GRE is Tough!!!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by me again, Nov 6, 2001.

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  1. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    GRE Graduate-Entrance Examination is Tough!

    Our entire cohort class has signed up for a six week GRE prep course. We had our first class last Saturday and mannnnnnn it looks hard!

    Allegedly, we have to get a thousand points or higher to be accepted into the program (unless your GPA is 3.0 or higher: Then they cut you some slack and you can score lower than 1000). However, I'm betting that since we're a cohort class, they are going to cut us some significant slack.

    I do not believe I'll score 1000 or higher!
     
  2. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    If you need 1000 points added up from all three categories, I wouldn't sweat it...a shaved chimp could pull that off. More likely, you need 1000 from V+Q or V+A, which is another ball game altogether.

    Stick with the prep course, and have faith in yourself. I took the GRE "cold" (no prep whatsoever), and while I didn't set any records, I was accepted to every graduate program to which I applied.


    Bruce
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    1. Which school is requiring this? Is your "cohort group" of that school? If so, have they already admitted you, or is your admission contingent upon completing the GRE?

    2. I certainly hope this school isn't requiring the GRE of adult learners. That test--flawed as it is--is for people right out of college heading off to grad school. I would resent being asked to take it. (I never did; I took the GMAT when I was 21--it was dumb and easy, just like the GRE.) My wife is going to attend George Mason University to get her master's as a nurse practitioner. While GMU requires the GRE, it waives it for experienced professionals.

    Rich Douglas
     
  4. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Ut oh, I'm in trouble! [​IMG]

    You're right: it is only the "verbal" and the "quantitative" portions that count. I'm going to skip the "analytical" portion because it isn't required.

    Univ. of South Florida.

    Oh yes!

    Frankly, I'm not sure. Here is the order of events:
    1. The cohort group has already completed the first masters class.
    2. The cohort group is now enrolled in the GRE prep course.

    So, to answer your question, I'm not sure how it is going to work. However, I believe that the university is going to be very lenient towards us (at least I hope so). After all, we're all professionals who are already established in our careers.

    Yes, they are requiring us to take it. That is why they sponsored the GRE prep course (to help us pass it???). Supposedly, if your GPA is 3.0 or higher, then you can score lower than 1000 on the GRE (???), but it hasn't been fully explained to us and it appears to be a gray area. Again, I am of the opinion that they will be very lenient towards us since we are professionals who are already in a career track.

    I guess that's why the university is sponsoring the GRE prep course for us: So we have a better chance of scoring higher or passing it (???).

    Yeaa, it's a little bit humiliating. But what can we do?

    By the same token, I am of the belief that they will waive it for us if we don't pass it, since we are experienced professionals.
     
  5. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    And if I don't make the GRE cut-off, then I'll pursue a DL option (I guess).

    In the meantime, I'm studying every day to pass the GRE. They issued us three thick GRE prep books. Unreal...
     
  6. mdg1775

    mdg1775 New Member

    Don't Sweat it! I took it on July 15th and got: 480 on Analytical (only competency title I remember), 430 on math, & 550 on the other subject=1460. I didn't study or anything. I took the computer based test and it was pretty rough but manageable.

    One word of advice (from my experience), take your time and be pretty confident in your answers. They start easier and get harder as you make correct choices.

    Good Luck!!
     
  7. BruceP

    BruceP Member

    Sounds to me like your school is trying to "Jerry rig" their statistics by prepping your cohort for the test and then can toot their horn with the higher test scores... perhaps trying to sway the stat's to provide a better validation for the GRE too! (They offer the prep class AFTER the first class??? Mmmmm... Those who couldn't hack it in the first class have probably dropped out already... so only the serious students take the GRE...

    What a racket!!! [​IMG]

    BruceP in Colorado Springs
     
  8. BruceP

    BruceP Member

    Upon further reflection... I can only sit here in ultimate awe... the school's degree of creativeness in doing business this way (the perception of "getting over" on the traditional norms) is most ingenious! <evil snicker> [​IMG]

    BruceP in Colorado Springs
     
  9. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    I didn't know that a six week "GRE Prep Course" even existed!

    Yes, that is correct. One three credit graduate course has already been completed. The next course is the "GRE Prep Course."

    LOL -- Nope, nobody has dropped out!

    The GRE test probably does weed out a lot of people (but hopefully not in our case!!! Mercy... have mercy!!!)
     
  10. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Well, we had another GRE class today (2 of 6, every Saturday, for 6 Saturdays in a row) and we've already had a couple of drop-outs. Mmmmm.....

    For the verbal, I'm supposed to study 3000 words, of which they might ask me 10 on the GRE? [​IMG]

    Sheesh.
     
  11. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Actually, they'll ask you none of them. Definitions aren't a category tested on the GRE. Also, it is a supreme waste of time to study those stupid word lists. Most of the words on them will never, ever appear on a GRE. The people who write test questions go out of their way to ensure the vocabulary used on the test is a simple one. The don't want someone missing a test question because they didn't understand a word, a word that wasn't relevant to the purpose of the test question.

    Your time would be better spent learning about the testing process, how questions are written, how the ETS attempts to trap students with question structure and the distractors used, etc. If you are going to take a pencil-paper GRE, practice using pencil and paper. If it will be on the computer, then practice that. People who should otherwise score well on tests get tripped up by a lot of things that are not relevant to measuring their potential for graduate school. Don't let that be you.

    Rich Douglas, Enemy of the ETS.
     
  12. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Another thing that chaps my ______ is the fact that I used a calculator all through college. We were encouraged to use it, both for homework and on exams.

    But now, for the GRE, I'm not allowed to use a calculator. It's not fair!

    (Would a wristwatch calculator fit on my left ankle......)
     
  13. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    For the Record

    Lest anyone get the wrong idea (and think that I'm referring to cheating on an exam), please allow me to clarify the above statement:

    You never know when you might want to solve an algebraic problem while you're out jogging, hence the need to carry a wristwatch calculator on your ankle.

    Just in case . . . because you never know when you might come across the quadratic equation.
     
  14. Alex

    Alex New Member

    Actually, I found it very useful to study the word lists in test prep books for the GRE general exam I took in the late 1980s. A number of the fairly obscure words from the list appeared on the exam in one form or another. Scored 780 out of 800 on the verbal portion, and strongly suspect my score was higher than it would have been if I had not studied the word lists.

    Don't know whether studying the word lists will help for the current version of the GRE verbal section.

    Alex
     

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