When it comes to the GRE, your mindset can make a big difference. The test is long. The test is hard. The test is fast. The people who make the GRE are experts in creating the feeling of, “I know that I know how to do this, but I just can’t seem to figure it out.” There are people who say that one of the problems with tests such as this on is that they aren’t accurate because they have pressure and unpredictability. That would be right if the test just wanted to find your understanding of vocabulary and mathematics, but that’s not all they want to test. They want to test how you deal with pressure. They want to test how you deal with unpredictability. They want to test how you reason, above everything else. So all those added difficulties are fair game. They aren’t in the way of your test; they are your test.

That’s what makes your mindset so important. You might be able to convince me that mindset doesn’t have anything to do with your ability to do math (although I disagree) or to remember vocabulary (I still would disagree, but maybe not as strongly). But you won’t be able to convince me that mindset has nothing to do with how you handle pressure, unpredictability, and reasoning.

So what’s a good mindset? And how do you get it? Here are some tips.

Crisis mode versus panic mode

I hope you haven’t been in a lot of emergency situations, but I’m sure you’ve had at least one opportunity to see both crisis mode and panic mode demonstrated in real life. Picture a situation where John is preparing lunch and cuts his hand severely. He calls for his wife, Kelly. In panic mode, Kelly would see the blood and scream, “Are you okay? Are you okay? What happened?” She would go to find her keys to drive to the hospital, then decide to call the doctor, then get mad because she couldn’t find the keys, then start yelling. Now picture Kelly in crisis mode. She appears calm, although she talks rapidly and with direction. “John, sit down and put pressure on your hand with this towel. I’m going to drive you to the hospital. Hand me your keys.”

Both modes are normal responses to a problem, but the chief difference is that crisis mode works, and panic mode doesn’t. Not only does panic mode not help, but it also hurts.

You have to approach your test in crisis mode. Focus, take in the information you see, assess the situation, make a decision, and follow through. The good news is that crisis mode can be artificially created until it becomes a habit. In other words, fake it ‘til you make it. Read more

You already know how to learn—you’ve been learning all your life. The problem is that the way you learn best for school is often not the best way to learn for the GRE.

At the first level, you’re learning all of the “basics” (note that I do not mean “easy” when I say “basics”): the facts, the rules, the vocabulary, the question types and how they work. That first level is necessary but it will only get you so far. As you progress through this material, you’ll need to start adding in a second level of understanding—and most people don’t make this leap.

Before we start, if you haven’t yet read What the GRE Really Tests, go do so.

Why do I need a “Second Level” of learning?

When was the last time you read a GRE problem and had no idea where to start? When was the last time you did a GRE problem, checked the solution, and thought, “What? I didn’t even know they were talking about that!”

Notice that I didn’t ask whether you’ve experienced these things. We all have, even those of us who score in the 99^th percentile. It’s just a matter of time until we hit a question like this. Your goal is to maximize the amount of time until it happens again. : )

Okay, so what IS the “Second Level”?

This second level of study involves learning how the GRE test writers put questions together, including the right and wrong answers. You can learn how to take the test by analyzing the way these questions are put together.

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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 talk about the Do’s and Don’ts to get the most out of your practice tests.

Know WHY You Take Practice Tests

Practice tests are very useful for three things:

(1) Figuring out your current scoring level (assuming you took the test under official conditions)

(2) Practicing stamina and/or timing

(3) Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses

The third one on the list is the MOST important—that’s how we actually get better at this test!

Practice tests do not help us to improve while taking the test. If you have been training to run a marathon, you don’t learn how to get better while you’re running the marathon itself; you’re just trying to survive. ? Rather, you learn how to improve in between races while doing all kinds of training activities and analyzing your performance. Read more

The GRE General Test is not a math test. Nor is it a vocabulary test. Well, okay, you do have to know about these topics in order to get a good score. But this test is really testing your executive reasoning skills.

The term might be unfamiliar, but you already have—and use—these skills every day. Here are some examples:

You arrive at work in the morning and think about all of the things that you could do that day. You can’t get it all done, so which things will have to wait until this afternoon, or tomorrow, or next week? Which one thing should you start working on first?

You are faced with a list of 20 unread emails (or, if your inbox is more like mine, about 80). Which ones do you read first? The oldest ones? The ones from your boss? The ones marked urgent? Are there some that you won’t even click on right now because you know, from the sender’s name or from the subject line, that those emails aren’t very important? (And how did that one spam message get through the filter?)

You have a choice between working on Product X or Project Y. Project Y will result in about 5% more revenue to the company, but Project Y will also take 50% longer. Which do you do?

None of those decisions are easy ones (and many would likely require more information than I gave in the little scenario). This complex decision making is exactly what a good executive needs to be able to do well—and this is what the test writers and graduate schools actually care about.

The math problems, vocab questions, and reading passages on the General Test are ultimately tools to allow the exam writers to test you on your decision-making ability. The Subject Tests are the ones that assess you more on your domain-specific expertise.

How does that help me take the test?

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“Many a true word is said in jest.”—I don’t know, but I heard it from my mother.

“I’ve never seen any of these words before, but I bet they all mean, ‘You’re a loser’.”

“Why is this question here? Why am I here?  When’s the civil service exam?  Garbage men still have a union. . .”

Have you lived that movie?  Paranoia is only human—and the old saying is true: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”  Paranoia is a primal reaction, developed to help protect humans from animals with sharp, pointy teeth.  Unfortunately, it is not helpful when one is facing questions with sharp, pointy teeth.  Even though the GRE is out to get you.  Failing to control your paranoia is a hidden reason for underperforming on the actual exam.

On this blog, I and others have discussed many factors crucial for success: foundation skills, strategies, timing, precision, and so forth.  And it’s like I say about L.A.—everything you ever read [here] about it is true.  However, after honing these skills, after achieving mastery, too many test takers succumb to their paranoia and thus revert when taking the actual exam, especially for the first time.  Even 99^th percentile skills will crumble if undermined by irrational panic and the results will not be gratifying.  (Have you ever watched the Chicago Cubs play a post season series?)   To succeed, folks must understand the difference between dispassionate, objective analysis—“I’ve never gotten a surface area question right in life, why do I think I’ll have a divine inspiration today?”—and irrelevant fear—“They’re going to tattoo a scarlet “L” on my forehead.”  Just as folks plan question and timing strategies, they must develop tools to banish their internally generated negative visualizations.

How do you tell the difference?  Objective analysis responds to the stimuli on the monitor.  Paranoia is a response to internal doubts.  (Notice how this is parallel to the nature of the exam—search for the answer on the screen, not in the opinions in your head.)  Sometimes, after you’ve read a question twice (everyone has a sinking feeling the first time), you hear yourself singing, “I’ve got the ‘I don’t know where I’m going but I’m going nowhere in a hurry’ blues.”  That’s the truth, not paranoia.  Bail out.  As one of my acting coaches used to say, “Only schizophrenics don’t react to the reality around them.”  Conversely, paranoia is when your thoughts of impending disaster revolve around your supposed shortcomings rather than the material on the screen.  As I’ve said before, if while taking the exam you find yourself thinking about how big a dumb ass you are, check the question—if it doesn’t read, “Which of the following best describes how big a dumb ass you are?”, you’re thinking about the wrong thing.  That is paranoia.  No kidding—you knew that.
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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.

I’ve talked to a ton of students recently who were surprised by some detail of test day—and that detail affected their performance. In most of these cases, the “surprising” detail was actually exactly what should have happened, according to the official rules. So let’s talk about what’s going to happen when you finally get in there to take the test. Read more

I thought I might share my GRE experience and the lessons it taught me about the GRE prep process.

I’ve always been a test girl. My favorite two days of first grade were taking the IOWA exams, which I used to try to write at home to administer to my class of stuffed animals. I wish that were a joke. I got into a car crash on the way to the LSAT, pulled myself out a ditch, hitchhiked to the exam, and still scored in the 98^th percentile. I left the bar exam for a few hours in the middle to go shopping for a sweater because I was cold. I love tests. I own them. That is, until I took the GRE.

I was pretty cocky rolling into the GRE. I bought a pack of vocab flashcards and looked them over for a few weeks. I took a few practice tests. I read over the math. I showed up feeling like a boss. And then I got my score. And then I cried.

I did badly. What the heck? Tests are basically the one thing I can do!

Lesson one: The GRE must be studied.

The GRE really benefits from familiarity with the test. If you want to max out your score, you can’t just know the underlying material “ you have to be familiar with how it shows up and the best methods for handling it when it does.

I was daunted for a while, but I decided the GRE wouldn’t beat me. So after hiding from the exam for a few months, I got some study materials and got back on the horse.

Lesson two: The vocab must be learned.
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Okay, the title shouldn’t describe them as activities that teachers hate, so much as activities that this teacher hates. I don’t hate them because they’re completely useless, but I hate them because they distract well-meaning and hard-working students. Studying for the GRE is time-consuming and hard enough without inefficient strategies.

There are certain study strategies that exasperated students have in common. When a student tells me that they’re following one of these strategies, the rest of the story is usually, and my score isn’t going up at all. Here are, in my opinion, the four big ones, and their better alternatives.

Binging on problems

This is a big one. Stories that start with, I did all the problems in the book or I bought an extra set of problems and did every single one usually end with but I’m not getting any better!

It’s not that doing all the problems in the book is a bad thing, but chances are if you’re doing that many problems, you aren’t giving them the time they deserve. Doing problems is a good way to assess what you know, but it’s actually not a great way to get better at doing problems. That comes when you review what you’ve done.

Wonder if you’re doing too many problems with not enough review? Go back and do 10 problems you did last week, timed. Do you remember how to tackle them? If so, you’re probably reviewing enough. If not, you might want to tackled fewer problems in more depth in order to see a better payout.
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When it comes to studying for the quant portion of the GRE, I’m a big advocate of mixing a variety of study styles. The GRE pulls questions from a big selection of question types and content areas, and pulling your study habits from a variety of strategies can help you keep up.

I encourage you to take a look at your study patterns and see if anything’s missing. Are you only practicing in short stints but never working for a full-exam-length of time? Are you only practicing mixed sets but never targeting particular question types? You might want to consider mixing it up!

Systematic vs. Cherry-picking

There is clearly merit to a systematic study approach. Working your way through your study materials in order ensures that you cover all the material you need to prepare for the test. It also ensures that you give adequate time to each area.

On the other hand, cherry-picking the areas you want to study lets you focus your attention on the areas that most need your attention. It also allows you to study effectively on a crunched schedule if you already have a comfortable, working knowledge of math basics.

These strategies can be effectively combined to maximize their benefits. Do you want to cover all the material? Yes. But what happens when you get to a topic you don’t understand? Don’t fixate and get stuck there; note it and move on! The math concepts on the exam are related to one another, so there’s a good chance that when you come back to a topic later, you’ll understand it differently than the first time around. You also may want to break away from your study system and pay some immediate attention to concepts that newly make sense to you, or that you thought you had mastered but then notice you’ve forgotten.

Depth vs. Breadth
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Are you feeling incredibly stressed out when you sit down to study for the GRE? (Or maybe I should ask, who isn’t?) Do you find it hard to concentrate on the task at hand?

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara recently published the results of a study following 48 undergrads preparing for the GRE. Jan Hoffman details the research in a blog post over at The New York Times; here’s a summary:

The Motivation

We had already found that mind-wandering underlies performance on a variety of tests, including working memory capacity and intelligence, said Michael D. Mrazek, (quoted from the NYT blog post)

Ah, yes, mind-wandering. We’ve all had this experience. We’re taking a test, the clock is ticking, and we keep finding ourselves thinking about something other than the question we’re supposed to be answering right now. Maybe we’re stressing about our score. Maybe we’re thinking about applications. Maybe we’re even distracted by work, significant others, family, or other issues that have nothing to do with the test!

How do we stop fixating on other things and concentrate on the task at hand? This study tried to find out.

The Study

First, the students were given one verbal reasoning section from the GRE. They also completed a task that measured their working memory. These tests are the baseline results.

The students were split into two groups; let’s call them Group M and Group N.

Group M attended meditation classes four times a week; these students learned lessons on mindfulness, which focuses on breathing techniques and helps to minimize distracting thoughts.

Group N attended nutrition classes, designed to teach these students healthy eating habits.

Afterwards, the students were given another GRE verbal section and another task to measure working memory. The performance of students in group N stayed the same; the nutritional studies didn’t make a difference.

Group M students, however, improved their GRE scores by an average of 12 percentile points! Here’s the best part: the study took just two weeks. You read that correctly: these students improved their verbal scores by 12 percentile points in just two weeks.

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