Dustin DeWinn

Hello all I have the option to take the MAT (Miller Analogies Test) or GRE, and am going with the former. I'd ask how it is, but I'll save that for another discussion. I bought Kaplan's GRE study guide, which I found out after I pulled the trigger is no longer a test they offer support for. The latest and last edition of their book was printed in 2010. If you look on Amazon, all of the MAT study guides were printed in 2010 or 2011, with the exception of Barron's which was in 2013. So I have a stupid question: Has the way the test has been administered changed in the last 5 years? I know it's not a test you can really study for, but I want to refine my ability to make connections and to be prepared for the types of questions I'll face, particularly math ones. In other words, is the 2010 book obsolete?

None are on the ETS site that I know of and I checked it pretty thoroughly in search for other resources. They don't refer to any list on their site.

I have been assiduously studying for the GRE and one of the things I did was read through the entire pool of potential Issue topics on the ETS website (Still reading the Argument pool). I feel comfortable with most of them, except there is a certain subset of topics that concern me. This is just one example, taken from the list: Some people believe it is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public. Others believe that the public has a right to be fully informed. Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented. My concern is that all the other topics seem more straight-forward and it is easier, at least for me, to take a position and defend it because the topics are not so ambiguous. In being intellectually honest, both in thought and writing, I recognize at least on some of these "Some X; Some Y" issues, I straddle both sides of the topic equally. As an example, on matters of national security, I do not believe political leaders have an obligation to divulge secrets, but on the other hand I believe government should be more transparent about, say, spending and where campaign contributions come from. These views are not in direct opposition with each other, and I hold both equally and simultaneously. The prompt is apparently asking me to pick one side, meaning the other is a position I do not support. It is easy to write about the pros and cons of the positions equally, but for this species of issue topic, how is one supposed to convincingly write an essay when I'm only supporting one side? More confoundingly, I'm asked to address both sides, so does that mean I'm allowed to straddle and give an even-handed analysis, or am I just supposed to present the other side from the perspective of it being fallacious? Perhaps it is just in my broken interpretation of the prompt. Thank you so much! EDIT: To elaborate a bit, on an issue topic like "All high school students should have the same curriculum till college", it's easy for me to say, "No well not ALL. You said ALL. Here is why: private schools would be included, not all districts have the same funding, different students have different needs, etc." All of the NON SOME X; SOME Y, they are worded in such a way that it is easier for me to have a concrete stance. But here I feel like they're asking me "Some people feel that driving fast is dangerous. Other people like racing cars and think that's okay. Take a position"....clearly it's okay to not like speeding on the highway AND like racing cars on a closed track. These SOME X, SOME Y are not either/or issues, and I think both sides have to be fully vetted.

Hello I've been using the Kaplan 500 card deck/app and in the past week I've improved my vocab from knowing 49% to 80%. I get better every day. I also have the Magoosh vocab app which has a little over 1000 words, and for some reason I find the interface a lot less intuitive and the words don't stick as well as they do with Kaplan. I have a harder time with Magoosh for some odd reason. My question is which app do you folks find more useful and indicative of what I should expect on the GRE? Of course if I need to know the extra 500 or so words I will to my best to retain that info, but I hear Kaplan *might* be sufficient. Do you recommend learning as much as I can from the Magoosh decks too or is Kaplan enough? Thanks

Is Manhattan good for people learning from the very beginning? I need a book that assumes I know nothing.

Everyone I read about advises ETS PowerPrepII is a great way to prepare. I have a new machine, running WIN 8.1, which has been out for a year. But the ETS software only supports WIN 7 & 8. I've contacted them and they're suggestions are find someone with a computer I can borrow (which means a) hijacking their machine and that means studying at their convenience) or use a library. They won't let me download 3rd party software or use their machines for the duration I need. I need the best study help I can get. Any decent alternatives to PPII? I am using Majortests and the ETS site, as some have suggested, but am open to more ideas as well. Thanks

I am hopelessly bad at math, but am assiduously studying, doing the best I can. I hear Kaplan's isn't that great and now I'm seeing why. Please tell me if a GRE question will be this deceptive. Someone already said it will, and I refuse to believe it until I have further confirmation. I have 2 problems with this question. First, the graph makes it really difficult to tell exactly where January is relative to 60. If it's SLIGHTLY over or under, that will change the answer. The second problem is that if it IS 60, that means it's not LESS than 60. To my eyes and the eyes of everyone I showed this to, we all came up with 7/12. According to the book it's 8/12. To complicate it it was fill in the blank. So I hope the real thing isn't going to have a Q like this. I thought the GRE was about testing math skills, not giving gotcha questions. Furthermore, there was a huge typo in an earlier sample problem that made it unsolvable and was only resolved by reading the solution which revealed the typo in the initial question.

Yeah, thank you. I was a bit confused. In hindsight after it was all said and done, it made more sense to me. But it wasn't until after my call with ETS when I was looking for a chart of added percentiles that it clicked for me. I won't try to rationalize my thick-headedness. I'm really not aiming for the bare minimum but needed to know where I stand. And I appreciate the patience and candor of the people in these forums.

Yeah, obviously I'm not going for the bare minimum, that's not a goal or aspiration. But I needed context as to where I am. I'm studying every day. I plugged in a realistic goal, and it's well above the min requirement.

The plot thickens. I emailed the Graduate School directly, just for clarification. "Dustin, first let me clear up something, the graduate school does not make admission decisions, nor do we suggest that a student be rejected. We give the programs the information that you provided and let them know whether or not you meet the minimums, but the program always has the option to admit by exception. As for the GRE, we take the Verbal % and Quantitative % add them together and divide by 2, if that score is 30% or better then you meet the minimum requirement for the GRE. The question about how important the math portion is to a program that math is not part of the curriculum has to be answered by the program, as again, the graduate school does nothing more than give the program a snapshot of your record and determines whether you qualify or not for regular admission. That clears that up for me. So this brings me back to my original question: Does anyone know how to figure out the TOTAL percentile? How do I know what percentile that number is in for both Q & V combined? The average of the initial scores I reported (which again, I am going to work on improving) is 143, but thats both together. So I'm not sure if that's 15%, 20%... Thankyoythankyou Basically, I have a chicken & egg problem here because the Dept Head and the Grad School have completely contradictory messages. EDIT: I called ETS and he said it sounds like I find out what scores correspond to the percentiles, that when averaged, would give me 30%. Does that make sense?

You raise a good point. The truth is I really am just gaining my footing. I took one of the free Kaplan practice tests for raw knowledge before I even really understood what I was getting into. Foolish? Absolutely. But I didn't know what I know now. The book said to take a practice test early on, but they didn't say how early, so before I read further, I just wanted to see where I am. I am still understanding how to decode questions, but I feel more confident then I did before. I plan on doing a lot more practice and refining my vocab and quant skills before I take the next test, and then some real practice tests on site. I have the luxury of more time than others, but the truth is I BS'd my way through all of my schooling and this is the hardest I've studied for anything, and though I am putting all my marbles into this, I may not have a refined method of learning how to do this as effectively as I can. It's not really an issue of intelligence though, but this is a skill I need to refine. I appreciate your advice and everyone elses thus far - and to come.

What is infuriating to me and funny at the same time is the ETS PowerPrep II software is not compatible with my OS, which is WIN 8.1 They support WIN 8 and WIN 7, but not 8.1. I called and Facebooked them and they said to use a library or someone else's machine. They just updated it to support 8, and won't update for a while. I bribed a friend with dinner if I can use her computer to do ETS practice tests, but the most useful external resource seems to be unavailable to me, at least for now. But I'm not quite ready to retest quite yet Does anyone have any suggestions for a good alternative practice software? I hear Manhattan is good, as well as a slew of others and not sure what the best to use is at this point now that I have heard enough about Kaplan to make me consider a more conducive alternative.

Yeah, I plan on taking a few practice tests, but I've been out of school so long, I'm starting early and starting low. I'm a bit lost, and would love a studybuddy (anyone in eastern NC, hello??), and I plan to get my scores way higher, but I need to be realistic too.

Hello everyone, This is my first post. I don't want to waste your time with the minutia of my circumstances, but here it is for those who need to know: I finished undergrad 10 years ago, left with a deplorable GPA, have been working retail exclusively, and now have an opportunity to go back to school and do something more rewarding - writing seems to be my only talent and so I am going for Technical Writing. Because I cannot get into a MA program directly, I am entering a Graduate Level Tech Writing Certificate program which I hope to use to transition me into a MA program. In the meantime, before that starts, I got out of a depressive rut and started studying for the GREs. My baseline scores from Kaplan before I did anything were 148 V/ 138 Q. I am working hard to improve these scores but I am (and have always been) absolutely useless when it comes to math and I have very little confidence I can do significantly better. HERE IS MY QUESTION: I emailed my advisor and confirmed what the expectations are for GREs. This is what he said (in part): "The Graduate School (not the department) looks at the GRE scores in the aggregate (verbal and quantitative together), and I believe that they’re looking for something like 30th percentile. Higher is great, but below that percentile, the grad school automatically recommends rejection, in which case the department would need to make a special argument in favor of admission (and of course we’d need some reason to do so). So, although you might think that the verbal section would be more important, they’re actually equally important. Or, more precisely, the total score is important (and it doesn’t much matter how the individual scores are divvied up)." I have been trying to find a conversion for TOTAL GRE percentiles -- that's how I'm reading this. My current total is 286, which according to the chart below looks like 31%. If true, it means technically I meet the minimum requirements. I need you kind folks to help me verify this though. http://www.canteroverseas.com/greconversionchart.html So please tell me if I'm reading his email correctly (that they add the two together) and if so, how to figure out the added percentile score? Thanks! Thankyouthankyouthankyou DD PS: He suggested taking the MATs if I'm not big on math, but I think that is out of my depth. I have been working on verbal and begin quant tomorrow.