Collaborative Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership (CODEL)

GRE Preparation Tips and Information

The GRE is an important part of your application to graduate school.
This website is replete with helpful GRE information: .org .

Three useful tips that students generally find helpful are as follows:

1. What's the ideal timing?

Ideally, students should take the GRE as soon as possible - earlier the better. The purpose of taking it early is to provide ample time to retake it if necessary in order to be prepared for the program application process.

2. How should you organize yourself?

Past GRE test takers and research indicate that students need to be strict with themselves. The following is a recommended "plan of action" (see: um.com/gre/tips.html).

· Start by doing a mock GRE, putting yourself in exam mode (get up early, no long breaks between sections, silence, etc.).

· Depending on your first score, decide on the amount of work you're going to have to do. If you think you'll need to work a lot, set aside weekly blocks of time.

· Go over word list for the vocabulary questions. Get into the habit of reading as much as possible - magazines and also have the benefit of improving your awareness of current affairs.

· At the same time, keep testing yourself with questions from past exams.

· Half-way through, do another practice GRE test under exam conditions so you can check on your progress. Depending on the results, you can turn your undivided attention to the question types that still cause problems. Learn to recognize such questions, so that you do not waste an inordinate amount of time on these weaknesses during the real test.

· Lastly, finish your preparation with one or two practice GREs under exam conditions. The last one should be close to your set target.

3. By the time you have finished your GRE preparation, you should know:

· the type of questions that will appear in the GRE Test.

· how long each section is and the time limits. This will help you pace yourself through the test.

· know the directions for each question. This will save you valuable time. But remember the directions for the questions in the GRE Test might be slightly different from the ones in your study material. So always read the instructions but do it quickly.

Remember, the GRE Test is about "optimizing". Think about the process of "selection by elimination". This means that you should devote just the right amount of time to each question. The questions at the beginning generally affect your score more than those towards the end. Take your time with those questions. Getting these correct will dramatically improve your score.

Test Centers and Dates

Computer-delivered GRE ? revised General Test

§ View test centers, test dates and seat availability. Note that if you would like to register to test, you will need to create or sign in to your My GRE? Account.

§ The computer-delivered GRE? revised General Test is offered year-round at Prometric? test centers, and also on specific dates at additional testing locations outside of the Prometric test center network. Appointments are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

§ When selecting a test date, make sure your scores will be reported in time for your application deadlines. For computer-delivered tests, scores reports are sent to your designated score recipients approximately 10–15 days after your test date. Please allow time for delivery of scores and processing by the institution.

§ You can take the computer-delivered GRE revised General Test once every 21 days, up to five times within any continuous rolling 12-month period (365 days). This applies even if you canceled your scores on a test taken previously. You may take the paper-delivered GRE revised General Test as often as it is offered.

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