D Sharon Pruit

Remember in September of last year when Chasing Education was in it’s infancy and I recapped my GRE experience? That was 20 pounds and a whole lot of learning ago. Well Chasing Education has recently had a lot of visitors searching for information on the GRE and wondering what to do about their suffering with GRE math. (You lurkers can come out and ask a question or two now!) With all of these lurkers visitors wondering about the GRE and how they can do better, I figured it would be courteous to revisit the topic.

I mentioned in my last post about the GRE that I would have purchased the Kaplan GRE math workbook and that I would not have used the Barron’s math workbook. Now that I look back on it, I have an even clearer head about than I did immediately after taking the GRE. It would have been beneficial to have used a variety of different prep books for the math section, because I was generally unprepared for the questions that were given to me when I sat down to take the test. I could do math, as far as I was concerned, and I didn’t think to review the fundamentals before I jumped into a GRE workbook or two. If you find yourself struggling with the math section of the GRE and you haven’t set a date yet, I recommend that you give yourself 6 to 8 months to prepare. Use different GRE math workbooks and use books/websites that outline the fundamental concept of algebra, trigonometry and geometry. Yes, you’re supposed to know these concept already, but up until you decided to take the GRE, you

hadn’t used any of them in quite sometime. (Unless your undergraduate degree was in a hard science, but if it was, I suspect you’re not really struggling with the basic mathematical concepts that the GRE covers.)  By using a variety of different materials (I would start with the basic mathematical concepts before you jump right into a workbook), you’re preparing yourself for the different types of questions you’ll encounter when you take GRE.

This is not the last you lurkers will hear of the GRE. So comment (you know, in the box below) and I’ll be happy to answer the questions of my fellow scholars!