GRE Graduate Record Examinations | Information

GRE (Graduate Record Examinations)
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The course duration is 100 hours which is sufficient time for most students to be well prepared for the GRE examination. However, there are students who do require more time, in which case additional lessons are arranged. Students are expected to attend the two three-hour lessons every week since missing even a single lesson can be detrimental. In addition to the two lessons students are also expected to do practice questions on the computers at the school for at least six hours every week. All the relevant software is provided by the school.

The teachers are well qualified in their respective fields and have been teaching the GRE in Athens for years. They are very well acquainted with the examination itself and can give advice to students with regard to the specific Masters degree they may wish to pursue.

The maximum number of students in any one class is eight. It is believed that with any more than eight students in a class the effectiveness of the instruction, as well as the personal attention given to a student, diminishes dramatically.

Students should be aware that the GRE entails a very heavy workload, especially in connection with the Verbal section, since the language medium is English and the register of the language is extremely formal and academic. This means that a student has to be prepared to sacrifice time each and every week to absorb and practise the work. If this is not maintained the results will show in the results of the computerized tests done at the school.

The GRE Tree Foundation course is summarized below:

Course length	100 hours - distributed over eight weeks
Lessons	Two compulsory three-hour sessions per week - in addition at least 6 hours per week spent doing practice tests on the computers

What is the GRE and how is it structured?

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test is a multiple-choice admission test for applicants to graduate schools. The test is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), under the sponsorship of the Graduate Record Examinations Board. The GRE is a computer-adaptive test (CAT), and consists of three scored sections:

What is a CAT and how does it work?

A CAT is a computer-adaptive test, whose software calculates your score based on the number of questions you answer correctly, the difficulty of the questions you answer, and the number of questions you complete. When you take the GRE CAT, you'll begin each section with a medium-level question and a score of 500. If you answer the question correctly, the computer will raise your score and give you a harder question. If you answer the question incorrectly, your score will decrease and you'll be given an easier question. The process repeats for each question in the section, to arrive at your final score for that section (see link above for more information - or click here).

How is the GRE scored?

The verbal and quantitative sections are scored on a scale of 200 to 800. The average scores for the GRE are about 470 for Verbal, and 570 for Quantitative. The essays are marked separately and are scored on a scale from 0 - 6 in increments of 0.5 - the average is about 4/6. All the scores are also expressed in percentile terms - for example, if you receive a score of 88% that means you are in the top 12% of all test takers that have sat the GRE.

How important are my GRE scores?

Schools vary tremendously in the weights they place on the different factors in the admission process, so be sure to contact the specific schools to which you are applying in order to determine their unique requirements. Some programs weight GRE scores very heavily, and/or have a minimum score for applicants, while other programs consider GRE scores more of a formality. It is important to note that your GRE scores are a major factor in determining your eligibility for financial aid.

Can I cancel my scores?

Yes. You can cancel your scores immediately after you take the GRE. This is the only time you can cancel your scores. Unfortunately, you must make the decision to cancel at the testing center before you see your scores. In addition, the fact that you cancelled your scores will be noted on your official GRE score report.

How do I pick a test date?

First find out the application deadlines for the graduate schools to which you are applying, then work backwards from your earliest deadline. Build some extra time into your planning process for unexpected delays because you can only take the GRE once per calendar month. Keep in mind that it can take as long as four weeks for your official scores to arrive at your designated schools. The GRE is offered at testing centers almost every day. Call your local center for details and to book your test. While in theory you could sign up for the GRE with only two days' notice, don't depend upon this luxury. Call at least one month prior to your desired test date.

What fees are associated with the GRE and how do I book a GRE test?

The fee to take the GRE is US$145 in Greece. You can book a test date online by visiting www.gre.org. You will find out that booking a GRE test is rather like booking an online airline ticket. You can sit the test on practically any day of the year except, of course, Sundays and public holidays. Having said that please do not leave your booking until the last minute since you may find out that there are no available test dates. Allow at least 3-4 weeks before the test date. In fact, it is normally better to book well ahead and if you have to reschedule you will pay a US$30 rescheduling fee.

What are the GRE Subject Tests?

The GRE Subject Tests are intended to measure your knowledge of specific subject matter. Subject Tests are available in eight disciplines: biochemistry, cell and molecular biology; biology; chemistry; computer science; literature in English; mathematics; physics; and psychology. These tests are given in paper-and-pencil format three times per year, in November, December, and April.

These tests are given separately from the GRE General Test and require additional fees. Check with the graduate schools to which you are applying to determine whether any of these extra tests are required.

Please note that the Tree Foundation does NOT prepare prospective candidates for the GRE subject tests. It is assumed that the prospective candidate will be more than capable of preparing him/herself in the required subject test.

Where can I get more information about the GRE?

The best place to search is the official GRE site: www.gre.org

The only book that you will need for the GRE is the Official test book published by the ETS, which includes past questions, albeit from pre-1999

If you are thinking about graduate school then the words "GRE CAT" have likely been on your mind. There is an aura of mystery surrounding these words and it is perpetuated by rumors based on partial knowledge and ambiguity from Educational Testing Service (ETS), the writers of the GRE.

What does it mean for a test to be adaptive?

This is an excellent question, and as with all aspects of life, it is quite useful to know the lay of the land. A basic part of a CAT is that it does not give equal weight to each question that you answer. As the registration materials from ETS suggest, the difficulty level of the questions you answer is factored into how much they count toward your score. Yet, it is important to clarify what this means in order to optimize your score when you are taking the test. The adaptive part of CAT means that the computer is assessing who you are from the very first question that you answer. Based on your performance on the prior question, the computer will give you a new question that responds to what it considers to be the appropriate difficulty level for you.

Specifically, when you begin a GRE section (quantitative, verbal, or analytical) the first question will be at the middle level of difficulty. As you may know, each section of the GRE has a score range from 200 to 800. An average score is a 500, so you can associate "middle level" with a 500-level question. If you correctly answer a question, the computer "rewards" you with a more difficult question. If your answer does not match what ETS has determined to be the "credited response", you are given an easier question. A CAT doesn't let you go back to a prior question, so do not move on to the next question unless you are sure about your answer (make your best guess if you don't have a clue). Potentially, each test taker could have a somewhat different test in terms of the questions seen.

But, we've only just begun to discuss the peculiarities of this test. The difficulty level is not the only aspect that changes from question to question; concurrently, the computer is adapting your score based on your performance. This is a big part of the "mystery" that we previously referred to. The easiest way to think about how questions are weighted is to divide a GRE section into thirds. At the beginning of the test, the computer knows virtually nothing about you. As a result, the computer puts a lot of emphasis on your success with initial questions in order to determine what your score range should be. The computer is still doing a fairly close assessment of you in the middle of the test, but past the middle of the section your final score has largely been decided. By the final third of the test, it is extremely difficult to change your score substantially from what has been decided after the second third of the questions.

Adaptive tests are similar to people in the way that we sometimes form impressions when we meet someone new. While not universally true, when we are introduced to someone our minds commonly make quick, and sometimes extreme, judgments about the person. We are told that this is a bad thing to do, but this has not stopped the ETS from using this approach in their testing. Certainly, when we meet that person again we compare their actions to our previous character assessment and see if they match up. After meeting people a few times, we have usually formed our opinion about them and it is very hard to change our minds no matter what they do or how differently they act.

Does this seem like a weird way to test people's abilities or knowledge? Well, as you learn more about ETS, you will see that this kind of behavior is actually very typical. And understanding how ETS thinks is a really important part of doing well on the GRE.

The impact of the adaptive style of scoring is that if a test taker does not make a "good impression" at the beginning of the test, it will be very hard to get a score of 500 or better in a section. While people can change their minds, computers cannot truly adapt their way of thinking. The scoring method is very strict in the sense that it is a computer program. The first third of the questions determines the bulk of your GRE score, the second third accounts for much less of your score, and the final third counts for a relatively insignificant amount of your overall score.

In terms of numbers, we can roughly quantify the impact of questions in different parts of the test. In the first third, questions can increase or decrease your score by as much as 80 points. During the middle of the test, questions tend to change your score by about 40 points either way. At the end of the test, questions move your score by as little as 10 points. See how important the beginning of the test is? After only a few questions, your GRE score can become very high or very low. You can also see why at the end of the test, it is very difficult to make any significant changes to your final score.