Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

Aptitude Test--CAT

Four or five sections, scores from only 3 One verbal with 30 minute time limit: reading and vocabulary One quantitative section: arithmetic, basic algebra, and geometry One analytical section with 60 minute time limit: logic games and arguments One wild card section Number of questions depends on performance, but test has minimum number

Adaptive or interactive, the CAT has fewer items and takes less time than the paper version. After the first question, the level of difficulty of each succeeding question is determined by your correct or incorrect answer. Scored on a scale from 200-800. Each question is worth ten points although the range of points may be from 0-20 based not on the difficulty of the question but on the number of questions you answer correctly. You must answer every question. There is no deduction for incorrect answers.

Verbal Sentence completions Analogies Reading Comprehension Antonyms

Quantitative Quantitative comparisons Discrete quantitatives (word problems) Data interpretation (charts and graphs)

Analytical Analytical reasoning (games) Logical reasoning (arguments)

Writing Assessment Test

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Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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Strategies for Taking the GRE

Use the process of elimination. Guess. Don’t read the instructions, be familiar with them beforehand. Practice many times on the computer; speed is important-- the computer will beep every five minutes.

Verbal

The emphasis is always vocabulary, reading comprehension, and critical thinking.

Strategies for improving vocabulary (Princeton gives 45 most frequently asked words.)

1. Say the word aloud.

2. Study the word by dissecting it—examine the root of the word and the prefix and/or suffix.

3. Make note cards with definitions and sentences, color coding for positive and negative attributes.

4. Write a sentence on the note card.

5. Use the word with family and friends; assign characteristics to a member of your family, for example, all the words that mean gossip, you might assign to your mother-in-law.

6. Tape your sentences and listen as you exercise or drive.

7. Associate or divide words according to the four humors:

melancholic (gloomily pensive) black bile, earth

sanguine (headstrong and passionate), blood, air

phlegmatic (unemotional and passive) phlegm, water

choleric (bad-tempered and angry) yellow bile, fire

Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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Analogies

1. Make a sentence with the pairs. (lack of, type of, part of, place for, degree of, tool for, sign of, sequence, spurious form of)

2. If all answers fit the analogy of your sentence, make your sentence more specific.

3. If you cannot make a sentence with the question analogy, reverse the order and check the answers for a possible relationship.

4. Remember that often the second word is an extreme degree of the first.

5. Recognize that most pairs are adjectives or nouns and the answer will have the same pairing.

Sentence Completions

1. This test is a test of overall reading comprehension.

2. As you read, anticipate and supply your own word or words.

3. Often a suggested answer is wrong because it creates a phrase that is not idiomatic.

4. Another reason to reject a possible answer is that it fails to support the logic of the sentence.

Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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READING COMPREHENSION

Save for last on the verbal part of the exam Two passages, 3-8 questions each

Skip short passage(if time is a problem) or save it for last, but mark answer sheet

1. Don’t read the passage.

Read first sentence of each paragraph. Read last sentence of passage. Write in three words topic of passage.

2. Answer general questions (usually first two; one, on main idea; one, on tone, style or point of view) using the above method. In answering questions about tone, attitude, or style, eliminate choices that are too negative, politically incorrect, or express extreme emotions.

3. Read choices for specific questions, trying to eliminate any answers using the following

hints:

Eliminate any extreme statement. Key words to look for: must, the best, the first,

only, each, every, all, totally, always, no. Read choices containing these words

very carefully. Answers will paraphrase the passage, not quote it exactly. Remember that the answer will contain some words from the passage, but answers with large chunks of text can be eliminated.

4. In trying to answer line-number questions, read at least five lines before and five lines after the line given.

5. Questions that are numbered I, II, and III are in reality true-false questions. Begin with the shortest of the statements.

6. Answer the I, II, and III questions and the EXCEPT questions last.

Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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QUANTITATIVE

1. Arithmetic, algebra, geometry

2. No calculus, no trigonometry

3. Pay careful attention to capitalized and underlined words.

4. Look for short cuts if the problem is too tedious to work out.

5. Get a tutor if necessary.

ANALYTICAL

1. These are questions that test logical reasoning and your understanding of argument; again, the emphasis is on reading comprehension.

2. Analytical questions have an initial statement, a questions stem, and answer choices.

3. The questions are mostly based on inductive reasoning.

4. Your job is to find the conclusion (which may be first, last, or in the middle), draw inferences, identify assumptions, and strengthen or weaken arguments.

5. Step-By-Step Strategy

a. Read the question. (This tells you what you’re looking for.)

b. Read the entire passage.

c. Find and mark the conclusion (premises and assumptions if necessary).

d. Answer the question in your own words.

e. Eliminate wrong answer choices using the process of elimination.

Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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Written Assessment

In October 1999, a GRE Writing Assessment Test will be added as a separate exam, requiring test-takers to write two essays. Test-takers will have 45 minutes to write one essay called “Present Your Perspective on an Issue” and 30 minutes to write another essay called “Analyze an Argument.” Each of the essays will be graded by two graders, and the scores averaged. Your score will range from 0 to 6 in half-point increments. Here are some tips for writing great essays:

Be organized. Well-organized papers will receive much higher scores than less organized ones. Separate your essay into paragraphs, use transition words, and use clear, direct language.

Use examples. Do not leave arguments unsupported. It will be much more convincing to the grader if you present well thought out examples clearly and directly. Humor and rhetorical questions will not help you as the graders do not get much time to read the essays.

Proofread. Although one minor error will not affect your score negatively, several misspellings or grammatical mistakes may ruin your essay. Allow yourself 3 or 4 minutes at the end of the section for proofreading.

Check out the essay topics ahead of time. The essay topics will be published before the test is available in October. There will be at least 100 different topics for each of the two essays. Although you do not want to take the time to write an essay for each of them, you should spend some time familiarizing yourself with the format and common features of the topics.

Remember to analyze your audience. Think about who the readers are and remember that your job is to meet the expectations of those readers.

Tom Waldrep - Director Jennie Ariail - Assistant Director

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Important Resources:

Practicing to Take the GRE General Test (contains real tests)Graduate Record ExaminationsEducational Testing ServiceOrder Services Dept.CN 6785Princeton, NJ 08541-6785(609) 771-7243

http://www.gre.org

Cracking the GRE. Robinson, A. & Katzman, J. Princeton Review (with computer disks), 1998

How to Prepare for the GRE. Bramson M., Selub, M. & Solomon L. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich

GRE Super Course. ARCO, 1997.