When studying for the GRE, the most important thing to do is to practice test questions, receive feedback, and learn from your mistakes. This process of learning will lead to the best score increases in the least amount of time. It is also something that you do, and someone else cannot do for you.
Also important are the strategies we talk about in our GRE course which enable you to arrive at the correct answer in the least amount of time. Take time to practice these strategies. Make sure you are ready for each question type so that you are never caught off guard when it comes to Test Day.
There is something to keep in mind, however, when learning the strategies: you only learn them as you do them. You do not learn them by watching someone else talk about them. You do not learn them by watching someone else do them. You also do not learn them by writing them down on a 3 x 5 notecard to see if you can recall them.
Interestingly enough, we recently found that a client was attempting this… She would write down all of the strategies we covered and review them like flash cards. For example, for antonym strategy, she would write this on her card:
- Determine whether you know the word.
- Define the given word.
- Predict the opposite.
- See which one matches the opposite.
- If unclear, make opposites of the answer choices.
- Use word charge if still unsure.
She would then study this card until she memorized it, and treat it like a vocabulary flash card. If she could recite the 6 steps, she felt like she was successful.
Unfortunately, this kind of studying is an utter waste of time.
The only test this kind of studying would be useful for is a test which asks you to recall from memory the sequential steps of the strategy and to write them down, i.e. a “fill in the blanks” test. The GRE tests none of this.
The GRE does not test you on whether or not you can recall the words which describe each steps of the strategy. The GRE tests specific math and verbal abilities in which a strategy may help to solve the problem. The only thing that matters is whether you employ the strategy effectively or not, not whether you can recall what the strategy is.
Recollection of the steps of a strategy is not what is being tested on the GRE. Competence is what is being tested.
As a parallel, think of someone who is trying to learn how to play golf. Imagine if someone thought that the way to learn golf is to read books on how to swing the club, write down the steps to a good swing on a note card, and review the note card on a regular basis to make sure they could recall the steps??
If this is all they did, they would make exactly zero progress towards learning how to play golf!
The only thing that matters in golf is whether you can actually swing the golf club well. It is a test of action, not of recollection. In fact, golf is much narrower: like a test, the only thing that matters in the end is the score you receive. Being able to recite the steps to a good golf swing is utterly pointless.
Similarly, being able to recite the steps for a good GRE strategy is utterly pointless. The GRE graders (along with the graduate school admissions panel) do not care one bit about what test prep books you have read or what kinds of things you have memorized. The only thing that matters is the competency demonstrated on the exam.
So, do yourself a favor…
Do NOT study this way… Don’t waste your time memorizing and recalling the strategies for taking the GRE. Instead, practice them until you find you are easily and routinely employing the strategies. If you practice long enough and receive good feedback from a coach, you will “find your swing” and you will start to improve your score, rather than just talk to yourself about it.
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