One of the delineations between admission to some online universities are the use of the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), or no assessment requirement. I have never taken the MAT or GRE. What has been the experience of some of the board members with these tests? I have looked at them online - is one preferable over the another? I am looking at the educational doctorate at Nebraska (need GRE), NOVA (need GRE), and Northcentral (no test needed).
I took the GRE. It is more common than the MAT so you are better off with that if you are applying to a few schools at once. If you are studying for it, I recommend taking a big dictionary and learning at least one new difficult word a day. That verbal part is killer. The math part is all about knowing definitions. I also used the REA study guide which I thought was very good.
I took the MAT and found it to be fairly easy (well, that is relative, I am sure). I was told that it is easier for one who has not been in class for awhile as compared to the GRE. I had not been to school for several years at that point. Having never taken the GRE, I can't compare them. If you have a particular school that you are considering, I would call them and ask if they have a preference. clint
I took the GRE almost ten years ago. I am scheduled to take the GMAT next month, and last month I took the MAT. I got an awesome score on the MAT (99th percentile). It all depends on the areas in which your skills lie. If you have a very strong vocabulary and good reading skills, then you have an overwhelming advantage on the MAT. And since the GRE is divided into different sections, a good verbal score will allow you to compensate for weaker scores in math. If you are more comfortable with math then the GRE is the way to go. It's also a much more widely used test than the MAT. You really have to prep for either test, whatever your skills are, so you can avoid question traps. The MAT might seem easy -- it is nothing but a series of analogies with multiple choice answers -- but the time constraints can build up a lot of pressure during the test, and the answers can be very tricky. Studying vocabulary is a good idea for either test but it is crucial for the MAT. I thought I had an excellent vocabulary but I realized I had some serious gaps in sports and music terms which do show up on the MAT, although not as much as regular humanities terms. Do you know what a battledore is? It's the thing you use to hit the shuttlecock in badminton. Bizarre.
The original name of the game, right back to the middle ages, was battledore and shuttlecock. The name "Badminton", as far as I remember, refers to the stately home of that name in Gloucestershire, where battledore and shuttlecock was played in the long gallery. Angela
