By Gavin Sanders
I hope everyone had a great winter break and welcome back for a new semester! I hope everyone’s holidays were as exciting as mine. I graduated with my Bachelors in December and am now in the process of applying to graduate schools. It is an electrifying new chapter in my life and I am ready to see where it leads me!
I am going to begin this entry by continuing with the Quantitative section of the GRE and finishing up with the Analytic Writing section. The Quantitative portion of the GRE is probably the most feared aspect of the test, with good reason. It is quite difficult, but not because the math concepts are hard. Concepts do not exceed high school algebra and geometry. However, the GRE is a reasoning exam, designed to illustrate your aptitude for success in graduate school. Therefore, questions are intentionally deceitful. The biggest tip I can give you is to brush up on many concepts namely; triangles, circles, percents, factoring, inequalities, substitution methods, and coordinate geometry (slope, midpoint, distance). All of these and more will appear during the exam.
The Analytical Writing portion is about as straightforward as it sounds. You will be given 30 minutes each to write two essays. The first essay is the "Analyze an Issue." This task assesses your ability to think critically and express your thoughts coherently in writing. The important thing to note here is that there is no right answer; your argument just needs to flow and make sense. The topic will be something of general interest. “Analyze an Argument” is the second essay. Here, you need to critique an argument the author is making and analyze how logical it is. You make your case by offering evidence to back up any claims you make. Again, you need not agree nor disagree with what the author is saying. Merely discuss any logical fallacies the author fails to speak on.
The most important studying you can do will come from taking practice tests. Many official GRE books offer practice tests and the ETS website even offers free PowerPrep software containing two practice tests (ETS). There are also countless apps in the Apple App Store and Android Play Store. The most helpful app I downloaded was the Complete GRE Prep (Gradestack Education) on the Play Store. Go check it out.
ETS - http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2
Gradestack Education - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onelearn.android.greprep&hl=en
I hope everyone had a great winter break and welcome back for a new semester! I hope everyone’s holidays were as exciting as mine. I graduated with my Bachelors in December and am now in the process of applying to graduate schools. It is an electrifying new chapter in my life and I am ready to see where it leads me!
I am going to begin this entry by continuing with the Quantitative section of the GRE and finishing up with the Analytic Writing section. The Quantitative portion of the GRE is probably the most feared aspect of the test, with good reason. It is quite difficult, but not because the math concepts are hard. Concepts do not exceed high school algebra and geometry. However, the GRE is a reasoning exam, designed to illustrate your aptitude for success in graduate school. Therefore, questions are intentionally deceitful. The biggest tip I can give you is to brush up on many concepts namely; triangles, circles, percents, factoring, inequalities, substitution methods, and coordinate geometry (slope, midpoint, distance). All of these and more will appear during the exam.
The Analytical Writing portion is about as straightforward as it sounds. You will be given 30 minutes each to write two essays. The first essay is the "Analyze an Issue." This task assesses your ability to think critically and express your thoughts coherently in writing. The important thing to note here is that there is no right answer; your argument just needs to flow and make sense. The topic will be something of general interest. “Analyze an Argument” is the second essay. Here, you need to critique an argument the author is making and analyze how logical it is. You make your case by offering evidence to back up any claims you make. Again, you need not agree nor disagree with what the author is saying. Merely discuss any logical fallacies the author fails to speak on.
The most important studying you can do will come from taking practice tests. Many official GRE books offer practice tests and the ETS website even offers free PowerPrep software containing two practice tests (ETS). There are also countless apps in the Apple App Store and Android Play Store. The most helpful app I downloaded was the Complete GRE Prep (Gradestack Education) on the Play Store. Go check it out.
ETS - http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2
Gradestack Education - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onelearn.android.greprep&hl=en