GRE preparation thread

[heygirlhey211]

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I'm a rising junior and I've got the summer pretty free (unfortunately no summer research or job at the moment 🙁) and I'm wondering if I should take the GRE at the end of this summer (since it seems that I will have to take both the GRE and GRE Subject Test) or if this would be too early/somehow detrimental?

thanks!

It sounds like a good idea to me. I think the less time between taking math classes and taking the GRE the better...so assuming you are not taking any algebra or geometry classes next year, it's smart to start studying sooner rather than later. Best case scenario- you do well and it's out of the way. Worst case scenario- you bomb it and you have plenty of time to prepare to take it again.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I took the two PowerPrep tests today--1260 (630, 630) and 1380 (720 Q, 660 V)... My Q score has steadily gotten better with practice , but my V score seems fairly stagnant..

I take the actual thing tomorrow at 1 PM (MST)... Good verbs would be much appreciated!

 

[Wildcat06]

oooh, I remember how nervous I was that day. best of luck!! 🙂

 

[cara susanna]

Good luck!

 

[psyed4clinPhD]

Hi All!

I apologize if this is a repeat, but does anyone know how long it is recommended to study for the GREs before taking the actual exam? Thanks!

 

[krisrox]

Hi All!

I apologize if this is a repeat, but does anyone know how long it is recommended to study for the GREs before taking the actual exam? Thanks!

My GRE book says 4-12 weeks. I studied about 5 and I improved 200 points overall from my first practice to the real thing.

 

[krisrox]

May I suggest the Barron's vocab workbook for studying verbal. Brought me up from a 480 to a 640V and it was less boring than doing 500 flashcards.

 

[psyed4clinPhD]

May I suggest the Barron's vocab workbook for studying verbal. Brought me up from a 480 to a 640V and it was less boring than doing 500 flashcards.

Congrats! Good to know as I am taking the real test soon😎

 

[psyed4clinPhD]

May I suggest the Barron's vocab workbook for studying verbal. Brought me up from a 480 to a 640V and it was less boring than doing 500 flashcards.

Do you have any suggestions for math? I just took a practice test and bombed the quant 🙁 Anything I can do in a week's time to bring it up? The practice test was TPR so maybe I will try one with a different company!

 

[Schazz]

Do you have any suggestions for math? I just took a practice test and bombed the quant 🙁 Anything I can do in a week's time to bring it up? The practice test was TPR so maybe I will try one with a different company!

well with 1 week left its not a lot of time but when I took the gre i hadnt done any of that math in years and years and had forgotten most of it. I just did a lot of practice questions in the GRE books, went over the sections of the guide books that covered the most important concepts, and checked my wrong answers in practice tests. If I hadn't practiced that way I think I would have probably bombed it entirely but I ended up getting over 700.

 

[Tuff Gong]

Any comments on what you think about the predictive validity of the GRE? (...hm...maybe I should have started a different thread)

 

[wrsparks]

I think the Quant section somewhat correlates with grades in graduate school for psychology. Same for the MCAT and medical school. As far as "success" as a psychologist, I think that is a little more murky and the GRE and grades don't correlate with this aspect as cleanly. I'm sure there is an article out there about this if you're really interested.

 

[Wildcat06]

Correlation with Grad school grades: GRE-V: r = .25, GRE-Q: r = .03 (p<0.05)
Correlation with obtaining PhD: GRE-V r = .03, GRE-Q: r = -.07

(Source: The Compleat Academic)

 

[Keeg]

The problem that I have with those numbers could open up a whole can of worms, but I will just leave it with the restriction of range in graduate admissions invalidates those numbers.

 

[krisrox]

The problem that I have with those numbers could open up a whole can of worms, but I will just leave it with the restriction of range in graduate admissions invalidates those numbers.

+1

And I'll say, for the third time, that I'm so mad I wasted my time studying for the GRE when I could have done 200 points worse and probably be more remarkable to programs.

 

[KGZotU]

I maxed out the quant on the official practice tests over the course of a week. I'm good at math, but I think I've got a solid strategy that has helped me with this sort of test.

First, I would take a practice quant section, like from Barron's or whatever book. First I took it for time, like I'd try to finish it all by the deadline. Then I'd figure out which ones I got wrong and why. Then I'd go through it again, but taking my time to really understand the harder problems. After that, I'd take it once more for time. When I revisited a problem, even if I knew the right answer and why it was true, I'd actually go through and connect all the dots.

My thinking is, and it's worked out well so far, that I've really got to understand the problems I get wrong. And not just that, but I have to meet them again and nail them under timed conditions.

Now the hardest quant problem of all: how much my verbal score is worth and how much time to throw at it. 😀

Edit: Actually, modesty could be misleading: I'm very good at math. However, I really haven't done the sort of stuff on the Q for years. So, figure that in however you'd like.

 

[StatsNerd]

Is anyone else having trouble registering your Princeton Review book online (to access the practice tests)? When I try to enter my book's serial number it tells me "the offer is no longer valid"... but it's the 2010 edition, and I'm entering the correct number. 😕

 

[wrsparks]

The problem that I have with those numbers could open up a whole can of worms, but I will just leave it with the restriction of range in graduate admissions invalidates those numbers.

Not to mention... Are these all areas of graduate school squished together in one correlation? It might look different if we separated areas out.

 

[Wildcat06]

haha, sorry to cause a stir. i got those numbers from a reading we did for our first year seminar. the numbers are based on the students within the author's psych phd (not just clinical) program from 1987-1995.

i posted those because i think it's probably pretty accurate. the idea is that we are admitted (or not admitted) to programs based in part on our GREs and GPAs but in reality, there isn't much correlation between these numbers and later success as a professional or academic.

 

[wrsparks]

No... no drama 🙂. Sometimes I can't turn off this internal dialogue. Thanks for the information....

 

[StacyTXLPC]

I'm seeing scores and personal goals all over the place on this thread.

What's a competitive score?

I first took the GRE in 1997, then earned my masters. I scored 1190 then - much stronger in verbal than quant.

I've been told that to be competitive, I need at least a 1300 on the GRE and >700 on the Psych subject test....

Any ideas?

 

[PrisonPsych]

I'm seeing scores and personal goals all over the place on this thread.

What's a competitive score?

I first took the GRE in 1997, then earned my masters. I scored 1190 then - much stronger in verbal than quant.

I've been told that to be competitive, I need at least a 1300 on the GRE and >700 on the Psych subject test....

Any ideas?

For most places, as long as you're above the cut-off (which varies from school to school; some are as low as 1000, some as high as 1300), the exact score doesn't really matter.

 

[Keeg]

I'm seeing scores and personal goals all over the place on this thread.

What's a competitive score?

I first took the GRE in 1997, then earned my masters. I scored 1190 then - much stronger in verbal than quant.

I've been told that to be competitive, I need at least a 1300 on the GRE and >700 on the Psych subject test....

Any ideas?

It also needs to be added that they changed the test two years ago (I think it was two years), and since then average scores have been higher.

 

[StacyTXLPC]

I was just reading through the thread "GRE scores of those accepted" for 09-10 class. Very interesting.

I'm pretty confident I can study my way up to the scores I need. But I need some advice about 2 other issues.

1) I seem to have the opposite problem as many others here. I do not lack clinical experience; in fact, I have 11 years post-masters....I do lack research experience. I'm now an RA at a military hospital, but it's been less than a year. I'll also be getting a LOR from my supervisor there. I'm hearing that some folks fail to get an offer for lack of clinical experience, but does my clinical background in any way offset the lack of research?

2) Opinions about whether to discuss family in personal statement or interviews? As much as I hate to say it, I'm hearing there's some discrimination against folks with family commitments. I am married with a 5yo daughter. Also, is it appropriate or necessary ("well-rounded") to discuss my hobbies/interests in my personal statement? When I write a draft that way, it reads like an application for the dating game (she likes ponies, romantic novels, and long walks on the beach....)

 

[psydd]

general GRE question:

for those of you who have taken practice tests as well as the real thing, did you generally notice that your test-day scores increased from your practice scores? was the difference negligible? was this not the case for anyone?

also, which company's practice tests(s) did you take?

thanks.

 

[cardamom]

Compared to the practice tests I was taking (the ones on the CD ETS sends you), my verbal score increased by almost 100 points and my math score dropped by about 50 points. That said, I was surprised by my practice score tests and my real score seemed more in line with my normal tendencies (and is very close to my score on the SAT). I think the shift may have been because verbal is my stronger area and not something I find stressful so much, so test day pressure actually helped my performance (got me closer to that Yerkes-Dodson peak); whereas for math, the CAT format really messes with me and increases my anxiety, so the added pressure probably put me over the edge from optimal levels of anxiety, and in practice tests I may have already been there.

So a lot of it will depend on how you respond to increased stress—sometimes it can actually help, but sometimes not.

 

[wrsparks]

My GRE was like 10 pts off each score. I used Kaplan CATs online.

 

[lbny]

From the posts it looks as though most have studied independently on their own through books. Studying from books feels very overwhelming to me and I think I would benefit from a structured class. Do you any of you have any feedback on the various companies (Kaplan, Princeton) that offer classes or online courses?

 

[EverHopeful]

From the posts it looks as though most have studied independently on their own through books. Studying from books feels very overwhelming to me and I think I would benefit from a structured class. Do you any of you have any feedback on the various companies (Kaplan, Princeton) that offer classes or online courses?

I took the online Kaplan course. It was expensive but was very helpful for me. I jumped 300 points in the quantitative and 80 in verbal. Ending at a 680q/570v. I am terrible at math which is what I spent the most time working on. I don't think I would have come anywhere close to a 680 without Kaplan's course. I chose online since I do my best work in the middle of the night and didn't need to worry about showing up for a class. I spent my summer working on the program several hours a day. It fit my learning syle but may not do so for everyone.

 

[RejectClinical]

i remember planning out how to study for this stupid test for 3 months and then booking it the last one

my best advice would be to pick a date so you are motivated to study....i ruined my summer by procrastinating

i studied using princeton review, kaplan, and the kaplan 500 word flipbook...i think i studied root words as well but i doubt i used them...i also used some of barrons for the math....the barrons is way harder than the real test and is great prep....i probably should have done more

there is also a 6000 word list online...but that is def a waste unless you are OCD

the verbal is incredibly hard...which im sure everyone agrees. i would always recommend viewing your scores....after taking the test, i swore i thought i had an 1100

test date=oct
660=verbal
750=quant
4.5=analytic

remember to study for the writing section...i def didnt...oh well

 

[Blue86]

I didn't know if this warranted it's own thread, so I am posting it here..
inside higher ed just posted a news which says the GRE will change considerably.. no more analogies and antonyms, and students will get a calculator in their math section. plus, you get to skip questions and come back to them.. I am a bit frustrated since verbal gave me so many headaches with all those words I didn't know (English is kind of a third language for me, although I don't know if that's a good excuse)
Anyway, at least the students after us won't have to go through this. 🙂

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/12/07/gre