Role of GRE Coaching:
While a tiny minority of the students can manage the required test scores through self-study, a good majority fail miserably due to the lack of proper guidance in this field. GRE coaching could be a great saviour in this case.
There is no dearth of resources available when it comes to GRE coaching, therefore the students must ensure that they can narrow down to the right coach/mentor for their GRE exam preparation. Students can pick the right coaching institute for themselves. The purpose of a credible GRE training institute is to help students with a standardised layout and meticulous approach to solving the different styles of questions.
Before we come back to the GRE prep part let us ensure that we understand the GRE Exam.
The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is part of the admissions process for many graduate, business and law schools, particularly in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. In fact, in total 90 countries accept the GRE scores for different colleges and universities.
The GRE General Test measures the critical thinking, reasoning and analytical skills in the Verbal and Quantitative fields. These skills are important for success in graduate school programs, especially in business and law.
Choosing the right institute:
A job well begun is half done. While some students may refrain from investing in a good training institute, the wiser ones will consider this help for sure.
Since students who apply for colleges abroad carry equally impressive profiles, a GRE score can make or break the situation.
It is therefore crucial that the students take a conscious approach to deciding the right GRE prep institute. Students may need to explore this aspect by checking on the reputation and the past records of the institute. A reputable coaching institute can be distinguished based on a stellar record and reviews when it comes to GRE coaching.
Students can visit the institute and check out the testimonials, score records and the infrastructure. Alternatively, students can visit the websites of the GRE prep institutes and make a decision accordingly.
How can GRE coaching help in boosting the GRE score:
There are essentially two ways how the GRE coaching institute helps in the preparation:
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The strategies, tips and tricks taught by the institute
The Graduate record examination will test the students for real-time skills such as analytical ability, decision making and time management. The knowledge of Academic Maths and English is more specifically to provide a background for testing these skills.
A credible GRE coaching institute understands the Focus areas very well. A good mentor is aware that most of the students can find the exam challenging not primarily because the concepts tested are hard but because students do not have the tools to navigate through the multiple answer options specifically because of the time constraint. Only experts with vast experience in this field would have a grip on the know-how of the pattern of the questions and the most practical and accurate ways to approach them.
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Resources provided by the institute
GRE tests the students not exactly for their academic knowledge but rather for their problem solving, reasoning and time management skills. Once the students learn the concepts and the foundation is set, the next step is to build on this foundation. Intense muscle building and strength training are required when a weight lifter prepares to participate in a competition. Similarly, mental muscle building and mental stamina are imperative to ace the GRE. To build mental stamina, students need exhaustive training material to practice and hone their skills. An accomplished GRE coaching institute ensures that it provides the students with enough material to not only practice and improve but also have enough extra material to engage those students who are applying for a reattempt.
How can the students leverage the help provided by the GRE institute:
Many reputed GRE coaching institutes would have abundant resources and tools to aid the students. It is observed however that students are little aware of how to utilize these resources effectively.
Here are some critical points to consider once you have decided to take the coaching and have zeroed in on a coaching institute.
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Creating a space to accommodate the new change: Any new schedule would reap its benefits only if there is space created for the same.
Students must realise that they may have to compromise a bit on their existing priorities temporarily.
On average GRE preparation would require at least 60 – 90 days of preparation. While the coaching classes would help in creating and maintaining the momentum for preparation, students would need to also ensure that they are accommodating a few extra hours every day to learn and practice the concepts.
The preparation can be overwhelming mostly in the initial stages as students may discover many new concepts, vocabulary words and complicated problem styles. However as the preparation progresses to the later stages, students are able to identify patterns and learn ways to deal with questions and manage problem solving in time.
Not creating enough space from their busy schedules or keeping an overly tight schedule could result in a disaster.
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Partnering with the mentor and taking ownership of your preparation: This can be a huge game changer. Many students do not take a proactive approach to their preparation.
While of course, it is imperative to trust the guide and let them lead you to your desired score, it is important to make sure that you remain on the same page as the mentor when it comes to preparing a plan of action. Also, the students must own their preparation and reach out to the faculty whenever they feel disoriented and cannot catch up. The students should not assume that the mentor would be able to guess their weaknesses. Smart students would make sure that they communicate their challenges to the faculty proactively. This two-way communication would provide a clear insight to the faculty and they can tailor the plan as per the students’ needs.
Looking for help with your GRE exam preparation?
Conclusion: The GRE test scores are subjective and are actually dependent on the school you are applying for. However, these scores are an important part of your application and to boost your test scores would need dedication and regular practice for sure. Being pioneers, Jamboree can help students to work towards their goal of achieving a great GRE score.
FAQs
Vocabulary preparation is infact an overwhelming part of GRE preparation.
To begin, students must ensure that they are dedicating enough time every single day to religiously learn and revise new words. Students can leverage on credible apps like Simplified Vocabulary, Magoosh GRE vocabulary app etcetera to keep track of the words.
It is important to understand that GRE verbal section tests the students for the contextual meaning of the words rather than the exact meaning. The students must not therefore complicate the learning. It is a good idea to learn the words in groups of similar meaning. Most reliable apps have Vocabulary quizzes inbuilt. The quizzes can make learning practical and fun.
The students can also consider group study. Group study can make the journey less daunting and more enjoyable.
Neither one can be said to be easier than the other. Both these exams have some commonalities and some differences. Generally speaking, many experts and students label the Verbal section of the GRE harder than the GMAT because of the exhaustive Vocabulary. However, the Quantitative section of GMAT is considered more challenging as it tests students on a vast number of mathematical concepts and unlike GRE does not allow a calculator during exams. Here are some top strategies to learn GRE vocabulary.
The GRE exam is section adaptive in nature. Performing poorly in the first section would result in the easier second section and vice versa. However it is a bad idea to spoil the first section to face an easier second section. Simply put a harder section is more likely to result in a better score than an easier section because a harder section carry more weight or in other words harder section is more scorable.
