Introduction To The GRE | The Odyssey Online
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Student Life

Let Me Help You Out A Little And Give You A Basic Run Down On The GRE

It's a monster of a test, but it's doable.

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Writing

Recently I have been preparing for the GRE, and now, let me share the insights and advice to GRE test takers.

GRE is Graduate Records Examination. It consists of three portions, writing, quantitative, and verbal. The quantitative is math and verbal includes multiple choice and reading comprehension. The writing is not calculated towards the whole test, but it does matter when the test takers are applying for their target schools which request for the writing exam paper.

The writing is divided into two topics, one is issue writing and the other is the argument. The issue of writing is not hard, you just need to read thoroughly the short requirement and understand what happens behind the topic and can write by showing examples and analytics skills. The logic is also important, and remember that logic is the most vital point GRE wants to test you on.

Argument writing is different from the issue. There will be a paragraph telling you a scenario, such as a company's sale in a city. Then there will be other evidence such as how the company makes strategies and the circumstance their products are in. These things will need you to justify and sift from the wrong logical points in their expression and critically express your opinions in the writing on how to improve the situation. Argument writing needs strong critical thinking skills.

As for verbal, this is the most difficult part for me, at least. However, because English is not my first language, verbal is hard out of the large volume of vocabularies. Actually, even most of the words you know beforehand, it is only guaranteed that you could handle the easy section well. The verbal always begins with the medium section, and the logical thinking is harder than you think. You will have to read the whole sentence or the paragraph at least twice to see if there is any trap.

As for reading, there will be a least one long article in the first verbal section, along with about four questions. Short articles will follow. However, it still needs the correct inference. Otherwise, it is easy to make mistakes. In 35 minutes of a section, you have 20 questions to answer. If you do the first section well, you could get a hard section in the second section. This will make you not bad for the final scores, at least, even you did really unsatisfying in the second section. The harder level will be reflected in the vocabulary's enhanced difficulty.

The last thing is math, which is also called quantitative. This part contains five minutes more than the verbal section and the number of questions is the same. They mainly focus on high school algebra, geometry, or even basic statistics knowledge at the university level. You will need to practice more to gain a full insight into the entire framework of the math knowledge which will be covered.

OG, the official textbook of GRE, can help you learn all the things quickly and conveniently. However, it is unavoidable you get stuck in the exam because the exam is always more difficult than the normal practices. Be aware of the time constraints every time you do practice.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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