The Setting: If you happened to be an engineering student here in India, then the chances of you taking the GATE or GRE is very high. Its almost a sure event while completing your under graduation studies.
I’ll have to keep GATE for another post, however I share my thoughts and understanding of taking the GRE here.
GRE - Graduate Record Examination. Just Google it, and you’ll be flooded with advertisements for the nearest coaching centre. Its good in few ways to commit to a class as it demands some attention and hence makes it habitual to prepare every week. Now, that been said, it is also not a good idea to stick to what’s being done in these coaching classes.
Cracking the GRE. This is such an overrated statement that almost all of us get caught in its rut. Although, the exam is a vital element in securing an admission in an university, it is surely not the criteria. Many more things go into getting a visa to study abroad.
I’m of the opinion that the GRE is a very well thought-out, structured and an simple (not to be confused with easy) examination that tests the understanding of concepts. Yes, it tests your understanding and not the ability to arrive at a solution. Let’s break it down to its elements.
Quants: This portion deals with the math concepts. The test is designed to capture the process of thinking about the right solution rather than finding the the right answer. The trick is in mastering why the given solution is the correct answer. You don’t have to get a hold of solving and arriving at an answer. Although, if you are able to stand the test of time and solve it: you’re good. Let’s take an example.
You may have to attend to a question that asks you to find the probability of a random variable with a frequency distribution. This is a pretty hard question, but logically solving may yield the solution rather than methodically solving. Another example: find the probability that a point lies in the area excluded when a circle is circumscribed inside a square? If you spend time in calculating the area of the figures, the solution may take more than five minutes. The idea behind these questions is to understand how one relates to concepts and cogently arrives at an elegant solution. Formula don’t always help.
So you’ll probably know each question can be given a maximum of two minutes more than which, indicates a crunch at the end.
Verbs: This portion of the examination is purely contextual understanding and analysis. The verbs is very mathematical in some sense. Negating a negative word and the likes. But, I realise that, words, independently have no reference to being positive or negative. The context gives you that. Its all in the detail. Let’s understand what is to score well.
Well, first of you’ll bewildered by amount of new words encountered. So head over to mnemonic.com and pay attention to ways to remember new words. Learning a ton of new words is inevitable. Although it is beneficial to have a large vocabulary, often I found myself making mistakes in answering. I later understood that, words like although, however, and, but, so, consequently, etc. had greater impact on perceiving the intended meaning that those difficult words that I would hardly read. Additionally, punctuation marks like :, ;, -, give a lot of information towards finding the right answer.
So, in conclusion, to trivialise the intensity, the Graduate Record Examination is all about why and not how. The correct answer is given as an option after all!
On my recent attempt I score 165 in quants and 164 in verbs, totalling to about 329 on 340.