Preparing for the GRE General Test?

Preparing for the GRE General Test?

Are you planning to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) either this year or next, for admission to a graduate program in the United States? Do you want to study with others to prepare for the Verbal section of the test? Some graduate programs ask that candidates demonstrate a “combined score” of 1000, 1100, or above on the Verbal and Quantitative parts of the GRE.

No-credit, four-week courses are offered for UNI juniors, seniors, and first-year graduate students to prepare for the Verbal section of the GRE General Exam. These courses are free for all UNI students who are paying tuition and fees that semester. Others may enroll for a fee of $100 per course, if space is available.

All classes meet in the Academic Learning Center. Space is limited to keep classes small and personalized, so please consider registering today. You can register in person at the Academic Learning Center, 007 or 008 ITTC during office hours, or register online.

As you may already know, the GRE poses four different kinds of Verbal questions:

• Sentence completion
• Analogies
• Reading comprehension (of short and long passages)
• Antonyms (opposites)

In the GRE-Verbal classes, we prepare for this test by expanding vocabularies, getting more familiar with our most challenging test questions, and trying various strategies to improve scores. Homework assignments will help us to become more comfortable with the interactive test format. Why work all alone, late at night, when we can collaborate with others to review for the exam?

Please see the official GRE website for up-to-date information about this test. Go to www.ets.org and choose GRE from the list. Then choose the General Test. All of the tabs on that page have information that will be very important to you as you prepare. (By the way, some graduate programs require candidates to earn a particular score on a Subject Test, as well. Be sure to investigate the requirements of the various graduate programs to which you are applying.)

Karen S. Agee, Ph.D.
Reading and Learning Coordinator
University of Northern Iowa
Academic Learning Center
008 Innovative Teaching & Technology Center
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0383
(319) 273-2361
Karen.Agee@uni.edu