On Not Taking the GRE

August 5, 2006

Introduction

In preparation for applying to the Georgia Institute of Technology, I recently completed the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

It's often hard to get a handle on the GRE. The road to actually Taking the exam is twisted and it's easy to get lost. To help out, here are a few things I've learned:

1. There are a Lot of People Not Taking the GRE

I finally took  the test after 8 months of not taking the GRE. I wanted to be prepared, so during this time I worked doggedly in not studying for the GRE. I had short bursts of reading a prep book, but mostly I just put it off. After I finished the book I delayed taking the the practice exam. After I finally took the practice exam, I delayed in taking the test.

Think of me what you will, but please consider the status quo. Right now, all across the world, there are hundreds of thousands of young college graduates not taking the GRE. It's not that we don't want to... it's that some terrible, unseen temptress draws us inexorably away from the exam and into the soft bed of procrastination.

From the log, you can see that in all the time I was "preparing" I actually only spent 10-15% doing something productive (and that's being generous). Theoretically, it would be possibly to

1. Analyze your GRE weaknesses
2. Set some deadlines
3. Take the exam

.. and finish with a noteworthy score in just a few months. But that's just theory. In reality, We're all going to drag our feet, procrastinate, and wait until the last minute. During the course of these events, I spoke with many of my peers. As it turns out, they too were actively not taking the GRE [1].  If you're reading this, you are probably one of us. One of the delayed. But don't worry... you're in good company.

2. You Can Easily Schedule the
GRE at Times That Are Bad for You

If you're like me, at some point you will actually have to take the exam. The deadline for applications will probably be looming and you'll say to yourself, "I'll do it.... first thing next month."

This is the first step... but beware. Savvy test takers will check on the ETS website and see that there are many testing locations with lots of openings available. Just imagine... at any time you could go online and sign up for the GRE. Just like that. Any time. Any time you wanted.

You won't, of course. See #1, above.

The main reason people give for this is that there are so many slots available that there really isn't any point. You could sign up a few days in advance when you know for sure that it's a good time.

Here's what happened to me:

Work was really picking up and I was unsure if I would be able to make the date I wanted. I kept delaying the GRE signup because there were a half dozen slots available every day in August.

So it was, right up until the day I decided to sign up. The very day that I logged on to reserve my time at the testing center all the slots disappeared. It was as if every applicant across the city had suddenly decided to take the GRE. Nearly the entire month of August was inexplicably reserved.

Which brings me to my point: the GRE is only offered at times which are not convenient for you. Sadly, there are only two is only one way around this is:

1. Get extremely lucky
2. Signup for the test early

Seriously, though, my constituents  report that there are certain times that are particularly bad for getting a good slot:

Times that are bad to take the GRE

3. Only Three Kinds of People
Need to Study for the GRE

While not studying for the GRE, I found that there were a few vocal people that were against preparing for the exam. "Just take it!" they exclaim. Looking back, I conclude that while it sometimes is fine just to walk in to the exam, there are three (3) groups of people that should prepare for it:

1. Engineers that have forgotten how to use their words
2. Artsy folks who can add 2+2 without using their fingers (all of their fingers, on both hands)
3. Everyone else

The first two are obvious: engineers never learned how to communicate and liberal arts majors never learned how to perform addition. If you haven't been reading Shakespeare at home then you will probably need to freshen up on some of the verbal and writing sections. If you haven't been doing trick geometry at work, then you may want to study the mathematics.

The truth, though, is that everyone can benefit from preparing for the GRE. I don't want to get into it here, but some things to know are:

Strategy is the really big item in the table above. It's the primary reason  to study for the GRE.

It's also the primary reason for my last lesson learned:

4. The GRE is a Fine, Fine Measurement
of How Well you Take the GRE

I studied for the GRE. I reviewed the words, problems, and techniques. I was shown when to estimate an answer rather than solve. I learned that an answer to a question will rarely ever be negative about some author's passage. I reviewed all the geometry and algebra problems that were going to be on the exam.

I did this because I know something special. And now, after everything is done, I am more sure than ever: the GRE is only a measurement of how well you can take the GRE. The exam is 20% how well you know what they want you to know, and 80% how well you can take the exam.

The reason is because of the "strategy" stuff I talked about before. Because these techniques are known, published, and standardized, the test is about how well you can apply their techniques and not how intelligent you are. To rephrase: the test is specially crafted to test your knowledge of a few "secret" techniques that they think you should know. In general, if you don't know the tricks then you may

1. Have to expend a lot more effort to solve the problems
2. Run out of time if you can't snap off the answer based on some cheap trick that they have in mind

Even worse, the exam is graded on a curve. So the group of us that did study for the GRE are lowering the score of those that did not. A good number of those "I don't need to study people" were probably pushed down into the lower percentiles because they didn't know the right trick. Or maybe they did know the trick but decided to use a different one.

Sadly, it is unlikely that things are going to change. The ETS is an established entity that claimed over $700M in revenues in 2002. The GRE is a requirement for most graduate schools.

The good news is that if you know that the GRE is testing your GRE taking skills then you can study for it correctly! Good students and bad students alike can make great scores by studying the techniques used to make a good score. If you're willing to do that, then you can make the exam work for you.

Conclusion

Looking back it's easy to see why so many people are actively not taking the the GRE. With so much going on (the requirements, the structure, the tricks, the problems with signing up) it's easy to get lost on the way.

The best advice around is to study hard and stay at it. You might realize that you've forgotten every bit of math you ever knew, or you might suddenly realize that you've been procrastinating for an embarrassingly long time. It doesn't matter. Reclaim your focus, review, and press forward.

As long as you can do that, no matter what, you will someday find yourself in a testing center. And you'll be ready.

[1] Except for you, Andy... you who took the GRE early and are about to finish your Masters. How I hate you.

© 2005 Copyright Steve Conover. All rights reserved.