|
I don't know how many of you know what the GRE is but, the test will be "revamped" in August. This test is a prerequisite to getting into many Science related graduate schools if not a must have. Top score on this test is 1600-800 coming from math 800 coming from English. The writing portion is laughable only because it is not included in your total score.
Recently I found out from an Asian source that the test comes in "pools" meaning every month the pool of questions for the test gets swapped out. So if you took the test you could potentially remember what questions you got and post them somewhere. (all questions are multiple choice) These people did just that and from what I know undeserving people were scoring 1500+ on these tests by just remembering the pooled questions. A score of 1500 will undoubtedly help you get into a graduate school of choice and even scholarships.
Just because I found out from an Asian doesn't mean all Asians are cheating or if others are not doing the same. The test will change in the coming months, but whose to say it will do anything about the cheating.
|
South Africa4316 Posts
As far as I know, this is not how the GRE works. There is a large pool of questions (way more than appear in any single test) and the test gives you questions based on how well or poorly you answer. The better your answers, the more difficult your questions. Where I wrote the GRE, you were also forced to leave all your belongings in a locker outside the test facility, so unless you have an unbelievable memory, you'll have difficulty smuggling more than one or two questions out.
I might be wrong though, but I doubt this kind of cheating it possible.
|
United States996 Posts
yeah whatever question you are asked next is based on how you've done on each question before it. even still seeing a chunk of questions online is certainly an unfair advantage
|
United States22883 Posts
Yeah, I don't think that's true either. All I know is that it's a different test pool each day, and it's scored on a curve. So if you can pick a day when the other test takers are hung over, you're at an advantage but it's probably hard to figure out that day.
|
I don't think there are pools in terms of questions, but I do think there are pools in terms of vocabulary. I heard this from some Asians using specific Asian books, which apparently are very popular and have a lot of research going into them as far as the test goes, since there are many students who transfer over to an American school and want to go to grad school, etc.
|
South Africa4316 Posts
On July 23 2011 07:11 Z3kk wrote:
I don't think there are pools in terms of questions, but I do think there are pools in terms of vocabulary. I heard this from some Asians using specific Asian books, which apparently are very popular and have a lot of research going into them as far as the test goes, since there are many students who transfer over to an American school and want to go to grad school, etc.
Well yeah, you get all the "How to do well in the GRE" books. There is a fairly well known vocabularly that they test you on, but good luck trying to study all "800 essential GRE words". Even then, they are just the most common words. When I was studying for the GRE, I saw a book that collected all the GRE words that had been used more than X times, and it had more than 5000 words. You can study for the GRE, but there's no quick and easy cheat sheet that I'm aware of.
|
On July 23 2011 06:54 McFly wrote:
A score of 1500 will undoubtedly help you get into a graduate school of choice and even scholarships.
Actually, the general GRE is almost irrelevant at the good graduate schools I'm familiar with (at least in mathematics and similar disciplines).
|
@Daigomi: Right, but they have these massive books with 5000 words, and I have heard from someone using one that there are cycles of these words, so one can narrow down the study words to around 500-1,000 or something like that. I don't know the methodology or anything like that, but I've just heard this.
|
On July 23 2011 07:15 Daigomi wrote:There is a fairly well known vocabularly that they test you on, but good luck trying to study all " 800 essential GRE words".
If you grow up in an educational system that emphasizes memorization, this apparently isn't that unusual. My wife studied a list of around 3500 words for the GRE, and ended up with a 580, pretty good when English is your second language. She claims that the people who really excel in the Chinese education system can do much better.
EDIT: I guess I like the word "actually" today.
|
South Africa4316 Posts
On July 23 2011 07:25 Z3kk wrote:
@Daigomi: Right, but they have these massive books with 5000 words, and I have heard from someone using one that there are cycles of these words, so one can narrow down the study words to around 500-1,000 or something like that. I don't know the methodology or anything like that, but I've just heard this.
Haha, have you ever tried to learn 1000 new words? A literate person has a vocabulary of roughly 2000 words, so imagine what it feels like to try to learn 50% more words than you spent your entire life learning. I remember when I studied for the vocab, I took something like the 500 most common words, went through them and crossed out everything I already knew which left me with about 200 words. Those words took me forever and a day to learn. Fortunately I found the vocab fairly interesting so it wasn't too bad. In the end, you use those words on maybe five of the questions out of the 30 vocab questions you get.
|
I know for a fact that the math subject GRE reuses questions because I took it twice. Also, the chinese are notorious for cheating on that test.
For top programs, your GRE score means less than you think. In some cases, it's an absolute non-factor.
|
of course there is a pool of questions, at least in North America there is. That's how Asians can score over 700 on verbal, and would have got like below 500 otherwise.
|
people had to cheat on the GRE? there's the real sadness.
|
I just took GRE yesterday (I got a 720v/710q, yay me.) I don't see cheating happening but it could be somewhat possible especially on the math section. I was doing paper tests to practice and they had relatively few difficult questions which I ran into a lot. If I had seen a type of question like that at least once before it would have been much easier. Shit like what is the area of a regular hexagon with edge length 6 (54sqrt3, fyi.) With trig I could have figured it out, but that isn't supposed to be on the test so there must be another way way.
As to memorizing 500 words, I did it pretty easily over the course of 3 weeks using flash cards. I would say about 5-7 actually showed up but it did help significantly. An added benefit is that I drop vocab attacks as part of regular conversation.
|
On July 23 2011 07:30 Daigomi wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2011 07:25 Z3kk wrote:
@Daigomi: Right, but they have these massive books with 5000 words, and I have heard from someone using one that there are cycles of these words, so one can narrow down the study words to around 500-1,000 or something like that. I don't know the methodology or anything like that, but I've just heard this. Haha, have you ever tried to learn 1000 new words? A literate person has a vocabulary of roughly 2000 words, so imagine what it feels like to try to learn 50% more words than you spent your entire life learning. I remember when I studied for the vocab, I took something like the 500 most common words, went through them and crossed out everything I already knew which left me with about 200 words. Those words took me forever and a day to learn. Fortunately I found the vocab fairly interesting so it wasn't too bad. In the end, you use those words on maybe five of the questions out of the 30 vocab questions you get.
Okay, I take your word for it because you've actually taken the GRE, heh. To be fair, though, not all 1000 words are necessarily new, and a lot of people devote a crazy amount of time to pure studying.
|
South Africa4316 Posts
On July 23 2011 07:54 Z3kk wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2011 07:30 Daigomi wrote:On July 23 2011 07:25 Z3kk wrote:
@Daigomi: Right, but they have these massive books with 5000 words, and I have heard from someone using one that there are cycles of these words, so one can narrow down the study words to around 500-1,000 or something like that. I don't know the methodology or anything like that, but I've just heard this. Haha, have you ever tried to learn 1000 new words? A literate person has a vocabulary of roughly 2000 words, so imagine what it feels like to try to learn 50% more words than you spent your entire life learning. I remember when I studied for the vocab, I took something like the 500 most common words, went through them and crossed out everything I already knew which left me with about 200 words. Those words took me forever and a day to learn. Fortunately I found the vocab fairly interesting so it wasn't too bad. In the end, you use those words on maybe five of the questions out of the 30 vocab questions you get. Okay, I take your word for it because you've actually taken the GRE, heh. To be fair, though, not all 1000 words are necessarily new, and a lot of people devote a crazy amount of time to pure studying.
Yeah, like I said you can study for it, but it's hardly cheating if you have to spend three weeks studying just to get a few words you know :p
On July 23 2011 07:41 indigoawareness wrote:
I just took GRE yesterday (I got a 720v/710q, yay me.) I don't see cheating happening but it could be somewhat possible especially on the math section. I was doing paper tests to practice and they had relatively few difficult questions which I ran into a lot. If I had seen a type of question like that at least once before it would have been much easier. Shit like what is the area of a regular hexagon with edge length 6 (54sqrt3, fyi.) With trig I could have figured it out, but that isn't supposed to be on the test so there must be another way way.
As to memorizing 500 words, I did it pretty easily over the course of 3 weeks using flash cards. I would say about 5-7 actually showed up but it did help significantly. An added benefit is that I drop vocab attacks as part of regular conversation.
Congrats on the 720/710! 720 verbal is amazing 
|
i'm so fail 690/250 hahahahahahahha
|
No it is true to a certain extent. Even though the map pool is fairly large, there are certain questions which are repeated within a month. If someone can actually remember them and put them down, you can get the general pattern of the test, but not the exact questions, although that has happened aswell.
http://drrajus.in/forum/viewforum.php?f=15
Check it out...Was quite angry when I found out about this,But then hey, they test itself is quite easy if you have a math background, and most engineers/science grads get 750+ in that test anyway (I got 800 :D).
And he word list is irritating to learn, I had an app on my phone that helped me learn it on the way to work, I didnt really bother with verb because as long as you get a decent score in that it's fine, quants are what schools look at for computers etc, in the end I got a few words that I've never heard off....(wtf is a hangdog?), and 4 friggin long essays, I had no time, though I screwed up, but ended up getting 680.
It's kinda easy to game the test, if you perform really really well in the first 15-20 questions, your going to have a lot of leeway in the last 10 or so ones,I know I made a mistake in my quants, cause I misclicked the answer and pressed okay(and you cant go back) and in my verbal section I had no time for the last 8 questions,so I half guessed/randomly picked and still got about 660.
|
Foolishness
United States3044 Posts
I'm pretty sure that you could get away with stealing some of the scrap paper they give you for the test, especially since you're allowed to ask for more. Just write down the questions (as fast as you can) as you go; stuff the paper in your clothes. As long as you're sitting where camera's won't see you it should be fine (the place where I took it had a few camera's but not enough).
Otherwise you would need a lot of people to memorize possible questions.
Another thought: I'm not sure if the GRE randomizes the order for the answers (I know the SAT/ACT do not). If they don't you just need to memorize the answer choices (which is ridiculously easy if you practice a little).
|
Foolishness
United States3044 Posts
On July 23 2011 08:03 dartoo wrote:No it is true to a certain extent. Even though the map pool is fairly large, there are certain questions which are repeated within a month. If someone can actually remember them and put them down, you can get the general pattern of the test, but not the exact questions, although that has happened aswell. http://drrajus.in/forum/viewforum.php?f=15Check it out...Was quite angry when I found out about this,But then hey, they test itself is quite easy if you have a math background, and most engineers/science grads get 750+ in that test anyway (I got 800 :D). And he word list is irritating to learn, I had an app on my phone that helped me learn it on the way to work, I didnt really bother with verb because as long as you get a decent score in that it's fine, quants are what schools look at for computers etc, in the end I got a few words that I've never heard off....(wtf is a hangdog?), and 4 friggin long essays, I had no time, though I screwed up, but ended up getting 680. It's kinda easy to game the test, if you perform really really well in the first 15-20 questions, your going to have a lot of leeway in the last 10 or so ones,I know I made a mistake in my quants, cause I misclicked the answer and pressed okay(and you cant go back) and in my verbal section I had no time for the last 8 questions,so I half guessed/randomly picked and still got about 660.
The test is set up such that if you get the first 5 correct and the rest wrong you will get a higher score than if you got the first 5 wrong and all the rest correct.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
