What's wrong with my verbal?

[widefellow]

Hi all,

 

Just took GRE today and got 157 V. I am not a native English speaker so I need to spend hundreds of hours in memorizing those words. In fact, I was still going over the flash cards in the waiting room at the test center. However, the fact is, there were no words on the test that I didn't understand, and that text completion sentences were not difficult to understand either. If I suck at sentence completion that eventually pulled down my score, it would be the logic part right? Anyone got any idea on how to improve in that sense?

 

Or, I might suck at reading comprehension, who knows. 

 

I am scheduling another test! I mean I need at least 5 points higher, any suggestions on prep are welcome!

 

Thanks

Edited October 24, 2013 by widefellow

[SueMadre]

Well, first of all, 157 is what--75th percentile or something? That's not too bad. However, if the programs you're applying to have said they place a lot of emphasis on GRE scores, then you might consider taking the test again and just doing the verbal sections (skipping everything else).

Second, there's a chance that you just got a tough test/the test environment was stressful. I've said this before and I'll say it again--not all GREs are created equal. Some are, literally, harder. You could've just gotten a hard one. Either that, or the test environment sort of stressed you out (which is common, since they purposely make that environment as claustrophobic and constrictive as possible).

Third, the wording of those questions are meant to be deceptive. They will throw at least a few trick questions in there, just to try to screw you up. For example, there's a reading comp question that is something like: "All of the following statements would weaken the narrator's argument EXCEPT" and you have to choose the correct one. The wording of these types of questions is, to be honest, ridiculous. Who would ever ask a question like this? And the responses will be so terribly jargony and vague that your brain gets all skittery and jumpy. You'd think you're looking for an answer to a double negative; the answer will be something that actually strengthens the argument. But it's not. It's something that, by some small wording idiosyncracy, is unrelated to the passage somehow.

 

Here's one trick, if you're dead set on taking the test again: do the reading comp first. These questions take the most time and use the most brain power, so skip to them immediately. That way you won't be stressed about using up too much time on them, and your brain will be fresher. When I started doing this method, my scores immediately jumped 5-7 points.

[clandry]

It doesn't matter if GRE tests are on different difficulty levels. The test is normalized. 

[sacklunch]

Well, first of all, 157 is what--75th percentile or something? That's not too bad. However, if the programs you're applying to have said they place a lot of emphasis on GRE scores, then you might consider taking the test again and just doing the verbal sections (skipping everything else).

Second, there's a chance that you just got a tough test/the test environment was stressful. I've said this before and I'll say it again--not all GREs are created equal. Some are, literally, harder. You could've just gotten a hard one. Either that, or the test environment sort of stressed you out (which is common, since they purposely make that environment as claustrophobic and constrictive as possible).

Third, the wording of those questions are meant to be deceptive. They will throw at least a few trick questions in there, just to try to screw you up. For example, there's a reading comp question that is something like: "All of the following statements would weaken the narrator's argument EXCEPT" and you have to choose the correct one. The wording of these types of questions is, to be honest, ridiculous. Who would ever ask a question like this? And the responses will be so terribly jargony and vague that your brain gets all skittery and jumpy. You'd think you're looking for an answer to a double negative; the answer will be something that actually strengthens the argument. But it's not. It's something that, by some small wording idiosyncracy, is unrelated to the passage somehow.

 

Here's one trick, if you're dead set on taking the test again: do the reading comp first. These questions take the most time and use the most brain power, so skip to them immediately. That way you won't be stressed about using up too much time on them, and your brain will be fresher. When I started doing this method, my scores immediately jumped 5-7 points.

 

You just blew my mind. I don't know why I never thought about doing the reading comp/longer questions first. THANKS MATE.

[SueMadre]

It doesn't matter if GRE tests are on different difficulty levels. The test is normalized. 

 

Well, let me explain further. There are certain things that the GRE can obviously not account for. For example, what if you're a person (like me) who has problems with double negatives (like in the example above). Now, ETS may think that "normal" people don't have that big a problem with these types of questions, so they're only weighted a certain amount. However, since I'm just the type of person who has problems with that question format, the test immediately becomes harder for me. 

Here's another thing: in ALL of the practice tests I took, there were two verbal sections and three quant sections. In the GRE I actually took, there were three verbal sections and two quant. So, by the time I hit that third verbal section my brain was pretty well cooked. I wasn't prepared for that much verbal, and I fear I performed poorly as a result. How could ETS "normalize" for this? 

All of the questions are selected randomly, though they're changed based upon your previous answers. For example, if you do well in the first verbal section, then your questions in the second verbal section will be harder. However, what's hard for one person might not be hard for another. And, for that matter, what does "normalized" really mean? Does that mean that if you perform poorly on the first verbal section, it will give you easier questions in the second verbal section so that you can get a better score? Or is it giving you easier questions and handicapping you, like the easier questions are worth less? So instead of being able to get a 160, since you got the easier questions you can only get a 155? Nomsayin? It's a vague term based upon theoretical gradiations that don't actually exist in human beings. 

That's how one test can be harder than another. They're not all the same: one question to one person might be easier than the same question to a different person. There are many reasons for this. 

[awells27]

It doesn't matter if GRE tests are on different difficulty levels. The test is normalized. 

The tests are unequal.  For instance, some tests have considerable amounts of coordinate geometry, while my test had merely one question in two sections.  I was told there would be hardly any probability and combination questions, but I got 3 of each.  My RCs were weighted toward scientific essays.  My TCs had easy words with jumbled sentences.  These are just some examples.  I would guess that others who have taken the test would say there's were different results.  That's probably why my practice tests varied so much, and my possible range was anywhere from 160-168 on verbal'155-164 on math.    

Edited October 31, 2013 by awells27