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General Introduction

Transcript

Welcome to this most general of introductions to the GRE test and welcome to your GRE prep journey. If you took the GRE before September 22nd, 2023, today's GRE, will look a little different. There are fewer questions overall, and it takes less time, but the content and question types are the same.

But whether you are returning or just starting your GRE prep, let's talk through the basics. You still have the analytical writing section, but now it is only one essay, just the issue task, and 30 minutes. There is still quantitative reasoning of course, and that is broken out into two sections, 27 questions, 47 minutes.

And there is verbal reasoning, also broken out into two sections, 27 questions, 41 minutes. At the end of the day, the total testing time is 1 hour and 58 minutes. Let's talk a little bit more about the 2023 Update. What's the same? The scoring scale is the same, when designing the test changes ETS maintained the old score scale.

So schools can evaluate GRE scores the same way whether someone takes the exam before or after the 2023 test changes. So the quantitative section is still on the 130- 170 scale, the verbal section is still on the 130- 170 scale, the writing section is still on a 0- 6 scale. You will still add together your quantitative and verbal scores to get your overall GRE score.

Now let's talk about what's changing. The unscored or experimental section in which ETS tested out possible future questions, which could have been either another quant or verbal section, that is gone. That section used to add another 20 questions and 30 to 35 minutes to the exam, and no test taker should be sad to see that thing go.

Another change is that scores are now going to be ready in 8 to 10 days, which is a little bit faster than before when ETS said scores would be ready in 10 to 15 days. Let's dig into some more general information. Who takes the GRE? If you're going to grad school and or you're a PhD candidate, then you'll likely need to take the GRE.

Of course you need to do the research because many programs have instituted a test optional policy but certainly not all programs. Take the time to do the due diligence, check out the requirements for admission for each and every program you are applying to. Not only will you learn whether the GRE is required, but you might also learn what type of score you need to be a competitive applicant.

Now, what about business school or law school? Well, it turns out that a number of MBA and JD programs now accept the GRE. So you might be sitting here ready to start prepping for the GRE, for either of those paths, again, be sure the GRE is the right test for you. Some business schools still only take or prefer the GMAT, and some law schools still only take the LSAT.

Now, what's on the GRE? The test is made up of math, verbal, and writing. And before you clicked on this video, you may have actually looked at all of the lessons, and you may have seen that we have broken them up into math, verbal and writing. Rest assured that all three components of the GRE are of course covered in detail in our lesson videos.

The next big question, the biggest question, what does the GRE test? For sure, one thing it test is your ability to reason through problems using logic, using critical thinking skills. It also tests your accumulated knowledge and by that I mean vocabulary for instance, anything that you've taken years to learn. You didn't just learn it yesterday, last week, last month but you've known for a very long time.

This can also apply to math, triangle properties, things like that, or even to essay writing and how to break down the different components to write an adequate essay. I'm guessing you didn't learn to write an essay recently. Here's the bigger thing, the much bigger thing and that is, the GRE test your ability to take the GRE.

So everything that I talked about up until this point, you're probably nodding your head and saying, yeah, I know this, this is the intro, this is basic stuff but bam, this may actually be news to you. The GRE is not an IQ test, it's not an inherent measure of intelligence, that's very important to understand. You may get frustrated at the beginning of your prep process.

You may think, wow, here I am, I always knew I would suck at vocab and now look at me, I am sucking at vocab, that's okay, vocabs not my strength. Well, try not to let yourself do that, you must not think that way. Again, the GRE is a test, and like any other test, like any game, it has its own rules, its own way of doing something, and you can, once you understand those rules, become better at taking the GRE.

Think about it, kind of like learning a foreign language, a lot of prep is learning the language of the GRE. And the more familiar you are with the patterns and structures the GRE uses to communicate, the more fluent you are in GRE speak and that will make you better at accurately navigating the test. So, this test is learnable, that's what you're going to do or that's what you're going to do here with the Magoosh product as you go through the videos.

Now, that likely begs the question, how does one learn the GRE? What specifically must be done to accomplish this feat? There are many techniques, there are many strategies, some of which are better than others. Throughout the lesson videos, we will share as many of the most effective GRE strategies that we can think of.

Now, there are also other publishers out there. You can glean your strategies from them, but you wanna make sure that you are using the best strategies, the best tactics to do well on the GRE. So that's sort of number one, learning the best approach. Next, there is no substitute for accurate prep material. So, there are a lot of publishers out there.

I don't necessarily need to name them, but the questions aren't necessarily that great, and by that great, I mean that they don't oObey the same rules as the GRE. You're training yourself to have a set of responses based on triggers within the questions, which means that you need the questions to train your responses accurately.

The only way to have an accurate response is to use prep materials that mimic the actual GRE questions as closely as possible. Now once those two things are accomplished, it really comes down to you, you're going to need practice. As with anything like any game, any new thing that you're learning and along with the practice, you will need the ability to maintain focus, because it's going to be very easy to lose that focus over time.

It's possible to become a very spotty GRE studier and despite all these things that you've learned, you will still find it difficult to move anywhere close to mastery or to achieve the score you're capable of, if you don't practice and develop that ability to maintain focus. So this is an introduction video and the next series of videos are also introductory videos.

Now you do not have to through each video sequentially, you are in control of your test prep journey. But if you want to kind of sit back and learn a little bit about the GRE, and this is especially for those of you who are fresh to the GRE, then definitely hang out and watch these GRE intro videos. Thanks for watching this one.

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