Introductions
Syllabus
Lab Projects & Assignments
The GRE & the GMAT Exams
Diagnostic Test
Review
Introductions:
Name, Country of Origin, Languages, Field of Study, Degrees,
Hobbies, Plans
Ex: I’m Dr. Jennifer Lynn Hudgens. I was born in the U.S.,
in the state of Louisiana. I speak English as my first language, and Spanish,
German, and French as my other languages. I have studied Philosophy, Feminism,
and Race Theory among many other things, but I have a PhD in Philosophy, a
graduate certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies, and a TESOL certificate as
well. My hobbies include writing fiction and poetry, painting, knitting, and
singing. I plan to continue teaching at AEI while I also do administrative work
for Academic Affairs. (you might specify whether you plan to take the GRE or
GMAT and what schools you intend to attend)
Syllabus:
(go to document)
Note my contact information, the one holiday we have this
session, and the lab project and assignment schedules.
Lab Projects & Assignments:
(review on syllabus)
Note that students are required to clock in for these
additional hours as part of the class to be completed without the instructor.
However, we can review any questions you wish during class time.
The GRE & the GMAT exams:
https://www.princetonreview.com/business/gmat-vs-gre?ceid=tersh-nav-test-prep
The GRE has three primary measures, while the GMAT has four.
GRE
Analytical Writing
(2 essays)
(30 minutes each)
Math (Quantitative Reasoning)
(2 sections of 20 questions each)
(35 minutes each)
Verbal
(2 sections of 20 questions each)
(30 minutes each)
GMAT
Analytical Writing
(1 essay)
(30 minutes)
Math (Quantitative)
(1 section of 31 questions)
(62 minutes)
Verbal
(1 section of 36 questions)
(65 minutes)
Integrated Reasoning
(1 section of 12 multi-part questions)
(30
minutes)
8-minute breaks after sections 2 & 3
For both exams:
- Review question types,
answer types, scoring, and skills.
- An “endurance” test where
you are tested for hours.
- Incorrect answers do NOT subtract
but do not add to scores either.
- It is best to answer every
question – at least guess!
- Once a section is
completed, you may not go back through it.
- Scratch paper/noteboards
are provided, and you can always request more. Use them on all sections!
- Verbal & Quantitative
sections are adaptive; the raw score ≈ number of correct answers; scaled scores
are generated by equating questions with difficulty levels and on
comparison with the scores of other test-takers in your cohort.
- Scores are reported within
10-15 days after test date. See each exam’s details to see more about how
score reports work.
History of Standardized Testing:
Standardized tests are loosely based on the IQ
tests developed initially to determine the difference between officers and infantry
in the military. Questions that were “easy” should have been answerable by
everyone; questions that were “difficult” should have been answerable only by
the very intelligent.
However, where IQ tests are supposed to measure innate
abilities, standardized tests for university programs are supposed to measure
acquired skills. In reality, these tests measure one skill: your ability to
take a standardized test.
Schools use test results to distinguish between applicants
with similar GPAs. A high GPA tends to indicate a hard worker, while a high
test score tends to indicate someone with a lot of skills necessary for the
school programs.
Do not merely aim for your “best”! This is not a good goal.
Good goals are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and
time-based. In other words, aim to raise your current score by a certain number
of points within a specific amount of time, or to increase the number of
correct answers you have within the 8-week session we have.
The test makers:
ETS = Educational Testing Service & GMAC = Graduate
Management Admissions Council
The test customers:
Admissions departments and mailing lists!
The test writers & graders:
Computers and graduate students
To prepare for standardized tests:
- Have a strategic plan
- Practice regularly,
methodically – cramming is worse than useless!
- Take simulated tests on
the computer
- Pick the order with the
“easy” test first (try the “classic” order on the GMAT)
- Do NOT approach like a
fact-based test
- Learn to think like the
test-maker so you can avoid common errors
- Remember that the test has
to be predictable, otherwise it would not be standardized, and this means
you can improve your test-taking strategies!
This is an adaptive test:
- Questions will start with
medium difficulty level
- If you guess repeatedly,
your score will drop dramatically
- Getting several questions
right will increase the difficulty level
- Getting several questions
wrong will decrease the difficulty level
- There is NOT a one-to-one
correspondence between right or wrong answers and changes in difficulty
level
- Do not waste time trying
to figure out the difficulty level of each question
- Do NOT worry if the
questions suddenly seem easier, you will reach an equilibrium
- DO take heart when the
questions get more difficult, because this means you are doing well!
- Unanswered questions =
WRONG every time
- Pace yourself – never take
more than 2 minutes for any question
- Practice at a higher
difficulty level than you are at currently to improve your overall level
- Make educated guesses through
Process of Elimination (PoE) – this will improve your chances of guessing
correctly
- Every answer has an equal
probability of being the right answer – do NOT just guess C or the longest
answer
- Always check your answers
before completing a section
- DO NOT CANCEL YOUR SCORES
unless you are extremely sick or the building catches fire
Verbal concepts on both tests:
·
Essay composition (argument essay)
·
Reading comprehension
·
Critical reasoning
Just GMAT:
·
Sentence correction
·
Integrated Reasoning
Just GRE:
·
Sentence equivalence
·
Text completion
·
(issue essay)
Most basic strategies for all sections of both tests:
- Do the “easy” parts first
- Educated guesses/PoE
- USE the scratch paper
- Double-check your answers
- Leave NO question
unanswered
- Read ALL answer choices
- Plug in the answers to
test them
- Try to come up with your
own answers and test them
- Memorize (turn the
memorization sheet into flash cards) basic rules and definitions
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