Has anyone taken the GRE?

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

Hello! I have a quick question for all you graduate-school people... any advice on the GRE? I already did a search and couldn't find anything here on this forum. :confused: As of about a week ago, I am prayerfully considering enrolling in graduate school. So far, I've found three great online master's programs in journalism (I'll post more about that when I have more time). But anyway, I suddenly realized two of the schools I am applying at require GRE scores. So, I signed up last night to take it this upcoming Friday. I barely knew what the exam covered, so now I'm back into study/cram/nervous mode (ah, the memories.... ). I got somewhat decent scores on the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP (74) and the College Composition CLEP (62); is the verbal and analytical writing section similar to those? I love reading, big words, and writing and I have pretty good critical thinking skills, so I'm not as nervous about those sections as I am about the quantitative section. As you can see from my signature, I did take several math courses in college, but I feel a bit rusty. :| So... any tips on this exam? One of the schools I am applying at requires a combined score of 297 and the other requires upper 1/2 percentile for verbal and 4.5 analytical. Are those scores hard to get? Any recommendation for study resources (preferably free and definitely online - I don't have time to get anything else)?

[NAP]

Yes, I took it a few weeks ago. Check the link in my signature. ETS has lots of free info on their website to help you prepare. Best wishes on your exam! (See how you do on the practice tests; you may want to consider postponing to give yourself a little more prep time.)

my feedback - http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post149773

forum feedback - http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...urses.html

extra info - http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...5-gre.html

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

Yes, I took it a few weeks ago. Check the link in my signature. ETS has lots of free info on their website to help you prepare. Best wishes on your exam! (See how you do on the practice tests; you may want to consider postponing to give yourself a little more prep time.)

my feedback - http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post149773

forum feedback - http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...urses.html

extra info - http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...5-gre.html

Thanks so much for your response, NAP - those threads were very helpful. I took my test last Friday and received a combined score of 313 on the verbal and quantitative sections. Normally, my perfectionist self would be less-than-pleased, but considering I only studied for the test for a couple hours over two days' time and that the score is more than adequate to get me into the graduate school I was shooting for (Clarion University), I'm more than satisfied. I'm sending in the final parts of my graduate school application today!

[NAP]

You're welcome! I'm so happy it helped.

Congratulations! You did a great job! I'm glad it worked out so well for you! (I hope more members will take this exam and not limit their progam options.)

Please let us know how the application process goes. I hope to be taking those next steps soon, too.

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

Congratulations! You did a great job! I'm glad it worked out so well for you! (I hope more members will take this exam and not limit their progam options.)

Please let us know how the application process goes. I hope to be taking those next steps soon, too.

Thanks! I got a bit nervous when I found out I had to take it on such short notice, but it ended up working out just fine.

Definitely! I'm thinking about creating a thread to document my graduate school progress similar to the one I did for my undergrad degree ( http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post136707 ). Good luck to you as you begin the process - I know from experience that it can be quite overwhelming! I am trying to apply to start for the fall, 2013 term, but it turns out I am starting this process waaaaaaay later than I should have. But again, I didn't know that I was going to graduate school until about a week ago. :confused: NEVER thought this was going to happen, but here I go - off to grad school! Anyway, just be sure to keep an eye on those deadlines.

[NAP]

Thanks! I got a bit nervous when I found out I had to take it on such short notice, but it ended up working out just fine.

Definitely! I'm thinking about creating a thread to document my graduate school progress similar to the one I did for my undergrad degree ( http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post136707 ). Good luck to you as you begin the process - I know from experience that it can be quite overwhelming! I am trying to apply to start for the fall, 2013 term, but it turns out I am starting this process waaaaaaay later than I should have. But again, I didn't know that I was going to graduate school until about a week ago. :confused: NEVER thought this was going to happen, but here I go - off to grad school! Anyway, just be sure to keep an eye on those deadlines.

Great advice and great idea! It does seem like a really big step, doesn't it? I don't know what to expect for graduate school - application process, scholarships, work load, etc. It would be nice to have some of those details, in addition to the General GRE, on this forum.

[LaceyLady]

Lady Grace, That is great news! Congratulations! Keep us updated! I am also planning to apply to a graduate program, but not until next year (too late to apply for this year). I will also be taking the GRE and therefore am glad to see any information and advice about it. There is limited information about graduate programs and exams on this forum, so please post your experiences and advice!

[Lady Grace of Pemberley]

Lady Grace, That is great news! Congratulations! Keep us updated! I am also planning to apply to a graduate program, but not until next year (too late to apply for this year). I will also be taking the GRE and therefore am glad to see any information and advice about it. There is limited information about graduate programs and exams on this forum, so please post your experiences and advice!

My experience with the GRE was all rather rushed, as was the rest of my whole grad school application process (I am still in the process of applying and classes start August 26th.... so.... yeah ). I found out that I needed to take the GRE on a Tuesday night and immediately went online and registered to take the $185.00 exam that upcoming Friday afternoon. Between work and other obligations, I probably only studied for a couple of hours at the most. My main resource was the "math review" document you will be able to access if you download the POWERPREP II software from the GRE website. Additionally, I watched a few videos from Khan Academy (emphasis on a few) and used a free practice test offered by Peterson's: GRE | GRE Test Preparation I would highly recommend those practice tests - the one I took was pretty similar to the real exam. I think I scored somewere around 303 (combined score) on the practice test, and on the real thing, I got a 161 on the verbal section, a 152 on the quantitative reasoning section, and a 5.0 on the analytical writing section. I know, I know - not the best score ever, but for only studying for a few hours, I'm just glad that I got a high enough score to get into the university I was shooting for.

The test itself was loooong - much longer than the typical CLEP. You do get a couple one minute breaks and one 10-12 minute break, which was nice, but just be sure to pace yourself. For the last section (which was, unfortunately, a math section), I was pretty much ready to hit "b" on every question and be done.

The analytical writing section was first. It consisted of two essays - one where you had to argue your position on a topic (the "analyze an issue" essay). My topic was pulled directly from this topic pool: GRE Revised General Test: Analyze an Issue For the second essay (the "analyze an argument" essay), I had to do just that - analyze the logical components of an argument. Again, my essay topic can be found in the topic pool provided on the GRE website: GRE Revised General Test: Analyze an Argument I really didn't study for this section at all, excepting the two essays I wrote while taking the practice test, but the prompts were pretty easy and I felt comfortable with my finished essays.

The verbal section was quite simple; it was pretty much just like the multiple-choice section for the College Composition CLEP. Again, I didn't study for this section except for the practice test. I'm a complete bibliophile and a regular user of ostentatious words, but a couple of the words on that test were pretty serious.... There were two verbal sections on the exam.

As far as the three quantitative sections went... well, I don't really have a whole lot to say. Let me just put it this way - I apparently could have used a bit more studying in this area. :confused: Yep, I was pretty rusty on my math skills going into this. Oh well...

I got my scores back for the verbal and quantitative sections immediately, but I had to wait a couple days to get my scores for the essays. The whole process was a lot faster than the College Composition CLEP's scoring system, though!

That's all I can think of for now - I hope it helped out somehow. Let me know if you have any questions!

[sklineho]

Great info, I'm taking it Monday. (I have to have it done soon to meet a deadline for grad school). The verbal parts don't worry me much as I also have a rather extensive vocabulary anyway. The essay part worries me not because it's hard, in fact it's easy, but because those sorts of things always eat up so much time.

The math part is obviously what worries me. I'm trying to study as much as possible but I'm also in the middle of a 25 page Capstone paper and having to work full time so it's a bit stressful.

[sklineho]

Also, when they say combined score, is it safe to assume that if I do poorly on quantative but very well on writing, it will balance out? WFU doesn't require a specific GRE score but says that 300+ is good. From previous posts, 300 seems doable.