Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

There are a few different types of wrong answers on the GRE. Some wrong answers are just there in hopes that you’ll guess incorrectly: they actually don’t make much logical sense, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, they look just as good as any other option. Other wrong answers are meant to trick test-takers who make particular mistakes. If you pick an answer on a Text Completion problem that’s exactly the opposite of the correct one, because you missed a critical word like despite or although, this is the type of wrong answer you’ve fallen for. Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Nine identical machines, each working at the same constant rate, can stitch 27 jerseys in 4 minutes. How many minutes would it take 4 such machines to stitch 60 jerseys?

First, take a deep breath. In this article, you’ll learn a methodical approach that will work on GRE rates problems every single time. On test day, it’ll be tempting to throw away your new habits and go back to old ones. Try to do the opposite. You’ve done all of this studying for a reason!

On problems like this, don’t try anything fancy. A lot of GRE test-takers will try to logically reason their way through this problem, saying something like “well, if 9 machines stitch 27 jerseys in 4 minutes, then 3 machines stitch 9 jerseys in 12 minutes…” That approach is valid but dangerous. Whenever you choose not to write something down, you’re taking away your ability to check your work for mistakes. (By the way, where’s the mistake in the logic described above?)

To start the problem, make a table. Your scratch paper should look like this: Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

Let’s do a GRE Discrete Quant experiment. This is one I do with all of my GRE classes and tutoring students. Grab a piece of paper, a pen, and a stopwatch (or use the stopwatch function on your mobile device).

When you’re ready, click “start” on the stopwatch and begin the following multiple-choice GRE Discrete Quant problem… Read more

Can’t get enough of Neil’s GRE wisdom? Few can. Fortunately, you can join him twice monthly for a free hour and a half study session in Mondays with Neil.

Sorry to hear your score isn’t improving yet. That’s the ugly nature of standardized testing; it’s designed to give you the same score over and over again. You’ve spent a lot of time and effort learning a bunch of new things, but on practice tests, the results aren’t showing up yet. Or even worse, after six weeks of hard work, your score took a major nosedive. That’s okay. You’re not alone. Many, if not most, of our students experience a drop in scores on their second test, and may not see an improvement until test 4 or 5. It happens to lots of people. Don’t be discouraged. You can make your score better. Read on. Read more

Can’t get enough of Neil’s GRE wisdom? Few can. Fortunately, you can join him twice monthly for a free hour and a half study session in Mondays with Neil.

As a long-time instructor of all things standardized testing (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, SAT), I love reading books about math, logic, learning, skill acquisition, neurology, and psychology. Is important to me to stay up-to-date with anything that will help my students use their study time effectively. In this blog series, I’ll be bringing you book reviews and recommendations, as well as excerpts and summaries you can put into practice right away on your GRE journey. Read more

Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free? We’re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here.

You know what’s really frustrating? Making a ridiculous math mistake on a GRE Quant problem, totally by accident, and never noticing it. Add a three-second sanity check to your GRE Quant routine, and you’ll be more likely to catch small mistakes before they turn into huge disasters. Read more

Can’t get enough of Neil’s GRE tips? Few can. Fortunately, you can join him twice monthly for a free hour and a half study session in Mondays with Neil.

In front of you sits a big stack of GRE vocab words you want to memorize. How do you get all of these words in your long-term memory as quickly and efficiently as possible? You could just try to cram things into your head through sheer force and repetition. But in my experience, that’s too slow, and students often learn the word-for-word definition without actually processing what the word really means. I’ve had more than one student tell me that “obsequious” means “servile” without knowing what “servile” means… Read more

You can attend the first session of an in-person or online GRE courses absolutely free. Crazy, right? Check out our upcoming courses here.

I love a good online GRE course. Blackboard, the online platform that we use at Manhattan Prep, lets us do a lot of neat things online that we couldn’t do in an in-person class. However, studying for the GRE online isn’t perfect for every student. This article will help you understand what’s involved in successfully starting and completing an online GRE course. Read more

You may already know the basic rules of exponents for the GRE. These rules tell you what to do if you want to multiply or divide two exponential numbers, or raise an exponent to another power. Once you’ve memorized them, exponent problems become exponentially easier (I’m so sorry). But there are two types of exponent problems that many students find intimidating, because the basic rules just don’t seem useful. In this article, we’ll go over those two problem types, how to recognize them, and what to do if you see one. Read more

Happy 2016! This is the year you get an awesome GRE score and are accepted to the graduate school of your dreams. Even if you’re reading this well into the year, or you’re half-way through your GRE prep, you could probably use some guidance, motivation and focus. Here are some New Year’s resolutions to get you started or re-started on your journey to a great GRE score. Read more