2017 MATC Scholars Program: Mr. Douglas McLemore
Larissa Sazama
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11/06/2017
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5
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Mr. Douglas McLemore, Business Development Manager for Pre-Health Programs and Teacher, Tutor and Trainer for the Princeton Review, gives an overview on graduate school admissions exams. For more information, please visit http://matc.unl.edu/education/scholars-program2017.php.
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- [00:00:00.000]Well, thank you guys thank you for allowing me
- [00:00:03.769]to come here and talk to you guys
- [00:00:05.442]a little bit about the GRE and I'm gonna talk
- [00:00:07.491]a little bit about GMAT as well because
- [00:00:09.737]some of you may consider business school
- [00:00:11.769]as a possible route rather than just going to grad school
- [00:00:14.858]you may go to grad school and business school.
- [00:00:16.665]Because some of you guys are gonna be starting
- [00:00:18.903]your own businesses in the future.
- [00:00:20.729]So GMAT's also an important test in doing that.
- [00:00:23.436]First a little bit about myself, my name
- [00:00:25.899]is Mr. Douglas McLemore, I've been
- [00:00:27.585]with The Princeton Review since about 2007
- [00:00:30.400]that's hard to say, it's a little fuzzy,
- [00:00:32.265]it was a long time ago.
- [00:00:33.939]But before that I was a faculty member
- [00:00:35.272]at Colorado State University, long time ago.
- [00:00:37.527]Taught Chemistry, taught some Astronomy,
- [00:00:40.236]taught some Physics, and I kind of saw,
- [00:00:43.205]well, I did admissions at that point.
- [00:00:45.816]I helped do admissions for people coming into grad programs.
- [00:00:48.845]And saw that there's a lot of problems
- [00:00:51.300]with tests like the GRE.
- [00:00:53.591]I mean the GRE's what you have to get into grad schools.
- [00:00:57.022]People just weren't ready for it.
- [00:00:59.066]The students would come to us and be,
- [00:01:01.733]they'd have really good qualifications
- [00:01:03.862]but then a very low quantative score on the GRE.
- [00:01:08.317]So we've had a really great looking applicant
- [00:01:10.789]for everything else, except for
- [00:01:12.377]that annoying little score and so I decided
- [00:01:15.348]I'd come work over with the test prep side of things
- [00:01:18.682]so that's how I got from Colorado State University
- [00:01:20.806]to Princeton Review.
- [00:01:23.042]So that's where I've been ever since.
- [00:01:24.605]This is what I do, my life is all about test prep.
- [00:01:27.302]And if I can just share a quote with you,
- [00:01:29.018]Einstein once said,
- [00:01:34.136]he was a relatively modest man
- [00:01:36.825]he didn't think, I'm a genius or anything like that
- [00:01:38.877]he just said that I order to play the game
- [00:01:41.265]you gotta learn the rules and the just play
- [00:01:43.474]the game better than everybody else.
- [00:01:45.453]And that's essentially what the standardized tests
- [00:01:47.399]are all about, is learn how the test works,
- [00:01:50.626]learn all the tricks, because their job
- [00:01:52.492]is to make you get things wrong.
- [00:01:54.919]If you know how they're putting these tests together
- [00:01:57.362]then you go in there and just rock the house.
- [00:02:00.340]You have no worries at all.
- [00:02:02.763]The funny thing is, they're not even testing you
- [00:02:04.294]on stuff that you need for your grad school,
- [00:02:07.506]it's just completely different material as we're gonna see.
- [00:02:10.445]So first we'll talk a little about the big grad tests.
- [00:02:14.654]I know I have MCAT and LSAT up there,
- [00:02:16.314]I'm not gonna talk about those today.
- [00:02:17.932]Or if you have questions about them,
- [00:02:19.389]I can always answer that, but then we'll talk
- [00:02:22.433]a little about some the misconceptions about testing
- [00:02:25.694]and all that stuff and I'll mention some of things
- [00:02:27.542]that if you decide to go to test prep route
- [00:02:30.625]that Princeton Review can help you out with.
- [00:02:34.004]Just a quick run through, these are
- [00:02:36.626]what we call the big four of the grad tests.
- [00:02:38.739]What is MCAT all about?
- [00:02:40.610][Multiple students] Medical school.
- [00:02:41.893]Med School.
- [00:02:42.726]So any future doctors here?
- [00:02:43.903]I know most of you are STEM so you're probably
- [00:02:46.216]not planing on going to be a doctor.
- [00:02:48.109]Doctor of Philosophy, but different kind of doctor.
- [00:02:51.600]MD, PhD, so we won't talk about it at all, the MCAT.
- [00:02:55.618]Because you guys don't sound like you're the MCAT
- [00:02:58.028]type of crowd.
- [00:02:59.370]What's the GRE for?
- [00:03:00.887](students respond indistinctly)
- [00:03:01.982]This is grad school, period.
- [00:03:03.409]So, if you're going to get that Masters degree
- [00:03:05.410]or that PhD, you're gonna need the GRE
- [00:03:08.104]to get into those schools.
- [00:03:09.271]GMAT?
- [00:03:10.626](students respond indistinctly)
- [00:03:11.709]That one's your business school test.
- [00:03:13.822]That's what you're going to need to do that MBA.
- [00:03:16.677]If you wanna do an MBA and you wanna, you know,
- [00:03:19.396]go off and make your own little business,
- [00:03:21.044]that's we're gonna have to do that.
- [00:03:22.723]Then of course LSAT, law school.
- [00:03:25.990]Now any future like engineering lawyers?
- [00:03:30.091](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:03:32.168]Totally, intellectual property, that's an LSAT.
- [00:03:34.665]You gotta be doing law.
- [00:03:35.984]That's a great opportunity if you wanna go back
- [00:03:38.931]to law school after you've been in the business for awhile.
- [00:03:41.151]You can become a consultant on court cases,
- [00:03:44.030]you can become an actual litigator on court cases.
- [00:03:47.076]So, LSAT is what you need to do to do that.
- [00:03:49.171]Afterwards, like during the break, I can talk to you
- [00:03:51.778]because it sounds like you might be one
- [00:03:53.400]of the only ones about LSAT here.
- [00:03:55.035]I can give you some info about that as well.
- [00:03:58.067]So, what test do you guys plan to take?
- [00:04:00.265]How many here plan to take the GRE?
- [00:04:03.663]So what, but wait going to grad school is what?
- [00:04:07.280][Multiple students] Free.
- [00:04:08.113]Free, so why didn't everybody raise your hand?
- [00:04:10.470]Should all be planning on taking this test
- [00:04:12.032]for that reason right.
- [00:04:12.902]How many people are thinking GMAT eventually
- [00:04:14.563]is some somewhere in their future?
- [00:04:16.769]Okay a handful, all right.
- [00:04:18.942]So any like we got one law, any other people
- [00:04:21.795]thinking they're gonna go law route?
- [00:04:23.350]You? So LSAT.
- [00:04:24.552]So I'll actually pop a little bit of LSAT here at the end.
- [00:04:29.411]Maybe just for kicks and giggles any MD's?
- [00:04:33.603]No, okay MCAT.
- [00:04:35.362]So first let's skip through that, boom, boom, boom.
- [00:04:39.741](audience laughing)
- [00:04:42.186]And talk about the GRE because all that was MCAT stuff.
- [00:04:45.582]So, the GRE is a test written by ETS.
- [00:04:48.512]Anybody recognize those guys, ETS?
- [00:04:51.222]They write everything, right, so they write
- [00:04:54.663]the AP tests and so they those guys write a lot
- [00:04:58.545]of these tests, so GRE is written by the same guys
- [00:05:01.529]that try to trick you into getting bad grades on everything.
- [00:05:05.404]So that's a good thing to know because
- [00:05:08.460]they're going to be similar in nature.
- [00:05:10.754]The same kinds of questions are going to come from them.
- [00:05:12.749]The GRE itself is not one of those tests
- [00:05:15.805]where you have to pick a date and then wait for that date.
- [00:05:19.347]You can take it, pretty much, any time as long as
- [00:05:22.317]a testing center near you can accommodate you.
- [00:05:25.667]So what that means is whenever you want
- [00:05:27.535]to take the GRE, which we'll talk about just a moment,
- [00:05:30.799]you can just sign up for a test date
- [00:05:33.120]and you can make it, it could be June 1st,
- [00:05:36.514]it could be January 15th, it could be July 22nd.
- [00:05:40.319]It doesn't matter as long as they
- [00:05:42.853]have space available for you.
- [00:05:44.881]And you can take the GRE multiple times
- [00:05:47.438]and that's one of the things I think
- [00:05:48.657]some people get worried of, worried about,
- [00:05:50.906]is that, do I have to just do it once
- [00:05:52.532]and have my best score.
- [00:05:55.194]The nice thing about the GRE is that many schools,
- [00:05:58.590]many programs, a lot of the programs,
- [00:06:00.474]the granting institutions might be running,
- [00:06:03.197]are going to allow you to take it multiple times
- [00:06:06.271]and they'll do what we call super scoring.
- [00:06:08.595]Kind of like what you saw with SAT's and ACT's
- [00:06:11.605]when you were in high school.
- [00:06:12.915]So if you take the GRE and you get
- [00:06:15.274]a really bad verbal score and you got
- [00:06:17.813]an awesome quant score, go ahead and take the GRE again.
- [00:06:21.513]Here's the cool thing about it, just do the verbal section.
- [00:06:25.097]Do the verbal sections and then who cares
- [00:06:27.612]about the quant score because they're gonna stack it.
- [00:06:30.266]Now that all comes with a caveat, pay attention
- [00:06:32.978]to the programs you're applying to.
- [00:06:35.394]Ask them what they suggest you should do
- [00:06:38.210]with those scores, but, the GRE's a lot more forgiving
- [00:06:41.268]than the other standardized tests out there.
- [00:06:43.678]So it's very nice in that respect.
- [00:06:46.276]Did you have a question?
- [00:06:47.109]No, you answered it.
- [00:06:48.899]It was about the super scoring?
- [00:06:50.464]So scores are reported by section.
- [00:06:52.323]We have the verbal score which is 130 through 170
- [00:06:57.456]and the same with the quant which is 130 through 170.
- [00:06:59.894]So what do you guys think is the median score,
- [00:07:02.556]the fiftieth percentile score here?
- [00:07:04.521][Multiple Students] 150.
- [00:07:05.437]150, so if you don't get a 150,
- [00:07:07.808]like the minimum threshold is get a 150
- [00:07:09.740]or higher on both sections.
- [00:07:11.585]If you don't get a 150 or higher that's not
- [00:07:14.096]gonna get you into a grad school.
- [00:07:16.900]Now, another interesting thing about this,
- [00:07:19.402]there's a third section of the test
- [00:07:20.498]that I don't have up here, what section is that?
- [00:07:23.503](students speaking off-mic)
- [00:07:24.336]There's a writing section, there's an essay,
- [00:07:26.534]Actually, there's a couple essays
- [00:07:27.630]that you gotta write for the GRE.
- [00:07:29.698]That is actually scored on a six-point scale
- [00:07:34.340]that's separated into half point increments.
- [00:07:36.690]Like you get it you get a zero
- [00:07:38.827]for basically writing gobbledygook.
- [00:07:41.224]You get a three for writing, OK.
- [00:07:44.328]You get a six for writing very mediocre.
- [00:07:49.087]Now, listen to what I said there.
- [00:07:50.594]You get a six for writing mediocre you get
- [00:07:52.438]a five for writing really well.
- [00:07:54.664]So that's kind of a funny thing about the way
- [00:07:56.752]this thing is scored.
- [00:07:58.114]The more sophisticated your writing style is
- [00:08:01.621]on the GRE, the tendency is, you could reach
- [00:08:04.661]a maximum of around five, and then it drops off.
- [00:08:07.781]Because what they're looking for is,
- [00:08:10.891]well there's two graders, you have
- [00:08:12.997]one computer grading your test
- [00:08:14.826]and you have one human grading your test.
- [00:08:16.927]So the computer when it looked at your essay
- [00:08:19.249]is looking for things like structural details,
- [00:08:22.383]proper grammar, proper spelling.
- [00:08:25.803]So if you have a conclusion and you write
- [00:08:27.924]in conclusion guess what, well, what does
- [00:08:31.759]your English teacher tell you about that?
- [00:08:33.140](students responding indistinctly)
- [00:08:34.012]Never write in conclusion in an essay, right.
- [00:08:36.829]What do you need to get a perfect score
- [00:08:38.180]in a GRE essay, write things like in conclusion.
- [00:08:42.172]First, next, last, all those constructs
- [00:08:44.619]your English teacher said, never write that way.
- [00:08:47.075]Well, here's the time to use those.
- [00:08:49.132]Because it only helps the computer
- [00:08:51.115]find those pieces of information.
- [00:08:53.197]So if you write really, really well,
- [00:08:55.118]that's great you're gonna get a five, 5.5.
- [00:08:58.691]But to get that six, you gotta tone it down a little bit.
- [00:09:00.657]Really complicated sentence structure gets in the way.
- [00:09:04.165]So keep it simple, keep your words a little bit shorter.
- [00:09:07.360]You don't want to have a $5 word where
- [00:09:09.642]a 25 cent word will do.
- [00:09:11.333]Like, what's the better word use, utilize?
- [00:09:14.636][Multiple students] Use.
- [00:09:15.688]Just use use, you don't have to utilize use
- [00:09:18.552]but use, use, because it's just a better word
- [00:09:21.383]for something like this.
- [00:09:23.215]The human graders grade this thing,
- [00:09:24.877]like as fast as humanly possible.
- [00:09:26.772]They're gonna miss everything.
- [00:09:28.479]Unless you keep a simple structure.
- [00:09:30.341]Yeah?
- [00:09:31.174]So you're saying five is better than a six.
- [00:09:34.674]Well, six is the best score, but five is what
- [00:09:37.818]the best writers tend to get,
- [00:09:39.395]they cap out around five, five 1/2.
- [00:09:41.631](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:09:43.846]Well, the funny thing is, here's the kicker
- [00:09:46.148]on the writing section.
- [00:09:47.320]Most of you guys are going to be going
- [00:09:49.016]to a science program, right?
- [00:09:51.423]Are most of those science programs
- [00:09:52.861]really worried about what you get on your writing section?
- [00:09:54.693][Multiple students] No.
- [00:09:55.915]Not at all, so they pretty much
- [00:09:58.740]are gonna go like who cares.
- [00:10:01.369]If you got a three or higher, you're good to go.
- [00:10:04.269]So that's the long and short of the GRE.
- [00:10:06.355]They tend not to care about the writing score
- [00:10:08.667]for grad schools.
- [00:10:10.027]Now, if you're talking Stanford, something like that
- [00:10:12.132]or Harvard, okay yeah, then your writing score
- [00:10:15.217]is gonna have more weight.
- [00:10:16.751]But again, it's a very program dependent thing.
- [00:10:19.671]Yeah?
- [00:10:20.504]Two questions, first question
- [00:10:22.109]is in regards to the writing, if you write things
- [00:10:24.164]such as first, next, last, things like that.
- [00:10:27.067]Could you get a very good score
- [00:10:28.915]on your computer analysis but then a mediocre score
- [00:10:31.390]on your like person analysis?
- [00:10:33.888]That's a great question but considering
- [00:10:35.421]these people that grade the tests
- [00:10:36.906]get graded by how many tests they do.
- [00:10:38.870]So they're getting paid by test.
- [00:10:41.509]So therefore, they're going to grade them
- [00:10:43.678]really, really, fast so the harder it is
- [00:10:46.861]for them to read it and understand it,
- [00:10:48.963]the harder it is for you get a higher score.
- [00:10:51.559]So, like basically, if you talk to a GRE essay grader,
- [00:10:56.265]what they have is they have a checklist
- [00:10:58.381]and then you're checking things off
- [00:10:59.988]that they can find.
- [00:11:01.089]Look for this in the essay, look for this in the essay,
- [00:11:03.179]look for this in the essay, and as long as
- [00:11:05.462]they find all these pieces you're pretty OK.
- [00:11:08.428]So don't try to strive for really excellent writing,
- [00:11:12.387]learn the formula, follow formula, get the score.
- [00:11:17.109]That's what you got to do, again, learn the rules
- [00:11:19.581]so you can just play the game better
- [00:11:20.767]than everyone else, that's what we're here to do right.
- [00:11:23.659]Yes sir.
- [00:11:24.492]All right so now again scoring wise,
- [00:11:27.915]as far as schools are concerned.
- [00:11:29.477]If you're going into a science major,
- [00:11:31.771]you're going into an engineering school,
- [00:11:33.657]which section is the one that they're more concerned about?
- [00:11:36.505](students speaking off-mic)
- [00:11:37.357]They're more worried about the quantitative score.
- [00:11:39.317]That's the one where you really want to shoot
- [00:11:41.388]for getting that 90th percentile or higher.
- [00:11:45.840]90th percentile or higher, that's pretty much
- [00:11:47.953]gonna get you to the program you want to go to
- [00:11:49.880]and anything above that's gonna get you additional funding.
- [00:11:53.728]So those programs like the previous speaker
- [00:11:56.354]was talking about, they're looking, in a lot of cases
- [00:11:58.982]for 90th percentile plus scores.
- [00:12:01.284]So really getting up there in the 165 range
- [00:12:04.966]and higher on the quant section.
- [00:12:07.825]Now, for the verbal, again, depending on the program,
- [00:12:12.295]depending on the school, you may only have
- [00:12:15.654]an expectation to get a 150.
- [00:12:18.160]If you can get a 150, you have no problems
- [00:12:21.189]on the verbal.
- [00:12:22.022]So a the biggest lesson I can teach you right here,
- [00:12:25.526]if you're taking the GRE for a particular purpose,
- [00:12:28.949]research it, call admissions offices,
- [00:12:32.294]call up the places that are going to give you the funding
- [00:12:34.745]and ask them what do I need to get on my GRE.
- [00:12:37.677]Because every single school is going
- [00:12:39.774]to give you a slightly different answer.
- [00:12:41.870]There's no magic numbers on the GRE.
- [00:12:43.966]Like again, it's a little bit like the same
- [00:12:47.132]for ACT or SAT, there's no magic numbers.
- [00:12:49.835]You gotta to just figure out where you're going
- [00:12:52.625]and what you want to do with it.
- [00:12:53.791]So talk to the school, they want to talk to you by the way.
- [00:12:56.226]And if you call them, that goes in your record
- [00:12:58.248]that hey this person's proactive, they're interested
- [00:13:00.522]in this program, let's talk to them some more.
- [00:13:03.249]So they'll see that as interest in their program.
- [00:13:06.595]That's a good thing to do, talk to the admissions offices.
- [00:13:09.454]Now here's a crazy thing, this is what's called a CAT,
- [00:13:13.580]a Computer Adaptive Test.
- [00:13:18.415]This is a little bit scary, but again,
- [00:13:20.474]if you learn how the program or how
- [00:13:22.195]the system works, it's not too bad.
- [00:13:23.725]If you do poorly on the first set of questions
- [00:13:27.164]what's gonna happen as you go?
- [00:13:30.043]The questions gonna get easier
- [00:13:31.429]or the questions gonna get harder?
- [00:13:32.662][Multiple students] Easier.
- [00:13:33.532]The questions getting easier, is that a good thing?
- [00:13:35.189][Multiple students] No.
- [00:13:36.254]No, that's not a good thing.
- [00:13:38.862]If the questions get easier that tells you
- [00:13:40.886]you're going to get a lower score on this test.
- [00:13:45.227]So pray that your questions don't get easier
- [00:13:47.737]because if your questions get harder
- [00:13:49.340]then you're doing it the right way.
- [00:13:50.955]Your questions get easier, you're gonna net out
- [00:13:53.116]a net lower score.
- [00:13:55.064]So and there's a interesting trick to the way it works.
- [00:13:57.576]it's good that it's adaptive by section.
- [00:14:01.056]So you've got to verbals and you got two maths.
- [00:14:04.184]So you have one whole section to establish the baseline
- [00:14:08.632]and then the next section that you get
- [00:14:10.486]will establish what your final grade is going to be.
- [00:14:13.314]And, so let's look at that right now.
- [00:14:18.045]So, I look at the adaptive by section nature
- [00:14:22.206]the first section you're going to get
- [00:14:23.864]in verbal or quant is medium.
- [00:14:27.292]All the questions going to be around
- [00:14:28.611]the same difficulty medium kind of questions,
- [00:14:30.602]you might get some higher some lower.
- [00:14:32.312]Don't worry about it at this point.
- [00:14:34.987]But what is your job on this section to do?
- [00:14:37.689]To get as many questions done as possible or to get
- [00:14:40.430]as many questions answered correctly as possible?
- [00:14:42.951]Answered correctly, so if you don't answer
- [00:14:46.030]all the questions in the section before time runs out
- [00:14:48.526]that's OK, your job is to get as many of those questions
- [00:14:52.833]that you do answer, correct.
- [00:14:55.200]So if you see a question you're just like
- [00:14:57.464]oh my mind is blown I have no idea
- [00:14:59.476]what they're asking me to do here, what do you do?
- [00:15:02.763]Skip it, but you don't just skip it
- [00:15:05.169]what do you do before you skip it?
- [00:15:07.672]Mark it and give it an answer.
- [00:15:11.037]Like actually answer it.
- [00:15:13.353]Get rid of bad, ridiculous answer choices.
- [00:15:15.725]There's gonna be some answers out there
- [00:15:17.258]you're gonna look at it go there's no way this is possible.
- [00:15:21.229]Cross that answer choice out, pick from
- [00:15:23.868]the remaining answer choices and boom there you go.
- [00:15:26.886]You've got that question now down to like maybe
- [00:15:29.267]33% chance of getting it correct.
- [00:15:33.316]But whatever the case is, you only spent 30 seconds
- [00:15:35.714]on that one question and you exchange that for time
- [00:15:39.094]for questions that you can get right.
- [00:15:41.601]And that's the key, because if you're getting lots
- [00:15:43.754]and lots of questions right, you do well on that section
- [00:15:46.881]you just targeted the mostly hard section two
- [00:15:49.834]which is what you want.
- [00:15:51.720]Because by the time you get the
- [00:15:52.893]mostly hard question section two, your minimum score
- [00:15:55.924]is 150, your minimum score.
- [00:15:59.443]So that's where you that's where you want to be.
- [00:16:02.420]Take the time, get all those,
- [00:16:04.128]get as many questions correct as possible,
- [00:16:06.386]skip the ones that you're not going to get correct
- [00:16:08.015]you've already anticipated that,
- [00:16:09.553]you're already minimum at that 50th percentile
- [00:16:12.531]or above and then everything beyond that is gravy.
- [00:16:15.714]Now you just work the way you'd normally work on a test
- [00:16:19.328]and you'll get the score that you're going to get.
- [00:16:21.438]So that's the best way to approach it.
- [00:16:23.045]What you don't want to have happen is this
- [00:16:25.314]you did OK, because then all of a sudden
- [00:16:28.867]you get a medium section if the question difficulty
- [00:16:31.186]is about the same, then uh oh, your median grade is 150
- [00:16:35.302]or you can't get above a 160, so that's not
- [00:16:38.793]where you want to be, 160 or above
- [00:16:40.597]that's 80th percentile and up.
- [00:16:42.168]So you want to get in this chunk
- [00:16:43.884]and then if you do poorly that basically
- [00:16:46.687]sets your floor down at the lowest score 130,
- [00:16:49.278]and get you up to a maximum of 50th percentile.
- [00:16:52.385]So if your second section is just
- [00:16:54.162]like softball questions, what's one plus one,
- [00:16:57.451]they would never ask that on the GRE,
- [00:16:58.911]but like what's one plus one, then you know
- [00:17:01.604]you're in this realm.
- [00:17:03.258]So you may at that point kind of, you know,
- [00:17:06.668]alright I'm going to do the best I can.
- [00:17:08.444]But don't let it frustrate you,
- [00:17:10.075]because you still got another half to go,
- [00:17:12.318]you still get your verbal to go.
- [00:17:13.912]So, the big trick is slow and steady wins the race up here.
- [00:17:17.746]don't rush through this first section
- [00:17:19.994]just to get all the questions done,
- [00:17:22.322]do all the questions that you can do correctly.
- [00:17:24.871]and that's going to maximize your score, yeah.
- [00:17:28.042]So you still advise answering
- [00:17:30.010]every single question, just more strategically planning
- [00:17:33.891]the question that you answer for that first section.
- [00:17:36.716]Correct, that's exactly right.
- [00:17:38.454]So let me read restate what he said.
- [00:17:40.723]Be strategic about the questions
- [00:17:42.602]that you spend more time on.
- [00:17:44.793]Don't waste time with questions that are
- [00:17:46.977]way too hard for you spend the time on the questions
- [00:17:49.978]that you can get done quickly and easily.
- [00:17:52.163]Those are the ones that gonna get you up
- [00:17:54.179]to the highest score, it's all about strategy.
- [00:17:56.902]What was that first thing Einstein said?
- [00:17:58.665]Learn the rules and play better than everyone else.
- [00:18:02.518]So these are the rules of how the test works
- [00:18:05.915]you just play within those rules and you're good to go.
- [00:18:08.703]Yeah?
- [00:18:09.648]In section two do we try answering
- [00:18:13.189]as many correctly?
- [00:18:14.962]In section two answering as many correctly as possible
- [00:18:18.153]is still a good advisable technique.
- [00:18:19.619]It's just not going to net out the same result
- [00:18:22.892]as you might get from the first section.
- [00:18:25.220]Plus, the problem with section two is
- [00:18:29.179]since there's an experimental section on the test
- [00:18:32.015]and if you have three math sections, you're not sure
- [00:18:34.140]if it's section two or if it's experimental.
- [00:18:37.340]So try, basically, on the second section
- [00:18:39.923]it's advisable to do the best you can.
- [00:18:41.925]So let me talk about the experimental section for a minute.
- [00:18:47.072]Every test has the analytical writing comes up first.
- [00:18:49.563]You get those two essays, boom.
- [00:18:51.321]Quantitative, you've got two sections,
- [00:18:53.280]one before the break, one after the break.
- [00:18:56.817]You've got verbal, one before the break,
- [00:18:58.935]one after the break, and they've got experimental
- [00:19:01.480]which comes after the break.
- [00:19:04.499]So, the tricky part about this is if
- [00:19:07.063]your experimental section is verbal
- [00:19:09.685]then you'll get three verbal sections.
- [00:19:12.877]So, you'll have before the break
- [00:19:14.461]and then two after the break.
- [00:19:16.692]There's no way for you to know that second section,
- [00:19:19.036]whether it's the experimental section
- [00:19:20.576]or it's the real section,
- [00:19:22.591]so you got to treat all the sections you run into
- [00:19:25.071]as the real deal.
- [00:19:26.870]And it also what makes it so you don't know
- [00:19:29.173]if you're going to have multiple quants or not.
- [00:19:31.555]So the second section you hit after the break
- [00:19:33.830]and potentially third, you have to take
- [00:19:36.204]and basically there, just try to answer
- [00:19:38.642]as many questions as you can, it works better
- [00:19:42.478]that way when you do the second section
- [00:19:45.122]because of that experimental nature.
- [00:19:46.770]So at least in the short term GRE's ETS
- [00:19:50.036]is not going to do away with the experimental section
- [00:19:53.054]and they're still not going to identify it.
- [00:19:54.884]So that is a problem with this thing
- [00:19:57.131]but now just focus, buckle down, use as many
- [00:20:01.122]of those questions as you can to maximize your score
- [00:20:03.903]on the second section, does that answer your question?
- [00:20:07.034]What exactly is the point
- [00:20:08.549]of the experimental section?
- [00:20:09.849]Good question, so why do they do this?
- [00:20:11.827]Why do testing companies do this, period?
- [00:20:13.534]You've actually been being experimented on
- [00:20:16.082]your whole lives.
- [00:20:17.680]Like when you sign that little agreement
- [00:20:19.334]when you take all these tests, you're signing
- [00:20:21.587]the rights away to like the fact that they're gonna
- [00:20:23.336]have questions on those tests they're trying out
- [00:20:25.597]for the future.
- [00:20:27.233]So these are questions that somebody two
- [00:20:29.316]or three years from now are going to be asked.
- [00:20:31.873]So, they're seeing what the results are
- [00:20:33.739]so they can standardize them and figure out
- [00:20:35.902]how it affects the overall score.
- [00:20:37.760]And the thing is they just don't want you to know.
- [00:20:40.591]Because people if they know, are going to,
- [00:20:43.514]what are you gonna do on the experimental section
- [00:20:45.819]if you know it's experimental?
- [00:20:46.921][Multiple students] Not do it.
- [00:20:47.806]Not do it, or just like do as bad as possible on purpose.
- [00:20:51.732]So that's why they don't tell you,
- [00:20:53.938]so they can do it.
- [00:20:55.003]I'm trying to see is this is an error or not,
- [00:20:57.903]in regards to the grading, because there
- [00:20:59.733]is a 40 point difference between the 130 and 170.
- [00:21:02.646]And there are 20 questions on each section.
- [00:21:06.513]So, in total it would be 40 questions for verbal
- [00:21:09.570]and you have 40 point span.
- [00:21:12.320]Is it true that you get one point for each question
- [00:21:16.660]No, it doesn't work that way unfortunately.
- [00:21:18.676]It's not a linear like however many questions
- [00:21:21.016]you get correct will help determine your score.
- [00:21:23.232]Because some questions are going to be weighted
- [00:21:25.383]more heavily than others and they're
- [00:21:27.572]not gonna tell you what those are.
- [00:21:29.043]So the the GRE is very algorithmic in how
- [00:21:32.227]it generates a score, it's not saying
- [00:21:34.114]here's the number correct, here's the score.
- [00:21:36.705]It's here's the number, and the style of question,
- [00:21:39.814]statistics, spreadsheets, ba ba ba ba,
- [00:21:43.338]here comes a score.
- [00:21:45.661]There's no simple formula we've ever been.
- [00:21:48.502]Like nobody's been able to deduce
- [00:21:50.269]their scoring formula at this point
- [00:21:52.620]because it's very confusing, although it's easier
- [00:21:55.034]than the GMAT, so not one-to-one unfortunately.
- [00:21:58.464]Okay, just a quick follow up,
- [00:22:00.295]I was taking a practice GRE through the ETS website
- [00:22:04.911]and from what I can recollect, there was a 1:1 correlation
- [00:22:09.056]between the amount of questions I answered correctly
- [00:22:11.673]and my actual score but I don't know
- [00:22:13.380]if that was because it's a practice or what.
- [00:22:15.030]I believe that's because it's a practice test.
- [00:22:17.271]That's what we've also found with
- [00:22:18.418]the GRE's public-facing ones.
- [00:22:22.198]There's an actual GRE program that they offer
- [00:22:25.314]that you have to pay for that actually
- [00:22:27.925]doesn't score linearly like that,
- [00:22:30.313]so it is more representative of
- [00:22:32.073]the adaptive nature of the test.
- [00:22:36.740]That's usually a lot of times if you see practice tests
- [00:22:39.551]they're they're not super representative
- [00:22:41.702]if you don't have to pay for it.
- [00:22:43.728]They want you to buy their product to do it.
- [00:22:46.976]Because ETS, at the end of the day,
- [00:22:48.175]is a company trying to make a profit.
- [00:22:50.471]So, yes?
- [00:22:52.782](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:22:57.387]Because of the content level actually
- [00:22:58.836]and the way they ask questions
- [00:23:00.101]and we'll look at that in just a moment.
- [00:23:01.469]When I get to compare and contrast.
- [00:23:03.641]So, we'll look at some of the GRE style questions
- [00:23:05.602]and the GMAT style questions.
- [00:23:07.407]So any other questions?
- [00:23:08.667]These are all great questions, I like that willing to go up.
- [00:23:11.418]I took the GRE like a couple weeks ago,
- [00:23:14.708]The actual one, I didn't get the score that I wanted
- [00:23:17.601]probably because I didn't have as good knowledge of it
- [00:23:20.188]as I thought I did.
- [00:23:22.443](speaker drown out background noise)
- [00:23:26.252]I took it in October, and in late October,
- [00:23:29.408]I was gonna ask if I should wait til November
- [00:23:32.597]so I can have more actual time to prepare?
- [00:23:35.381]A lot of it depends on your personal schedule,
- [00:23:37.785]but if you're already have taken the test
- [00:23:40.647]and you're comfortable with the content,
- [00:23:42.354]I would say that it's not necessary to have months
- [00:23:44.883]and months to study, but like since October's
- [00:23:47.092]coming pretty fast you might consider
- [00:23:48.641]how much time can I actually devote to practicing.
- [00:23:51.846]The best practice you can do, practice tests.
- [00:23:54.239]Doing practice tests, 'cause you get used to the style
- [00:23:56.566]of the way things are asked.
- [00:23:58.007]So you know I think you have a decision to make based
- [00:24:01.030]on how much time I have available to practice
- [00:24:03.534]versus when that test dates gonna be.
- [00:24:05.794]So try to try to balance it out net yourself at least
- [00:24:09.538]you know, I'd say given where you're at
- [00:24:12.217]a hundred hours between now and then
- [00:24:13.743]to practice before you take the real test.
- [00:24:17.441]Let's move on a little bit this is a multiple-choice test
- [00:24:21.529]so multiple-choice tests are crazy in that
- [00:24:29.034]there's statistic games you can play with them.
- [00:24:31.371]The problem is with the GRE the statistic games
- [00:24:33.352]generally don't work because they have lots
- [00:24:37.168]of different styles of questions.
- [00:24:38.655]We're gonna see some of the styles
- [00:24:39.842]of questions the GRE throws at you.
- [00:24:41.591]So, let's see, been through that, been through that,
- [00:24:46.038]so in the quant section, here's our quantitative section.
- [00:24:49.974]What level is the highest level of math
- [00:24:53.489]they're gonna test you on in here?
- [00:24:55.548]College, high school, middle school?
- [00:24:59.298]High school.
- [00:25:00.163]High school, wait what?
- [00:25:02.112]You took all these math classes in college,
- [00:25:05.103]calculus and stuff, yet they're not gonna test
- [00:25:07.848]you on that to get into grad school.
- [00:25:09.943]That's just completely silly.
- [00:25:11.792]What's the lowest level they're gonna dig down into?
- [00:25:14.794]High school, middle school, grade school?
- [00:25:17.460]Grade school.
- [00:25:19.071]Yeah, grade school because there's things like
- [00:25:23.758]least common multiple questions,
- [00:25:27.476]greatest common factor questions.
- [00:25:30.648]Those skills that you have not used since grade school
- [00:25:34.324]are gonna be on this test.
- [00:25:35.927]And those skills you have not used since high school
- [00:25:37.738]are gonna be on this test.
- [00:25:38.690]That's the challenge of the GRE actually
- [00:25:40.990]it's not that you don't understand the math,
- [00:25:43.172]you all can do the math.
- [00:25:44.736]I guarantee you every person in this room
- [00:25:46.327]could do the math that's required on this test,
- [00:25:48.845]given enough time to figure out what the heck
- [00:25:51.059]they're trying to ask you.
- [00:25:52.219]So, the thing is that's part of prep
- [00:25:54.602]is to learn how is it they ask all these
- [00:25:56.924]really silly questions because the math behind it
- [00:25:59.549]very simple, very simple.
- [00:26:01.755]So you've just got to learn what those different types
- [00:26:04.394]of things are they're asking you do.
- [00:26:06.500]And we'll go through a couple examples.
- [00:26:08.827]But they make it more difficult on you
- [00:26:10.228]because they give you the worst possible calculator
- [00:26:12.944]in the universe to use for it.
- [00:26:14.956]Because they basically give you plus, minus,
- [00:26:18.909]times, divide, square and square root,
- [00:26:23.663]and like nine numbers, 10 numbers, zero through nine.
- [00:26:26.283]So all those fancy functions on your fancy calculators
- [00:26:29.410]you use for engineering, useless.
- [00:26:32.913]They don't even give you sine, cosine
- [00:26:36.761]for the trig questions, they don't give you that.
- [00:26:39.472]So that's it's a very simple basic on-screen calculator.
- [00:26:43.557]So if you're gonna practice for the GRE
- [00:26:45.670]what you want to do is is get one of those
- [00:26:48.063]like cheap calculators with very few buttons on it
- [00:26:52.205]to practice with.
- [00:26:53.723]If you practice with your good calculator
- [00:26:55.830]you're actually practicing the wrong way.
- [00:26:57.672]You'll get dependent upon these other functions
- [00:26:59.709]that will make the math easier.
- [00:27:01.616]And here's the other thing, with this thing
- [00:27:04.011]it's limited to the number of digits it can go
- [00:27:06.502]so if you like do if you have a number
- [00:27:08.280]it's asking to do like four to the 12th
- [00:27:10.495]minus four to the 11th, won't work, the calculator
- [00:27:14.469]will go error, so they basically set it up
- [00:27:17.094]so certain questions will error out your calculator
- [00:27:19.539]and you have to find a different way to solve it.
- [00:27:22.036]Like factoring, which is something again,
- [00:27:23.815]you haven't done since when, forever.
- [00:27:27.146]Sixth grade, factoring so, yes.
- [00:27:32.019]So when you talk about
- [00:27:33.886]the difficulty of questioning, and you see something
- [00:27:35.897]that was probably like in grade school versus
- [00:27:39.190]like high school, should we be worried?
- [00:27:43.113]Actually no, surprising like the grade level of the
- [00:27:45.505]content doesn't determine the difficulty of the question.
- [00:27:48.947]The grade level of the content
- [00:27:50.810]is just the span of the content.
- [00:27:52.098]It's how they ask the question.
- [00:27:54.026]So there's a lot of very complicated,
- [00:27:56.289]wordy, word problems that would be considered
- [00:27:59.654]a harder question than something's very straightforward
- [00:28:02.374]like what does, when you evaluate this, what's the value.
- [00:28:06.382]So there's, don't think about grade level
- [00:28:08.679]versus difficulty it's style of questioning
- [00:28:11.416]versus difficulty level is what it turns out to be.
- [00:28:15.518]So there's a lot of different types of questions
- [00:28:16.864]that come in, multiple choice, those are the usual one's.
- [00:28:20.462]Select all that apply, so select all,
- [00:28:22.820]that's the verbal, sorry.
- [00:28:24.920]Multiple choice is there, select all that apply,
- [00:28:28.058]select all that apply you actually
- [00:28:29.368]have to click multiple boxes.
- [00:28:31.057]So some questions will have more than one correct answer,
- [00:28:33.888]numeric entry, you have to actually just
- [00:28:35.549]come up with a number and type it in.
- [00:28:37.445]So one of the tricks I can tell you
- [00:28:39.360]about numeric entry questions if it turns out
- [00:28:41.508]to be an irrational number for a numeric entry question,
- [00:28:45.007]something that like has billions of digits after it
- [00:28:47.742]it's probably not correct.
- [00:28:49.260]Because they're gonna there's no way
- [00:28:51.444]to grade that, like score it.
- [00:28:53.668]So the numeric entry questions are gonna be
- [00:28:55.220]simple numbers like 12 or 5.2 or something
- [00:28:58.845]that terminates.
- [00:29:00.249]These answers better be rational when you answer them.
- [00:29:03.421]So that's something to keep in mind.
- [00:29:05.238]So everybody knows the difference
- [00:29:06.775]between rational and irrational numbers?
- [00:29:08.440]What's a good example of an irrational number?
- [00:29:10.255][Multiple students] Pi.
- [00:29:11.195]Pi, goes on forever or E, something like that.
- [00:29:16.576]All right, the verbal, multiple choice again.
- [00:29:19.940]Select all that apply and select in passage responses.
- [00:29:23.285]They like these type because they basically
- [00:29:27.009]give you a sentence with a couple blanks in them
- [00:29:30.438]and say which words fit in the blanks.
- [00:29:33.865]So, you've got three blanks in a question
- [00:29:36.664]and you have to pick three words,
- [00:29:38.116]on one question.
- [00:29:39.604]If I get two of the words correct
- [00:29:41.045]and one of the it words incorrect
- [00:29:42.490]do I get credit for the problem?
- [00:29:43.983]No.
- [00:29:44.816]All or nothing, it's all or nothing.
- [00:29:47.244]So I gotta get all three words plugged in there
- [00:29:50.971]to get it correct.
- [00:29:52.025]You want to make sure you start with
- [00:29:54.472]the easiest word and go from there.
- [00:29:56.071]Let's look at a few of these, oh, by the way,
- [00:29:57.353]verbal, reading comp, basically read a passage,
- [00:30:02.058]read a paragraph, answer a question about it.
- [00:30:06.107]Text completion, which basically, fill in the blanks
- [00:30:08.635]and then sentence equivalents, which of
- [00:30:11.490]the following words would mean the same thing
- [00:30:14.531]if inserted into the equation in the blank.
- [00:30:16.468]So lot's of different funky question types.
- [00:30:20.899]So here's an example of a quantitative
- [00:30:22.380]comparison question we see in math.
- [00:30:27.056]So looking at those triangles there
- [00:30:30.288]you guys visually see any difference.
- [00:30:33.422]No, lesson number one you cannot trust the figures
- [00:30:37.809]on a quant comp question because the figures
- [00:30:41.462]will often literally be the same except
- [00:30:44.132]they'll change the numbers.
- [00:30:46.363]That's like the same triangle, just redrawn
- [00:30:49.221]F versus G 6.0 versus 6.1.
- [00:30:53.014]And this is a structure they use on these quant questions
- [00:30:56.048]which us and you don't even have to read the answers
- [00:30:58.137]you know the answers are always these
- [00:31:00.857]because it's always A is bigger, B is bigger,
- [00:31:03.469]they're equal or cannot be determined.
- [00:31:06.041]So if I have a question like this,
- [00:31:08.729]it's got numbers, it's a numerical answer,
- [00:31:11.390]which answer is definitely wrong?
- [00:31:14.796]Cannot be determined.
- [00:31:17.757]Because, if there's a particular value
- [00:31:20.504]that means they have to be determinable.
- [00:31:22.961]A has to be greater than B or B has to be greater than A
- [00:31:25.896]or they could be the same.
- [00:31:27.868]So, for quantitative quant comp questions
- [00:31:30.991]that an is never right, ever, get rid of it.
- [00:31:37.727]She's writing this down.
- [00:31:39.830]So, if I'm looking at this now too,
- [00:31:42.618]look at the two triangles, what's different about them?
- [00:31:45.649](multiple students speaking indistinctly)
- [00:31:47.232]The base is different so is F and G going to be the same?
- [00:31:50.145][Multiple students] No.
- [00:31:50.978]So what other answer choice do I already know
- [00:31:53.157]is definitely incorrect?
- [00:31:56.013]Two quantities are equal, definitely out.
- [00:31:58.299]This is the process we call POE, process of elimination.
- [00:32:02.960]It's so much easier to get rid of answer choices
- [00:32:05.603]than it is to pick the right answer,
- [00:32:07.701]that the first thing you should just go into
- [00:32:09.891]is process of elimination mode.
- [00:32:11.821]Get rid of this, because of that.
- [00:32:12.939]Get rid of this, get rid of this, get rid of this,
- [00:32:14.756]because I mean we're all really good at that.
- [00:32:16.715]This is what, what what is science all about?
- [00:32:19.340]Proving stuff or disproving stuff?
- [00:32:21.455][Multiple students] Disproving.
- [00:32:22.892]Disproving stuff, the scientific method
- [00:32:25.183]is all about saying, well, if all these other things
- [00:32:28.165]don't occur, therefore this must be the truth.
- [00:32:31.024]And you've come up from engineering,
- [00:32:32.670]you've learned the scientific method.
- [00:32:34.447]And that's the way to approach your test.
- [00:32:36.430]You know these rules the rules is
- [00:32:37.928]disprove everything because what's left must be true.
- [00:32:43.039]I can get, at the very least, those two answers out.
- [00:32:45.233]Does anybody know the property of triangles
- [00:32:47.200]that can help me solve this?
- [00:32:49.083]It's about the 45 degree angles?
- [00:32:53.701]It's not about the 45-degree angles.
- [00:32:55.656](students speaking indistinctly off-mic)
- [00:32:58.779]One is equilateral, one is, this is equilateral
- [00:33:01.808]this is isosceles and that's the rule
- [00:33:05.229]like you gotta bring that back out from geometry.
- [00:33:07.757]What's that, 10th grade?
- [00:33:09.089](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:33:10.883]Say it again?
- [00:33:12.011](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:33:13.167]You just did this?
- [00:33:14.171](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:33:15.158]Well actually, you guys in engineering
- [00:33:16.768]probably have an easier time seeing this
- [00:33:18.000]because I think you probably do this more often.
- [00:33:20.822]So you do it with other things right?
- [00:33:22.764]At the very least I know isosceles versus equilateral,
- [00:33:26.589]so in the equilateral case versus the isosceles case
- [00:33:30.275]which vertical must be larger?
- [00:33:32.812][Multiple students] F.
- [00:33:34.720]The vertical F must be larger
- [00:33:36.414]because it's an isosceles triangle
- [00:33:38.127]than the vertical G because it's equilateral.
- [00:33:40.456]That's the math behind it, but at the very least
- [00:33:43.033]I could have gotten it down to two
- [00:33:44.507]and if I didn't know the rule, what could I have done?
- [00:33:48.388]I would have been 50/50 guess, move on.
- [00:33:51.254]So I didn't know the rule, guess on the two of them
- [00:33:53.775]mark it, move on.
- [00:33:55.782]If I do know the rule, answer it and all
- [00:33:57.368]is right with the world.
- [00:33:59.866]So, A is greater, boom.
- [00:34:04.209]This is an example of a text completion sentence.
- [00:34:08.701]Now, here's the one thing about the GRE vocabulary.
- [00:34:12.132]Remember you guys took the SAT.
- [00:34:14.516]How many people took the ACT?
- [00:34:16.831]SAT?
- [00:34:19.368]So, a lot of you took both is what it looks like.
- [00:34:22.952]The vocab on SAT used to be a lot harder than it is now.
- [00:34:27.267]You guys don't have, didn't come from the era
- [00:34:30.297]of really complex SAT vocabulary.
- [00:34:33.430]That's unfortunate because that is
- [00:34:35.852]what happens on the GRE.
- [00:34:38.024]There's still that SAT era like
- [00:34:40.349]old era SAT vocabulary level.
- [00:34:43.016]So one of these you can do, start prepping right now,
- [00:34:45.377]start bulking up your vocabulary.
- [00:34:47.614]There's GRE word lists out there all over the place.
- [00:34:50.420]Get a GRE word list, do you like word of the day,
- [00:34:53.310]put put them on your calendar or something like that.
- [00:34:55.713]I gotta learn the definition of each of these words
- [00:34:57.272]word of the day, because that's how these questions work.
- [00:35:00.065]You need to know what the words mean,
- [00:35:01.509]so you can figure out where the words go.
- [00:35:04.304]Take a second, think in your head,
- [00:35:06.645]which word goes in which blank.
- [00:35:10.300]Also think in your head which word
- [00:35:12.398]is easiest to find first.
- [00:35:15.697](students speaking off-mic)
- [00:35:20.046]It can be different for different people.
- [00:35:21.533]That's what we call POOD, your personal order of difficulty.
- [00:35:35.142](students speaking off-mic)
- [00:35:41.019]There might be a difference because of
- [00:35:42.870]the type of engineering you're going into.
- [00:35:45.313]Because I'm thinking some of our civil engineers
- [00:35:47.748]might have an easier time with this
- [00:35:49.999]than our chemicals engineers and stuff like that.
- [00:35:55.012](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:35:57.116]All right so how many people think
- [00:35:58.310]the first word's easiest to figure out?
- [00:36:01.125]How many people think the second word?
- [00:36:03.996]One of us, don't be afraid,
- [00:36:06.330]and how about third word?
- [00:36:09.186]So, a lot of us thought the first word,
- [00:36:10.929]I personally felt it was the third word.
- [00:36:13.035]Because I had at least some context for me
- [00:36:16.164]because I saw a bland or unappealing.
- [00:36:18.139]Bland or unappealing that should tell me
- [00:36:21.481]what that word means and so I went third word first.
- [00:36:23.563]Would that be disparaged, embraced or reclaimed?
- [00:36:27.886]Offering designs of different and varying quality
- [00:36:30.064]subsequently but by those who feel blah, blah.
- [00:36:32.458]So if I'm the building is bland or unappealing
- [00:36:34.996]then I'm probably gonna like it or hate it?
- [00:36:37.819]And which one means hate it?
- [00:36:38.981]Disparaged, so there we go.
- [00:36:41.970]Now the next second word I went after was
- [00:36:45.185]the first word because now I've got
- [00:36:48.131]a little bit more context and I don't even know
- [00:36:50.326]what a couple of those mean.
- [00:36:52.095]What do some of these words mean?
- [00:36:53.545]Oracular? Am I even pronouncing that correctly?
- [00:36:57.308]So, I went with this because they're talking
- [00:36:59.807]about proponents of reducing buildings
- [00:37:01.381]clearly functional form of on beauty
- [00:37:02.744]and highlighting blah features.
- [00:37:04.824]Now, like some of you guys are in architecture
- [00:37:07.067]and stuff probably are going like
- [00:37:08.705]what's the word, aesthetic, because they're talking
- [00:37:11.931]about form and function, oh no, it's structural.
- [00:37:16.840]Oh no.
- [00:37:19.670](students speaking indistinctly off-mic)
- [00:37:23.075]You got to take into context and read
- [00:37:24.772]the whole sentence with it.
- [00:37:26.641]Proponents of the international style
- [00:37:28.974]called for reducing buildings to completely functional form
- [00:37:31.258]and found beauty and highlighting blah features,
- [00:37:33.162]They rejected references to, so they're talking
- [00:37:35.731]function and form, structure would be the reason.
- [00:37:38.848]Structure would be the reason.
- [00:37:40.771]So what's my last word got to be?
- [00:37:44.216]Oracular, provincial or secular?
- [00:37:50.782]Provincial styles. (students speaking off-mic)
- [00:37:57.050]So, here's why, let's look at the context again.
- [00:38:00.131]They rejected references to the blank styles
- [00:38:02.030]offering designs indifferent to location.
- [00:38:04.760]Location is the is the verbal cue
- [00:38:08.370]that tells me it's got to be provincial.
- [00:38:10.891]So here's what happens with these kinds of questions.
- [00:38:14.294]We get so drawn in by the definition
- [00:38:16.275]of what we think should be there
- [00:38:17.879]rather than looking at all the other words around it.
- [00:38:21.592]You've got to use the other words around it,
- [00:38:23.512]not just what sounds good, but what actually fits
- [00:38:26.123]the other words around it.
- [00:38:27.575]So, work these kinds of questions by
- [00:38:31.176]looking at all the other clues
- [00:38:33.463]they're throwing at you.
- [00:38:34.536]They're going to give you clues, breadcrumbs,
- [00:38:36.847]on how to solve these questions.
- [00:38:38.652]So again, knowing the rules about these questions
- [00:38:40.720]the rules are the answers are in the sentence already.
- [00:38:43.923]They give you words that have similar meaning
- [00:38:46.647]you just got to match them.
- [00:38:47.907]Make sense?
- [00:38:50.008]So learn that rule about text completions.
- [00:38:53.075]It has to match the sentence, not the definition.
- [00:38:56.064]Here's another sentence equivalence,
- [00:38:59.532]although typically quite lucid his explanations of theories
- [00:39:02.467]James use words that were so blank.
- [00:39:03.984]Here's what I don't want you to do,
- [00:39:06.901]don't look at this yet, don't look at it.
- [00:39:09.890]Pick an answer, pick a word, that you think fits the blank.
- [00:39:14.818](students speaking indistinctly off-mic)
- [00:39:17.642]I know you can still read the words on me
- [00:39:19.314]but don't look at them.
- [00:39:20.954]What do we got there, what do we want
- [00:39:22.356]to put in the blank without looking at the answers?
- [00:39:25.113]Unclear, difficult, complicated, OK,
- [00:39:29.533]so those are all good words
- [00:39:30.751]and that's what the strategy on a question like this.
- [00:39:32.823]Pick your own word first and then see
- [00:39:35.971]what other words match so I'm gonna go complicated.
- [00:39:40.464]I'm gonna use complicated.
- [00:39:41.964]So does realistic match complicated?
- [00:39:44.477]No, what do I do keep it or get rid of it?
- [00:39:48.008][Multiple students] Get rid of it.
- [00:39:48.841]Get rid of it.
- [00:39:49.674]Obvious, does obvious match complicated?
- [00:39:51.397][Multiple students] No.
- [00:39:52.272]Keep it or get rid of it?
- [00:39:53.105][Multiple students] Get rid of it
- [00:39:54.235]Abstruse, do you even know what that means?
- [00:39:58.340]No, so if you don't know what it means,
- [00:40:02.714]keep it or get rid of it?
- [00:40:04.085][Multiple students] Keep it.
- [00:40:05.220]Keep it, because I don't know what it means
- [00:40:07.521]I can't, I have no reason to lose that answer yet.
- [00:40:11.144]No reason to eliminate it.
- [00:40:13.432]Benevolent, does that match?
- [00:40:14.936][Multiple students] No.
- [00:40:16.127]That's not complicated, so get rid of it.
- [00:40:18.348]Obscure. Keep it.
- [00:40:21.127]Keep it because in this case do we think it matches?
- [00:40:23.673]I actually think it matches pretty good
- [00:40:26.148]so I'm not just going to keep it, I'm gonna select it
- [00:40:28.433]because obscure, complicated, that has a good meaning,
- [00:40:33.436]didn't match, disparate, complicated.
- [00:40:39.109](students speaking indistinctly off-mic)
- [00:40:40.947]A little on the fence on this one, we're not sure.
- [00:40:43.022]Disparate, keep it or get rid of it?
- [00:40:47.219]I'm hearing a few more get rid of its than keep its.
- [00:40:50.463]Disparity versus complicated.
- [00:40:57.146]Disparity is like comparing two things
- [00:40:59.981]it doesn't seem to fit, let's get rid of it.
- [00:41:02.357]But here's the rule, again, you got to know the rules.
- [00:41:04.857]How many answers must there be
- [00:41:07.374]on a sentence completion question?
- [00:41:09.088]At least two.
- [00:41:11.758]There has to be at least two answers
- [00:41:14.053]on a sentence completion question.
- [00:41:15.606]If you go into the test knowing that
- [00:41:17.109]and we did what we just did,
- [00:41:18.761]then what other word must fit?
- [00:41:20.871][Multiple students] Abstruse.
- [00:41:21.830]Abstruse, must also fit the answer
- [00:41:23.201]because I know I could only find one of these.
- [00:41:27.428]I had no clue what abstruse meant, so I couldn't
- [00:41:30.064]do anything with it.
- [00:41:31.147]But, if there's only two, if I have to have
- [00:41:34.450]at least two answers for this question
- [00:41:36.959]then I know I've got to pick it.
- [00:41:39.143]Does it say that in the directions?
- [00:41:40.760]It doesn't say that directions for the question, no.
- [00:41:43.263]It says that in the directions before the section.
- [00:41:46.990]So this is like, basically, they give you all
- [00:41:49.760]this information in one big chunk before this section begins
- [00:41:53.806]and how many people read that?
- [00:41:56.185]Like huh, or you'd read it and it's like, it's verbal vomit.
- [00:42:00.176]It goes right out your brain.
- [00:42:01.763]So, nobody's gonna read that and keep it keep it
- [00:42:04.666]in in their heads.
- [00:42:05.702]So this is what you do, learn the rules
- [00:42:07.856]before you go into the test and you're good to go.
- [00:42:10.653]Because did you know that when you took your GRE?
- [00:42:13.372](student speaking off-mic)
- [00:42:14.937]So you knew that, so that was good,
- [00:42:17.142]you knew the rules before you went into the test.
- [00:42:19.459]That's how we beat this test, that's how we do it.
- [00:42:21.990]Know the rules.
- [00:42:24.320]So let's see, timing wise I know we're trying to keep
- [00:42:27.418]How much? Four minutes.
- [00:42:29.525]Four minutes, wow okay so let me talk
- [00:42:31.528]a little bit about the GRE compare contrast it.
- [00:42:34.236]So, the GMAT is for business school.
- [00:42:37.256]It's similar because it's given continuously
- [00:42:40.264]throughout the year, you sign up for it.
- [00:42:41.785]That's a new thing by the way,
- [00:42:43.839]GMAT just changed the way it administers or GMAC
- [00:42:46.361]GMAC can change the way they did this just recently.
- [00:42:50.527]So there's a lot of uncertainty out there
- [00:42:52.872]on the web about how the GMAT compares to the GRE.
- [00:42:56.128]Or the GMAT compares to what it used to be.
- [00:42:58.220]So be careful on what you read caveat emptor.
- [00:43:01.326]It's given continuously, what's the median 500 score
- [00:43:06.442]well, I just gave that one right.
- [00:43:08.208](audience laughing)
- [00:43:10.442]So, what's the median score?
- [00:43:11.697]500. Thank you.
- [00:43:12.678]So, that's your 50th percentile.
- [00:43:16.063]The biggest difference between this test
- [00:43:18.566]and the GRE is it's adaptive by question, by question.
- [00:43:24.739]Not by section, but by question.
- [00:43:27.392]So you have question one this time,
- [00:43:29.949]if you answer question one correctly
- [00:43:32.214]what happens to the next question?
- [00:43:33.511][Multiple students] It gets harder.
- [00:43:34.344]It gets more difficult.
- [00:43:35.700]What happens if you answer incorrectly?
- [00:43:37.996][Multiple students] Gets easier.
- [00:43:39.554]It gets easier and now while it's not like
- [00:43:42.507]literally on a question by question basis,
- [00:43:45.435]it does scale over time.
- [00:43:47.889]So if you get more questions wrong at the beginning
- [00:43:50.429]of the section then at the end of the section
- [00:43:52.221]that's really a huge hit on your score.
- [00:43:54.859]So this test even more than the GRE question by question
- [00:43:58.823]you need to spend way more time on
- [00:44:01.648]the first ten questions in the section
- [00:44:03.837]than you do the last ten questions.
- [00:44:06.010]Because you have to get those first questions right
- [00:44:09.470]to start bringing your score range up.
- [00:44:11.628]Because, if you do not after first ten questions
- [00:44:13.887]or so some of your score starts to get predetermined.
- [00:44:17.026]And so, you're gonna be stuck in that lower bracket.
- [00:44:20.319]So, you got about 10 to 15 questions
- [00:44:22.547]to really nail your bracket for your final score.
- [00:44:25.516]So that is a lot more challenging,
- [00:44:27.415]so that's one of the big challenge differences
- [00:44:29.269]between GRE and GMAT is that right there.
- [00:44:31.194]The other difference is the math questions
- [00:44:35.824]are a lot more bizarre.
- [00:44:38.566]So this is the instructions for one of
- [00:44:40.800]the GMAT math questions, this is just the instructions.
- [00:44:44.669]So you mean to tell me,
- [00:44:46.472]you have to read all of these, how many minutes?
- [00:44:50.396]Well, again know the rules, this question,
- [00:44:53.650]this set of rules, is the same for every time you see it.
- [00:44:58.091]So if you learn how these questions work ahead of time
- [00:45:01.677]you don't have to worry about reading this
- [00:45:03.227]every single time.
- [00:45:04.507]So yeah, I would be concerned if I had
- [00:45:06.588]to read this every time myself.
- [00:45:08.307]But, know the rule before you go into the test
- [00:45:10.382]you're good to go.
- [00:45:12.092]Like the saying, can I determine some value
- [00:45:15.003]from two different statements?
- [00:45:17.299]Either statement one alone, statement two alone,
- [00:45:21.037]they both have to go together,
- [00:45:22.645]each statement alone is sufficient
- [00:45:24.834]or statements one and two together are not sufficient.
- [00:45:27.860]It's always the same setup for these kinds of questions.
- [00:45:30.791]So I look at this and say okay what's the value of A?
- [00:45:34.674]Is there a way for me to tell the value A
- [00:45:36.956]from that one equation right there?
- [00:45:38.817]No, because it's one equation and two unknowns
- [00:45:43.614]I can't do that.
- [00:45:44.709]This is by itself sufficient or insufficient?
- [00:45:48.676]Insufficient, so put them together can I solve it?
- [00:45:53.203][Multiple students] Yes.
- [00:45:54.285]Yes I can, but then they played the dirty trick
- [00:45:57.587]every once in a while they'll make sure they give you
- [00:45:59.522]the same equation but multiplied by two.
- [00:46:02.927]So if they gave you instead 14a plus 4b equals 32?
- [00:46:10.577]Can I do it with, do I need both equations to do it?
- [00:46:15.491]I still need both equations to do it
- [00:46:17.360]but the rules change a little bit because the fact
- [00:46:20.365]that it's now the exact same equation
- [00:46:23.403]and no I can't do it, because it's the exact same equation.
- [00:46:27.058]If they're the same exact equation
- [00:46:28.877]I cannot actually determine what the actual value is.
- [00:46:34.123]So that's what makes the GMAT strategically different
- [00:46:37.704]than the GRE is the questions are a lot more logic based.
- [00:46:41.706]There's way more logic tested on the GMAT
- [00:46:43.957]than the GRE, other than that, the content
- [00:46:45.832]of the two tests is very equivalent to one another.
- [00:46:48.577]They're testing the same kinds of things
- [00:46:50.787]in slightly different ways.
- [00:46:52.585]The GMAT wants to know how your mind works.
- [00:46:55.895]the GRE wants to know that you can do things.
- [00:47:00.432]They basically want to know can you jump through the hoops
- [00:47:03.187]more or less, the GMAT wants to know
- [00:47:04.880]a little bit about how your mind functions.
- [00:47:07.136]So I know I'm basically out of time here
- [00:47:11.101]we'll skip over the LSAT, that's that's LSAT stuff.
- [00:47:15.376]I just want to run through this
- [00:47:16.451]as sort of our final thing.
- [00:47:17.527]It's really, let's think about what standardized tests do.
- [00:47:20.688]Number one, does the standardized test measure intelligence?
- [00:47:24.267]GRE GMAT whatever, no, that's not what they're for.
- [00:47:26.764]Can it be used to help award your financial aid?
- [00:47:29.920][Multiple students] Yes.
- [00:47:30.753]Yes it is, that's why you want to really work
- [00:47:32.618]on you know get that score that you need
- [00:47:35.745]for that financial aid package or program.
- [00:47:37.703]Does it reflect your undergraduate GPA?
- [00:47:40.023][Multiple students] No.
- [00:47:41.016]No, some people have awesome grades,
- [00:47:43.066]suck at taking tests because you don't know the rules.
- [00:47:46.426]If you learn the rules you can fix that.
- [00:47:48.440]That's the whole thing that Einstein said,
- [00:47:50.082]right, know your rules.
- [00:47:52.280]Predict your grad school GPA?
- [00:47:53.876][Multiple students] No.
- [00:47:54.860]No, not even close there's been so many studies
- [00:47:57.569]done on this that it's cliche at this point.
- [00:48:01.601]Can you prepare for these tests?
- [00:48:03.175][Multiple students] Yes.
- [00:48:04.223]Yes, you can and that's the big lesson
- [00:48:06.702]to be learned here is again know how
- [00:48:08.491]the test works and you're not gonna have
- [00:48:10.062]as many problems with this thing.
- [00:48:11.968]Should you do it?
- [00:48:12.901]What do you think?
- [00:48:14.271]Yeah, I definitely need to prepare for this test.
- [00:48:16.884]And will it test what you learned in college?
- [00:48:20.056][Multiple students] No.
- [00:48:21.067]No, it just doesn't, it's not a college based test.
- [00:48:25.148]So like ya get you into grad school
- [00:48:26.916]but it's not what they're testing so.
- [00:48:30.198]All right, so let me just finish up by saying
- [00:48:33.921]basically what Princeton Review does,
- [00:48:37.150]what our job is, is to help you guys learn those rules.
- [00:48:39.940]So, if you were to take a test prep course
- [00:48:42.246]with Princeton Review or with Kaplan,
- [00:48:43.836]I'm not here to pitch Princeton Review honestly,
- [00:48:46.050]I'm here just to let you know how these tests work.
- [00:48:48.039]But test prep course whomever it's with,
- [00:48:50.714]basically what you need to get out of that course,
- [00:48:53.830]is to learn how the questions work,
- [00:48:55.986]how they function, how the test functions.
- [00:48:58.490]It's not so much the content because
- [00:49:00.707]you probably already know that.
- [00:49:02.244]So when you're evaluating what test prep
- [00:49:04.990]that you need to do, think about what it tells you
- [00:49:07.709]about the process, the strategies behind questions.
- [00:49:10.360]The way the test functions, and that's where
- [00:49:12.636]you're gonna get the biggest bang for your buck.
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- ntc
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- mid-america transportation center
- matc scholars program
- scholars program
- graduate school
- graduate school admissions exams
- the princeton review
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