GRE Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice

Ron Woldoff is the founder of National Test Prep, where he helps students achieve their goals on the GMAT, GRE, and SAT. He has taught prep courses at Arizona colleges, and is the author of SAT: 1,001 Practice Questions For Dummies, previous editions of GRE For Dummies, and GRE: 1,001 Practice Questions For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 2

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with the Gre 5

Chapter 1: Knowing the GRE 7

Knowing the GRE Sections 8

Knowing the GRE Scores 9

Calculating your score 10

Checking your score 10

Seeing or canceling your scores 11

Taking advantage of the ScoreSelect option 11

Bringing the GRE into Your Comfort Zone 11

Getting familiar with what’s on the exam 11

Understanding the other admissions requirements 12

Using Old Scores 12

Chapter 2: Planning Your Time 13

Planning Your Prep Time 13

Planning your study time 13

Planning your practice time 14

Planning Your Exam Time 14

Planning your question time 14

Throwing a mental dart 15

Planning your intermission time 15

Planning your computer time 16

Planning Your Mental and Physical Time 17

Staying active 17

Eating well 17

Relaxing 17

Scheduling Your Exam 18

Scheduling for the testing center 18

Scheduling for home 18

Chapter 3: Planning for Exam Day: Everything Outside the Exam 21

Planning the Night Before 21

Knowing what to bring 21

Knowing what not to bring 22

Planning for Contingency 23

It’s Them, Not You: Testing under Adverse Conditions 24

Part 2: Tackling the Verbal Section One Word at a Time 27

Chapter 4: Upping Your Best GRE Verbal Score 29

Building Your Core Skills 29

Managing Your Time 30

Chapter 5: What Are They Saying: Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence 33

Clinching Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence Questions 33

Keeping it straight 34

Trying it out 34

Developing Your Skills for Finding the Correct Answers 35

Interpreting the Text 101 35

Getting the gist of the text 36

Taking the Best and Only Approach 36

Interpret the text without looking at the answer choices 37

Complete the text with your own words 37

Eliminate wrong answer choices 38

Interpreting Trickier Sentences 38

Use transition words to get the gist of the phrases 39

Start with the second or third missing word 40

Getting Your Hands Dirty with Some Practice 41

Text Completion questions 41

Sentence Equivalence questions 44

Chapter 6: Getting the Gist: Reading Comprehension 51

Recognizing the Three Reading Comprehension Question Formats 51

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one answer 52

Multiple-choice questions: Choose one or more answers 52

Sentence-selection questions: Choose a sentence from the passage 53

Developing Strategies for Success 53

Using the context as your road map 53

Grasping the gist of the passage 54

Avoiding common traps 54

Answering the question yourself 55

Acing the Three Commonly Tested Reading Comprehension Passages 55

The biological and physical science passage 55

The social sciences passage 58

The humanities passage 61

The social sciences passage redux 63

Chapter 7: Critical Thinking: Argument Analysis Questions 67

Covering the Answer Choices 68

Reading the Question for What It’s Asking 68

Reading the Passage for What the Question Is Asking 68

Identifying the “because” and the “therefore” 69

Finding the unstated assumption 70

Exploring common logical fallacies 71

Answering the Question in Your Own Words 72

Eliminating Each Wrong Answer 72

Applying the process of elimination 73

Testing your skills 73

Chapter 8: Expanding Your Vocabulary to Boost Your Score 77

Brushing Up on Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots 77

Prefixes 78

Suffixes 80

Roots 80

Memorizing the GRE’s Most Common Vocabulary Words 82

Part 3: Math You Thought You’d Never Need Again 97

Chapter 9: Raising Your Best GRE Math Score 99

Managing Your Time 100

Typing an Answer 100

Selecting Two or More Answers 101

Choosing among three answers 101

Choosing among more than three answers 102

Selecting the Quantity That’s Greater 102

Chapter 10: Working with Numbers and Operations 105

Working with Integers, Factors, and Multiples 105

Working with Math Terms 106

Working with Prime and Composite Numbers 106

Working with the Units Digit 107

Working with Absolute Value 108

Working with one absolute value 109

Working with two absolute values 109

Working with Order of Operations 110

Working with Fractions 111

Adding and subtracting 111

Multiplying 113

Dividing 113

Working with mixed numbers and improper fractions 113

Cross-multiplying 114

Working with Decimals 115

Adding and subtracting 115

Multiplying 115

Dividing 116

Working with Percentages 118

Converting 118

Calculating percentage of change 119

Working with Factorials 121

Working with Ratios 122

Working with total numbers 122

Working with amounts in the ratio 123

Maintaining the ratio 124

Combining ratios 126

Chapter 11: Solving Algebra and Functions 129

Solving Bases and Exponents 129

Solving Math Operators 132

Solving for X 133

Solving for x with a Number 134

Solving with the FOIL method 135

Factoring back out 137

Solving Square Roots and Radicals 139

Simplifying 139

Adding and subtracting 140

Multiplying and dividing 141

Simplifying first 142

Solving Coordinate Geometry 142

Solving common problems 143

Solving linear equations 145

Solving two linear equations 147

Solving graphed circles 151

Solving Patterns in a Sequence 152

Solving f(x) Functions 153

Chapter 12: Drawing Geometry 157

Drawing Lines and Angles 157

Drawing lines 157

Drawing angles 158

Measuring Polygons 161

Measuring total interior angles 162

Measuring one interior angle 162

Drawing Triangles 163

Drawing three types of triangles 163

Measuring key characteristics 164

Drawing perimeter and area 165

Measuring with the Pythagorean theorem 168

Drawing common right triangles 169

Drawing Quadrilaterals 172

Drawing Circles 174

Drawing parts of a circle 174

Drawing the circumference and area 176

Drawing the arc and sector 178

Drawing overlapping shapes 182

Drawing 3D Shapes 184

Drawing a cylinder 184

Drawing a rectangular solid 185

Drawing a cube 186

Chapter 13: Simplifying Word Problems 191

Simplifying the Steps 191

Simplifying Time and Distance 192

Simplifying Units of Measurement 193

Simplifying Averages 194

Simplifying missing-term averages 194

Simplifying evenly spaced integers 195

Simplifying weighted averages 196

Simplifying Work Problems 198

Simplifying Team-Work Problems 199

Simplifying Mixture Problems 201

Simplifying Sets and Groups 203

Simplifying the Venn diagram 203

Simplifying the sets formula 204

Simplifying Probability 204

Step #1: Set up the fraction 205

Step #2: Multiply consecutive probabilities 205

Step #3: Add either/or probabilities on a single event 206

Simplifying probability in sets and groups 207

Simplifying Counting Methods 208

Basic counting methods 208

When order matters: Permutations 210

When order doesn’t matter: Combinations 211

Chapter 14: Interpreting Data and Graphs 213

Interpreting Basic Stats 213

Interpreting the median 213

Interpreting the mode 215

Interpreting the range 215

Interpreting the mean 216

Interpreting standard deviation 219

Eyeballing standard deviation 220

Interpreting mean deviation 222

Interpreting the distribution curve 223

Interpreting Tables and Graphs 223

Interpreting tables 224

Interpreting graphs 225

Chapter 15: Comparing Quantities 235

Comparing Exact Answer Choices 235

Comparing Steps 236

Comparing via Strategy 237

Comparing similar appearances 238

Comparing drawings 238

Comparing concepts 240

Comparing identical terms 241

Comparing ranges 245

Comparing estimates 246

Comparing with Four Square 247

Comparing with a hundred 249

Comparing multiple unknowns 250

Part 4: Getting the Essays Right 251

Chapter 16: Writing the Essays Well and Fast 253

Setting Your Sights on a Perfect 6 254

What the essay scores really mean 254

Key methods to scoring well 255

Writing the Issue Essay 256

Step 1: Read and understand the prompt 256

Step 2: Identify examples you already know about the issue 257

Step 3: Take a position that’s in line with your examples 257

Step 4: Write your Issue essay 258

Tying everything together with smooth transitions 261

Writing the Argument Essay 262

Step 1: Read and understand the prompt 262

Step 2: Identify the position stated in the argument 263

Step 3: List the reasons given to support the stated position 263

Step 4: Identify the flawed assumptions behind each reason 264

Step 5: Write your essay 265

Chapter 17: Practicing Your Essays 269

Setting the Stage for a Realistic Experience 269

Writing an Issue Essay: Some Samples 270

Having trouble getting started? Begin by identifying some relevant laws 270

Sample essay — score 6 (outstanding) 271

Evaluator comments on the score 6 essay 272

Sample essay — score 4 (adequate) 272

Evaluator comments on the score 4 essay 273

Writing an Argument Essay: Some Samples 274

Having trouble getting started? Begin by finding the faulty assumptions 274

Sample essay — score 6 (outstanding) 275

Evaluator comments on the score 6 essay 276

Sample essay — score 4 (adequate) 276

Evaluator comments on the score 4 essay 276

Part 5: Full-length Practice Exams: Show Time 279

Chapter 18: Practice Exam 1 281

Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 1 283

Section 1 287

Section 2 293

Section 3 297

Section 4 303

Chapter 19: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations 307

Analytical Writing Sections 307

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 307

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 310

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning 313

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning 316

Answer Key for Practice Exam 1 319

Chapter 20: Practice Exam 2 321

Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 2 323

Section 1 327

Section 2 332

Section 3 336

Section 4 341

Chapter 21: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations 345

Analytical Writing Sections 345

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 345

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 348

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning 350

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning 353

Answer Key for Practice Exam 2 356

Chapter 22: Practice Exam 3 357

Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 3 359

Section 1 363

Section 2 369

Section 3 372

Section 4 378

Chapter 23: Practice Exam 3: Answers and Explanations 383

Analytical Writing Sections 383

Section 1: Verbal Reasoning 383

Section 2: Quantitative Reasoning 385

Section 3: Verbal Reasoning 387

Section 4: Quantitative Reasoning 389

Answer Key for Practice Exam 3 392

Part 6: the Part of Tens 393

Chapter 24: Ten Key Facts about the GRE 395

You May Return to Previous Questions in the Same Section 395

The GRE Doesn’t Penalize for Guessing 396

The GRE Uses a Percentile-Based Scoring System 396

Practice Makes All the Difference 396

You Must Prepare for the GRE 397

The GRE Is Different from the SAT and ACT 397

The GRE Also Measures Your Stamina and Performance under Pressure 397

The General GRE Is Not Program-Specific 397

You Can Practice the GRE on Your Own Computer 397

You Can’t Bring Anything into the Testing Center 398

Chapter 25: Ten Mistakes You Won’t Make (While Others Will) 399

You Won’t Cheat 399

You Won’t Run Out of Steam 400

You Won’t Neglect Your Breaks 400

You Won’t Dwell on Questions from Previous Sections 400

You Won’t Worry about the Time Limit 400

You Won’t Rush Through the Questions 401

You Definitely Won’t Choke on the Essays 401

You Won’t Fret Over the Hard Questions 401

You Won’t Take the Exam with a Friend 402

You Won’t Change Your Morning Routine 402

Chapter 26: Ten Ways to Build Your Skills with the Online Exams 403

Take an Exam in One Sitting to Build Stamina 403

Recognize the Mistakes You Make under Pressure 404

Get Used to Others Being in the Room 404

Make It a Dress Rehearsal 404

Get a Competitive Edge 404

Practice Your Test-Taking Strategies 405

Know the Exam Software 405

Get Used to Starting with the Essays 405

Find Your Areas of Focus 406

Review the Answers and Explanations 406

Index 407