standard deviation on GRE

[db2290]

Is Standard Deviation a topic on the GRE? Some of my study books include it and some completely omit it - I'm confused!

[Strangefox]

Is Standard Deviation a topic on the GRE? Some of my study books include it and some completely omit it - I'm confused!

I did not have it on my actual test.

[hahahut]

I believe it is. It is covered by ETS's Math Review, and I have seen it many times in those Big Book tests. It just tests the concept though. Won't ask you to calculate it.

[newms]

Yeah, I did the GRE last year and there weren't any questions on standard deviation, but it seems to be one of the topics that could be asked. The prep book (Princeton Review) I used had indicated that standard deviation was one of the topics that the GRE covered, but like hahahut said, just the concepts not the actual calculation.

[Tasadduk]

I haven't taken GRE yet, but I found a question on standard deviation on PowerPrep's practice problems. I was actually able to answer the question without having to calculate the actual SD's. But it's is good to know mean, mode, standard deviation concepts if you ask me, since they are mentioned in ETS's math review.

My question is, what about Normal Distribution? Can you expect a question like that on the test? I actually found a problem with normal distribution on PowerPrep as well, I didn't know how to answer it.

[hahahut]

I think I know which question you are talking about: the percentage estimate based on the location in the distribution diagram. TestMagic had a very good thread about it. But I am not sure if it is still there as they had to restore a very old backup after a server problem and lost almost a year's content.

[waiting279]

Yes, standard deviation can appear in a general sense. It's good to know what it is, but you don't necessarily need to know how to do anything with it.

[will415]

You should probably know that in a normally distributed data set ~ 68% of the data falls within 1 SD of the mean, 95% within 2 SD's, and 99.7% (aka, just about all) within 3 SD's.

[akraz]

I took GRE last month and two questions testing standard deviation concept appeared in my first 10 questions. Quite a surprise as it was not one of my strongest things .

[DrFaustus666]

I took the GRE about 10 days ago. I had one question about standard deviation, and it was structured EXACTLY like one of the questions on POWERPREP.

I.e., you do NOT have to calculate a standard deviation. You need to know what a greater or lesser standard deviation means in terms of the data set as a whole; or conversely, if the data set changes in some specified way, what effect does that change in the constituent data have on the standard deviation.

[bilarslan]

Is Standard Deviation a topic on the GRE? Some of my study books include it and some completely omit it - I'm confused!

Yes it is. I took the GRE yesterday and there was one such question.

[anser imam]

yes it is... it was part of my official test 2 days ago....

Is Standard Deviation a topic on the GRE? Some of my study books include it and some completely omit it - I'm confused!

[JoeySsance]

Kaplan's GRE review book lists standard deviation in "Level 3" difficulty, which in their 3 level system is equivalent to a "hard" GRE question. Could it be that those who are doing well and are thus encountering "hard" questions are more likely to see standard deviation questions than those who are dealing with mostly "medium" and "easy" questions? It might be helpful if those of you who've seen standard deviation problems offered your Quant scores and ditto for those of you who haven't seen them. Of course the correlation wouldn't be a perfect one. Someone with an 800 might have gone through their entire exam without a single standard deviation question (perhaps it just wasn't selected from the extensive pool of "hard" questions)... and someone with a score in the 500s or 600s (or lower) might have been doing well enough earlier in their exam to encounter a "hard" standard deviation question but then their score decreased shortly - if not, immediately - afterward... You get the point... lol, do you? I haven't taken the GRE yet... mine's in a few days! I'll be sure to do some practice problems to be safe!

Edited November 12, 2010 by JoeySsance

[TheDude]

I hit it on mine and I scored a 650. Not a high quant score by any means. I thought I was doing well because they were throwing questions at me that took 2 minutes to understand. I think it was my 22 question. After that I had to guess to get through the last 6.

Point is it wasn't on the test early but was there for me and I didn't score in the 700's.