College Crunch

The Graduate Record Examination or GRE General Test is a required admissions test for many graduate schools. First administered in 1949, the test is run by Education Testing Services and is routinely considered to be one of the most difficult and rigid standardized tests that students take as part of the admission process.

Though emphasis on the GRE as part of the admissions process varies from school to school, most graduate programs do require that the student take the GRE and have some minimal score requirements. As such, it is an important test to be well prepared for and, considering many graduate students return to school after many years away from the classroom, it can be one of the most difficult.

To make matters even more confusing the GRE is not a pencil and paper test, like the more familiar SAT and ACT tests, but is taken on a computer at approved testing sites. However, the GRE, unlike the ACT and SAT, has not undergone drastic changes and remains relatively rigid in its structure, making it a test that students can prepare for with confidence.

This is furthered by the fact that the ETS offers the GRE year around and the students taking the test are usually not under any time limit, such as high school graduation, meaning that preparation can be done at a comfortable pace and the test taken only when one is fully ready.

The Basics of the GRE

The GRE has remained largely the same over the past few decades. Though pressures over alleged flaws in the test initially prompted the ETS to consider a radical change in the test in 2006, they have since decided to follow a more gradual approach and have limited their changes to adding new questions. As such, old practice tests and previous experiences with the GRE are still likely good guides.

That being said, the current GRE exam has three graded components, each designed to test different skills and present different challenges.

1. Verbal Reasoning: The verbal reasoning portion of the test grades the student’s ability to analyze written material. It consists of 30 multiple-choice questions and has a 30-minute time limit to complete. This section contains analogies, reading comprehension and other basic analysis tasks.

2. Qualitative Reasoning: The qualitative reasoning section looks at the student’s comprehension of college-level math, especially algebra and geometry, as well as their ability to solve problems in a “quantitative setting”. This test consists of 28 multiple choice questions and has a 45-minute time limit.

3. Analytical Writing: The analytical writing portion grades the student’s ability to articulate themselves via their writing as well as their ability to defend a position and engage in discussion on a topic. This test consists of two essays, an issue task essay that has a 45-minute time limit and an argument task essay that has a 30-minute time limit.

4. Ungraded Portions: There may also be optional ungraded portions of the test that are given solely for research purposes. These portions do not affect your score in any way and the amount of time they take as well as their content will vary.

The GRE is different from many other standardized tests in that it is adaptive. The difficulty of the questions will increase or lower depending upon whether the previous questions were answered correctly or not. The first question is considered an “average” one that half of the students should get correct, the next question will be based upon the answer to that one and so forth.

The Verbal and Qualitative portions of the test are graded on a scale of 200-800 in 10 point increments. The writing portion is graded on a scale of 0-6 with half point increments. There is no composite score as all of the portions are graded and reported separately.

Due to the dynamic nature of the GRE, preparing for the test is difficult and many consider the test to be “uncoachable”. However, there are strategies and resources to help students prepare for the exam and, hopefully, raise their scores.

Preparing for the GRE

When preparing for the GRE, the focus is less on practice tests and more on strategy, process of elimination and topics to focus on. The goal is not to so much to be ready for the specific test, but to know how the test works and understand what it takes to do well.

Official GRE Preparation: When you register to take the GRE, the ETC provides you with a robust collection of resources to help you prepare for the exam. Most prominent is its PowerPrep software, which runs on one’s personal computer and simulates the GRE exam, letting test takers get a preview of what the exam is like and includes two practice test, sample writing prompts as well as reviews and tutorials. ETC also provides practice tests and general strategies. ETC does not license their old tests to other companies, making them the only place to get previous questions and official practice tests.

Yahoo! Education: Yahoo! has partnered with Kaplan to create a test preparation section, that includes practice questions for the various parts of the test as well as articles on GRE strategies. This resource is completely free.

Syvum: Syvum.com has assembled a collection of Web-based practice GRE tests for students to try out. These tests only deal with the verbal and multiple choice questions of the exam and are designed to simulate the randomness and unpredictability of the GRE.

Number2: Number2.com, as with other standardized tests, provides a free personalized online course for GRE preparation. Number2 tracks your progress and how much time students spend preparing for the exam.

Kaplan: Kaplan also provides many paid resources for helping students study for the GRE and obtain a better score. These resources range from short online courses to one-on-one tutoring.

Though these resources can help students obtain a better score, the dynamic nature of the GRE does make it a difficult test to study for. But by understanding the types of questions, how to use process of elimination and which questions to focus on, students can improve their score drastically over those who did not prepare.

Retaking the GRE

Every time you take the GRE, students are allowed to send it to up to four schools or fellowship programs for free and additional ones for a fee. However, every GRE they have taken in the past five years is also sent, meaning that, even if one does improve their scores, weaker tests will be sent along with your stronger ones.

Since the role of the GRE in the admissions process varies widely from school to school, so does the impact of retaking the test. Students would be wise to call their university or fellowship program to learn how retaken tests are weighed before deciding whether or not move forward.

Bottom Line

The GRE is a very different test from other standardized tests. Not only is it adaptive and dynamic, making the test unpredictable, but reliable information about past tests and effective strategies is closely guarded by the ETS.

Still, since the test has remained largely unchanged over the decades, strategies have emerged and there are ways to prepare for the “uncoachable” test. However, that preparation has to move beyond mere memorization and more into strategies.

All in all, the GRE is a very intimidating test for many reasons but it is one that, with better understanding, one can easily improve their odds and get better results on.