Tag: education podcast

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, let’s get to it. So today we actually have another question from a listener. It’s always fun. Please always send your questions, and we’d love to do an episode on them. So you can get a little tailored, you know, you can participate and get a tailored response.

So our question from Tony today is, “My question is, how do I prevent or overcome GRE studying burnout? I’ve been studying for a few hours daily for the past month. This is more than I’ve ever studied for any test. Although I’m currently enjoying the time I spend studying. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I listen to GRE Bites while I work out. Do you have any advice on how to reduce the chances of burnout? Or what to do when it happens?” I think that’s a good question, don’t you?

Orion: Yeah, well, I think it’s probably safe to begin with the fact that it’s always better to prevent burnout than to try to deal with it after it appears. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure here. It’s very difficult to resolve burnout efficiently once it presents itself. So I think our best avenue of approach here is to try to reduce the chances of burnout with respect to studying for the GRE.

Davis: So let’s just start real quick. What specifically do you consider burnout? What does that mean to you?

Orion: For me, burnout from studying for the test is when it becomes a grind. I start to lose my motivation and enthusiasm for the work. And this also begins to lead to cognitive consequences, like it becomes more difficult to concentrate, more difficult to memorize. My recall becomes slower. Everything associated with test-taking behavior becomes sluggish and more difficult, which obviously is non-ideal with respect to a time-standardized test. Does that make sense?

Davis: Yeah, that makes sense. And would it be fair to say also that with these effects, maybe they stem from — and you can speak more about this — but in my experience, burnout often comes with a fundamental disconnect from the motivation to do something. Like the gas in the tank for me to actually do it, be motivated, and want to see results, to having done it for so long that I have no connection with that motivation anymore.

Orion: I think that’s certainly true within the subjective experience of burnout, what you described. Motivation is tricky, because to me, motivation is kind of more emotional, and emotions ebb and flow. We can’t always expect to be highly motivated with respect to a long-term goal, something that might take months to accomplish. Expecting a consistently high level of motivation during that time, and predicating your practice on that high level of motivation, is probably not conducive to success and achievement. On some level, discipline needs to come in to compensate for the natural ebbs and flows of motivation. Would you agree?

Davis: I would agree, I would agree. And then it would help me to understand, you know, you’re saying that the best prevention, or the best solution to burnout is prevention. And so for me, it would help to have, yeah, a framework in place. Yes, of the timeframe in which I’m doing something, of discernible results that I’m shooting to achieve within that timeframe. So then everything’s in context so that I know my effort over that given timeframe is not just going on and on. I’m not just going to be going on and on forever, and then subject to the mental idea that like, “Oh, man, this is just never-ending.”

Orion: Okay, that’s actually a great idea. So I think two very concrete and actionable things that you can do to prevent burnout are one, give yourself enough time. Sometimes people want to cram for the GRE, and that’s not really possible. They think, “Well, I could take a month off of my work, I’ll just study for eight or 12 hours a day, because I want to get this done as quickly as possible.” And in general, success in the GRE is not about knowing certain things, like memorizing the right formulas or all of these vocabulary definitions.

So that is part of the process. Success in the GRE is more like procedural; it’s like understanding, like mastering an approach to the test. It’s like a series of behaviors that have to be reinforced over time. And the best way to do that is through spaced repetition, as opposed to massed practice. Spaced repetition is so much more conducive to efficient mastery than trying to just do it 100 times in a weekend, right? So a lot of folks set themselves up for burnout because they’re trying to cram too much into too short of a time.

Davis: So let’s give a concrete ballpark. What is, in your experience, the best daily practice for the GRE, and then over how many months?

Orion: Sure, I mean, everybody is different. In general, I think a good window of time to plan for is about three months. And in the StellarGRE self-study product, there is a three-month timeline that walks you through what you can do or should be doing on every given week throughout that 12-week period. And I think that’s important because it balances the fact that your skills will grow on each other over time.

So they will build on themselves over time, you will have enough to do to prepare against that three-month timeline without becoming overwhelmed in the process. I think it’s also important to talk about a daily thing. I think, at most, you can expect to spend two hours a day on the GRE. Anything more than that is asking to be burned out. Because if you’re listening to this, and you’re preparing for the GRE, you’re probably in many other respects a fully functioning adult. You probably have a job, you probably have relationships, you probably have friends and hobbies. And this is probably the least important thing in your life. Because it doesn’t make you money. It doesn’t make you happy, it doesn’t make anybody else happy. And it’s about a longer-term goal that may not bear fruit for years after the fact. So it’s very hard to artificially prioritize that over what needs to be done today or in this week. Prioritizing something that’s only going to bear fruit years from now over something that needs to be done today just is unsustainable in the human animal.

Davis: Alright, so we’ve got about three months, and we’ve got about two hours a day. And if you have a good outline of how to progress week on week, a structure, that’ll be a blueprint, as we provide in the StellarGRE self-study program. And that’s great, okay, so we’re investing, it’s so important. Like that, you should know what you’re doing every day, every week of your process. A lot of folks are just out there doing their best on their own. And, you know, God bless you, you’re doing the best you can. But it can be really helpful to surrender to a protocol that has been demonstrated to be effective in getting what you want. And that helps with the mental aspect of like the feeling of spinning your wheels and the grind you mentioned earlier, because if you have a direction you’re going and you have clear checkpoints that you’re passing through towards, you know, a complete program that you’re, like you said, a protocol you’re fulfilling, that can also, you know, be the light at the end of the tunnel, just getting through this.

Orion: Sure. I mean, it’s the difference between going to a gym and just saying, “Well, I’m going to lift some weights,” versus hiring a private trainer, or at least researching a protocol. Like if I want a regimen, I ran a half marathon last year. It’s not like I just decided, “Well, I’ll think I know what distances I should run at each step of the way,” I did some research and it’s like, “Okay, if I start two months before my date, I have to run six miles this week, seven miles the next week,” and I surrendered to that protocol. And when I actually got to race day, it was easy. It was the most enjoyable long-distance run I’d ever done in my life because I had prepared appropriately for that. So that’s one thing.

Davis: No, that’s great. And so we’re talking still about, you know, preventing burnout. And, you know, you mentioned building on the knowledge of other people, researching how other people have done it to find those protocols, those regimens that have demonstrated over time to be efficient and work well. Is studying with a partner or being in a group setting an efficient strategy for preventing burnout?

Orion: I mean, it can be. I think it depends on what kind of learner you are. Sometimes you get people together and it’s just an excuse to kind of goof off and socialize. So you know, it is helpful to have accountability towards your goals. And so you have to share your goals with folks who actually can hold you accountable, and some people are better at doing that than others, and you should know yourself, what kind of studier you are. I’m like studying in a group, I get distracted, I want to have very focused, effective time. And that requires me to be in the zone, and other people are just going to get in the way of that. That’s just me personally. But other people are different.

Davis: Yeah.

Orion: Now, another practical thing that students can use to prevent burnout. You mentioned a little bit earlier, Davis, which is, you need to know when it’s going to act. Like, if this is an open-ended process, it could go on for months and months and months. And why is that? Because no one ever really feels ready to take the GRE, you’re probably not consistently performing perfectly every single time. So there’s always some measure of improvement that’s possible. And so some folks, especially if they have perfectionistic tendencies, or very high targets, they can get into a, like a rabbit hole where they’re chasing smaller and smaller gains, and putting in more and more time and effort to achieve them.

So I think it’s much better to set a reasonable deadline for your test date, and plan backwards from that day than it is to well, “I’ll just keep studying until I feel ready, or until I’m consistently scoring at that level.” Of course, we want you to be consistently scoring at your target score when you go into the test. But it’s better to set that deadline and work and get yourself prepared against that than to have the open-ended, “Well, I’ll just schedule the test when I’m at that point.” Does that make sense?

Davis: That makes perfect sense. I think that’s a really good tip. So we’ve talked a lot about preventing burnout. I want to use the last time here to address the latter half of Anthony’s question here, which is what to do when it happens. Do you have any suggestions for that that we can address?

Orion: Yeah, it’s tough when burnout occurs. So, for me personally, having experienced burnout before, I just had to take a knee and really have a full and complete rest from whatever I was working on. The lie that burnout is subject to telling people is that you don’t have time to rest, you know. And so, it’s like forcing you to continue to work, even when your mind or your body are screaming for a respite. And that just delays the resolution and increases the difficulty. So, if burnout does appear, I understand that it’s inconvenient to your timeline potentially to take a full and complete break from your process. But forcing it at that point is probably like trying to dig yourself out of a hole; it’s not going to work.

So, it will likely push back your timeline to recover from burnout. But that’s, in my opinion, preferable to trying to force your performance under very ideal conditions. You’re probably not going to get the outcome that you’re looking for, which is going to make you feel even more disincentivized and demotivated to continue. So, it’s sort of like, you know, spiking the ball in football; you’re going to lose your down, but you’re going to keep your field position.

Davis: That makes a lot of sense.

Orion: And then, during that break, like you said, a total kind of step back.

Davis: That’s good. I think that’s all we have time for today. I think, though, there are a lot of rich topics in here that we could continue exploring in future episodes.

Orion: Definitely.

Davis: Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, let’s get to it. So today, I think I want to ask you about a more general framing, which is, how do we think about the GRE test? In other words, how do we frame the GRE test in our own mind to maximize our performance on the test?

Orion: Yeah, it’s a good question. So a lot of people, in my experience, tend to have what I consider a wrong belief about the GRE.

Davis: So, what are examples of wrong beliefs?

Orion: Well, one of them is that it’s some kind of intelligence test. And that’s not true. That’s an unhelpful belief, because folks who believe that it’s some reflection of their intelligence tend to take their performance or the outcome very personally. I’ve yet to meet somebody who is really disidentified with his or her level of intelligence.

So, if you make this into an intelligence test, you’re going to become personally identified with the outcome, which is probably not in your best interests on a standardized test. It’s better to be kind of dispassionate and objective about things.

Sometimes, people also have these, let’s say, negative or complaining beliefs about the GRE, which are not entirely unjustified. For example, folks might say, “Well, the GRE is kind of a ridiculous test. It doesn’t correlate well with future success in grad school. Why is it such a frustrating and irritating thing that I have to do?”

Davis: I can certainly appreciate that perspective. Like I said, there is a grain of truth to it. And we have an episode on why the GRE exists at all, and on comparing the GRE to the GMAT, for example. But in this case, this framing doesn’t actually help you. Even the grain of truth you’re talking about, dwelling on that and thinking about the GRE in those terms doesn’t help you perform.

Orion: Well, of course not. If anything, it creates this sort of friction between you and the test, where it’s like, people almost never perform as highly on things that they don’t want to do or feel like they have to do. It creates this sort of emotional obstruction, a tug of war.

Davis: Yeah.

Orion: Where it just would be much more conducive to success if that were not present. Right? So besides this, it’s you, the student, who potentially has to experience those emotional consequences of feeling resentful or irritated. And I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to feel those emotions. They are not pleasant emotions to feel. So I’m not sure if that’s in most students’ best interests.

Davis: So, given these are the various ways that we could think or emotionally struggle with the GRE, as students who need to take it, what do you recommend, from your experience, as the best way to hold, to frame, to think about the GRE? And the whole process of taking and studying, preparing for the GRE? What do you think? What’s the best way to think about it as a student in order to get through it efficiently?

Orion: Yeah. So the way that I conceptualize the GRE is that it’s a “How bad do you want it?” obstacle. We have to understand that the GRE is to get into grad school, and the point of grad school is not to simply explore your interests. If you want to do that, get a library card. The point of grad school, and everyone understands this, is that it’s a sort of hazing or credentialing process to enter into a more advantageous career path, which will come with greater income, higher status, better job opportunities, etc. Like, that’s why people are willing to spend all this money and to undergo all of these academic rigors, sometimes for up to a decade. It’s not because that is a pleasurable experience in and of itself. It’s because they believe that it will help them get what they want further down the road, which is basically a job that they don’t hate, more money, and better opportunities.

Okay. So those are good things. Like, I hope I don’t want those things. I’m sure you want those things, Davis; it’s good for people to want those things. That said, we can’t just hand those things out like candy on the street corner, because on some level, they’re in limited quantities.

So we have to understand that the GRE is a “How bad do you want it?” obstacle. Everybody wants a better job. Everybody wants a higher income. Everybody wants better opportunities. How are you going to differentiate yourself from the mass of people who also want these things? So, the metaphor I often use about the GRE is, in the olden days, if a monk wanted to join a monastery, he walked up to the door, knocked on it, and said, “Hey, you know, I’d love to be a monk here.” The monks in that monastery don’t just say, “Oh, well, I’m so glad that you want to be a monk. Here are your robes. Glad that we have your brother.” No, what they would do is slam the door in that guy’s face, and leave him waiting outside in the snow.

Why? Because it’s really easy to knock on a door. Anyone can do it. Not everyone has what it takes to be a monk. But almost everyone has what it takes to knock on a door. Do you understand?

Davis: Yeah, if becoming a monk were as easy as knocking on the door, probably being a monk wouldn’t be a really great career choice or lifestyle back in the 15th century, which it really was. I was going to say free housing, free food, and you get to teach. And also, it was probably one of the safest places to live on planet earth at the time, you know, it wasn’t always the case. But you didn’t have to really be worried that your village was going to be pillaged or your castle was going to be seized. I mean, presumably there were monks also who were doing it for the seeking of spiritual knowledge and enlightenment, not just as a career choice. I’m not sure they were framing it that way.

Orion: Well, but the metaphor, I think, still stands, which is that the knocking on the door that you mentioned is available to everybody, but to filter out those who are really serious about the endeavor, there’s a test of the mental fortitude of, you know, can you withstand the rejection of having the door slammed? Can you withstand waiting three days in the cold until it opens back up again? Well, certainly even for those monks who saw it as an opportunity to forge a path for spiritual elevation.

Great, the framework still works, because now standing out in the snow is a spiritual trial. It’s a way of demonstrating one’s conviction, which is a positive thing to somebody who views the whole process of becoming a monk as a spiritual journey.

So students can do that, too. It’s like, you can conceptualize the GRE potentially the same way. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your excellence, to show your quality, because you’re going to be doing that for the next five years of grad school and beyond. You never get to not do that in your professional career. And everything you do is a reflection of your values and who you are. And so this is just one of many opportunities to demonstrate that, which, if approached from the right mindset, is a good thing. It’s a blessing for you. But for the vast majority of people, that’s kind of a high bar for a test like the GRE.

So I think that just understanding that this is a “How bad do you want it?” obstacle is like, we understand, we being like the admissions community, understand that this is not really proof that you are going to be an excellent addition to our graduate cohort. You know, what we have to do is we have to weed out a lot of folks. And frankly, the easiest way to do that is if you weed yourself out first on a standardized test. Yeah, if you look at the GRE and think, “Oh, if you want to go to grad school, and you start to research the requirements for applying and you see the GRE and you think, ‘Oh, man, that looks really hard. I’d have to spend months preparing for it. Maybe I’d have to take a class, maybe get a tutor. It’s just not worth it.'”

Davis: Great. Yeah, from the admissions rate, we’re so happy that you decided not to waste our time, right? Because if you can’t handle a three-month timeline to prepare for a test, you really can’t handle grad school, right? And it’s great that you figured that out yourself before you forced us to actually take you seriously as an applicant. And on the other hand, if a student can put the GRE and the process to prepare for it and perform at a target outcome, if they can put that in the context of the “How bad do you want it?” obstacle and they find that no, no, they do want that badly enough, then the GRE becomes small, it becomes a step on the road.

Orion: Yeah, if that monk understood that this is generally what happens when someone knocks on the door, that the door is slammed in their face. But if they stand out in the snow for three days without encouragement and demonstrate their commitment to their decision, then they get invited in to clean the toilets. It’s like, if they understand that, they might actually be able to get through that three-day period with some measure of hope and optimism, right? Putting it in the context of “this is just a step, it’s required, it’s a chance for me to demonstrate my quality,” then, then you can, then yeah, then it puts it in context, it makes the challenge of it smaller, the right size relative to the greater task of why you’re taking it up in the first place. And then you can move on.

Davis: Thank you, Orion, for sharing that metaphor. And a way to better understand the GRE.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, so let’s jump into the weeds today. We’ve talked about different strategies for the quant section, different ways to approach it, how to maintain, you know, a calm mental state, efficiency versus accuracy. And we’ve talked about one of your strategies, and that’s on the app as well. It’s skipping, skipping as a strategy on the quant section as you’re going through it. And you’ve mentioned in previous episodes, you know, defensive skipping, offensive skipping. I want to use this episode to better understand the difference between those two. What does it mean to defensively skip through the quant section? And then come back versus offensively skipping through?

Orion: Sure. Yeah. So this is, I guess, a tactical talk today. Skipping on any section of the GRE is very, very important. Unlike other standardized tests that you may have taken in the past, like the LSAT, questions on the GRE, i.e., are not presented in ascending order of difficulty.

So that means that the hardest, most time-consuming problems could be the ones you first encounter, and basically surrendering to the test’s succession of questions might put you at a disadvantage, especially on harder sections.

What I’ve noticed is that ETS often front-loads its harder verbal and quant sections with more difficult and more time-consuming questions simply because students tend to solve test sections sequentially. And they often run out of time. And of course, if you’re not getting to questions, you can’t be answering them correctly. And that’s one of the main ways that students underperform.

Davis: And a hard question is worth as many points in the grading scale as an easy question.

Orion: Well, that’s right, every question is worth the same, one point. Easy and hard are also interesting concepts because every individual student will have an idea of what is easy or hard for him or her. But obviously, that is irrelevant to the grading of the test. Like the difficulty grading. Difficulty from the perspective of ETS is always statistical, for example, the hard question is a question that 10% of students get right. And an easy question is one that 80% of students get right, right. And they don’t actually know that until they give that question to hundreds of students, which is why the experimental section exists. It’s ETS trying to collect empirical data on the statistical difficulty of its test items, right.

Davis: And so, and we’ve also talked about like, grouping, like taking all the same types of questions, going through an entire quant section and looking for all the same types of questions so that your mind is not jumping between, like, a plug and chug versus like a multiple-choice versus like.

Orion: I think that’s related to offensive skipping.

Davis: So let’s talk about defensive skipping first.

Orion: So defensive skipping is to, it’s called defensive because it’s to avoid that negative outcome, the time drain, yes, if you solve the section sequentially, you might not be pacing yourself appropriately because of the way that this action is constructed. So we’re defending against that negative outcome. And so on the quant section in particular, I highly recommend that students take two passes through each 20-problem set. The first second upon encountering a quantitative problem, a student should make the determination of whether he or she is going to do that question right then and there or skip it for the second pass through. It takes one second, which means that this is not based on reading the problem or understanding it or thinking about it.

Davis: It’s looking at the answer choices.

Orion: Well, sometimes it involves looking at the answer choices, but it’s also about examining the problem. It is a visual test. There are three criteria for skipping, and you should be able to identify these features in less than a second. One of them is if it’s a big paragraph of text, just skip it; it’s going to take more than a minute to get down to the question mark. There are plenty of questions you can solve in less than a minute. Second, if it’s a multiple-answer question, that’s looking at the answer choices. If the little buttons are squares, as opposed to little ovals, squares mean choose all that apply.

Oftentimes, these are range problems, which require us to push the extremes, which basically means we have to solve that question twice: once for the minimum and once for the maximum. That’s kind of two problems in one. Hence, it’s inherently time-consuming. And skip it, skip it. Third are the data interpretation questions, which are always grouped together. Skip, skip, skip, and those are very easy to spot because they’re associated with graphs and charts.

So, if you skip those problems defensively, then basically what you’re doing is reserving the time-consuming problems for later in your 35 minutes. And that’s good because they’re not worth any more than the efficient problems. So this allows you to bank more points earlier in the time, which will make you feel confident, and will increase the likelihood that you’ll get to more questions within the time limit. Makes sense?

Davis: Yeah, it makes perfect sense. You also avoid carelessness. Just to consider the opposite, if you were to front-load by just going sequentially and you get stuck with all of these data analysis questions up front, and you’re spending minutes examining graphs and everything, and then you get to these really simple questions, but your time is short, then your rate of error, your inefficiency, your lack of accuracy all go up because of that time constraint.

Orion: Oh, absolutely. So the primary driver of carelessness is the subjective sense of urgency.

Davis: And so we’re defending against that by skipping inherently time-consuming questions, getting all the ones that don’t take as much time but are still only worth one point per question.

Orion: That’s right, if you can skip like this. And let’s say you answer two-thirds of the questions in about one half of the time, you’re going to feel like you’re ahead of the clock, because you are, and that’s going to cause you to relax, it’s going to cause you to feel confident, it’s going to cause you to approach questions with a clear, stable frame of mind. Versus “I’m running out of time, I don’t really know what I’m doing, I have to cut corners.” It kind of becomes flailing and desperate. Which obviously, we want to avoid. That’s not associated with top performance at all.

Davis: So, okay, so that seems really logical and smart. And I know from experience, it’s effective. So then what about offensive skipping? What is that? What’s another reason to skip?

Orion: Great, so now with offensive skipping, we’re kind of like taking it to the enemy this time. So we can, besides skipping the questions that are likely going to suck our time, go directly to questions that we should be able to answer correctly in less than a minute. And there’s a certain type of question that you can identify in a half a second. These are the questions with variables in the answer choices. Variables in the answer choices mean that we can plug in. This is far and away the most frequently occurring diagnostic category in the quantitative section. I think the base rate is between 20 and 25%. Which means that between four and five problems in any given section will be plugging problems that we already know in advance we can solve using plugging in. It takes me, if I just skip through the test section until I find a question with variables in the answer choices, which would take half a second to visually determine, and in that next second, I start plugging in values, plug in two for x and three for y. Almost certainly, I can solve that question in less than a minute.

Davis: What does that mean?

Orion: That means that I could potentially solve five questions in five minutes right out of the gate, which means I can solve one quarter of the questions in 1/7 of the time, which is almost like lapping the test right out of the gate. This is really important for that reason that you just mentioned because if I can do a quarter of the questions in a seventh of the time, I am not going to feel rushed. I have like, I have the test on the ropes. I pushed it back. That’s why it’s offensive. And this is where grouping similar question types comes back.

So, if that’s what you mean, that’s a diagnostic tool too, to offensively directly go to the questions you know you can get ahead on quickly, reliably, and get them out of the way. And those are questions with variables in the answer choices because we know for sure, 100% of the time, that we can plug in. And if you’ve been practicing your plugging technique, you should be able to solve the vast majority of these in less than a minute, sometimes less than 30 seconds. And that is a huge game changer when it comes to the quantitative section of the GRE.

Davis: Are there any other types of questions that you can offensively skip other than variables in the answer choices reliably?

Orion: I don’t think so. If there are, I haven’t found them yet because a lot of questions that look sweet and innocent can actually be very time-consuming and devious. Appearances can be deceiving in life, and they certainly are so on the GRE. So, what I’ve discovered is that skipping offensively to questions with variables in the choices is the most consistently reliable way of finding problems that you can solve in less than a minute.

Davis: Well, there you have it. That’s defensive skipping in order to make sure you’re not draining your time at the beginning and creating an unhealthy mental environment for you to feel rushed for the rest of the test, and offensive skipping, going to the questions that are easily diagnosed as quick and easy to solve.

Orion: That’s awesome.

Davis: There’s so much more we could get into here. Like, if we haven’t already done an episode on diagnostic strategies for the quant section, I’m sure we’ll do one in the future.

Davis: Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Okay, so we’ve done an episode on accuracy versus efficiency, and we’ve done an episode on how to best improve your efficiency on the test. So I thought let’s do an episode on how to best improve your accuracy.

Orion: Makes sense.

Davis: I mean, how, what are some strategies for just getting the right answer?

Orion: Yeah, right. I mean, if you can’t get the right answer, everything is sort of like meaningless, you know. So, right. I mean, at the end of the day, you’re going to get the point. And if we don’t get the point, then all the time and effort that we’ve expended on that question is wasted, right? I mean, efficiency, right, is just being able to consistently get the right answer in a time-managed way. And we’ve talked about how to improve that. Well, efficiency is just moving through the question faster, independent of whether you get the question correct.

Davis: Okay.

Orion: So accuracy is getting the question correct, independent of how long it takes you to answer the question.

Davis: Yes, that’s what we talked about in that episode back in the day, which is the pendulum of accuracy versus efficiency. The more efficient you are, the less accurate, and vice versa, in general, right. So we talked about the strategies for moving efficiently through; we’ve talked about different strategies, even recently, about diagnostic tools, about skipping offensively, defensively in the quant section.

Orion: Yeah.

Davis: So. But once you get into a problem, how do you get it right?

Orion: Yeah. So the reason why most students are inaccurate on a GRE problem is because they are time-traveling. Dun, dun, dun, they’re moving through time. You didn’t think that you could, but you do it all the time. So what do I mean by that?

What I mean is there is a gap between where the student is mentally, and what the student is doing behaviorally, there. And the easiest, most common example of this is that they’re thinking about the next step of the solution, while they’re still finishing the steps they’re currently on. This means that they are only maybe half a second into the future, psychologically, but they are still time-traveling. And it’s that gap between where their mind is at and what their hand is doing, what they’re doing behaviorally to solve the problem. That creates the possibility for carelessness to enter into the solution. When you are not giving your full, undivided attention to what you are doing right now, it is very easy for something very minor to change outside of your awareness. So the solution to time-traveling is sustained mindfulness.

Davis: Okay, so there are really like three steps to getting a top percentile score on the GRE: one, you have to get the question right. That’s actually the easy part. Two, you’ve got to get the question right in 90 seconds or less, as the efficiency bar.

Orion: Yeah, that’s tough, because a lot of these questions are designed to trip up students who are used to solving problems like math, like they were solving questions in math class in high school. And in many respects, it’s just not possible to solve this problem in 90 seconds using the strategies that your math teacher taught you. So this is where people like me come in, who are teaching students strategies and techniques to get to the solution faster. But even that’s not enough.

The third step is getting the question right, in 90 seconds or less, 100 of them in a row. That’s really, really hard. That requires a level of concentration that we just do not reinforce in our culture today. Even our movies and entertainment aren’t four hours long anymore.

Back in the day, people could sit and watch a four-hour movie; now, we don’t even have people who can do that. They can’t even be entertained for four hours straight. I mean, these YouTube, these GRE Bites are going to be on TikTok and whatever, 90 seconds or less. I wonder, do you think we’ll be TikTok famous one day?

Davis: Probably not.

Orion: No, me neither. I’m okay with that. But that’s my point. When’s the last time you, the listener, sat down and did one thing for four hours? It’s very, very hard. And, of course, if we break down this four-hour task, what we’re really getting at is that there are 100 questions in those four hours. Each one of these questions has several steps to it. So, the key to accuracy is being perfect on every step of every problem over four straight hours. The only way I know that is possible is through the practice of mindfulness, which means giving your full and undivided attention to the present moment.

The way that I liken this to students who are approaching this concept for the first time on the test is sort of like walking in such a way that you come to a full and complete stop with each step. Like, you take one step, and there’s a pause; you take another step, and then you pause; you take another step, and you pause. If you are not used to walking like this, it’s going to feel insufferably slow. Especially if you feel like you have someplace to be, you’re going to think, “I don’t have time for this,” you’re going to become subjectively impatient, you’re going to want to walk faster over time. And that is basically where people trip up. It’s very hard to trip if you’re walking the way that I just described.

And if you’re going for those top percentile scores, especially for the quantitative section, you have to understand that every step is an opportunity to trip, every step is an opportunity to take a misstep. You miss one point, you’re already down to 167. It’s brutal and unforgiving. And that means that if you just are time-traveling for half a second, somewhere over the course of that four-hour test, it doesn’t mean you absolutely will make a careless mistake, but it significantly increases the likelihood that you will. And so that’s really where the test kind of hands you your ass.

Davis: Yeah, so you’ve got accuracy, getting the thing right, that’s easy in a contained one-question, one-off. Efficiency, moving through them in the right time. And then this precision over four hours of continuing to hit the accuracy within the efficiency benchmark for a sustained period of time. So, in order to maintain that mindfulness, in order to maintain that presence of each step, stop, pause, because it’s not just because you could do that as an exercise slowly. Like, I can take a step, pause, really feel both feet on the ground, take a step, pause. But I have to do that at a rhythm in order to get through. Yeah, let’s go. So, what’s the strategy? I’ve heard you talk about, like, sub-audible vocalizations?

Orion: Yeah. So that’s an accuracy strategy, it is. One of the best ways to develop that rhythm is to solve GRE problems at the level of speech, as opposed to the level of thought. Thought is like lightning; it moves at the speed of light, it’s conducted through electrical impulse, which is unbelievably fast. The issue with thought is that because it’s so fast, it can very quickly become derailed. It’s very easy to take a wrong turn somewhere and end up in Albuquerque, as it were. So, and that’s a problem because often taking shortcuts is the long route to your destination if you’re not very confident about that path.

What I found is that solving the questions at the rate of speech is just a much more humane way to approach these problems. When I was teaching my live in-person class in San Francisco, I would give live demonstrations of full sets near the end of the course. And in that 30 minutes or 35 minutes, I would read all the questions out loud, explain my entire thought process verbally to the students, and present and still have time left over on the clock.

I absolutely know that you can read all of these in a calm, measured way, completely explicate your thought process in complete sentences and still have time left over to solve more problems. And that helps increase your accuracy because it slows down and minimizes those errors of time-traveling that you talked about. It can’t, for sure. It definitely wasn’t one reason.

There are many reasons why solving at the rate of speech is helpful; one of them is it creates a committee of senses to review your work. If you’re just using thought, you’re primarily relying on your eyes to take in information and to process your solution, and your sense of sight is actually the easiest one to deceive.

Davis: Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Okay, so I’ve realized how much time it’s going to take me to study for the GRE. I know my test date, I’ve worked backward three months, I’ve set aside two hours a day, and I have a great blueprint, you know, a regimen to follow to get there. I’ve done all my studying, I’ve reliably hit my target score, you know, several times over the past couple of weeks. Now it’s the day before my test. So, what do I do on that day?

Orion: That’s a great question. I get asked that question all the time. The short answer is not much. I mean, if you did what you just described, you’re an ideal student. I love working with ideal students. I mean, you put in the time, over several months, you’re consistently performing at or above your target score. What more do you really need to do? You already have sort of proof of concept that you can do the thing. How are you going to appreciably move the needle in the next few hours before you take the test? You shouldn’t take two more practice tests. No, you should not run two marathons the night before a marathon. Mind you, that does not sound like a good idea.

Davis: Should I load up on carbs, eat much pasta anyway, run?

Orion: I don’t know. I mean, I wonder. It’s like, I actually read an article about this several years ago. Have you ever seen, you know, I’m not a huge chess fan, but this author of this article was just flabbergasted by the fact that there are no overweight grandmasters in chess. They burn so many calories; they burn as much as a soccer player at the pro World Cup level, playing like three games in one serious match because you’re just looking at a chess player. He’s just sitting there in his chair, it’s a sedentary position, but his brain just eats up calories because it’s the most energy-inefficient organ in our body. That’s also why it’s so important to wear a hat when it’s cold because a lot of heat leaves your head. I mean, so when a person sits down for a four-hour test, like the GRE, that person will be expending a great deal of calories through thinking really hard.

Davis: So it might be a good idea to load up on carbs.

Orion: I don’t know. I think it’s more like take care of yourself, and chill out. I mean, if you are performing at around your target score, there’s nothing more that you need to do. All you have to do is show up and execute.

Davis: So, I understand the night before the big day. It can be nervy. Butterflies and jitters.

Orion: Yeah, but you have to understand that that nervousness, those jitters, those butterflies could also be excitement. There is very little physiological difference between nervousness and excitement. The difference between those two emotions occurs almost primarily on a cognitive level. Nervousness is a certain level of physiological excitation with the cognition or the belief that something bad might happen. Excitement is the exact same physiological state but with the cognition or belief that something good might happen. So basically, if you’ve done all the prep, like I laid out, your day before your test should be great. And you should just be able to chill. See this as an opportunity for you to demonstrate your excellence. I mean, thank God that you have this opportunity. It’s why you put in all the work and the effort that you have up until this point.

Davis: So don’t do anything out of the ordinary, just like normal sleep, normal eating, normal too, but just relax, just be, don’t do anything GRE that day.

Orion: Well, at most you could do like one timed problem set. Just it’s like light practice, right? You jog before the big game, right? Everything just to lubricate the joints. This is where I kind of act as people’s grandmothers.

So it’s like, don’t do anything to sabotage your success. It’s not my place to tell you what to do with your life. But that probably means not drinking or drugging, at least for a few days before the test. You do not want to be mentally foggy or hungover or strung out when you’re taking the test. Like why do that to yourself, save that for the celebration, if that’s what you’re into.

Davis: I mean, you’re not recommending abstinence to Orion, in the sense of in the days of chastity.

Orion: Well, you know, I wonder. So I don’t know if you know this, but a lot of heavyweight boxing champions forego all forms of sexual activity in the weeks or the months prior to a major bout. This has to do with sublimation. The sexual drive is incredibly powerful, especially in men. And if it’s being diffused through sexual activity, then the potency of that drive is compromised. And so we call this sublimation in psychology.

This is where we channel a less than pro-social drive into a pro-social activity. But that’s not really where I was going with this.

Davis: Okay, I’m sorry, but you might have a point.

Orion: I don’t personally recommend doing that myself.

Davis: Yeah, but so that’s not okay. But definitely things that would compromise your cognitive ability, or even just for your physiological well-being, to be at your relaxed optimum.

Orion: Yes, at this point, we want you to be relaxed, in a state of openness, flexibility, acuity, confidence. So, don’t drink or do drugs in the days beforehand; definitely get a good night’s sleep. But more than that, if the test is scheduled at a time that forces you to wake up earlier than you normally would, then that’s also something you have to work into your routine. In the days before the test, acclimatize your body and your circadian rhythm to be in sync with the time you’ll need to be up to take the test and be clear. Exactly. Some folks, if they haven’t been to the testing center or if they’re going to an in-person testing center, like to plan out their route, plan for traffic. Some people even take a dry run to the testing center the night before; they just drive there so that even driving there, you’re not confronted with issues like Google Maps or traffic.

Davis: Absolutely, so there are no surprises.

Orion: Like, what if there’s no parking lot here, and you didn’t plan that you have to spend 10 minutes finding street parking, and now you’re 10 minutes behind and you’re feeling flustered. It’s like you definitely do not want to go into this test with any surprises.

Davis: You know, that’s a great suggestion.

Orion: A lot of folks do that. I think it does help to ensure that there are fewer surprises on testing day. The day of, I highly recommend that you have a good breakfast or lunch, that you get some kind of physical activity in – you want to get the juices flowing – and that you should do practice problems before the test the day of the test.

Davis: Yes, absolutely warm up.

Orion: Yeah, a coach doesn’t send you to the game cold. If you’re going to sub in, you’re going to be running up and down the sidelines a little bit.

Davis: Right, right, you don’t want the first questions that you do that day to be the ones that count. That’s silly.

Orion: Yeah, that doesn’t mean that you do a whole full-length problem set before the test; that also is probably not in your best interest. Because it’s hard enough to do a four-hour test, we don’t want to make it four and a half or even longer. So, I generally recommend doing, I don’t know, four or five problems. And these should be problems that you’ve actually already solved. They shouldn’t be new problems.

Davis: Interesting.

Orion: Just so you know that you’re getting the right answer and partly like, it’s also getting the juices flowing, practicing the approaches and the skills that you’ve studied. And feeling like you’re getting it right. It’s like before a basketball game. The guys are doing layups. They’re not doing weird three half-court shots with a hand in their face. You know, like, that’s what the game is for. So they’re getting into the rhythm, they’re seeing the ball go in the net, it’s like, okay, I got this, I remember what I’m here to do; the ball’s going in – excellent. Now, so, the day before, at most one full practice, yeah, your cheat sheet. That shouldn’t be, you know, you should know that backwards and forwards by now. So it’s really just letting those synapses fire one more time.

Davis: And the cheat sheet, just for anyone who might not be familiar, is in the StellarGRE protocol that my buddy Orion here has spent years developing. You can get all of what you need to know on a single piece of paper; everything you need to know for a perfect score. The quantitative section can be written on the front and back of a sheet of paper, correct?

Orion: Right. And that’s what we call the cheat sheet. Yeah, so if you have that, you can review that a little bit the day before, maybe do one full run the next day. Do you get a reminder? You don’t get to bring the cheat sheet with you, right? Just make sure you don’t actually cheat and try to take that with you on the day. What you do, you get to take it with you, but it’s in your mind, Davis.

Davis: Yeah. So you absolutely get to take it into your testing center. But you don’t get to take the paper. Right?

Orion: So yes, you should be taking the information in, but no, unfortunately, you don’t take the cheat sheet.

Davis: No, that’s good.

Orion: And then the day of, yeah, sleep, just, I’m just hitting all, you know, we’re going back through everything you’ve said. The point is just to work against the little voice of anxiety that people are subjected to experiencing, that tells you that you have to do something now, that there’s more that you can do, there’s something that you’re missing, that the voice of anxiety is anxious, and it’s trying to keep you safe, but it doesn’t always give you the best advice.

Davis: That’s right. So remember that nervousness or anxiety can be the same physiological thing as excitement with a different frame of mind.

Orion: Absolutely, the expectation that there could be a positive outcome. Because you’ve prepped for three months, you’re hitting your target scores, you can relax this day, just do light warm-ups. Take it easy, take a breath, get some good sleep, eat.

Davis: Well. You know, that’s the importance of visualization. We did an episode about that, which is like see yourself succeeding. See this test as an opportunity for you to get what you want and move on with your life.

Orion: That’s right.

Davis: Well, that’s Orion’s take on what to do the day before.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, today, we have another listener question.

Orion: Yay.

Davis: Exactly. We’ve received an email from this woman, and I’ll read it to you. It says, “Hi, Orion and Davis. I never thought in my life that I could binge-listen to GRE podcasts.”

Orion: Oh, that’s sweet.

Davis: “However, I’ve really enjoyed hearing the questions asked and answered on your show. I started listening just this morning, and I’m almost at the last episode. Digressing, I wonder, as a psychologist, if you notice any patterns among your top-performing students? In other words, are there one or more qualities, habits, etc. that your top or perfect-scoring students share, including how they respond to your material and certain characteristics of their personalities? With appreciation.”

Saira, thank you so much. Now, I’ll hand it over to Orion.

Orion: It’s a great question. I’ve worked with thousands of students over the years, and some of them have achieved perfect scores. It’s really exciting.

Davis: When that happens, what fraction of your students would you say achieve a perfect score?

Orion: It’s quite rare to get a perfect score. I could probably count on my fingers the number of people who have achieved absolutely perfect scores. But, many have achieved top percentile scores, which is different from perfection. Achieving a perfect score is extremely difficult.

Davis: Okay, so less than 10 out of all of your years of experience, are perfect scores. But let’s discuss top scores. Are they similar in their characteristics that she’s asking about?

Orion: Oh, yeah, I mean, the difference between someone scoring a 170 on all sections of the test is significant. I’ve worked with many individuals who achieve perfect scores on two out of the three sections, which is relatively common. However, getting a perfect score on all three sections is extremely challenging. Still, to score two out of three, or even one out of three, or to achieve a 98th or 99th percentile score, you don’t necessarily need a perfect score on certain sections, especially the verbal one. There are many similarities between perfect scores and top percentile scores. This goes back to the idea that the GRE is a game of seconds, much like baseball is a game of inches. Usually, the difference between someone scoring in the top percentile and another scoring perfectly is minute. The student with the perfect score simply made one less careless mistake over the four-hour test compared to the top percentile scorer. It’s not that they have different approaches necessarily, they’re doing everything the same. The difference is that the one with the perfect score makes one fewer error throughout the test compared to the top percentile performer.

Davis: And so, how would you interpret this as a psychologist? How would you describe the ability to make fewer careless errors? What kind of quality or habit would that suggest about a person? And if she also asks about personality, how would you relate that to being able to perform like that?

Orion: Yeah, well, I think if we’re going to discuss personality traits, conscientiousness is probably a good indicator of someone who will approach the test with systematic meticulousness.

I have two responses to this question. First, it’s absolutely essential for those aiming to perform at the highest levels to minimize carelessness. The difference between achieving a top percentile or a perfect score and just performing well lies in the ability to make fewer careless errors throughout the test. Carelessness is intriguing because it can potentially occur at any step of any problem throughout the entire test. However, in reality, it doesn’t. It’s challenging for humans to act randomly. Even if students feel that their careless mistakes appear randomly – that is, unexpected or unpredictable – it’s primarily because they haven’t gathered enough data. Students aiming for top percentile or perfect scores should maintain an error log. With sufficient data, they’ll discover that the majority of their careless mistakes fall into just a few specific behaviors.

For example, I have a personal issue with comparing negatives; I often get it wrong. Instinctively, I tend to think that negative four is larger than negative two, which isn’t accurate. Being aware of this prompts me to slow down and implement a failsafe. Whenever I’m tasked with comparing negatives, I address this inherent blind spot in my thinking, which is no longer a liability for me.

To meticulously, fastidiously, and conscientiously examine your own behavior, identify patterns, and systematically address these emergent phenomena is what differentiates the great from the merely good.

So, it’s not just about being meticulous in terms of acquiring all the necessary knowledge or understanding systems for taking the test. What I’m noticing from what you’re saying is that it’s also about having the interest and courage to go the extra mile during the GRE prep period, using it as a time for self-study and self-reflection. It’s about learning about oneself and applying those same strategies to recognize and monitor one’s own mental processes while taking the test.

Davis: I think that’s well said.

Orion: Now, the second way I’m going to respond to this might be a little counterintuitive. But a personality trait that I’ve personally found to be beneficial for achieving perfect scores, or for those in the top percentile, is humility. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Back before COVID, I used to teach an in-person class in San Francisco. I did that dozens of times with hundreds of students. In one class, there was a bright young man who was already scoring in the mid-160s when he joined. He aimed for an even higher score, possibly a perfect one. During the first few weeks of the course, he was hesitant to adopt some of the strategies and techniques I recommended. I could understand his perspective to some extent, as his natural approach to the test had already placed him in the 90th percentile and above.

So, on some level, it wasn’t broken. But he was also in that class, I assume, because his approach had only taken him that far. He was looking to go a little bit further. He would challenge almost everything I said in front of the entire class, making it challenging for me to keep my cool. About three or four weeks in, after he questioned another one of my suggestions to the class, I told him that the only way he or any other student could prove my recommendations wrong was by doing exactly what I told him to do.

The fact of the matter is, he believed he knew as much as I did about potentially acing this test. He was selectively choosing the strategies he thought would work, without genuinely exploring the methods he believed, ad hoc, wouldn’t succeed. This approach resembles contempt prior to investigation, which is illogical. He wasn’t fully embracing the open humility that’s essential for a student. Indeed, it’s challenging to be a student. It’s hard to admit, “I might not know as much about this as someone else,” and to willingly adopt their framework or discipline. So, I do hold great sympathy and respect for my students; it’s not easy.

But I asked him, just as an experiment, to follow every single recommendation I made on his homework assignments down to the letter for the next week. I promised if there was no improvement in his score, I would refund his money. I think out of spite, he was ready to follow through because he wanted to prove that even if he did exactly what I suggested, it wouldn’t work and he would be proven right. Until he did that, there were too many confounds in the experiment. We didn’t know if I was mistaken, or if the errors were introduced by him deviating from the recommended approach.

Long story short, he came back the next week having done exactly what I’d suggested, and he answered every question correctly. His attitude shifted significantly from that moment on in the class. He became one of my biggest supporters, both in that class and afterward. He was one of the students who achieved a perfect score on all three sections of the test. The situation was reminiscent of the saying “trust, but verify.” It was hard for him to trust initially, but he rationally understood my perspective. When he trusted and verified that my approach yielded the results he desired, we encountered few issues thereafter. I’m grateful for his openness and humility in considering the possibility that he didn’t already know everything.

Davis: No, I completely agree; I think that’s more important than anything else is that willingness to be a student to give to extend trust to the point of experimenting with it, and taking something at face value and putting it to the test, going through with it and seeing what it gets. And this is maybe a difference between stellar GRE and some of the other big-name prep companies out there; as you know, they’ve got their big name behind them that they throw around as a reason to trust them. Whereas for you, for example, you’ve got transparency in the results in the margin of improvement, as well as not only your own perfect score but a number of students who have also achieved perfect scores.

Orion: That’s right. We’re the only empirically validated test prep company in the world, as far as I’m aware. And that’s huge.

Davis: So the trust that Orion is asking for here, ladies and gentlemen, is not necessarily unwarranted. And you’ve heard it here as well, that, you know, if you come in challenging it, do everything that is recommended. And then if you don’t get an improved score, you know, there’s a money back guarantee. We have a 15-point score guarantee, which I think is the largest score guarantee of any of the major players in the online self-study program. So we put our money where our mouth is, but to be real, our average score improvement is higher than that.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, let’s get to it today. For those of you who have listened to some of our episodes before—and if you haven’t, I suggest you go listen to every episode that we have—you know that we’ve discussed the quant section and various strategies extensively. We’ve also addressed reading comprehension strategies. Recently, we’ve talked about how one could have all the knowledge in the world and still not be able to take the test. Additionally, we’ve delved into whether feeling ready to take the test is a good metric, which it’s not.

So, one of the areas that I remember, and that I’ve heard you speak about in the past, Orion, is that a person can always improve their vocabulary. In the verbal section, sometimes you’ll encounter unfamiliar words. There are all kinds of tips and tricks you can use, such as the process of elimination, to get a sense of what a word means. However, there’s nothing as fast or as comforting as encountering a really random, difficult word and thinking, “Oh, yeah, I know that. That’s easy. I’ve got this; it means this,” and understanding it with clarity. With this in mind, and aiming to learn these vocab words, there are various approaches—from flashcards to quiz apps—specifically for GRE prep. Based on your last 15 years of GRE tutoring and experience with the GRE specifically, what is the best avenue to learn vocab words?

Orion: Thanks, Davis. So which vocab builder app is the best? Is that what you’re asking?

Davis: Yeah, yeah, put it simply: fantastic.

Orion: I think that’s a great question. And you’re absolutely right. This is one of those domains where you can always learn more. English, in its modern form, is the largest language that has ever existed in the history of the world. According to linguists, in terms of sheer vocabulary, there are literally hundreds of thousands of words. Any of them can technically be tested on the GRE. We often hear about “GRE level vocabulary.” However, this is a vague concept; there’s no definitive list of vocabulary that could appear on the test. Vocabulary, more than any other factor, limits a student’s verbal scores. If you don’t know most of the words in the vocabulary-based questions, it won’t be possible to score above a certain level on that section of the test. Therefore, to raise that potential score, you need to learn more words. This can be a daunting task because, again, there are tens of thousands of words that might be tested. It’s a slow, grueling process to master them all. Unfortunately, many people approach vocabulary learning in the wrong way, often resorting to rote memorization.

Davis: Rote memorization is extremely time consuming and energy inefficient. But it’s also not the skill that you have to produce on the test. The GRE will never ask you to define a word ever. And yet, the vast majority of people out there are memorizing definitions.

Orion: That’s right. This is not useful. It’s not efficient because you’re spending all this energy to facilitate recall, as opposed to recognition. Recall memory is harder to achieve than recognition memory. It’s also training a skill that you actually won’t use. Vocabulary-based questions, in their essence, are really just synonym and antonym prompts in disguise. What you need to know is that these words kind of go together, and that these words kind of don’t. You need to know a general, very low-resolution definition of that word. That’s why my approach to building vocabulary is based on semantic clusters. So, rather than learn the dictionary definitions of a whole bunch of very similar words, I’ve grouped together a whole bunch of GRE-level vocabulary under a single, simplified definition.

Davis: So, it’s like a data compression hack for vocabulary. In other words, instead of learning a high-resolution, dense definition for a single word, you simply associate that word with another word whose definition you already know in your working memory.

Orion: That’s correct. For example, there’s a semantic cluster for “talks too much.” In that cluster are the words “loquacious,” “garrulous,” “verbose,” and “logarithmic products”. “Verbose” was the only word I recognized. If you use any of those other words in social company, you’ll face the consequences. In most cases, these words are only used for the GRE. I mean, you could say my introduction today was loquacious. It was a bit long-winded. But, you know, it’s part of your charm, Davis.

Davis: Okay. So I hear you. You’re saying that StellarGRE has this really cool method for studying vocabulary, which involves groupings of synonym-antonym type pairings to speed up a person’s ability to learn the effective use of vocabulary for the verbal section of the GRE. I hear you have a dedicated app that might be coming out, which is different from the full StellarGRE preparation course.

Orion: Oh, yeah. So this is really exciting.

Davis: So what is the best vocab builder app on the market?

Orion: Well, it is “StellarGRE Vocabulary Flashcards,” which is now available absolutely for free on the iOS Play Store, and the Apple store. You can download it on both of the major smartphone platforms for $0; you do not even have to give your credit card information.

Davis: So it’s a completely free product? So that’s the Google Play Store and the Apple store?

Orion: That’s correct.

Davis: So, what is really cool about this app?

Orion: Well, unlike every other vocab builder in the app stores, we based this app on semantic clusters. Each flashcard, rather than having one GRE word on one side and the dictionary definition on the other, has the simplified definition on one side and the semantic cluster of words on the other. This allows you to learn five times the amount of vocabulary in the time it would take you to learn a single word completely.

Davis: And even faster. If you already know some of those semantic clusters and are just are just pairing new words with a definition that you already know.

Orion: Certainly, I’m sure that at the very least, students will recognize some of those words, making their learning process more efficient. The set also has an adaptability feature, allowing students to swipe on the cards to indicate their level of mastery. If a student swipes left on a card, it signals to the algorithm that the flashcard needs more review. This card will be represented to the student until he or she indicates a sufficient degree of mastery. Flashcards are grouped into small decks, and once a student has mastered a deck, all of that content is unlocked for the app’s quiz functionality.

The quiz feature of this app is particularly exciting. I’ve worked diligently with my engineers to create something I believe is quite captivating. Students can take an infinite number of randomly generated questions based on the content they’ve unlocked in the app, which aids in consolidating and reinforcing their understanding.

This approach also gamifies the learning experience. Instead of merely recalling dictionary definitions ad nauseam, the quiz questions mimic the skills students are likely to encounter in the verbal section of the GRE, which are typically recognition-based. The quiz has various formats; for instance, students might be presented with several words and asked to identify synonyms without any other context. This skill will be invaluable when tackling sentence equivalence questions on the verbal section of the GRE.

There are also questions that ask you to define a word by matching the word with its simplified definition and its dictionary definition, not just its simplified definition. There are also questions that ask you to identify which among a group of words matches a simplified definition.

So the point is, we’re approaching mastery from several different angles. We’re doing so in a way that more closely mimics the skill that students will actually be asked to implement when they take the time to test recognition over recall.

Davis: Absolutely. Yeah, that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Orion, for sharing that. That’s all the time we have today.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Alright, so let’s just jump right in. I’ve heard you say before, “You know, baseball is a game of inches,” they say, “but the GRE is a game of seconds.” What do you mean?

Orion: Well, I don’t know if anyone says that, but I say that.

Davis: So they say about baseball being a game of inches?

Orion: Oh, they absolutely say that. Yes, that’s it.

Davis: You’ve said, “I’ve heard you say, ‘Well, people say that baseball is a game of inches.’ And then you personally say in a similar manner that the GRE is a game of seconds.”

Orion: I don’t think I’ve heard anybody else say that. But I think it’s true with respect to the GRE because what makes a big difference in, let’s say, baseball is being able to get to the base a fraction of a second earlier than the ball or being able to extend through the swing, you know, a fraction of an inch further to make the ball travel just a little bit faster. That’s what actually separates the folks who are in the majors from the folks who are in the AAA minor leagues, who are often extremely talented themselves. The person who’s in the majors might be batting .250, while the person in the minors might be batting .248. So, the difference between good and great performance in the sport of baseball comes down to increasingly minute improvements in performance.

So, with respect to the GRE, I say that it’s a game of seconds. The most challenging aspect of this test is the time limit. Being able to shave 5-10 seconds off your standard approach to a problem can make the difference between a good score and a truly great score. That’s why, in the Stellar system, we focus on how to approach problems more than the factual information required to solve them. Obviously, that information is provided and necessary. However, top performance on the GRE is really about the process. It’s about the approach, the “how”, rather than just the “what” – merely knowing the appropriate formulas or vocabulary words.

Davis: In other words, both of us have seen really intelligent students with an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge. However, when placed in a timed situation, like the GRE, even with all the knowledge in the world, if they don’t know how to perform under that time constraint, they won’t achieve the target score. Picking up on your metaphor, it’s like having a baseball diamond. The difference between someone making it home and just getting a double or triple can be mere inches by the time the ball gets there. Similarly, when hitting a home run, a few inches can determine whether the outfielder catches it as a pop fly, resulting in an out, or it sails out of the park for a homerun. What you’re saying about the GRE is that, even if someone is consistently good, without an awareness of the time aspect, their performance can still fall short. Even with a high batting average in the minor leagues, if you always fall just shy of hitting it out of the park, you’ll find yourself out more often than not.

Orion: That’s exactly right. Maybe you do like baseball. This is cool. We should go to a game sometime.

So, in the Stellar system approach, we have a very specific second-by-second approach to problems. I don’t think this exists in any other test prep system. Let’s break it down. For example, on a quantitative question: In the first second upon encountering a problem, we decide whether we’re going to address it immediately or skip it. It only takes one second to figure that out because that decision is based on immediately recognizable visual criteria.

By the time we associate that with a generalizable strategy linked to one of the four structure diagnoses, we should be three seconds into the problem. By the fifth second, we take a soft scan of the content, the body of the actual question. We don’t dive in with intense focus right away because we might miss the bigger picture.

So, we take a soft scan to see what stands out. Are we looking at geometric figures? An obvious cue is spotting triangles or circles. If you see them, you know the type of problem you’re dealing with.
Do you see any kind of strange mathematical notation, like “f of x” or exponents? Are those immediately recognizable? Or are there words or phrases that are consistently associated with certain diagnostic categories, such as the word “probability,” the word “ratio,” or the phrase “arithmetic mean”? Once you understand that there are only 50 different types of quantitative problems and recognize the diagnostic signs associated with each of them, you’ll be scanning for those signs. They’ll stand out to you because you know what you’re looking for.

Rather than immediately tapping into a knowledge base of “I know how to do that,” in the initial pass, it’s more about strategy than knowledge. As you’ve mentioned, it’s a process. You’re able to identify which problems to tackle first, organizing your time to maximize your score in the least amount of time, and leaving extra time for the questions that might be a little bit trickier.

Davis: I mean, the way you’re talking about it now makes me think about baseball more. I knew more about it in childhood, but it’s making sense now. It’s like taking that guy who can hit consistently; anything you throw at him, he can hit. But he just can’t hit it out of the park; he always hits it to the midfield or something. That guy is like someone who can answer every problem on the GRE; he just can’t answer within the time limit. Given time, he could do it.

So, it’s interesting because in baseball, players might turn to steroids to enhance their muscle power to hit further. In the GRE, while using steroids is illegal, you can strategize the test. You focus on the time limits as your primary challenge, which isn’t illegal. Stellar is the performance-enhancing tool for GRE test-takers, and it’s legal in all 50 states.

So the bottom line for the GRE is this: your primary focus should be understanding the rules of the game, especially the time limit. Concentrate on the strategies that StellarGRE can teach you to best navigate those time constraints to maximize your score. If you prioritize managing the time rather than merely relying on knowledge, you’ll have the tools to perform much better.

Orion: That’s right. Because if you can begin rehearsing that process earlier on in your prep, you’re going to reinforce it to a greater extent. It’s going to be more familiar, and you’ll have greater confidence. It’ll be more accurate. So, the benefits will redound to you earlier and more significantly. There are many different ways that we approach this “game of seconds” in the Stellar system. We’ve talked in previous episodes about offensive skipping, defensive skipping, and time bleeds, which absolutely have no place in your process. We’ve also discussed continuous solving. All of these respect the time limit, which is by far the most challenging aspect of this test and which most programs willfully ignore.

Davis: That’s awesome. So again, you’ve heard it here first: StellarGRE is the steroids of GRE test prep.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

Well, let’s get to our episode of the day, which is plain and simple: how to stay focused during the comprehension passages on the verbal section. All right, Orion? Let’s hear it.

Orion: All right, well, this is something that a lot of students struggle with. Let’s be honest, these passages can be really complex. They can also be really, really boring.

Davis: You said it.

Orion: Psychological research has revealed that it’s hard to pay attention when you’re bored. When the reading material makes it feel like your eyes are bleeding, it’s tough. So, these passages are known as vertical passages, which means they’re taken from actual academic journals and textbooks. However, they’re completely decontextualized. They can select these passages from any of dozens of academic disciplines, most of which you, the listener, are most likely going to be personally unfamiliar with. This can actually be an asset. Sometimes, knowing something about the subject matter, especially if you’re somewhat of an expert, can be a liability. You might end up relying on outside knowledge, which is a trap on the GRE. A lot of this information will be complex, decontextualized, and very, very boring. There’s a tendency to zone out and mind-wander during the 90 seconds that you’re reading these passages. If you’re not present to receive the information, it’s going to be very hard to act on it in the subsequent questions. So, we need to find ways to focus when reading these passages on the GRE. I have two little hacks. Neither one is a silver bullet, but we’re talking about increasing your focus for the 90 seconds it takes to read these passages.

Davis: So, first, a quick question. Is it the best strategy to read them front to back for these 90 seconds in a focused way? Or is it best to skim over?

Orion: Yeah, there are lots of different approaches to the passages. My general orientation is that it’s a good idea to read the passage casually first. Some people like to read the questions before reading the passage. I find that doesn’t quite work because I don’t think it’s possible to keep two, three, or four questions in your working memory simultaneously. So, students generally just remember the last question they read. This will probably increase the likelihood that they will find the textual evidence for that one question. However, it also makes it more likely that they will disregard information that doesn’t pertain to that specific question in their working memory. As a result, they will likely have to go back and read the passage multiple times.

Davis: So, in this episode, we’re specifically talking about staying focused and attentive during the casual read-through when you first read it, before looking for specific information.

Orion: That’s right. The key word there is “casually.” You want to read it like a newspaper article. You don’t read a newspaper article to understand and memorize every little detail. You read it to figure out what happened. You want to get a gist understanding of the passage. This approach will help you with passages, guide you through the questions, and orient you to where to go back and read for detail based on the questions you’re subsequently asked. You don’t need to understand the entire passage. In fact, the longer the passage, the fewer sentences actually matter in relation to the correct responses to the questions you’re subsequently asked.

Davis: That makes sense. It’s a ratio game; considering how many sentences there are and how few questions are posed, you’ll likely need to know fewer details. But with this casual approach, many people taking the test will feel pressure due to the time constraint and the desire to get a good score, especially knowing questions are forthcoming. For example, if I’m reading a 90-second passage and I’m 20-30 seconds in but don’t quite understand a sentence, I become anxious. I might then go back and reread that sentence or return to three sentences prior, and suddenly, I’m lost. Is that something we want to avoid? Specifically, if there’s a sentence you don’t quite understand, should you just continue reading it, as you said, like a newspaper article where you’re simply trying to grasp the general idea?

Orion: Yes, the biggest trap with reading comprehension passages is trying to comprehend every detail in the passages.

Davis: I mean, I’m glad you laughed. I was going for humor on that one. But it’s also true. Think about studying a foreign language. If you stopped to look up every single unfamiliar word, it would be completely tedious. So sometimes, you have to just keep reading and roll with it. Sometimes, subsequent context elucidates things that were previously unclear. I had a personal experience that’s 100% true.

Orion: So, we don’t want to reread. Rereading, in this case, is an emotional coping strategy. You’re feeling pressure, you’re feeling anxious. If there were no time limit, then seeking out more information for understanding would realistically mitigate your anxiety. But it’s not a worthwhile strategy here. Even if it works, it does so at the expense of your score. And I would submit that students would rather tolerate a modicum of anxiety and discomfort and get a better score on the test than feel better about getting a lower score.

Davis: That makes sense. So, part of staying focused in reading comprehension sections is to not seek full comprehension?

Orion: Absolutely. In order to stay focused throughout the whole 90 seconds and get that best top-down, bird’s eye view overview of the passage, it’s better not to hyper-focus and get sunk in the weeds at any point.

Davis: Absolutely.

Orion: Let me get into these two little hacks that I have to help increase focus. First of all, there are passages you’ll care about, and there are passages you won’t. I handle the hard science ones quite well. However, I struggle with the 19th-century Romantic literature ones; they make my eyes glaze over. But here’s the thing: my sister enjoys them. Most of the time, I appreciate my sister. So, when I come across a passage I’m not particularly fond of, I consider if there’s someone I care about who might. It’s a mental gymnastics of sorts, but I’ve effectively anchored my interest to my relationship with that person. Instead of engaging with the material for its own sake, I think, “I’m reading this for them.” I even imagine that after the test, I could call and say, “Did you know Mary Shelley was only 19 when she wrote Frankenstein?” And she’d respond, “Of course I did, you silly brother.” It provides a reason for me to connect with the passage beyond the mere content. Engage in some mental gymnastics; frame the passage in a way that evokes genuine motivation and excitement, even if the material seems dry.

Davis: That’s absolutely right.

Orion: And again, this isn’t a silver bullet, but it can help to increase focus and motivation for 90 seconds.

Davis: That’s great. So that’s one of the hacks, let’s hear the second.

Orion: The second hack is to utilize vocal self-talk. I like to read passages out loud. Now, obviously, if you’re in a testing center, you don’t want to do that audibly. As they say in voice, “You don’t aspirate,” but you can move your mouth and very quietly voice the words that you are reading within your own oral cavity. This strategy is beneficial for multiple reasons, one of which is that you’re taking in the information through multiple senses. Instead of just reading with your eyes silently, you’re also hearing yourself, and you’re kinesthetically engaging by moving your mouth and tongue. You’re less likely to miss something when using three senses than just one. But here’s the thing: you can modulate your reading so that you are more or less forced to pay attention. Attention, from a psychological perspective, is a novelty-seeking apparatus. It constantly scans our environment for what has changed or what is different because that could be a reward to approach or a threat to avoid. It’s the differences that naturally draw our attention and focus.

One way to do that with your voice is to modulate it, changing the rhythm, intensity, stress, and energy with which you approach the text. This is why some actors, like William Shatner or Christopher Walken, are so hypnotic: they have a unique way of talking that draws people in. You can’t help but pay attention to something that’s constantly changing. Television and TikTok capitalize on this by changing the image every couple of seconds. It’s hypnotic and very difficult to ignore. So, if you vary how you read, your attention is bound to persist. These are two strategies. They’re not perfect, but they can help you pay more attention during the 90 seconds you have to read those tedious passages.

Davis: That’s awesome. Well, you’ve heard it here first, these two strategies.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.

Davis: Hey everybody, this is GRE Bites. My name is Davis, and I’m an educator with over ten years of experience.

Orion: And I’m Orion, the founder of StellarGRE.

Davis: We’re here to bring you your weekly bite-sized episode on GRE prep and grad school admissions. Check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. And don’t forget, you can use the code “BITES” for 10% off any membership.

So, let’s get to it today. I’m a student; I’ve gone through whatever preparatory course I’m going to use to prepare myself for the GRE, and I’ve done it for two months. I’ve already scheduled my tests, and I’m lined up, but I don’t feel ready. What do I do with that feeling? Another way to phrase it is, is there ever a point at which your students, you’ve noticed, feel ready? Even if they’re signing up for a two-month course and they’re a month in? And they’re like, “Alright, I’m ready to go.” I mean, what is it? Do your students feel ready to take the test? Is feeling ready an accurate measure of when to jump in and take the test, or not?

Orion: Yeah, I would say that, in my experience, the vast majority of people do not feel ready to take this test. It might even be fair to say that no one truly feels ready to take the test. There will always be harder questions that you haven’t encountered; there’s always more prep that you can do. There’s always another example of carelessness that might need to be mitigated. It’s very difficult, especially for folks with perfectionistic tendencies, to feel adequately prepared for this test, mostly because they’re focusing on hopefully the diminishing part that they’re still not doing perfectly.

So, I’ve sometimes worked with folks, I hope this isn’t the case for you, listeners, but sometimes work with folks who have prepared for the test for years, plural, like more than one year. I worked with a woman who had taken the test 12 times before she reached out to me for tutoring. Twelve times. It was heartbreaking. And she just wasn’t getting the score she wanted; she was applying for a program that had a very hard threshold. She needed to score above a certain number, and she was one or two points shy, multiple times. And we worked together for a couple of months; she took the test for the 13th time – lucky 13. She got what she needed. She was ecstatic. It was a really good feeling to work with that woman. But in that case, she kept on with the prep because she wasn’t quite yet getting what she needed. The more common situation with folks is they procrastinate scheduling the tests because they’re still getting questions wrong.

One thing I’d like to suggest is that that could very well be a business model for certain GRE test prep companies. Most GRE test prep programs operate on, including my own, operate on a time-based membership, right, monthly, semiannually, or annually. And if you’re answering all the questions correctly, you’re going to feel like you don’t need their program anymore. And so what I’ve discovered, what I’ve seen in my own personal evaluation of some of these programs, is some programs inappropriately populate their practice tests, like completely, with devilishly hard problems. And even if you were to provoke the hardest second quant or verbal section, you will never provoke a section that is entirely composed of very difficult problems.

The fact that that sometimes occurs in test prep situations, I think, is in service of keeping students feeling slightly off-balance and insecure so that they continue to use their programs longer, to be honest.

Davis: Is StellarGRE different in that respect? Do you, as far as I remember from going through the course myself, only give realistically generated test questions in your sections? Is that right?

Orion: Yeah, I think that the StellarGRE program actually is different because, unlike most of the other programs out there, which let’s say have a, a, a question bank of hundreds or thousands of questions, and then their, quote, mock tests are randomly populated with questions of a certain difficulty. You can get into that situation in Stellar’s product. The mock tests are, well, they’re adaptive; they are static. So they are each section of every single test is balanced to have the correct proportion of easy, medium, and hard problems. So you will never encounter a section of the test that is entirely composed of devilishly hard problems, or also entirely composed of insultingly easy problems too. So it’s actually, in my opinion, more closely approximating what you will encounter on test day. But the fact of the matter is that most people will not feel ready, and that’s okay. Your feelings may not be an accurate guide to what you should do in this case.

Davis: So if you’re not feeling ready for the test, even taking one of your practice tests, which is dynamic, what is a good metric?

Orion: I mean, yes, there’s going to be the mental, emotional, yes, as you said, if you’re focusing on those areas, you’re continually focusing in your preparation on those areas, where you’re still making careless errors or still – I mean, vocab is its whole own beast, we’ll tackle in another episode. There’s always more to learn there and be more prepared there. But if the feeling of being ready or not is not a good metric by which to measure when to schedule, when you’re going to take the test.

Davis: What is a defined metric that you use in StellarGRE?

Orion: Sure, I think the best indication that a student is ready to sit for the exam is that he or she is performing at or around their target score consistently on more than one mock exam. Your target score, again, is the median score for successful applicants at your program of choice. And, you know, in the StellarGRE program, students receive a scaled score that mimics the scoring algorithm of the actual exam. So they should get realistic feedback as to their current level of performance. And I’m saying at or around because there’s something called the standard error of the measure, which basically accounts for unavoidable variability in minute differences in different versions of the test. And basically, what this means is that scores that are within that band should be treated as functionally equivalent, which on the quant section is basically one point. And with the verbal section is like a point and a half, which is – they don’t give half points.

So it’s like one or two points. Programs are actually not supposed to treat, say, a 165 and a 164, any differently because the standard error of a measure says there’s not enough significant difference between those two scores. Do you see? That’s why I say at or around, right? So if you’re scoring at or around your target score, you should be ready to move forward with the test. You will never feel ready. That’s okay. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is acting in the presence of fear. And that’s kind of what students need to do. My program is a little bit like a boot camp; we train our soldiers really hard and then drop them into the warzone. And the idea here is if they can rely on their training, if they can fall back instinctively on what they were trained to do, they might get out of there with their life. And with the score they want, yeah, even better.

Davis: Well, lots of good stuff here.

Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We’ll be back next week with another bite-sized episode of GRE Bites. If you have a topic you’d like discussed on a future episode, let us know at stellargre@gmail.com. And if you’re ready to take your prep to the next level, check out our top-rated GRE self-study program at stellargre.com. You can use the code “BITES” for 10% off all memberships there. Talk to you soon.