You might have prepared hard for your GRE, but that’s not enough. You also need to be familiar with some useful tips and strategies that test prep textbooks might not teach you. While the test-prep textbooks will help you to prepare for the exam, it is also important to take note of certain facts that you must be careful about while you take the actual test to not commit a stupid blunder. We list some strategies and tips that you may find extremely helpful while you face your GRE.
Never try to predict the experimental section
On the GRE, you face 6 sections – one writing section (AWA), two verbal sections, two quant sections and one experimental section (either verbal or quant). Now this experimental section is an un-scored section, implying that it won’t count toward your GRE score. But the important takeaway is that you don’t know when this experimental section will show up. You could have your experimental section show up as the third section or the fourth or the fifth- you really don’t know! So even if you have got two verbal and two quant sections already and say the quant section comes up again, do not be led into believing that this is an experimental section. It could be your scored section! So always take all your sections as seriously as though they are your scored sections. You don’t want to throw your score in jeopardy in case you just feel a section is an experimental section and take it up lightly when in reality it was your scored section!
Avoid attempting all the Reading Comprehension (RC) questions in one go
RCs are one of the most challenging questions on the GRE. It eats up a considerable part of your time and monotonous passages may simply exhaust you out. If you choose to attempt all the RC questions in one go, there are chances that you might just lose track of time. Also continuous reading might obscure your further readings. However, this is a subjective choice and may vary from person to person. Adopt what suits you best.
Do not waste a lot of time on Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions
CR questions are challenging questions and many of us use more time than is required on these questions. You need to be aware that CR questions just make one percent of the entire syllabus. Thus, do not waste a lot of time on them.
Do not be tempted to use the Calculator for everything
Just because the calculator is available to you as a tool on the GRE, do not jump to use the calculator for every question. Many questions that might seem computational, in reality are not tedious and can be solved by simple algebraic techniques or simple application of logic. While you do not realize it, the ETS throws you many questions, that prima facie might appear that they will be requiring the use of calculator, but you can break your question down through simple techniques. Through such questions, the ETS tempts you to use the calculator which might ironically take up longer time than what you’ll take if you break the question down through certain techniques. Most test prep books elaborate on such techniques.
Compensate for the time that RC and CR questions take up by Sentence Equivalence questions
Sentence equivalence questions are mostly easy (of course only when you’ve built your GRE vocab) since they require you to look for consistent synonyms, and as such they take less than a minute if your vocabulary is sound enough. Thus, you can always compensate for your time that gets eaten up in RC and CR questions on these questions. Manage your time in such a way that you can leverage this fact. It is a good idea to finish off with your RC, CR and Text Completion questions first and attempt your sentence equivalence questions at the end since all the sentence equivalence questions can be completed in less than 5 minutes.
Do not waste much time on questions where you get stuck
The Revised GRE is a section adaptive test. You can scroll through the questions of the entire section and mark those questions which you aren’t confident about to attempt them later in your 30/35 min time for a particular section. It is always a good strategy to attempt the easy questions that you are confident about. This not only gives you a psychological edge, but also gives you more time for the questions troubling you which you can then take calmly. Do not simply get stuck on that one question that you aren’t able to solve. You can always come back to that question as long as you are on the same section.
Do not leave the questions that you aren’t confident about, unanswered
While you should not waste much time on questions that are troubling you, remember not to leave them unanswered. You should know the fact that there is NO NEGATIVE MARKING on the GRE, implying that you don’t get penalized for a wrong answer choice. Thus, even when you are not sure about the correct answer of a question, still attempt it using your instincts and guesses. Although with lesser probability, you still have a chance to get your guesses correct. If you choose not to attempt that question, you altogether devoid yourself of the chance of getting it correct.
Beware of the questions that have multiple answers
On the Revised GRE, there are questions that have a single choice as the correct answer and there are questions that have multiple choices as the correct answers. Do not be in a blithe disregard of the questions that expect more than one answer from you as you may end up choosing just one answer for a question that had two correct answer choices, which won’t fetch you any marks. Remember that the questions with square boxes in front of the answer choices are the multiple answer questions and the ones with round boxes in front of the answer choices are single answer questions. Being in a disregard of this fact, might prove to be very costly.
Familiarize yourself with the 300 topics suggested by ETS for the AWA
ETS has created a pool of 300 topics for the writing section. You can familiarize yourself with those 300 topics so that you do not find yourself in a situation where you just do not understand a particular topic. Note that if this happens, you would not only spoil your AWA section, but the panic might also spoil your other sections, since the AWA section is the first section.
Do not ramble unnecessarily in the writing section- Focus on the pith of your writing
Your essay questions are expected to be of a length of 350- 500 words. While attempting the two writing sections, remember what you are primarily evaluated on. In the Analyse an Issue task, always take a stand. The pith of your entire essay should be the justification of that stand through reasoning and examples. The stand could be positive, negative or neutral. In the Analyse an Argument task, always try to find the fault in the logic. Do not be led into believing that only using fancy words or verbose writing can make your essay better. Focus on the pith!
You might feel better equipped to take the GRE now. We wish you good luck for your test!
Feel free to express your concerns or ideas in the comment section below!
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