As you can tell from my profile, I'm now a senior in college. Of course, to many people this would be the point where they sit back and relax, enjoying the ride and all that. Of course, I'm not like most people. I drive forward, sure of my destination, ready with 100 possible detours, if necessary. I don't want to arrive to the party late, so I've got my hair in curlers and I'm driving 80 mph. I'll be early, I assure you, wherever it is I end up...but I'll be there, and that's what is important.
On Saturday I took the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE. No one could ever call me unprepared. I was not about to find myself in an extemporaneous position. (Note the use of a GRE study word, however well it was used or not.) I gathered several books and teaching guides, I searched through countless useless webpages to find a few that were useful, and I made myself over 500 flashcards with various vocabulary words. For anyone who is set to take this test in the future, this is what I learned:
- Flashcards aren't going to do you a bit of good if they stay on your coffee table at home.
Take them everywhere, pick 5 or 10 or even 20 a day, and read them - over and over. Study them and, for crying out loud, make sentences out of them. Use them in your everyday language. Your friends and family will find you completely insane, but when they see high test scores, they will congratulate you and all will be forgotten.
- Do not buy or type your flashcards.
There are several methods of learning, and each person is different, but I have never heard anyone learning BETTER from being told rather than doing. The act of writing your flashcards engages your mind in the process. You are forced to look at the spellings of each word, forced to say (if even silently to yourself) each word of the definition. If they are good definitions, they will include synonyms of words you are more familiar with, and your job is to relate those two words in your mind. (A word like "chary" you'll be more likely to remember if you have a mneumonic like "chary wary." You probably know what wary means. If the word chary pops up on the test, you can replace it with the word you know and go on to find the answer.)
- The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE is the best book for your money, but you'll need to find additional practice tests.
I purchased the Kaplan test review book months ago, before I had even registered for my actual test. What I liked about this book was that I was going to be given 5 practice tests. (I will tell you now that studying practice tests are the best way to practice the methods and time managment techniques you'll need for the actual test.) When it was two weeks before my scheduled day, however, I was unable to locate my book (which ended up being behind some other books on my desk...don't ask - you'll understand when you have your test looming in 2 weeks and you're missing something you desperately need.) I did what I promised I would not do, I went to the bookstore and bought another study book.
Of course, I was not going to buy the same version I already had (that would be a waste if I ended up finding the thing...which I did), so I bought the Cracking the GRE book. Best money ever spent. Talk about techniques! Their "hit parade" lists were amazing! Half of the words I didn't know on the test were in the 4 hit parade lists, another half of the remaining I didn't know, were in the "continuing" section of the hit parade. The final 5 or so...well, you can't have it all, can you?
What's more, the POE (process of elimination) techniques they teach got me through several questions that I would have simply passed (and kicked myself for) without the helpful techniques I learned in the book. Whether or not I got those questions right, I felt like I had a fighting chance at them. That confidence can do you wonders in a standardized tests you sit through for 3 hours straight!
The only problem is that you will need those extra practice tests. See if you can find them online (and definately complete the two provided online from the book and the one from ETS' own website - gre.org). Truth is, there are only so many question the ETS people can come up with, and a question in one of your practice tests might pop up (at least in part) on the actual test.
- Bone up on your junior high math.
Again, this is where your Cracking the GRE book will come in handy. I felt a lot more proficient after reading through some of the "refresher" material in the study guide. However, I will say that if you haven't taken math for a while, like me (it's been around 8 or 9 years) you'll probably be helped by Kaplan's GRE Math Workbook. The more practice, the better.
- Finally, rejoice when it's over.
The best part about this standardized test is that you get your scores immediately following your test, so you know how you did before you even leave the testing center. (Of course, your writing portions must be graded later, so you will get those grades in the next few weeks.) I was able to improve my grades from the practice tests I took at the beginning by at least 50-100 points! And that's really saying something!
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