Sunday, July 20, 2008

GRE Test Prep Baseline Score

Without any training, I scored a 620 Verbal (88th percentile) and 600 Quantitative (53rd percentile) on the GRE practice test 1.

Verbal words to review:
  1. Spate: a sudden, almost overwhelming, outpouring: a spate of angry words.
  2. Provident: having or showing foresight; providing carefully for the future.
  3. Credulity: willingness to believe or trust too readily, esp. without proper or adequate evidence; gullibility.
  4. Boon: something to be thankful for; blessing; benefit.
  5. Inexorable: unyielding; unalterable: inexorable truth; inexorable justice.
  6. Confounding: To cause to become confused or perplexed
  7. Appropriate: to set apart, authorize, or legislate for some specific purpose or use
  8. Profligate: utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.
  9. Myopic: unable or unwilling to act prudently; shortsighted.
  10. Rueful: feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow or pity; mournful; doleful: the rueful look on her face.
  11. Antithetical: directly opposed or contrasted; opposite.
  12. Evanescent: vanishing; fading away; fleeting.
  13. Gaffe: a social blunder; faux pas.
  14. Decorum: dignified propriety of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
  15. Dissuasion: persuading not to do or believe something; talking someone out of a belief or an intended course of action [ant: persuasion]
  16. Opportune: appropriate, favorable, or suitable: an opportune phrase for the occasion.
  17. Convenience: anything that saves or simplifies work, adds to one's ease or comfort, etc., as an appliance, utensil, or the like.
  18. Whet: to sharpen (a knife, tool, etc.) by grinding or friction.
Quantitative areas to review/improve upon:
  1. Ratios and recognizing trick questions regarding graphs
  2. If the initial answer seems obvious, it probably warrants additional attention. For example, x^2 is larger than x^3 with the constraint that 5x fall between 0 and 3.
  3. Systems of equations
  4. Double-check answers close to other possible choices.
  5. Trig review
The computer adaptive test doesn't allow calculators, only scratch paper. No reviewing of questions.

I've met my goal on the verbal (600, 85th percentile), but meeting the goal on the quantitative (750, 85th percentile) will take effort.

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