GRE is a JOKE!

Graduate School
1

<p>what on earth!!!??? How are GRE 's a valid way to distinguish who's smart and who's not?...first of all multiple questions just confuse..plus you could guess some answers right. </p>

<p>Im a UK masters student, and want to do a phd over at the states. i wanna apply to havard ideally. I got the best grades in school..and top scores in university. but was told i have to prepare for GRE's to be considered for a University in the states. I thought, 'oh thatll be easy' ...So i went to the GRE website..and did some samples..i got like EVERYTHING WRONG!!!..even on the verbal..i mean wth??..i just dont understand it..its way too confusing..and even when i get the answer wrong and then you finally click on the right answer, one should be able to go 'ahhhh, i know why that answer is the right one now'....but i dont...i just think 'eh?..okay.'</p>

<p>I showed the test to my peers..many from europe..and even though they were enrolled in english speaking highschools and what not..they too got like 90% of the questions wrong. and the ones they did get right was not cos they knew the answer, but because of lucky guessing.</p>

<p>im so shocked to see that this is the basis of how clever someone is. its ridiculous. what about writing essay, answering questions...???...</p>

<p>i feel like now i defo dont have a shot at a US uni, and i dont even know why. </p>

<p>any opinions????</p>

2

<p>I will divide my answer to three main parts, corresponding to the three GRE sections.</p>

<p>The first part (in my answer - I don’t remember the order in the test) is the quantitative, i.e. math, section.</p>

<p>It consists of high school mathematics, and if you find it difficult to answer most questions, you should review the high school math. If you are not mathematically talented, you can get a GRE practice book to help you answer some questions even when you can’t figure out the answer.</p>

<p>The section is not flawed in any way. If you get wrong answers, it is because you don’t have the skills required, or do not focus well enough.</p>

<p>The second part is the verbal section.</p>

<p>I think it’s a joke too. The reading comprehension part is okay, but memorizing vocabulary generally does not help one communicate any better. Although I have to admit I am not a native speaker, and therefore the section may have felt more difficult for me than for you or US students.</p>

<p>The third part is the writing section.</p>

<p>The idea is good, but unfortunately I think the implementation is much less so. You can find much speculation about whether it actually measures any logic in your thinking, or only factors such as the answer length and word usage. The fact that it is partly scored by a computer makes it quite clear that at least some shortcuts are used in scoring. Regardless, a good writer should be able to get at least a decent score without knowing the ‘required’ answer technique. GRE practice books will offer advice, but I’m not sure if it’s any good.</p>

<p>You should understand that GRE is not easy. If it were, how could it distinguish students? I do not understand from your post if your problem is mainly with quantitative or verbal section, but you can practice both. </p>

<p>For math, just review high school stuff, perhaps get a tutor, and do the practice exams and be sure to check if your answers were correct. The Powerprep software, if I recall correctly, explains the correct answers. </p>

<p>For verbal, you have to memorize vocabulary. Not much more you can do. I think I remember some people saying learning the word roots etc. is helpful.</p>

<p>However, the most important thing for you is to get a deep breath, drink a glass of cold water and get un****ed. GRE is a requirement for most programs, and a bad score will very likely prevent you from being accepted. If you want to get accepted, you should take the test seriously. You do not have to think that the test is a good indicator of your intelligence or skill in the field of study, but you have to respect it enough to get a decent score.</p>

<p>Btw, if I understand your nick correctly, it is a pun of Ivy. I don’t know your proposed field of study, but what most international students do not initially understand is that being Ivy and/or famous does not automatically mean the school is good for what one wants to study. You should do research and find schools that offer good programs in what you want to study, not decide based on the university name only.</p>

3

<p>My experiences with GRE were over 25 years ago. I was born in China. Taking verbal section was hell. However, I aced the other two sections. I assume you take subject as well? The subject should be easy for you. The graduate school looks more in the subject, if your intended field of study is science.</p>

<p>Verbal part of it, I have no comment. May be differences between Yankee and Brits are too great to do well? I learned Oxford English when in China. I had a hard time understanding what folks were talking about when I arrived at North Carolina! The southern draw and American slang is something your must learn in order to understand and get around town.</p>

4

<p>thanks for the response.</p>

<p>and yes my username is a play on the word ivy. to be fair, i dont see the point of coming over to the states and spending **** loads of money to go to an average ranked university. not that there is anything worng with that, since i go to an average uni in scotland. but it makes sense to strive for the best and the ivy’s seem to be the best. i study architecture. and columbia might be a more popular choice for architecture…but i prefer the curriculum tat harvard offers in their graduate design school. so thats that.</p>

<p>i guess i’ll have to just stick this one out and try and study for it. is the gre something you take in a special centre?..where you are being monitored?..and can you keep on taking the test and the universities only see your top grades.</p>

<p>i still dont think the test makes much sense. but guess ill have to do it.</p>

5

<p>^ get ready for a long road. you dont go to a top Uk university, you donh have high GRE scores but you probably want to attend tippy top schools</p>

6

<p>Sorry that I can’t provide anything more about GRE. But I did a search in top Architecture programs in the US. If Harvard is too hard to get in, try some lower ranking ones. You are correct: The cost in US schools are way too expensive.</p>

<p>Here is the list.
[2010</a> America’s Best Architecture Schools | Features | Architectural Record](<a href=“http://archrecord.construction.com/features/0911BestArchSchools/0911BestArchSchools-2.asp]2010”>2010 America's Best Architecture Schools | 2009-11-19 | Architectural Record)</p>

7

<p>I don’t know if there are differences between countries, but in my country GRE is done at a special center (total of 1 in the nation) and you are being monitored. UK probably has more centers. Universities will see all your test scores from the last five years.</p>

<p>ETS web page is confusing at times, but it does contain all the information you need, including the test center locations and how to register.</p>

<p>Please also be aware that most programs have semi-strict deadlines, which are, for the most part, in December or January. You have to check each program separately to learn the deadline.</p>

8

<p>no harm in trying</p>

9

<p>I’d advise you to learn as much vocab as you can through reading and flash cards for the verbal and to take practice GREs. ETS (the people that make the GRE) offer powerprep software on their website which has two full practice tests and other review tools that you can use. From what I hear, this is the most accurate predictor of what you will actually get on the real GRE. </p>

<p>Princeton Review and Barron’s also have their own practice tests. I have only taken the Princeton Review tests so far and they are more difficult than the GRE Powerprep tests. However, it’s all good practice. I agree with you in that the GRE is silly in many ways but we both need it to get into grad school which is why we’re studying for it. Good luck.</p>

10

<p>hey eyevee,</p>

<p>don’t go crazy about the GRE… it is only a part of your application, if you do well enough, and the rest of your app is great, then you’ll have no trouble getting into a good uni.</p>

<p>but I do understand exactly how you feel. I was like ‘***’ when I started studying for the GRE - and I am not even a native speaker!! I literally went crazy while studying the vocabulary… in the end, I did well enough on the GRE - 770Q, 550V, 4.0 AWA…
well, I was not happy at all with that score, but now I realize it’s not that important:</p>

<p>I got into UC Berkeley and Rockefeller Uni so far (even with my very low AWA score)… so cheer up :)</p>

11

<p>The verbal section is all about having well-honed communications skills, not rote memorization. I spent two hours studying and scored 800 first try.</p>

<p>Read, write and analyze. A lot. Realize that the answer is right there, staring you in the face, one of five choices to bubble in. Then understand the types of questions and get familiar with the tricks ETS throws at you. That’s the path to a solid verbal score.</p>

12

<p>Um, suck it up and think of it as an exercise in endurance and discipline. Chances are, you’ll have to do a fair bit of “meaningless”, time-consuming, grunt work for reasons you don’t really understand at some point in grad school. Fact of life. </p>

<p>And honestly, it’s probably worth obtaining the basic mathematics skills that you need to do well on the quantitative section. Doing well on the quantitative section does not necessarily indicate strong math abilities, but having strong math abilities tends to correlate well with being able to score high on the GRE math section…</p>

<p>As for the verbal section, reading comprehension is kind of legit in my opinion. The vocab, well, it’s a pain in the arse but…just get over it. I curled up with a GRE vocab book for a couple days and scored in the mid 700s - and I’m in engineering. </p>

<p>Writing, you’ll probably be fine. Just take a couple practice tests and make sure you can finish the essays in the allotted time. </p>

<p>Are you applying to programs in the humanities, sciences, or engineering? Top and even mediocre PhD programs generally come with a good chance of funding, especially in the hard sciences and engineering, so its unlikely that you’ll be spending a ton of money.</p>

13

<p>

Believe you me, I’ve met a fair share of intelligent people who have recounted stories of questions in the Verbal section without any seemingly correct answers.</p>

14

<p>Sure, but the trick is, of course, that the correct answer simply must be one of the choices in that list. ETS isn’t allowed to be <em>that</em> sneaky. ;)</p>

<p>I have lots of sympathy for people who struggle with the verbal, because I struggled equally with the quant side. Math = teh sux. Sure, “it’s high school math,” allegedly, but lots of us liberal arts types haven’t used high school math since high school. :)</p>

15

<p>I don’t see why people spend time memorizing vocab. (I had the same issue back when the dinosaurs roamed and we had analogies on the SAT.) By the time one is a junior or senior in college, one should have a rather extensive vocabulary! S1 (college junior, math major, voracious reader) took the GRE yesterday and said it was easier than he expected. Did no prep on Quant (other than taking the practice Math Subject Exam) and a couple of hours looking at Verbal sample questions. Don’t have the AWA score yet.</p>

<p>Will admit I’ve heard far more complaints about the difficulty of the Verbal side of the exam vs. the Quant, however. As a social science/communications person, Quant would have killed me.</p>

16

<p>

My verbal score went up 100 points after I memorized ~500 words.</p>

17

<p>The verbal is harder because it’s not really possible to prepare in a few days for 700+ if your vocabulary is weak (if you never read very much throughout your life or whatever), but in a couple days, even if you are bad at math, you could review the stuff necessary for 700+, even if it’s not a perfect 800. Once the computer thinks you’re around 700 in verbal, you’ll start seeing a bunch of words you may have seen a few times if you’re well-read, but that you’ve never actually heard before.</p>

18

<p>In my personal experience, GRE is just a small part of an application. I didn’t do that great on the GRE but I still got into U.Penn. </p>

<p>Kaplan and Princeton Review both offer online GRE classes. I used Quizlet.com for online flashcards for the verbal. The GRE will be going through some dramatic changes soon and I’ve read that statistically scores drop whenever changes are made so best to take it before the new test is out.</p>