<p>"Applying basic principles and sound reasoning is far from representing “guesstimates.” "</p>
<p>Absolutely, but the timing of the test, and also the imprecise ways words are used requires some level of glossing over specifics.</p>
<p>“For the verbal sections, knowing the precise definitions of words does help tremendously. Overthinking is only a problem for testers who lack the knowledge or confidence to pick the correct answer without hesitation.”</p>
<p>Hah. No. I could go through practice tests one by one and ask which of the ambiguous or multiple definitions they meant for so many words. The irony was, I would do better on the “difficult” words (usually Latinate roots and unambiguous) but on the words with multiple definitions, i.e. the basic, common words which were supposedly “easy” according to the CAT, I would get more wrong. Time and time again, in our discussions, she would say, “But they meant THIS meaning.” “Well that is not the first or even second meaning in the dictionary, and anyway, that exactly does not fit with such-and-such.” “You’re over-thinking it.” “How can you over-think the GRE?!?” “No, they just don’t mean that exact definition, not that precisely, they just mean…” “It’s in two dictionaries.” “But they just want to know if you know <em>in general</em> what it means.” “I don’t use the word generally. I use it precisely according to context. Are you telling me to kind of pretend that this word only has one vague, ambiguous, imprecise meaning, and nothing more, and make the match? In that case, C.” “Yes, C.” After about four go-rounds like this, I was laughing. They do not use the precise meanings of the words.</p>
<p>Believe me, it would be impossible to consistently raise my score on practice tests like that if I’d gotten the score purely by guessing. I took seven practice CAT tests, two before trying this method, five after, plus the GRE itself. If chance didn’t help, I don’t know what did, because I sure as heck didn’t crack a dictionary.</p>
<p>I do agree with you about the math–ideally, you will do all of the steps. However, for anyone but the most in-practice student, 1.5 minutes per question requires guesstimation or sight knowledge on at least some problems, because others will require at least five or six lines of arithmetic, if not more. I am not suggesting it cannot be done with arithmetic, however, I think that when it’s perfected it is done either by someone that’s been in math classes up to that point (which is much more likely on the SAT since most college-bound high schoolers have at least three years of math). And when a score rises drastically, it is probably due to improved knowledge of estimation skills required for that specific test. Mine was starting to rise, went up 40 points, after I started to apply them but I ran out of time.</p>
<p>“If I ever read a description of the SAT and GRE that fits the definition of “guesstimate” to a tee, this must be it. It is wrong and misleading.”</p>
<p>Having scored in the 99th % in math and verbal for my entire life on standardized tests, 99th% for verbal after 13 years out of school, and 52nd% in math 16 years after my last math class, taking 15 practice tests, seven of which were CAT, I can say confidently that I was not messing around with these tests or guessing at methods.</p>
<p>And anyway… considering the curves of the GRE, something must be wrong with the test. They are off. I looked at the SAT and it looks like a much more normal curve, and I know that they have different types of questions, so perhaps “tricks” would not work.</p>
<p>I suspect, however, that overall approach could still lead to a large jump in scores if the student applied himself and if his previous approach was significantly flawed.</p>