So, we have established the key points to note before writing the GRE. Now let’s discuss each section of the GRE and how you can make your GRE practice more effective.
Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
AWA is the first section of the GRE, and it is in two parts – the Issue task and the Argument task. You need to understand what each task entails and the responses required. Usually, many test takers don’t dedicate quality time for this section of the GRE (Quant and Verbal sections probably cloud your mind), but you need to know that this is as important as the others.
There is a difference between (GRE: 335 AWA: 2.0) and (GRE:325 AWA: 5.0) – Oh! You see it too. You have to schedule a time for the AWA. You can practice one essay per week for each task (a pool of practice questions for AWA are on the ETS website). You could also make your template or guide for writing each essay; this works.
Verbal Reasoning
Before you get into full GRE practice and prep gear, you can start improving your vocabulary by learning at least ten words per day. There are many dedicated apps in the apps store to help you learn quickly. One thing to note, there is no ‘cramming’; it’s not going to work. You have to understand the meaning and usage of the words.
It would help if you started using GRE Vocabs in your everyday conversations, chat with your friends with GRE words, write articles with GRE words. It will help a whole lot. An improved vocabulary makes your Text Completion (TC) and Sentence Equivalence (SE) part of Verbal relatively easy.
The Reading Comprehension (RC) part makes up 50% of verbal questions. Use the right resources to help you understand how to answer RC questions. You need to develop excellent reading and comprehension speed. You could do this by reading articles from various websites like Arts & Letters Daily, The Economist, The New York Times, etc.
Quantitative Reasoning
Any resource you choose to use for your GRE preparation should be thorough on Quant preparation. The quantitative section consists of different mathematics topics you may or may not be familiar with. However, you could have come across these topics in secondary school. It would be best if you learned the techniques to solve questions from each topic meticulously, and here’s where your material/resource comes to play.
The technique explained in your practice materials (different from what you already know) could be the fastest way of solving a question, so you may have to adopt that technique. As you know, writing the GRE requires speed and accuracy. So, it would be smart to adopt the fastest and most accurate techniques to solve a problem.
Now you have found out how easy the GRE can be; you should play your part in making it completely easy for you. How can you do this? There’s only one answer I know, which is PRACTICE! PRACTICE!! PRACTICE!!! With very CONSISTENT GRE practice, you are indeed on the path to your desired score.
I cannot wait to celebrate with you when you ACE the GRE.
To your success,
Written by: Fahidat Gbadamosi
