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Last active September 15, 2016 01:58
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GRE

The motivation behind the exam

The GRE exam was mainly designed as a complete aptitude test for undergraduates aiming for higher studies. Usually it tests all-round ability of survival in a higher education institution, making sure you have enough prerequisite knowledge though probably unrelated to your area of study directly, but still used in the daily business of that area. Like, having enough knowledge in English to understand publications textbooks and general professor level communication, having enough knowledge in math to be able to grasp concepts easily, etc. GRE is mainly for technology fields but students from other fields also take this exam.

Points to note

  • GRE score is not sufficient for university selection criteria
  • The score expires every 5 years per person
  • Exam cost is about $205
  • Total time : 03:45 hours
  • Total points : 340 (half each)
  • Minimum : 260 (half each)

The exam pattern:

The exam will consist of 4 sections. 2 sections of English (called Verbal by their website) and 2 sections of math. It will be presented to you alternately math and English but what comes first is chosen randomly.

The exam is progressive. Meaning, a right answer will warrant a harder consecutive question, and a wrong answer will warrant an easier consecutive question. But what's easy and hard is perspective so don't panic if you see an easy question.

English

Major points to attempt it right

  • Learn top 500 words used in the exam.
  • If possible their synonyms and antonyms (which may not be exclusive from the 500 stated above)

types of questions

  1. Odd man out (words)
  2. Pick the one that's closes to the word ____
  3. Used in a sentence and usually asking antonyms or synonyms
  4. Given a paragraph, you must be able to answer a few questions. Must concentrate on subtler underlying meaning rather than just details
  5. Must be able to answer a few questions listening to a conversation or audio clip

Math

There isn't really anything I need to say about this. Pretty standard. You will have an on-screen calculator and will be able to use it for calculations. You will also have sheets of paper to work out.

topics

  • Anything from basic arithmetic to algebra to 12th level calculus and statistics.
  • A few puzzle type questions
  • Deduction, extrapolation, inference type questions based on some graphs and charts

Essay

Also, one question where you will have to write about some topic, or discussing something on your own. One more question where you will have to write notes based on a conversation or an article or something. Like your own view.


Disclaimer : this is how I remember it and make sure you read the website ets.org before actually concluding anything

you will ace it

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