Prepare SMART for GRE

Updated on: Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE), the real time passport for technical education in United States that attracts about 50,000 students from India every year, is an angel that is unwarrantedly dreaded. But how do you crack GRE ? By Just being SMART – Systematic, Methodical Assimilation and Rehearsal Techniques.

Get to know the source of knowledge, start preparing methodically, rehearse and practise as many times as possible. This old school style is called the woodpecker technique of cracking things.

The GRE is an online examination that is adaptive in nature. To get accustomed to its adaptive style, you should make use of computers and not depend on books alone. Also, find a resource that enables you to study anytime anywhere to axe away the logistical difficulties in attending coaching classes. It makes more sense, because these days students spend more time on commuting than in actual study rooms.

Further, make sure that the source from which you study is interactive enough to clear your doubts and guide you well. The best thing you can do when you are preparing for GRE is to get someone to constantly watch your performance and tell you what you lack and what you are good at. So, be choosy when it comes to your coaching programmes.

GRE Structure

The GRE tests verbal, quantitative and analytical writing skills. The GRE verbal section will have questions on sentence completion, analogies, reading comprehension and antonyms. Your success depends on your vocabulary. The difficulty level of questions vary.

This section has 30 questions – six sentence completions, seven analogies, eight reading comprehension questions and nine antonyms. These can appear in any order. You have to answer 30 questions in 30 minutes.

The GRE quantitative section tests basic understanding of Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. You don't have to know advanced mathematics; most questions are of high school level. This section contains 28 total questions from quantitative comparison, data analysis and discrete quantitative comparison. You have to answer 28 questions in 45 minutes.

The GRE Analytical Writing Ability section tests ability to analyse issues and writing ability. You have to write two essays in 45 minutes.

Ten tips to crack GRE

Answer every question. The GRE is not an exam where you go about skipping questions you're not sure of . No one cares if you don't really understand something and make random guesses. You are not penalized for guessing in this exam. (unlike the SAT).So it's in your best interest to answer every single question thrown at you, even the ones you don't like.

Be sure of your answers especially when taking the Computer-Adaptive GRE. You can't go back once you have selected an answer. On the computerized version, you'll simply get a zero if you leave something blank. So make the correct choice the first time itself.

Use scratch papers. You will not be allowed to take any papers to the test centre. However, you will be provided with scratch papers. Use it to solve math problems, outline your essay for the writing section or write down formulas or words you've memorized before the test.

Use the process of elimination. If you can rule out even one wrong answer, you'll be in a better chance of guessing the right one. Most of the time, you'll be able to narrow down your choices to two , which obviously gives you much better odds of getting the answers right.

Spend more time on the harder questions. Chances are that you'll be taking the computerized version of the test. The scoring is scaled according to the difficulty of the questions. The harder questions fetch you more points.

Even if you miss quite a few easy questions and get a smaller percentage of the harder ones correct, your score will be much better than if you had answered all the easy ones correctly. So plan your time accordingly. This is an important point to remember.

Pace yourself. You may be a dreamer in real life, but be alert while taking the GRE. You'll have only about one minute per question for the verbal section and approximately two minutes per question for the math section. Two minutes may seem like a long time to answer a math question. But harder questions may take more time. So don't waste time.

Go with your first instinct. Statistics prove that your first choice is usually correct. Do not go back and change your answers if you are taking the paper test.

Manage your stress. Try not to get over-stressed. Your best bet is to manage your stress by repeating a positive phrase or envisioning the end result of all your hard work.

Read the questions first. While attending the reading comprehension section, read the questions and choice of answers first. Instead of plunging ahead into the text, read what you need to be looking for. You'll save time and score more points if you do this.

Outline. It may seem like this tip is outdated, but you can't neglect the GRE writing section.

Before you start writing, make sure you take five minutes to outline what you're going to say first. Your organisation and thought process will be much higher if you do so.

Learning for GRE can also be fun. Now, try re-writing the classical rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' using GRE words…it would probably sound like this.

“Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minim,

How I cogitate what you are

Atop the aether so high

Akin to a zircon in the sky. “

Prepare SMART for GRE

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