Is the verbal GRE merely a roll of the dice?

[andrewthomas]

These have been my verbal scores on 6 Kaplan Cats and 2 Powerpreps, with dates:

7/04: 670 (Kaplan)

7/07: 730 (Kaplan)

7/14: 710 (Kaplan)

7/17: 670 (Kaplan)

7/19: 730 (Kaplan)

7/20 : 750 (Power Prep)

7/21 (morn): 750 (Power Prep)

7/21 (afternoon): 660 (Kaplan)

In one day I have a score range of 90 points! The rest of my life is apparently determined by luck! Is this sort of spread common or are most people pretty consistent?

Good luck!

Edited July 21, 2011 by andrewthomas

[wtncffts]

Yes, it's arbitrary and rather useless as a signal for anything, I think.

By the way, it's "roll". Just thought I should point that out in a thread about the verbal GRE.

[andrewthomas]

Indeed you're right! Thanks!

[natsteel]

It is in a sense because it's adaptive. If you get a a word or two early on which the test considers easy but you don't happen to know, it can account for a wide range of scores. I scored anywhere from 590 to 720 on the 4 practice test I took to prepare. I ended up with a 660. Besides, even your lowest score is very high so it's not something worth spending any real time worrying about it.

[gellert]

I wouldn't say the verbal score is arbitrary at all, but natsteel is right -- your scores are fine. And since it's a CAT, just be sure to spend a little extra time on the first few questions. I made anywhere between a 680 and an 800 on my verbal practice scores -- a range even larger than yours! -- and ended up getting 710 and 730 on the real thing (I took it twice). So in terms of the actual test, my score essentially stayed the same. A lot of your variance is likely due to flaws in the Kaplan exams. Powerpoint will be more like your actual score. My PP verbal scores were 710 and 800, which certainly included my true scores and since it looks like you got a 750 both times, I think a 710-750 is what you're looking at.

Edited July 22, 2011 by gellert

[ecritdansleau]

Kaplan Diagnostic: 530 V (Over a year ago)

Barron's 1: 580 V (4 weeks ago)

ETS Practice Book Test 1: 740 (About two weeks ago)

Powerprep Test #1: 800 V (Four days ago)

Powerprep Test #2: 620 V (Last night. Really started freaking out at the last second.)

Real GRE: 750 V (A few hours ago. Sigh of relief.)

So I would say, yes, it really does depend a bit on the set of words you're going to get (so if you make an effort to memorize words, it actually probably will pay off in some way). When I first started taking practice tests, I found the time limit on reading to be very restrictive for me. After painstakingly working through Barron's 3500 List, though, taking the test felt totally different--it really helps to be able to have the vocab precise in your mind so you can whip through the straightforward questions and have a bit more time to ponder the reading comp. Even though the test is changing, I'm a bit suspicious of all this talk that it's going to get easier or something because it will become more "contextual": even on the test now, you can really be thrown off in contextual questions like sentence completions if you do not have the vocabulary down; words are words are words. Other people may have had positive experiences with memorizing word roots (anyone?) but I found that this really takes too much time and guessing and is way too imprecise. I liked the Barron's list because it included example sentences for each word, which somehow helps the meaning to take shape in my memory. Even working through about half of the list significantly improved how I was doing on the practice tests. I memorized words by making notecards on which the word was written all by itself on one side, so that I would get in the habit of seeing the word by itself and being able to quickly know what it meant. I don't know what to expect in the new test--but in my experience, I wish that I hadn't spent so much time in my initial studying on stategies/tricks/etcetera...they can only help so much. If you really want to do well in the verbal, go comprehensive with the vocab. It seems pointless if you think of it like "only one of the words I'm memorizing will be on the test" but the more words you pick up, the more you increase your chances of doing well. Keep in mind, too, that it's not as if it will only test you on about 25 words in 25 questions--there are multiple answer choices so every word you know is one you can more easily use for process of elimination if you're stumped. Also, if you take the powerprep tests and find you do significantly worse on the actual test, I would say to try it again. If you're taking the new test, at least you don't have to worry about it changing anytime soon--~ (until this morning I was very concerned that I would have to invest in all new review books, materials, etcetera if I had to retake the new one.....thank goodness it's over!)

Edited July 23, 2011 by ecritdansleau

[MYRNIST]

These have been my verbal scores on 6 Kaplan Cats and 2 Powerpreps, with dates:

7/04: 670 (Kaplan)

7/07: 730 (Kaplan)

7/14: 710 (Kaplan)

7/17: 670 (Kaplan)

7/19: 730 (Kaplan)

7/20 : 750 (Power Prep)

7/21 (morn): 750 (Power Prep)

7/21 (afternoon): 660 (Kaplan)

In one day I have a score range of 90 points! The rest of my life is apparently determined by luck! Is this sort of spread common or are most people pretty consistent?

Good luck!

It is a roll of the dice, but not in the way you mean. The point of studying is to increase the median and reduce the variance of your score. If you get a bunch of words and concepts you happen to know, it's easy to do well. The GRE has such a wide range of potential questions that it's unlikely for this to happen naturally - you have to increase your knowledge so that no matter what they throw at you, you're prepared for it. So, without meaning to sound harsh, if you're getting that big of a deviation on your verbal score it likely means you're not quite prepared enough. You might still get "lucky" and see material you know, but then again you might not. If you're comfortable with that uncertainty, go ahead. If not (aka you want to be sure you'll get a good score), you probably should study more.

[ZeeMore21]

Perhaps the verbal GRE is a roll of the die to a certain extent, but individuals who study correctly for the Verbal will score consistently well. There is no doubt, for example, that being able to memorize a significant portion of vocab words will help you score well in the exam, along with studying things such as POE and how to make an educated guess. So yes, a person who did study their best may not have the same exact score if they took the test multiple times, but their score would be consistently high given that the exam is computer adaptive.

[natsteel]

While preparing from word lists is useful, I think it's even more beneficial to study roots, prefixes, and suffixes, which can actually help you when you get a word you are not sure about. After all, you could quite conceivably spend dozens of hours studying a list of 1,000 (or even 5,000) words and have one (or none) of them come up on the test. Similarly, pay attention to the strategies given in the prep books for the antonym questions.

[ZeeMore21]

While preparing from word lists is useful, I think it's even more beneficial to study roots, prefixes, and suffixes, which can actually help you when you get a word you are not sure about. After all, you could quite conceivably spend dozens of hours studying a list of 1,000 (or even 5,000) words and have one (or none) of them come up on the test. Similarly, pay attention to the strategies given in the prep books for the antonym questions.

While this may be true, there are times when studying the roots can get a bit crazy...I don't think anything beats actually seeing a word and knowing the definition automatically without having to pick it apart...you save a lot of time that way and you avoid error.