Vince Kotchian GRE Prep

hey Mindful, The primary resources you want to be using for RC are the ETS books. There is no magic technique - many books, videos, etc. will offer similar technique. What is needed is rigorous analysis of the questions and how ETS justifies answers. You want to get to the point where you can defend the right answer with evidence and explain why wrong answers are wrong. This takes time, and thought. Help with this process is best done with conversation, not by using a static source. Re: people acing the test on this forum - I've noticed that many posts from people on Grad Cafe who have "aced" the test rave about one particular prep source. It's almost as if someone was putting them up to writing those posts... Also, I have noticed these posts often tout huge score increases that, in my 8 years of experience as a GRE tutor, are unrealistic. Perhaps I'm not that great of a tutor and those sources are dramatically better than the methods I use with my students, though. Who knows.

hi guys, I recently had a student send me his report from the GRE's diagnostic service. If you're not familiar with it, it's a free service that tells you the difficulty level for the questions in each section, how much time you spent on each question in a section, and which kinds of questions you got right and wrong. Sounds good, right? The trouble is, I can't really find any value in the data because of the way it's presented. Looking at the data, you can't tell exactly which questions you got wrong - it doesn't give you the question numbers. From my point of view, the service doesn't tell you anything you couldn't figure out yourself. You can figure out yourself how long you spend on questions and which kinds of questions you're better at. Knowing the difficulty level of the questions, to me, doesn't illuminate how to get better at them. Is there anyone who has used the service who has found it to be tangibly beneficial?

nice improvement!

hi all, This comes up for a lot of my students regarding the GRE computer test, so I wanted to post it here: You get to send up to four scores to schools for free. After you finish your test and get your unofficial scores, you can then select up to four schools and either send your scores from that day or all your scores within the past 5 years. You can also refrain from sending any scores. 10-15 days later, you'll get your official scores in the mail and they'll be sent to your schools that you designated at the test center. After test day, you'll have those options plus the additional option of picking any test date's scores to send to one or more schools. Each report will cost you $27. It will then take 5 business days before your scores are sent to your school(s). Please note this seems to add about a week compared to designating recipients at the test center... For more info, check out http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/scores

If you analyze Manhattan questions (or any third-party questions) vs. ETS ones, you'll notice that ETS questions are more complex and often have a reasoning component. In other words, they're designed to reward you for thinking and noticing ways to make the question easier. Eigen is right; if you want a more realistic score, take a computer test. For the most realistic scores, take the ETS Powerprep2 tests.

hey Mayur, Make sure you understand the prompt before you start writing! Many of my students make the same mistake. Also, check back in with the prompt and your thesis during your essay to make sure you remember it and are focusing on it. This essay doesn't respond to the prompt. Instead, it seems to discuss what the media does versus what social reformers do and which is better.

Sure! Here's an example of a sentence you use where you omit articles: "And educational institutions have tremendous amount of experience and may have the ability to judge if a person is likely to succeed in a specific field. But I believe, it shouldn't dissuade student from choosing a specific path in career." It should read, "And educational institutions have a tremendous amount of experience and may have the ability to judge if a person is likely to succeed in a specific field. But I believe, it shouldn't dissuade a student from choosing a specific path in his career." Here's an example of a verb tense error: "For instance, Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College of Arts, because he believed what he is studying there doesn't make sense." It should read, "For instance, Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College of Arts, because he believed what he was studying there didn't make sense."

you have several grammar / usage / spelling errors

hey GRE Cracker, A couple of tips: For strengthen / weaken: 1. Paraphrase the argument on paper. This is crucial! You need to be able to state it exactly. 2. For strengthen, look for a choice that shoots down a potential objection. For weaken, the choice should raise an objection. 3. The opposite of your answer choice should do the opposite of what you're trying to do. I.e., if you're trying to strengthen the argument, the opposite of the right answer choice should weaken it. You didn't ask about "paradox" style logic questions, but you should paraphrase the paradox and look for a choice that allows both things to co-exist. For function, practice classifying the surrounding sentences. What are they: author argument, opponent's argument, support, conclusion, etc. You can also build this skill by classifying each sentence in the passage. Practice with ETS, and supplement with the GMAT, yes, GMAT verbal review. It's the closest thing to ETS logic (ETS modeled its logic questions on it).

hey Jacqueline, I think this is a 4. It could use a little more depth. Also, refrain from judging the argument, " Finally, the manage provides no credible evidence that a news and talk format radio program is gaining more and more focus in that area, which makes the claim to switch from rock-music format to a news and talk format untenable." Your job is to talk about what evidence is needed and the implications of that evidence (which you mostly do throughout).

hi Mayur, I'd give this a 3: - don't judge the argument ("The given argument is based on many and erroneous assumptions and the conclusion is way too generalised.") - there is no real argument made by the passage - so it doesn't make sense to talk about the "argument" in your response. Here's an example of why your response doesn't seem to answer the assignment: "There could be number of factors responsible for this behaviour, for instance the first born maybe a female or, the monkey may have certian psychological conditions which forced it to behave in such a manner." - why would sex matter? - what conditions? "There is no information given about the monkey like whether or not they belong to same geographic location or not, what was their age, sex etc. Thus the given conclusion is not cogent." - no need to point out what the study doesn't do - your job is to offer alternate explanations. - don't judge the study. Overall, the essay doesn't seem to respond to the assignment, or to provide much analysis when it does.

same comment, really - needs more depth. It's around a 3.

hi Mayur, I like the depth of your thinking - I'd give this a 4.5 because it really does a nice job of getting into the complexity of the issue, but it has a couple of problems: The only paragraph that doesn't work very well is the India one - you start out by saying what institutions should do, but then end up on a different note -- basically saying people are forced to be engineers. Also, your use of standard written English is a bit of a drawback. Overall, very nice!

hey Matt, This is probably a 3 or 3.5. I'd encourage you to do some untimed practice and brainstorm lots of topics before you practice timed again. This will take the time pressure off and allow you to build skill more easily. Use the ETS instructions and sample essays as guides. Your first body paragraph feels like an extension of your intro - I'd just get right into your first reason and example in the first body pgh. Your writing is nice and clear, and I follow your thinking - the essay just needs more depth.

The one big thing I'd add to your prep is to analyze ETS questions until you can explain them to a friend. Even better, actually explain them to a friend! This will force you to notice things you didn't before and to develop stronger justification for your answers. You should do this with questions you get right, too (most people don't analyze questions they get right much). This will let you get a lot more mileage out of the ETS big book. Also get its verbal practice book if you don't have it. Manhattan's computer tests are good for extra timed practice. If you follow the above advice, you might not need the old ETS big book, but the old ETS big book is probably better practice than Manhattan or any other third-party material. I just would only break it out after you can easily explain any ETS RC question to someone from the PowerPrep2 tests, the big book, and the verbal book.

I agree...sometimes. Sometimes it's the exact opposite. I had a conversation with an engineering director at a local university who told me, point blank, that his department "never reads" personal statements for master's students. He urged me to emphasize how important the GRE was to the class I was teaching. Of course, there are departments who don't care much about the GRE as long as it's decent. But let's not generalize...it all depends on the student and the situation.

There's no one-size-fits all answer to this question. To give you an answer, I would want to know. 1. What score did you get on the ETS practice test (from PowerPrep 2 which is free to download from ets.org/gre)? 2. What score would you like to get? (I know you said 600, but there's a new scoring range now from 130-170). You may just need to get a couple of books, and you may also need to work extremely hard and practice for months depending on the answers to the above. Anecdotes from certain people who aced the GRE without much prep may give you the impression that the test is easy. I can assure you there are lots of people who don't do well even after quite a bit of prep. Not to paint too much of e negative picture - I just see many students take the test too lightly and very few who take it seriously enough.

I'd give your issue essay a 4 and your argument a 5, so 4.5. For your issue, try addressing the counterargument first, then provide your argument. For example, explain the reasoning of someone who does believe that statement. This will give your response more context and weight.

I want to clear something up: there's no such thing as a list of "most commonly used GRE words". No one is out there taking the GRE month after month and memorizing all the words that appear. The GRE randomly selects words from several thousand words that are commonly used in well-written English.

hi Abohammed, What were your scores on the two ETS practice tests? That will tell us whether it's worth it.

I think you already have a good idea of the answer to your own question. Word lists are of limited value (as shown by your friends' experience). Spend a few minutes a day on vocab and word roots, but spend most of your time on solving and analyzing questions.

Don't worry about your spelling errors, Charisma. Since they don't interfere much with meaning, I don't think you would have scored any higher even if they were all fixed.

If anyone is using the ETS quantitative practice book, I've explained all the questions before the mixed practice sets for free on YouTube.

Sure, it's valid. Nice logical thinking... although it's probably easier to do it the first way.