Last week, I wrote about an event led by Lee Weiss, our Director of GRE Programs, on how students can beat the GRE. Today, we have another event recording that will help GRE preppers get ready for another aspect of the test: The pacing. Click here to view the full “Kaplan’s GRE Challenge Workshop” event.
Pacing is a crucial component of the GRE – each quant and verbal section has 20 questions, which must be completed in either 30 minutes (for each verbal section) or 35 minutes (for each quantitative section). The majority of students prep for the GRE by getting a book and doing some practice problems which (to use some lingo borrowed from another test, the LSAT) is a necessary component of preparing, but it is not sufficient.
To master the GRE, two types of practice must be done: Practice for content competency and accuracy, and practice for speed. Once students understand and can apply the subjects tested, they then need to do all of their practice timed, so that they’re prepared to work quickly and efficiently by test day. Building up pacing is a gradual process – it’s fine to begin by doing a set of 4 Quantitative Comparisons in 10 minutes, for instance, and slowly work towards the 6 minutes that they’ll allot for the same number of problems on the test.
In the GRE Challenge Workshop, Lee allows students to work through practice problems with test-like timing, to begin acclimating them to the speed with which they’ll need to work on test day. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Kaplan event if Lee didn’t demonstrate how to work through each problem with Kaplan’s methods and strategies. Students will come away with an understanding of how to master GRE pacing, and how they can best continue their preparations!
