of National Park land is made up of National Preserve, we’re going to use the chart on the left.  The total acreage of National Park land is 79.6 (million) acres, and the amount of that land that is National Preserve is 28%.  Now, we could open up the calculator and compute a value from that information, but perhaps there is an easier and faster way to solve this question.

Let’s look at it like this: 79.6 is really close to 80, and 28% is pretty close to 30%.  What is 30% of 80?  24.  And because 79.6 is slightly smaller than 80 and 28% is slightly smaller than 30%, the value we’re looking for is going to be just a little bit less than 24.  Now let’s check out our answer choices:

A) 17.5

B) 20

C) 22.4

D) 25.3

E) 27.7

(D) and (E) are out, right off the bat, for being too large.  And if we look through the other values, which one is the closest to, but still less than, 24?  It’s like the Price is Right of GRE questions.  Answer choice (C), come on down!  You’re the next contestant on “I’m totally rocking the GRE Quantitative section!”

Rounding and estimation are valuable strategies to use as you tackle Data Interpretation questions.  While other students are opening the on-screen calculator to compute a specific value, you’ve already quickly calculated an approximate value, found the closest answer choice, and are on to the next problem.

Questions about GRE Data Interpretation questions or math strategy in general? Leave a comment below and we’ll answer.