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How to Structure the GRE Issue Essay

By posted February 3, 2012

The GRE Issue essay is similar to any 5-paragraph short essay you’ve written in college. You may opt for 4-6 paragraphs, but this structure plans for 5. The official GRE website states that readers of the Issue essay “are evaluating the skill with which you…articulate and develop an argument to support your evaluation of the issue.” The better organized your essay, the clearer it will become to the reader. Here’s how to structure each paragraph:

Paragraph 1 – The Intro

How do you begin your essay? One of the following rhetorical devices is the most common: a generalization about the topic, a quotation, a short anecdote to set-up your position, a historical framework, a piece of news illustrating the relevance of the issue.  Regardless of how you “get in” to the topic, you’ll score points if you can admit the complexity of the issue, and show how it applies to contemporary life. Show the reader what about the topic will be your focus.

Most students open with a general blanket statement about the issue, but feel free to be creative! You can find sample prompts from the Issue Essay topic pool to practice.

KEY TIP: Always place your thesis as the final sentence in your introduction.

Paragraph 2  – First Body Paragraph

Use your strongest, most specific example first. Your example can be from history, science, politics, business, entertainment, pop culture, current events, personal experience, etc. Anything can be an example, but choose ONE only for each paragraph. It needs to be something you are knowledgeable about and also something that you believe strongly supports your thesis. You have three tasks in your body paragraphs:

-Bring up your example.

-Explain how it relates to the topic.

-Show that it fully supports your thesis.

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How the AWA is Scored on the GRE

By posted February 1, 2012

The AWA section of the GRE is made up of two essays – the Argument essay, and the Issue essay. Each essay will be given two independent scores, but the scores are averaged into one score from 0 to 6. According to ETS, this is done because “it is more reliable than a score for either task alone.” The final score will be in half-point increments. For example, if you receive a 5 on the Argument essay, and a 6 on the Issue essay, your score will be a 5.5.

The readers of AWA are extremely familiar with the “look” of the graded GRE essays for each of the possible prompts, so they “know” ahead of time what a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 essay should “look like.” You will receive “NS” or no score, if you do not type any text. You will receive 0 if you write in a foreign language, or completely off-task.

According to the official ETS rubric, the highest scoring essays (those given a 5.5 or a 6) demonstrate: “insightful, in-depth analysis… logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples…is well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.” This means that they are not looking for perfection – obviously within 30 minutes you may have some spelling and grammar errors (and that’s okay!).

Grockit is convenient. Find out how you can study online any time of the day, from anywhere you have Internet access.

The main qualities that the readers look for are the organization of your ideas, the quality of the ideas themselves, the strength and relevance of the examples, and your grasp of standard written English. Readers are trained to take non-native speakers’ abilities into account when grading so that scores are fair.

Below is the official AWA Scoring Percentile ranking from ETS. You can see that a score of 5 places you in the 87st percentile. It’s quite plausible to achieve such a high score!

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How to Approach GRE Application Questions

By posted January 31, 2012

Although less common than Detail or Main Idea questions, you may see one or two Application questions on test day. Application questions asking you to apply what you have read in the passage to a different or hypothetical situation.

1. Read above and below the line numbers. You’ll need more context to answer these challenging questions. Don’t expect the quoted line numbers to give you enough information to solve. Tricky answer choices will mimic the subject of the specific line number provided, but won’t accurately reflect the full situation. It may help to use arrows or other symbols. Your ultimate goal will be to consider what the described situation is “like” so make sure you understand the original situation well.

2. Consider the author’s argument. Some application questions will focus on the author’s point of view. Just like you would for a Main Idea or Tone question, identify the author’s purpose and put yourself in the author’s shoes. Ask yourself questions. What is the point of this detail? How does it help the main argument?

3. Focus on process. Another useful tip for Application GRE questions is to pay attention to how a particular process is performed. For example, if the passage focuses on describing an historic development, you must clarify step-by-step how the development occurred, before you can apply that same manner of development to a different situation. Go back through the passage and list the verbs on your scratch pad. This will help you to understand the steps of the process and not be confused by the timeline.

Let’s try a sample Grockit GRE practice question!

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GRE Quant Numeric Entry: An old friend

By posted January 30, 2012

The new GRE Quantitative section introduces some minor twists and turns to the familiar test-taking landscape, but the content is the same basic high-school math: primarily arithmetic, algebra, geometry, simple statistics and data analysis, with a smattering of topics like probability and permutations/combinations.  The good news is that you’ve probably been prepping for this kind of math since you took the ACT/SAT or other standardized tests years ago.

In this blog, we’ll examine the numerical entry question type. It may be new to the GRE, but other than a couple of technical details, this material is old hat.  You’ve been doing this kind of math problem as homework since you were in grade school.  You’re given a question, you compute the answer, and instead of writing it on paper, you type it into a box on the screen.

Need some GRE practice? Try this GRE numeric entry question and test your skills!

Because your answer is computer-scored and there are no answer choices to guide you, be careful to give the answer in the units requested, such as meters vs. kilometers or thousands vs. millions.  Note if you’re being asked for a decimal or a percent, or to fill in a fraction.  Some questions may ask you to round, for instance to the nearest .1 percent.  In this case, don’t round any intermediate calculations, only your final calculated answer.  That is to say, if you are doing a problem with the calculator that asks for a decimal , use the raw calculations from step to step.  If you did the same problem using fractions, you could use the calculator to convert your answer at the end.    When using the “Transfer Display” feature from the calculator, you may need to edit the answer to the required degree of precision. You can’t click and highlight, so use the Backspace key.

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Revised GRE Verbal: What to Expect

By posted January 28, 2012

The Verbal Reasoning sections of the GRE assess your reading comprehension skills and your understanding and usage of vocabulary.  About half of the Verbal questions will require you to read a passage and answer questions about it.  The other half will have you fill in the blanks of sentences or paragraphs with vocabulary.

Timing: There will be 2-3 Verbal Reasoning sections on the GRE, depending if the unidentified, unscored section is Verbal or Quantitative.  Each section will contain approximately 20 questions which you will be given 30 minutes to complete.

Format: The three types of questions that make up the Verbal sections are:

-Reading Comprehension

-Text Completion

-Sentence Equivalence

There are several different question formats, so let’s break down the formats within each question type.

Reading Comprehension: Some questions will be standard multiple choice, with 5 possible answer choices and 1 correct answer.  The letter for each answer choice will appear in a circle.

Test your GRE skills with this reading comprehension, long passage practice question.

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GRE Practice: Consistent Ideas in Sentence Equivalence

By posted January 26, 2012

Sentence Equivalence is one of the newer GRE Verbal question types (replacing the older Sentence Completions). Like Sentence Completions, Sentence Equivalence consists of one sentence with one blank. Unlike Sentence Completions, there are two correct answers and not one, and you must get both to get the question correct.

To solve Sentence Equivalence, you’ll need to know 1) the relationship of the blank to the rest of the sentence, and 2) the meaning of the entire sentence. There are approximately 8 total Sentence Equivalence questions on the GRE, 4 on each Verbal section. These questions should take approximately 1 minute each.

Consistent Ideas is one of the four types of Sentence Equivalence questions. In Consistent Ideas questions, the blank will mirror or extent the logic of the rest of the sentence. Like it sounds, the blank will continue the ideas of the rest of the sentence. You’ll be able to recognize this type because of certain constructions.

Here are common “Consistent Ideas” key words and phrases to look out for: for this reason, again, to reiterate, along with, in addition, for example, to illustrate, thus, likewise, similarly, since, also, and, next, as well as, as a result, to sum up, concluding, additionally, etc.

Try this GRE sentence equivalence question for more practice before test day.

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GRE Quant MC – Single Blank: To Calculate or not to Calculate?

By posted January 25, 2012

The new GRE Quantitative section adds a bit of complexity to the testing methodology by changing up the way you are asked to provide answers.  In addition to the comparison task and the standard multiple choice questions that appeared on the previous GRE format, the new question types include the “Select one or more” and the “Numeric entry” questions.  The other novelty is the use of the on-screen calculator.  In this blog entry, we’ll look at the traditional single answer multiple choice question in the context of the calculator.

Judicious use of the calculator will aid your performance on the test. One feature of the single answer multiple choice is that the answer choices can provide valuable information about the degree of precision required.  Unlike the “Numeric entry” questions which require an exact answer, this type may yield to a quick estimate that saves you both time and the possibility of calculation errors.

Try this GRE quantitative practice problem and test your math skills today!

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5 Tips for Solving Tough GRE Algebra Questions

By posted January 24, 2012

Looking to jump-start your Quantitative scores on the GRE? Here are five tips that are almost guaranteed to appear on Test Day. Watch out for them on your solo adaptive practice games on Grockit!

  1. For n equations, you need n variables to solve.  The GRE will often present you with two or more equations with multiple variables. If there are 2 variables in an equation (for example, x and y), then there must be 2 equations that each contain those variables in order to solve. The two common ways to solve are Substitution and Combination.
  2. Substitute carefully for Functions.  It’s helpful to think of (x, f(x)) as another way of writing (x, y). For many function questions, you can Pick Numbers or Substitute for the variables to solve! For example, if a question provides a Function such as f(x) = 3x + 2, and wants to know what f(x – 1) is when x = 3, first rewrite the function, substituting x – 1 in for x. We would get: f(x – 1) = 3(x – 1) + 2, or f(x – 1) = 3x – 3 + 2. That becomes f(x – 1) = 3x – 1. Now the question asks what f(x – 1) will be when x = 3. Substitute in x = 3 to solve. f(x – 1) = 3(3) – 1 becomes f(x – 1) = 9 – 1. The answer is f(x – 1) = 8.
  3. Know your number properties. The GRE tests number properties heavily, and you must be comfortable with words like integers, rational numbers, primes, etc. The properties of odds and evens, integers, fractions, positives, and negatives will all appear in various questions on your GMAT test as well. Don’t ever make assumptions about unknown variables. Unless you are told otherwise by the limitations in the question, variables can be negative integers, negative fractions, zero, positive fractions, or positive integer. You may need to Pick Numbers from multiple categories, especially for Quantitative Comparisons questions.
  4. Flip the inequality when you multiply or divide by a negative number.  Remember that when you multiply or divide by a negative number, you must reverse the direction of the inequality. The non-flipped version will almost always be one of the wrong answer choices (of course!).
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GRE Review: An Overview of the New Text Completion -Three Blank Questions

By posted January 23, 2012

The new revised GRE now categorizes sentence completion questions as text completion questions.  Why?  Just as it sounds, most of these text completion questions are longer and made up of more than one sentence, particularly the two and three blank questions.  The three blank questions are often a paragraph.  With three unknowns in your paragraph, there can be a lot more ambiguity as to which vocabulary best completes the sentences.  Also keep it mind that these questions are “all or nothing”–if you miss one of the three blanks, you don’t receive any credit for the two blanks you filled in correctly.

The good news is that each blank has only three choices, as opposed to the five choices given on the one and two blank sentence completion questions from the old GRE, and the one blank text completion questions on the revised GRE.  However, each blank’s correct choice is chosen independently.  This erases the advantage of having an answer choice with two words that fill in the blanks.  For example, on the old test, an answer choice for a two blank question would appear like this:

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Two Types of Averages on the GRE: Mean and Rates

By posted January 21, 2012

The word “average” on the GRE can refer to two concepts: arithmetic mean, and the average speed (or average rate) formula. It’s important not to confuse the two on the Test Day, as they require different formulas to solve.

Mean is the mathematical average. This is defined as the sum of the terms divided by the number of terms. Mean = Sum / # of terms. For a list of consecutive integers or evenly spaced numbers, the mean is equal to the median, or the middle number. For example, the “average” of 3, 5, and 9 is 5.67.

Test your skills with this GRE rate and work practice question.

Average Speed or Average Rate is often found in complex word problems. This type of question is one many students are less familiar with so you may not have seen it before. Let’s review two important equations to remember and look at how this concept appears on the GRE.

The first formula to memorize is: D = R x T. This stands for Distance = Rate x Time (referred to as the “DIRT” formula). It is perfectly acceptable to also think of it as Time = Distance / Rate or as Rate = Distance / Time as well. Usually the “Rate” is speed but it could be anything “per” anything. In a word problem, if you see the word “per” you know this is a question involving rates.

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