-
What's Included
25 Hours of Video Lessons- 50 Hours of Video Solutions
- 75+ Lessons
- Computer Adaptive Tests
- 1 Diagnostic Test
- 1000+ practice Questions
Many students are guilty of ignoring the law of diminishing utility when it comes to test prep. Stated more plainly, I mean that students often operate under the assumption that “studying more is always better”. This is simply not the case.
The final week before the test is a time that students commonly misuse or, in some egregious cases, actually regress. This is because, instead of treating the GRE as a performance, which it is, students treat it simply as a test of knowledge, which it most certainly is not. The top priority of any student during the last week before taking the test should be resting well and staying healthy. Resist the urge to take a full-length practice test, as it will most likely contribute to fatigue on the actual test day, and by all means, don’t study anything on the day before the test. Just take care of yourself, relax, and mentally prepare yourself for game day.
Students also ignore the law of diminishing utility during normal study hours. The number of hours that you can be actively engaged in absorbing and executing new information is limited; just because you put in the extra hours does not mean that your score will continue to improve. In order to perform optimally on the test, you should view taking care of yourself as an equally important part of your study as pouring vocabulary words into your brain.
How long can you productively study in each day? The answer is not infinite; during your studies try to take note of how productive your study is. If you are wasting time, or not making effective progress, or not feeling well, then STOP! Watching Dumb and Dumber, believe it or not, may be a more valuable use of your time. And it won’t make you as dumb as you think.
Developing a proper study/life balance is a vital part of your prep and should not be ignored. In addition to the number of hours that you can spend during each session, there is a limited amount of study time that you can put your body through each week. Ensuring that you are taking adequate time to exercise, eat well, and sleep sufficiently is an often undervalued but highly sensitive aspect of your test prep so take your mother’s advice and take care of yourself, darnit!
For all ye social media aficionados. Here is the new meaning of Accomplishment:
The GRE and GMAT always present you with enough information to solve a question. But frequently, you will need to alter, simplify, or modify expressions a good bit before proceeding. In fact, some problems (like the following) depend upon your ability to do so. How might you simplify the expressions in the following problem before proceeding to a solution?
Loading ...Both inequalities presented at the outset of the problem must be simplified before a solution can be easily found. Be aware that often times the test will not simply offer information that can be directly solved; it is far more common to be given information which requires some significant changes before it is useful for solving.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Inequalities, Probability
Leave a comment
Traditionally, math students are taught to completely solve any equation or problem that they face. But due to the limited nature of GRE and GMAT problems, there are some problem-solving methods that are superior because of their speed.
Testing the Answer Choices is occasionally one of these options. Although it is highly dependent on the problem itself, there are some times where using this technique can be faster than solving the problem in a traditional way. Can you solve this problem by Testing the Answer Choices?
Loading ...However, using advanced problem-solving techniques is not always faster. In fact, it can be slower in many cases. But the execution of each problem solving method is quite subjective; the only way to find out whether one method will be better or worse for you is to practice thoroughly and get to know your own skill set well!
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Testing the Answer Choices
Leave a comment
- Cut index cards up and make flashcards.
- Fold a piece of paper hot dog-style and use one side for the word and the other for the definition.
- Download an app on your phone that lets you review vocabulary while you’re on a crowded bus.
If you think about it, simply memorizing words is a somewhat easy—I do say this with
caution—task. You’re smart and probably still relatively young so you have the brain capacity to memorize a vast number of words. But really now—I highly doubt that this is all you’ll need to do in order to get a tantalizingly awesome Verbal score on the GRE or GMAT.
There are far too many non-native English speakers who still think that they only way to learn more words for your test is to just memorize lists of possible words that may show up. This is just how they were taught to study English vocabulary. From my experience of doing this (I admit that I did it too and I’m a native English speaker), I was very disappointed to see that maybe five of the words I memorized actually showed up on the test. All that memorization of words I’d never seen or used before just proved to be a failed attempt to improve my vocabulary.
So what words did show up on the test? To be quite honest, they were words I recognized from books I’ve read, magazines articles I’ve dog-eared, blogs I follow, TV shows I watch, angry Facebook statuses that show up in my News Feed, conversations with and between friends, and professors’ lectures. Do you see where this is going? Yes, actually opening up a dictionary and looking up definitions and reviewing different synonyms are very important—you can’t always expect to know the exact meaning of a word without ever looking it up. But the key to being able to answer questions on the GRE and GMAT Verbal sections is knowing how words are used in context. A dictionary may give you a sentence or two using the word, but it’ll never provide a conversation that shows the different ways the word can be used.
Studying vocabulary doesn’t always have to be a serious and dreadful obligation; it can be fun and should be interactive. Make an effort to gradually build your vocabulary through tasks that you enjoy. The world is filled with words—why limit your resources to just flashcards? Take what you hear, pay attention to how it’s being used, look up the literal meaning, use it on your own, and play around with it even. You’d be surprised as to how much you learn by just opening your eyes and ears a little more.
Look at the following question. Most people who look at this problem for a minute or two can get to the answer by using common sense. But on grueling endeavors like the GRE or GMAT, why use precious brainpower for a problem that can be solved by your pen alone? Can you think of a way to solve this problem without costing yourself any serious struggle?
Loading ...Simply figuring out a way to notate a solution to this problem is the toughest step for most students. Here’s an easy way:
D>C>B>A
Resist your laziness genes and make a small investment in writing down your work… it will pay immediate dividends and save you energy in the long run.
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day
Leave a comment
In addition to the GMAT, many business schools now accept the GRE as an applicant exam. Despite slightly complicating matters, this is good news! Having a choice between tests means that you can choose to take the exam that best caters to your strengths to increase your chances of admission. Obviously, if you have the available time, energy, and money, it is in your best interest to take both tests and use the higher percentile score. But if you’re like most people, you may not feel like shelling out for both exams, much less studying for them! So how do you know which test you should take?
For the most part, the tests are very similar, but the minor differences could have an impact on your score. Here are some general indicators for choosing the best test for you:
- If you are a vocab wizard, take the GRE! It has a much heavier emphasis on difficult and rare words than does the GMAT.
- If you perform well on Critical Reasoning questions, take the GMAT. It contains more difficult and frequently appearing questions testing concepts of logic and arguments. The Critical Reasoning questions on the GRE are not as difficult or common.
- If you find 75-minute test sections very difficult (I certainly do), then consider the GRE. Its sections are a maximum of 45 minutes.
- If you are generally a stronger quantitative student, you should take the GMAT.
- If you are generally a stronger verbal student, you should take the GRE.
- Last but not necessarily least, if you prefer a cheaper test, take the GRE. It only costs $160, whereas the GMAT costs $250.
Don’t agonize excessively over this decision. If your preferred graduate schools accept both the GRE and GMAT, then take a look at the list above, make a decision, and get to it! Your time is much better spent studying than deliberating which test to take, so just pick a test, and conquer it!
Depending on your current level of familiarity with the GRE, you may or may not know that it is somewhat similar to the SAT. Identical question types, essays, and even some particular question formats appear on both tests, leading many students to believe that a good SAT performance will translate directly to the GRE.
But although students who perform well on the SAT do have a better chance of scoring well on the GRE, this perspective can be very counterproductive. Generally, students who approach their GRE prep with this kind of mindset are doing themselves a disservice by not treating the GRE as its own unique test with its own unique challenges. The biggest reason being is that in the minds of some, the GRE doesn’t require much preparation because “it’s just like the SAT which wasn’t even that hard.” People will study for the MCAT, DAT, or LSAT for almost a year (or even more) before taking the exam because most of the material requires the test-taker to know how to take the test.
These strategies aren’t explicitly taught at school—they have to invest in taking time to practice these strategies on their own if they want to do well. What future GRE test-takers don’t realize is that this is the same for the GRE! They can’t expect their high school test-taking abilities to suffice, or depend solely on what they learned while preparing for the SAT to miraculously get them a high score on the GRE. There’s a reason why the SAT is taken before going to college and the GRE is taken before going to grad school—in high school, you learn how to solve the problems that show up on the SAT step by step, while in college, you practice applying test-taking strategies. Ultimately what all these exams are trying to test is how much you’ve learned about strategic problem-solving even when all the steps haven’t been laid out perfectly for you. So, what then, needs to be done in order to not have a brain hemorrhage while taking the exam?
The answer is simple: start studying now, and approach the GRE as if you have never seen it before. Students taking the GRE should generally invest just as much in studying as students taking the MCAT or LSAT – don’t wait until the last minute to get started! Especially with the revised format of the GRE, you’re going to need all the preparation time you can get, so take advantage of all the help Barron’s offers and take control of your grad school destiny – today!
On the GRE and GMAT, word problems are composed of encrypted expressions and equations, and nothing more. When you face a word problem, your highest priority should be to translate it directly into equations. Only after you have properly transformed the words of a word problem into equations should you pursue problem-solving.
What are the expressions that compose the following word problem?
Loading ...This is a tough problem, but gets easier as you translate one equation at a time. Once we’re able to completely view the description of the problem in terms of equalities and expressions, the problem instantly becomes solvable. The first and most important step of solving any word problem is going straight from words to math!
Posted in Barron's Courses, GMAT, GRE, Quant, Quant
Tagged GMAT Question of the Day, GRE Question of the Day, Word Problems
Leave a comment
Happy Friday Folks! Here is a little gift for you this weekend.
Hurry! This promotion will end today.
Posted in Course Features, GRE
Comments Off
