GRE subject/general

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psych844

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I wanted your advice on the GRE. I have some time now to study and take the GRE early in the fall but considering saving it to for next summer. I'm taking quant 1/2 in the upcoming year (math is a bit of a weakness for me), so thought that experience may better prepare me for quant section of GRE. Thoughts?
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or is it a waste since 3/4 of the quant section is not stats?
 
psych844 said:
or is it a waste since 3/4 of the quant section is not stats?
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Grab a study guide and take it in the fall would be my suggestion. As best I can remember, algebra and geometry is as high as the quant section goes.

Although if math is a weakness, you could always see how comfortable you feel with the material after glancing through the study guide(s), and then decide if you want to take it in the fall or wait till the summer (assuming there's no rush).
 
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AcronymAllergy said:
Grab a study guide and take it in the fall would be my suggestion. As best I can remember, algebra and geometry is as high as the quant section goes.

Although if math is a weakness, you could always see how comfortable you feel with the material after glancing through the study guide(s), and then decide if you want to take it in the fall or wait till the summer (assuming there's no rush).
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Yeah, I'm thinking early fall would be better as well.

Any specific study guide you would suggest?
 
psych844 said:
Any specific study guide you would suggest?
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I really liked the ETS one, but that was way back in 2011. I highly recommend buying one with the software for taking practice tests no matter what, as that will give you a good idea of how prepared you are.
 
I would suggest using the study materials, and taking it sooner rather than later, so you have time to regroup in case you bomb the test.

The GRE has very specific formatting for their quant questions, and I feel like I did better than I would have otherwise because I knew what the questions on the test were actually asking. I only took the GRE once, and I ended up with Verbal & Writing scores in the 160s and a 155 quant. I thought about retaking it, but most people I talked to said that my scores were fine, and I got into a PhD program when I applied this year.
 
briarcliff said:
I would suggest using the study materials, and taking it sooner rather than later, so you have time to regroup in case you bomb the test.

The GRE has very specific formatting for their quant questions, and I feel like I did better than I would have otherwise because I knew what the questions on the test were actually asking. I only took the GRE once, and I ended up with Verbal & Writing scores in the 160s and a 155 quant. I thought about retaking it, but most people I talked to said that my scores were fine, and I got into a PhD program when I applied this year.
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Any tips for the GRE in general or what study materials to use? you are suggesting that learning how the format works is important?
 
Yes, learning the formatting (both of the questions and the test itself) is important. Much like the EPPP, it can be as much a test of your test taking ability/strategy as it is the material covered.

As for specific guides, I recall liking either Kaplan or Barron's, but can't remember which. I also grabbed old books from friends just for the additional vocabulary lists. I knew the reading comprehension and writing portions would be strengths for me, so I spent most of my time studying quant (I hadn't taken any non-stats math since calc I and II my Freshman year, and let's just say I didn't apply myself terribly well in either of those classes) and memorizing word list after word list.
 
Math isn't my strong suit so I wanted to study it more. I used the Kaplan for overall prep and this math guide: Amazon product it helped a lot in my opinion!
 
I believe ETS releases an Official GRE Study Guide with old exams (for a price of course), but I'm a firm proponent that taking old exams is the best way to gain exposure to actual questions made by the test publisher :)

EDIT - There's actually some free resources on the ETS website that look helpful.
 
Learning the formatting of the test is *extremely* important. For the purposes of doing well on these tests, you need to know how to get the right answer. That's *not* necessarily the same as knowing how to do the math. Knowing how the problems are formatted as well as tips/tricks to get to the right answer without doing all the calculations....that knowledge is extremely valuable.
 
I know that it is probably dependent on individual factors, but does studying for about 3-4 hours a day for a couple months seem sufficient to be prepared for the GRE General? I'm starting July 1st and have until early Sept (when school starts up again).
 
That's pretty much exactly what I did , and it worked out well for me.
 
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psych844 said:
I know that it is probably dependent on individual factors, but does studying for about 3-4 hours a day for a couple months seem sufficient to be prepared for the GRE General? I'm starting July 1st and have until early Sept (when school starts up again).
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I'd imagine this might even be overkill for some... It all depends on where you're starting from. Take a practice test of July 1 and see how you do-- You can adjust studying from there. I had planned to spend three months studying aboout 5 hours a week, but took a practice test and was scoring more than high enough already on Verbal (around the 95th percentile) and reasonably well on Quant (70th percentile or so). I picked up studying a month before the test and focused on quant and learning strategies for analytic writing, and I did just fine. In contrast, I also have friends who had the same study plan as me who ended up delaying the test several months in order to study more.

Basically, I'd imagine this should be enough study time but it depends a LOT on individual factors. Take a practice test. :)
 
I'm taking the general GRE in 2 weeks. July 16. I'll by happy to keep that thread updated.

I first bought a non ets book last october and went through it slowly over the year.

Then I started a cheap weekly class (7weeks long) a bit more than a month ago. They gave me an ETS book that I find so much more helpfull. I feel like it's just more relevant to the actual test (even though I didn't take it yet).

I don't think the class is that necessary beside liking the social aspect of it though. There is so much material online you can find.

My weakness is the verbal section:hello: (English is not my first language).
I would love tips about getting better in verbal based on that factor actually.

So far, I've done about 6 prep tests and plan on taking 6 more before the test on July 16. Unfortunately, my verbal score is constant at 152 +/_2. However, my quant score is increasing. The first prep test I scored 150, and the last one 156.

I'm studying about 3hrs a day, taking one day off a week. I hope to study more in the next 2 weeks though.

Any questions? Or advices?

:)
 
Get a list of vocabulary words or note cards and try to drill with them as much as you can!
 
If math is your weak suit, try out Gruber's GRE Guide. It's verbal/writing stuff is meh, but the math reviews and drills are on point. I got a 95 percentile score using the drills in that book.
 
Hey guys,

So i haven't studied as much as i had hoped during summer holidays. I think a part of it is that I have two quant classes coming up this year and I'm sort of worried I'll do poorly, so then it might be a waste to pay for the GRE and even put in the time to study for it before knowing those grades. My advisor was telling me how a lot of students take quant 1 and their experience is so bad that they get out of the Psych specialization program and just do the Psych major (which just requires quant 1).

I was then thinking to do it next Sept. (2016) I'd be applying for Sept 2017. is that enough time to get my results back?
 
That should definitely be enough time. The turnover for getting your scores is pretty quick (less than a month from what I remember?). Deadlines typically don't roll around until around Dec. 1st (I think one program had a Nov. 1st program that I applied to, but every other one was December or later). And scores can be sent instantly, at most it takes like a week or two to receive if they do it by ground mail for some reason. The only thing I'd say is that MIGHT be cutting it close if you want to leave room to retake it again.
 
I would take some practice tests and get a feel for how you're doing. If you're scoring in the 95% percentile on the practice, I wouldn't worry about timing. If you are hitting in the 40th or doing more variable, then you might want to give more time for the retake.
 
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I plan on retaking my GRE in March of next year. I'm currently finishing up my Master's in Clinical MH Counseling, and I plan to apply to Ph.D programs next year. However, my scores the first time around; which was about two years ago (Q-145, V-145, Essay-3), were DREADFUL. It's a miracle I made it into any master's program. Luckily, strong letters of recommendation, a pretty decent GPA (3.78), resume kept hope alive. Any tips? I'm naturally a horrible tester, however I really want to get into a strong clinical program!
 
Cait018 said:
I plan on retaking my GRE in March of next year. I'm currently finishing up my Master's in Clinical MH Counseling, and I plan to apply to Ph.D programs next year. However, my scores the first time around; which was about two years ago (Q-145, V-145, Essay-3), were DREADFUL. It's a miracle I made it into any master's program. Luckily, strong letters of recommendation, a pretty decent GPA (3.78), resume kept hope alive. Any tips? I'm naturally a horrible tester, however I really want to get into a strong clinical program!
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Can you give an estimate on how many total hours you spent studying last time? ETS likes to make people think that the GRE is an aptitude test. It's not. Scores can be improved by studying; although I will caution you that scores don't typically go up by more than 10 points.

Anyway my first thought is that you probably need to study more than last time. I realize it sounds simple but, it is what it is. Studying more also will increase confidence and reduce test anxiety you may have...
 
A Blue Duck said:
Can you give an estimate on how many total hours you spent studying last time? ETS likes to make people think that the GRE is an aptitude test. It's not. Scores can be improved by studying; although I will caution you that scores don't typically go up by more than 10 points.

Anyway my first thought is that you probably need to study more than last time. I realize it sounds simple but, it is what it is. Studying more also will increase confidence and reduce test anxiety you may have...
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I'll be completely honest, I studied maybe about two hours a day, four days a week, for about three months. I would easily become overwelmed, I think the key is to study for a longer period of time, and to break things down more adequately. Perhaps since I have taken the assessment already, I will remain a little calmer the second time around.
 
WisNeuro said:
Well, it's not strictly an aptitude test, but it overlaps with g a significant amount. Much better than GPA, anyway.
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By overlap I assume you mean correlates, right? Many things correlate with g that do not, in themselves, represent the use of fluid intelligence. Just because having a higher IQ makes it more likely you will solve counting problems correctly, does not mean that you need a high IQ to solve counting problems.

You need to study how to solve counting problems.
 
Cait018 said:
I'll be completely honest, I studied maybe about two hours a day, four days a week, for about three months. I would easily become overwelmed, I think the key is to study for a longer period of time, and to break things down more adequately. Perhaps since I have taken the assessment already, I will remain a little calmer the second time around.
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~8 hour weeks for three months leading up to the test is a solid amount of time. Did you take a class or anything? It may cover areas of the quant or verbal tests that you just seem to be missing or struggling with, as your scores would indicate. Do you know what areas you struggle with, in particular?

What study materials are you using?
 
Although a bit dated, the link below has some interesting info on the general stability/growth of the GRE score over time. It shows some change over a ten year period, but only approximately half a standard deviation on average. Given the extreme scores often looked for (I'm familiar with old GRE scores), that's only 25% of the difference between mean and /minimal/ cut points for the GRE (p.20). Conversely, Wilson notes that gains obtained are typically small for short-term retesters (a population described as those wishing to increase their scores) as a function of regression to the mean (p. 21). Again, dated data and I didn't spend a ton of time reading through it, but GRE scores tend to be fairly stable, likely as a function of general aptitude.

https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RR-88-39-Wilson.pdf

I was trying to find some more recent data from independent researchers (seems a reasonable thing on both accounts), but my 30 second google-fu didn't perform as anticipated.
 
Justanothergrad said:
Although a bit dated, the link below has some interesting info on the general stability/growth of the GRE score over time. It shows some change over a ten year period, but only approximately half a standard deviation on average. Given the extreme scores often looked for (I'm familiar with old GRE scores), that's only 25% of the difference between mean and /minimal/ cut points for the GRE (p.20). Conversely, Wilson notes that gains obtained are typically small for short-term retesters (a population described as those wishing to increase their scores) as a function of regression to the mean (p. 21). Again, dated data and I didn't spend a ton of time reading through it, but GRE scores tend to be fairly stable, likely as a function of general aptitude.

https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RR-88-39-Wilson.pdf

I was trying to find some more recent data from independent researchers (seems a reasonable thing on both accounts), but my 30 second google-fu didn't perform as anticipated.
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First page: This report presents the findings of a research project funded by and carried out under the auspices of the Graduate Record Examinations Board. Riiiight.

But seriously, again, I have no doubt that scores correlate with g and IQ. And I understand that individuals with higher IQs are likely to do better on the GRE. But given an individual, studying more and studying properly can improve your score; I don't think that's a controversial statement- just an encouraging one. Just don't expect to go from 145 to 165.
 
A Blue Duck said:
By overlap I assume you mean correlates, right? Many things correlate with g that do not, in themselves, represent the use of fluid intelligence. Just because having a higher IQ makes it more likely you will solve counting problems correctly, does not mean that you need a high IQ to solve counting problems.

You need to study how to solve counting problems.
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Yes, it is a proxy for g. Not a great proxy, but probably the best proxy in most people's application materials. Some small variance can be accounted for with studying, but I imagine much more variance is accounted for in g.
 
My point is merely that the magnitude of change that we expect to see is relatively small by in large- a fact exemplified with the tutoring programs bragging of changes with no more than 1 standard deviation. A troubling fact if you are more than a standard deviation below cut-offs given the GRE's functional proxy to g and the higher comparison group. I see no reason to expect huge changes in its measure of aptitude over a short period of time following study efforts, which boils again to my problem with a test that has zero discriminant validity and a high cost (both financial and associated opportunity).

Obvious disclaimer. I dislike the GRE as it fails to meet acceptable thresholds for measurement development
 
Any comment on the other part of what I said? Should I be worried about the difficulty of quant 1 or quant 2 if im pretty bad at math?
 
chicandtoughness said:
I'm not sure many of us know what "Quant 1" and "Quant 2" mean....? Are those classes? Usually colleges/universities name their math classes (Algebra, Calculus, Differential Equations), so this is a little confusing.
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sorry haha, quant I mean quantitative methods in psychology. (that is statistics for the behavioral sciences) My school breaks the intro courses into a quant 1 and quant 2. Quant 1 usually covers intro to descriptive and inferential statistics, while quant 2 covers statistical inference (simple and complex analysis of variance, multiple comparisons, trend analysis, etc). For those that are in the specialization we have to take both of these, the people who are just doing a major in Psych they just have to take the first one. There is also an advanced one but we don't have to take that.
 
WisNeuro said:
You need to be able to do that type of stats work. From what you describe, those are fairly basic stats, you will most likely be expected to do much higher level stats at the thesis and dissertation level.
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To be fair, I was really bad at calculus, but stats is never something I studied at the high school level.
 
Q: people have mentioned in other threads the "hard cutoffs" certain programs use for selecting applicants. Does anyone know around what score the most competitive schools use for their cutoffs, especially in the quantitative section? I have been scoring 157-158 on practice tests and that is about average or a little below average at the schools I'm looking at, whereas my verbal is much higher. Would that kind of score preclude me or other applicants advancing to the next stage?
 
Most "hard cutoffs" are not public knowledge - the adcoms set that when they sit down to discuss applicants. If you're at least at the mean, you're in a good place.
 
Honestly, hard cutoffs will vary year by year, and actually vary depending on how many applications are received. The more applications = more that need to immediately culled. So, no easy answer. As a rough estimate, if you are below the 50th%, probably isn't looking all that great at good programs.
 
In Canadian programs (for most part), you don't really have a shot if you aren't at least at 70 % in Verbal and Quant.
 
Starting to study for GRE. Finding Reading Comprehension a bit difficult, but text completion and sentence equivalence fairly easy.
 
I highly recommend the Kaplan materials - I used the book and the flash cards for the verbal. I love flash cards personally because I can maximize every second of down time.
 
Take it in the fall. You have plenty of time to study.

I also liked the Kaplan materials for the math. I just studied using one of the Kaplan workbooks. I took the GRE 15 years ago, so I don't know how much has changed on the quant section, but my memory is that once I'd caught up with all the math I'd forgotten since high school and college (mostly high school, frankly), I was ready and I did well (>700).
 
I'll throw in a recommendation for Magoosh. I found their materials quite helpful and the abundance of practice questions helped me be able to squeeze in 20 minute practice sessions quite easily as long as I had a computer (with internet) nearby. I also preferred to be doing the studying/practicing on the computer because it's administered that way. I found the videos helpful. I mostly used the practice problems and simulated practice tests, but would watch the videos in a specific area if I was getting certain kind of questions wrong.
 
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Cuties? Not sure if I'm missing something. I suggest that you give yourself about 8 weeks of preparation time and take the GRE sooner than later so that if you don't do well you can retake it. There's almost no statistics on this. It's all data analysis, geometry, algebra, and advanced arithmetic! ETS and all the GRE preparation companies are profiting financially, while much of this material will never be used as a psychologist. HOW to take this test is challenging in itself. There are many minor logistical considerations outside of this material that must be overcome, which I guess is what is meant by formatting. For instance, how would you handle not realizing that the number lock on the numbers part of your keyboard is locked for the first 10 minutes? This happened to me in one of my attempts! Study material? I vote for Empower, Kaplan, lots of free trials of the other preparation companies. The math of Magoosh was unnecessarily too hard. Also, use Grockit videos on YouTube are good.
 
Also check out the ETS websites for the free official computerized practice tests that they offer. I agree that these companies are too money-hungry (as has been expressed previously on the forum), but it is nice that they offer this software (and some other sample questions and guides) for free on their website.

https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/powerprep2
 
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