How to study for the GRE...(NRR)
Gnat
1,183 Posts
I'm working on the Princeton Review Book right now and finding that I hate every second of my life while I study for this shit. I am horrible at standardized tests and therefore find it necessary to habituate myself to this fucking test. I cannot approach my studies with an ounce of alacrity[/b] and prefer absconding[/b] to Soulstrut for distraction. Of course, when my wife asks me if I studied, I prevaricate[/b] her questions and ask her about her day.anybody else gone or going through this? tips, advice?sux...help...~gNaT
Comments
What worked for me was simply taking sample exams. The actual amount of knowledge you need to possess isn't the issue: it's all about familiarizing yourself to the format of the exam and developing a comfort level with that. I'd get one of those "20 sample GRE" books and just take a sample test every few days. It's tedious but that's the breaks.
in my experience, the math section the only way to study is to do as many tests as you can. learn the major types of problems. learn how to do every problem that you miss and understand that shit.
for the logic part (or whatever they call it) i think you just gotta get in the mindset of that shit. some good push-up logic mind exercise things are those puzzles called sudoku. it's the raw process of elimination puzzle shit.
for verbal i have no idea. no speaky the english. i guess you have to memorize latin roots and prefixes and suffixes and shit like that.
I agree with the above - just doing question after question helps you get in the right mind state. People don't like the math parts, but really, it's just getting used to the format and types of questions that they ask. I got one of the books that Odub is talking about, and just worked my way through it, and did quite well on the exam.
not happy about this at all...and for a master's nursing program of all things...
and yes this is my photoshop procrastination thankyou very much...
math isn't a worry for me...it's the verbal.
what worked for me was going through the books- i had a Princeton Review book and also the crappy Kaplan book. The only positive thing about the Kaplan was that you also had access to some online resources and additional practice tests. Just work through the books, print out the vocab lists and drill yourself as much as possible, make it a habit. work through the tests slowly at first (the untimed ones) but just keep taking them. When you start getting closer to your test date, take them more frequently and block out time to take the timed ones.
with the math, you just gotta get familiar with the types of questions but also get yourself up to speed so you're not freaking out when you run out of time.
answer all questions if you run out of time. i had something like 8 unanswered questions with a minute and a half to go, so i guessed on all of them... still scored a 790 on that section.
just drill, drill, drill.
shit will pay off. you'll never memorize every obscure word or root but you'll get the hang of it.
good luck. the test sucks but no way around it. the four weeks of work i put into it definitely paid off, though.
who's gonna be the first to post their score?
i'm in the same boat as you, i feel your pain. gre's are a major pain in the ass, but weeds out men from boys when it comes to grad school apps.
Good luck man. I was studying to take it this summer but when the school year rolled around I totally put it aside. Looks like I will take a year off between undergrand and grad school so I wil be studying then. Along with the books with all the sample questions, get a book with just a bunch of words to go over. Breakself actually gave me "Words for Smart Test Takers". Book has a lot of words that are commonly seen on many of these tests.