Gre

[broom]

Considering my future career I realize more and more that I will inevitably write the general GRE. I have written my MCAT this past summer and scored a 33S (13/9/11), and I have spent all summer self-studying for it (although most of that time was to learn organic chemistry and physiology which I had no familiarity with. And admittedly a lot of procrastinating.) I am thinking of writing the GRE this summer, but will be working full time.

 

Is there anyone that can comment on the difficulty of the GRE? Should I take a course for it? How long should I study for it? Is it about as difficult as the MCAT was?

 

EDIT: Sorry this was meant to go in the Non-Traditional Applicants/Grad Students thread. I don't know how to move it now.

[peachaso]

IMO, it is a lot easier than the MCAT as there is no specific content you have to study for. There are three sections - math, reading, and writing (they're called something else though). The math section is high school level, so it's more about avoiding careless mistakes than knowing a lot of content. The reading section is a bit difficult... I think it would compare to the MCAT (though I haven't done the MCAT yet) except you also need to have a high level of vocabulary. If you have done lots of reading that should help. The writing is somewhat peculiar - you have to write one argumentative essay and one analytical essay. It is more about practicing to follow their instructions and get lots of words down than a test of your actual writing skill.

 

You can download POWERPREP from their website for free which is 2 full length practice tests. That should give you an idea of where you stand.

[yogaandtea]

I took the GRE and found it difficult because each section (vocab, writing, and math) was individually timed and you aren't allowed to go back to the sections.

 

I would've rather had 3 hours allotted to me because then I could've breezed through the essay section and took the time on the math section (my weakness).

 

Also, an odd thing happened with our facilitator. She completely ripped us off 5 minutes of time on one of the two essays. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it really is when you're scrambling to be coherent and persuasive.

 

And after paying 250 to take the test, you get A CALCULATOR. A ****ty calculator.

 

ETA is such a money grab it disgusts me. Lol, I'm pretty bitter if you couldn't tell.

 

But I wish you the best of luck!!!

[uoftpremed]

Hey, how long and how did you study?

 

I took the GRE and found it difficult because each section (vocab, writing, and math) was individually timed and you aren't allowed to go back to the sections.

 

I would've rather had 3 hours allotted to me because then I could've breezed through the essay section and took the time on the math section (my weakness).

 

Also, an odd thing happened with our facilitator. She completely ripped us off 5 minutes of time on one of the two essays. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it really is when you're scrambling to be coherent and persuasive.

 

And after paying 250 to take the test, you get A CALCULATOR. A ****ty calculator.

 

ETA is such a money grab it disgusts me. Lol, I'm pretty bitter if you couldn't tell.

 

But I wish you the best of luck!!!

[broom]

I took the GRE and found it difficult because each section (vocab, writing, and math) was individually timed and you aren't allowed to go back to the sections.

 

I would've rather had 3 hours allotted to me because then I could've breezed through the essay section and took the time on the math section (my weakness).

 

Also, an odd thing happened with our facilitator. She completely ripped us off 5 minutes of time on one of the two essays. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it really is when you're scrambling to be coherent and persuasive.

 

And after paying 250 to take the test, you get A CALCULATOR. A ****ty calculator.

 

ETA is such a money grab it disgusts me. Lol, I'm pretty bitter if you couldn't tell.

 

But I wish you the best of luck!!!

 

Have you taken the MCAT? How does it compare? Also, did you take the newer GRE (that was introduced last year I think) or the older one?

[yogaandtea]

Nope,

 

I never took the MCAT, wasn't necessary for what I wanted to apply to (Clinical Psych or Occupational Therapy).

 

I didn't take the computer-based GRE, I took the paper one last October. So I can't compare the two.

 

But I heard from other people who took the computer GRE that as you kept scoring higher on the math questions, they got progressively more difficult (or easier, if you were bombing them).

[yogaandtea]

Hey, how long and how did you study?

 

I gave myself a semester to start preparing (4 months). I was also taking a full course load, applying for research grants, and completing an honours thesis. I would recommend to anyone to NOT do this, and give yourself at least six months.

 

I printed out all practice tests available on the GRE website, and bought myself one of those GRE prep books from Chapters/Indigo/Barnes and Noble. I can't remember what brand it was. I basically followed the outline of that (it had extra GRE practice tests and studying tips to go from)

 

The vocab section is surprisingly difficult, it's like learning another language. I would recommend to start developing vocab flashcards NOW, and even recording audioclips of them and putting them on your ipod/mp3 and just listen to that when you have a chance. If you google GRE vocab prep, there are some pretty good sites.

 

I was lucky enough to get math flashcards from someone who had completed the GRE previously, but in hindsight this wasn't very effective. I would rather make my own.

 

 

As for taking one of those expensive courses, I never did because there weren't any offered in my area. It's not that it's extremely difficult, I just think that doing well on it depends on A LOT of self discipline (aka less internet surfing), which I probably didn't have enough of. Study hard, because it costs you $250 dollars each time to take it!

[broom]

Thank you yogaandtea!

[affyuser]

Considering my future career I realize more and more that I will inevitably write the general GRE. I have written my MCAT this past summer and scored a 33S (13/9/11), and I have spent all summer self-studying for it (although most of that time was to learn organic chemistry and physiology which I had no familiarity with. And admittedly a lot of procrastinating.) I am thinking of writing the GRE this summer, but will be working full time.

 

Is there anyone that can comment on the difficulty of the GRE? Should I take a course for it? How long should I study for it? Is it about as difficult as the MCAT was?

 

EDIT: Sorry this was meant to go in the Non-Traditional Applicants/Grad Students thread. I don't know how to move it now.

 

I took the MCAT (37R) last summer and the GRE 5 years ago. The GRE is definitely easier to prepare for as you don't need as much prior knowledge as the MCAT. The reading comprehension passages and questions on the GRE are way less complex than those on the MCAT VR. The math section on the GRE is fairly basic algebra for the most part. I found the most challenging part of GRE to be the high level of the vocabulary tested. I used the Barron's GRE guide and it has a very comprehensive wordlist which includes high frequency words that keep popping up on the exam. Going through the wordlist helped me a great deal on the test. I studied for about a month and did well - studied around 3-4 months for the MCAT to get around the same percentile score.

 

You should take a ETS GRE practice test and see your current score and work from there - given your good MCAT scores, you should be ok for the GRE studying on your own without a course.