GRE 22nd Ed

The GRE General Test is an examination designed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to measure the verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills you have developed in the course of your academic career. High GRE scores strongly correlate with the probability of success in graduate school: the higher you score, the more likely you are to complete your graduate degree. For this reason, many graduate and professional schools require applicants to take the GRE General Test, a test now given only on computer. (They may also require you to take a GRE Subject Test in your particular field. Subject Tests currently are available in 14 fields.)

The computer-delivered GRE General Test you take will have five or six sections. There will always be

an unidentified Experimental Section, which would be a third verbal or quantitative section

an identified optional research section (but not if there is an Experimental Section)

*Unlike the computer-delivered GRE, the paper-delivered GRE will include not one but two Analytical Writing sections. There will be a 30-minute section for the Issue task and a separate 30-minute section for the Argument task.

The verbal section measures your ability to use words as tools in reasoning; you are tested not only on the extent of your vocabulary but on your ability to discern the relationships that exist both within written passages and among individual groups of words. The quantitative section measures your ability to use and reason with numbers and mathematical concepts; you are tested not on advanced mathematical theory but on general concepts expected to be part of everyone’s academic background. The mathematics covered should be familiar to most students who took at least two years of math in a high school in the United States. The writing section measures your ability to make rational assessments about unfamiliar, fictitious relationships and to logically present your perspective on an issue.

Most tests college students take are straightforward achievement tests. They attempt to find out how much you have learned, usually in a specific subject, and how well you can apply that information. Without emphasizing memorized data, the GRE General Test attempts to measure verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing skills that you have acquired over the years both in and out of school.

Although the ETS claims that the GRE General Test measures skills that you have developed over a long period, even a brief period of intensive study can make a great difference in your eventual GRE scores. By thoroughly familiarizing yourself with the process of computer-delivered testing, the GRE test format, and the various question types, you can enhance your chances of doing well on the test and of being accepted by the graduate school of your choice.

For practice using the actual GRE testing platform, you can go to the ETS’s official GRE website—www.ets.org/GRE/—and download their free PowerPrep^® II software, which includes a test preview tool and a practice test. You can also take the two online tests available at http://barronsbooks.com/tp/gre/e51hsp4.

When you actually take the GRE, you sit in a carrel in a computer lab or testing center, facing a computer screen. You may be alone in the room, or other test-takers may be taking tests in nearby carrels. With your mouse, you click on an icon to start your test. The first section of the test is the Analytical Writing section, and you will have 60 minutes in which to complete the two writing tasks. When you have finished the writing section, you will have a one-minute break to take a few deep breaths and get ready for the next four or five sections, each of which will consist of 20 multiple-choice verbal or quantitative questions. When the break is over, the first question in Section 2 appears on the screen. You answer it, clicking on the oval next to your answer choice, and then, ready to move on, you click on the box marked Next. A new question appears on screen, and you go through the process again. Be sure to answer every question. Because there is no penalty for an incorrect answer on the GRE General Test, when you don’t know an answer, try to make an educated guess by eliminating clearly incorrect choices; if you can’t eliminate any choices, make a wild guess, and move on.

At the end of the second section, you are given another one-minute break. After finishing the third section, you have a ten-minute break. There will be two more one-minute breaks—after the fourth and fifth sections.

CAT stands for Computer-Adaptive Test. What does this mean? It means that the test adapts to your skill level: it is customized.

What happens is that after you complete the first quantitative or verbal section, the computer program assesses your performance and adjusts the difficulty level of the questions you will have to answer in the second quantitative or verbal section. The more questions you answer correctly in the first section, the harder will be the questions that you will be given in the second section. However, the harder the questions are, the more they are worth. So your raw score depends on both the number of questions you answer correctly and the difficulty level of those questions.

Actually, the GRE is much less computer-adaptive than it used to be. It used to adapt the level of questions you received continuously; after every question the program would assess your performance and determine the level of difficulty of the next question. Now, it doesn’t make that determination until you have completed an entire section.

BE PREPARED

1.Make sure to bring your photo ID to the test center.

2.Do not bring food, drinks, or tobacco products to the test center.

3.No cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, or other electronic devices are allowed in the testing center.

4.All personal items brought with you to the test center are subject to inspection.

Can I Tell How Well I’m Doing on the Test from the Questions the Computer Assigns Me?

Don’t even try; it never pays to try to second-guess the computer. There’s no point in wasting time and energy wondering whether it’s feeding you harder questions or easier ones. Let the computer keep track of how well you’re doing—you concentrate on answering correctly as many questions as you can and on pacing yourself.

Yes, you must! You are not going to know the correct answer to every question on the GRE. That’s a given. But you should never skip a question. Remember, there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. So if a question has you stumped, eliminate any obviously incorrect answer choices, and then guess and don’t worry whether you’ve guessed right or wrong. Your job is to get to the next question you can answer. Just remember to use the process of elimination to improve your guessing odds.

You can’t. Do not waste even one second in the exam room trying to identify the Experimental Section. Simply do your best on every section. Some people claim that most often the last section is the Experimental Section. Others claim that the section with unusual questions is the one that does not count. Ignore the claims: you have no sure way to tell. If you encounter a series of questions that seem strange to you, do your best. Either these are experimental and will not count, in which case you have no reason to worry about them, or they will count, in which case they probably will seem just as strange and troublesome to your fellow examinees.

On both the verbal and quantitative sections of the GRE, your raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly, adjusted for the difficulty level of those questions. Each raw score is then adjusted to a scaled score, which lies between 130 and 170. The written score report that you will receive in the mail will include both your scaled scores and your percentile rank indicating the percent of examinees scoring below your scaled scores on the General Test.

Your analytical writing score will be the average of the scores assigned to your essays by two trained readers. These scores are rounded up to the nearest half-point. Your combined analytical writing score can vary from 0 to 6, with 6 the highest score possible.

As soon as you have finished taking the test, the computer will calculate your unofficial scaled scores for the verbal and quantitative sections and display them to you on the screen. Because your essays are sent to trained readers for holistic scoring, you will not receive a score for the analytical writing section on the day of the test. You should receive in the mail an official report containing all three scores approximately three weeks after the test date.

After you take one of the Model Tests in the back of this book and/or online, you cannot calculate your exact scores, because there is no way to factor in the difficulty level of the questions. To give yourself a rough idea of how you did, on both the verbal and quantitative sections, assume that your raw score is equal to the number of correct answers, and that your scaled score is equal to 130 plus your raw score. For example, if you answered correctly 30 of the 40 quantitative questions, assume that your raw score would be 30 and that your scaled score would be 160.

The two verbal sections consist of a total of 40 questions. These questions fall into two basic types: discrete short-answer questions and critical reading questions.

Although the amount of time spent on each type of question varies from person to person, in general, discrete short-answer questions take less time to answer than critical reading questions.

NOTE

For all of the multiple-choice questions in the verbal and quantitative sections of the tests and practice exercises in this book, the answer choices are labeled A, B, C, D, and E, and these letters are used in the Answer Keys and the answer explanations. On an actual GRE exam, these letters never appear on the screen. Rather, each choice is preceded by a blank oval or square, and you will answer a question by clicking with the mouse on the oval or square in front of your choice.

In these fill-in-the-blank questions, you are asked to choose the best way to complete a sentence or short passage from which one, two, or three words have been omitted. These questions test a combination of reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. You must be able to recognize the logic, style, and tone of the sentence so that you will be able to choose the answer that makes sense in context. You must also be able to recognize differences in usage. The sentences cover a wide variety of topics from a number of academic fields. They do not, however, test specific academic knowledge. You may feel more comfortable if you are familiar with the topic the sentence is discussing, but you should be able to handle any of the sentences using your knowledge of the English language.

Here is a typical fill-in-the-blank question, using one of the new question formats. In this question, you are asked to find not one but two correct answers; both answers must produce completed sentences that are like each other in meaning. This is what the test-makers call a sentence equivalence question.

Unlike Oscar, Felix is not slovenly (messy and untidy); instead, he is a compulsive neatnik. Felix is fastidious or nice in his habits, excessively sensitive in matters of taste. (Note the use of nice in a secondary sense.)

Look at the same question, restructured into what the test-makers call a text completion question. In this type of question, you are asked to find only one correct answer per blank. However, you must have a correct answer for each and every blank.

See later pages for fill-in-the-blank question tactics and practice exercises that will help you handle both of the new question types.

Critical reading questions test your ability to understand and interpret what you read. This is probably the most important ability that you will need in graduate school and afterward.

Although the passages may encompass any subject matter, you do not need to know anything about the subject discussed in the passage in order to answer the questions on that passage. The purpose of the question is to test your reading ability, not your knowledge of history, science, literature, or art.

The key lines here are the passage’s final sentences. Does the author acknowledge hypothetical objections to the comparison? Definitely. Does the author conclude by reaffirming the significance of the termite/macaque comparison? Clearly he does: he concludes by quoting Wilson (whom he calls an eminent scholar), in doing so giving implicit support to Wilson’s assertion that such oversimplified comparisons can provide the basis for an important general theory. The correct answer is the third choice.

The quantitative part of the GRE consists of two math sections, each with 20 questions. Of the 40 questions, there are

19 discrete quantitative questions, consisting of about 11 multiple-choice questions, 4 multiple-answer questions, and 4 numeric entry questions, approximately evenly split between the two sections;

6 data interpretation questions—3 per section—all of which are discrete quantitative questions, mostly multiple-choice.

In order to answer these questions, you need to know arithmetic, some very elementary algebra, and a little geometry. Much of this material you learned in elementary and middle school; the rest you learned during the first two years of high school. You do not need to know any advanced mathematics. The questions are intended to determine if you have a basic knowledge of elementary mathematics, and if you have the ability to reason clearly.

If you haven’t done any mathematics in a while, go through the math review in this book before attempting the Model Tests, and certainly before registering to take the GRE. If you feel that your math skills are still pretty good, you can try the Diagnostic Test first, and then read only those sections of the math review relating to those topics that gave you trouble.

Of the 40 mathematics questions on the GRE, 15 are what is known as quantitative comparisons. Unless you prepared for the SAT before 2005, it is very possible that you have never even seen such a question. Even if you have had some contact with this type of question, you need to review the basic idea and learn the essential tactics for answering them. Therefore, read these instructions very carefully.

You will be provided with scratch paper to help you work out problems and take notes.

In these questions there are two quantities—Quantity A and Quantity B—and it is your job to compare them. For these problems there are only four possible answers:

In this book, these four answer choices will be referred to as A, B, C, and D, respectively. In some of the questions, information about the quantities being compared is centered above them. This information must be taken into consideration when comparing the two quantities.

In Chapter 10, you will learn several important strategies for handling quantitative comparisons. For now, let’s look at three examples to make sure that you understand the concepts involved.

Quantity A is the average of a and b: images

. Since we are told that a + b = 16, Quantity A is images

NOTE: We cannot determine the value of either a or b; all we know is that their sum is 16. Perhaps a = 10 and b = 6, or a = 0 and b = 16, or a = −4 and b = 20. It doesn’t matter. The average of 10 and 6 is 8; the average of 0 and 16 is 8; and the average of −4 and 20 is 8. Since a + b is 16, the average of a and b is 8, all the time, no matter what. The answer, therefore, is C.

If a = 1, a³ = 1, and a² = 1. In this case, the quantities in the two columns are equal.

The answer can be A (or B) only if Quantity A (or B) is greater all the time. But it isn’t — not when a = 1.

So, is the answer C? Maybe. But for the answer to be C, the quantities would have to be equal all the time. Are they?

No. If a = 2, a³ = 8, and a² = 4, and in this case the two quantities are not equal.

Of the 40 mathematics questions on the GRE, 19 are what ETS calls discrete quantitative questions. More than half of those questions are standard multiple-choice questions, for which there are five answer choices, exactly one of which is correct. The way to answer such a question is to do the necessary work, get the solution, and then look at the five choices to find your answer. In Chapter 9, we will discuss other techniques for answering these questions, but for now let’s look at one example.

EXAMPLE

Edison High School has 840 students, and the ratio of the number of students taking Spanish to the number not taking Spanish is 4:3.

How many of the students take Spanish?

images 280

images 360

images 480

images 560

images 630

To solve this problem requires only that you understand what a ratio is. Ignore the fact that this is a multiple-choice question. Don’t even look at the choices.

Let 4x and 3x be the number of students taking and not taking Spanish, respectively.

Having found the answer to be 480, now look at the five choices. The answer is C.

A second type of discrete quantitative question that appears on the GRE is what ETS calls a “multiple-choice question—more than one answer possible,” and what for simplicity we call a multiple-answer question. In this type of question, there could be as many as 12 choices, although usually there are no more than 7 or 8. Any number of the answer choices, from just one to all of them, could be correct. To get credit for such a question, you must select all of the correct answer choices and none of the incorrect ones. Here is a typical example.

EXAMPLE

If x is negative, which of the following statements must be true?

Indicate all such statements.

images

To solve this problem, examine each statement independently, and think of it as a true-false question.

A.For many negative values of x, x² is less than x⁴, but if x = –1, then x² and x⁴ are each 1, so it is not true that x² must be less than x⁴. A is false.

B.If x is negative, x³ is negative, and so must be less than x², which is positive. Statement B is true.

C.If x is negative, so is images

, and the sum of two negative numbers is negative. Statement C is true.

D.The square root of a number is never negative, and so could not possibly equal x. Statement D is false.

The third type of discrete quantitative question is called a numeric entry question. The numeric entry questions are the only questions on the GRE for which no answer choices are given. For these questions, you have to determine the correct numerical answer and then use the number keys on the keyboard to enter the answer. If the answer is negative, type a hyphen for the negative sign. There are two possibilities: if the answer is an integer or a number that contains a decimal point, there will be a single box for your answer; if the answer is to be entered as a fraction, there will be two boxes—one for the numerator and one for the denominator.

EXAMPLE

Directions: The answer to the following question is a fraction. Enter the numerator in the upper box and the denominator in the lower box.

On Monday, images of the students at Central High went on a field trip to a museum. On Tuesday, images of the students who hadn’t gone to the museum on Monday had the opportunity to go. What fraction of the students in the school did not go to the museum either day?

images

In Section H of Chapter 12, we will discuss the algebraic way to solve a problem such as this one, but on the GRE the best approach is just to assume that the school has 40 students, 40 being the least common multiple of 5 and 8, the two denominators in the problem. Then, 8 students ( images

of 40) went to the museum on Monday, and of the remaining 32 students, 20 of them ( images

of 32) went on Tuesday. So, 28 students went to the museum and 12 did not. So the fraction of the students in the school who did not go to the museum either day is images

Enter 12 in the upper box for the numerator and 40 in the lower box for the denominator. Note that images

can be reduced to images

and

and you would get full credit for either of those answers, but on the GRE it is not necessary to reduce fractions.

In each of the two quantitative sections there are three consecutive questions that are based on the same set of data. Most data interpretation questions are multiple-choice questions, but you may have a multiple-answer and/or a numeric entry question. No data interpretation questions are quantitative comparisons. As you might guess from their name, all of these questions are based on information provided in graphs, tables, or charts. The questions test your ability to interpret the data that have been provided. You will either have to do a calculation or make an inference from the given data. The various types of questions that could arise will be explored in Chapter 11. Here is a typical data interpretation question.

EXAMPLE

images

From 1990 to 2000, the number of faculty members at CSU increased by 20%. If the total number of assistant, associate, and full professors remained the same, and the number of instructors increased by 50%, how many adjunct faculty were there in 2000?

images

Since the number of faculty members increased by 20%, in 2000 there were 960 people on the faculty (20% of 800 = 160, and 800 + 160 = 960).

In 1990, 70% (35% + 10% + 25%) of the faculty were professors, and 70% of 800 = 560.

In 1990, there were 40 instructors (5% of 800 = 40); since that number increased by 50%, and 50% of 40 is 20, there were 60 instructors in 2000.

Of the 960 faculty members in 2000, 560 were professors and 60 were instructors. The remaining 340 were adjuncts (960 – 560 – 60 = 340).

Writing an essay presenting your point of view on an issue of general intellectual concern.

You are allotted 30 minutes to complete the issue task, and 30 minutes to complete the argument analysis task. You must finish one task before you begin the other. You will find suggestions for tackling both writing tasks in Chapter 7.

In this task, you are asked to respond to a particular issue, clearly presenting your viewpoint on that issue and supporting your position with reasons and examples. This task is intended to test your ability to write logically, persuasively, and effectively.

At the test center, before you begin the timed portion of your issue writing assignment, you will first be shown a set of directions on screen. The directions for the issue task are straightforward. In essence, they say the following:

Each topic is presented as a one- to two-sentence quotation commenting on an issue of general concern. Your essay may support, refute, or qualify the views expressed in the quotation. Whatever you write, however, must be relevant to the issue under discussion, and you must support your viewpoint with reasons and examples derived from your studies and/or experience. What is more, you must carefully analyze the issue, following the specific instructions given. Your task is not to be creative but to be analytic.

Faculty members from various institutions will evaluate your essay, judging it on the basis of your skill in the following areas:

To begin the timed portion of this task, click on the box labeled CONTINUE. Once you click on CONTINUE, a second screen will appear. This screen contains some general words of advice about how to write an issue essay:

None of this is rocket science. You already know what you are supposed to do. Don’t waste your time reading pro forma advice, just click on the CONTINUE box and get to work.

Here are two issue topics modeled on the issue tasks on the GRE. Please note that these are not official GRE issue topics, although they do resemble official topics closely in subject matter and form.

SAMPLE ISSUE TASK 1

Claim: If we are serious about solving the problem of income inequality, our primary focus should be on improving funding for public colleges and universities.

Reason: Higher education is the key to career advancement.

Compose an essay that identifies how greatly you concur (or differ) with the claim provided and its rationale.

SAMPLE ISSUE TASK 2

The key to success is found not in following your passion, but rather in bringing passion to the work you do.

Compose an essay that identifies how greatly you concur (or differ) with the statement provided, describing in detail the rationale for your argument. As you build and provide evidence for your argument, include examples that demonstrate circumstances in which the statement could (or could not) be valid. Be sure to explain the impact these examples have on your argument.

In this task, you are asked to critique the line of reasoning of an argument given in a brief passage, clearly pointing out that argument’s strengths and weaknesses and supporting your position with reasons and examples. This task is intended to test both your ability to evaluate the soundness of a position and your ability to get your point across to an academic audience.

Again, before you begin the timed portion of your argument analysis task, you will first be shown a set of directions on screen. The directions for the argument task are straightforward. In essence, they say the following:

In 30 minutes, prepare a critical analysis of the argument expressed in a short paragraph. You may not offer an analysis of any other argument.

As you critique the argument, think about the author’s underlying assumptions. Ask yourself whether any of them are questionable. Also, evaluate any evidence that the author brings up. Ask yourself whether it actually supports the author’s conclusions.

In your analysis, you may suggest additional kinds of evidence to reinforce the author’s argument. You may also suggest methods to refute the argument or additional data that might be useful to you as you assess the soundness of the argument. You may not, however, present your personal views on the topic. Your job is to analyze the elements of an argument, not to support or contradict that argument.

Faculty members from various institutions will judge your essay, assessing it on the basis of your skills in the following areas:

Here is an argument analysis topic modeled on the argument analysis task of the GRE. Please note that this is not an official GRE argument analysis topic, although it does resemble the official topics closely in subject matter and form.

SAMPLE ARGUMENT TASK

The following appeared in an editorial in the Springfield Morning Leader.

“The time is now for Springfield to step up to the plate and demonstrate that it is a city on the move. By building a new stadium that meets the standards of Major League Baseball, we can strengthen the local economy and inspire civic pride. Building the stadium will create construction jobs for local workers. Additionally, the new stadium will help woo a Major League team to the area, which will create jobs and make Springfield more attractive to businesses that are considering relocating. Building a new stadium is an investment of public funds that will pay off for Springfield today and for generations to come.”

Compose an essay that identifies and considers the evidence required to assess the validity of the argument provided. In writing your essay be sure to clarify whether this evidence would bolster or undermine the argument.