le recyclage

I've gone through the first five of six Verbal exercises for the new GRE. The textbook I'm using, in this case, is published by ETS. It takes you through the new Verbal and Quant exercises, gives you an overview of the new Analytical Writing section, and then plunges you into the sample tests (there's also a CD with sample tests).

It was amusing to discover that some of the reading passages in the new book came straight out of the sample tests from the old book-- two of the Long Reading Comp sets were, in fact, from GRE Test 86-2 (mentioned in a previous post)! Alas, my fresh remembrance of those reading passages doubtless skewed my performance on the new-GRE review questions. The types of questions that followed the reading passages were different, but the answers I gave-- all of which turned out to be correct-- were largely from the same pool of multiple-choice answers from the original test.

It's bothersome that the new GRE includes 2- and 3-blank Verbal questions for which all blanks must be correctly filled merely to receive a single point of credit. Right now, as I work through the new-GRE questions, I find myself experiencing a low-grade paranoia on par with the old "is my zipper up?" feeling: I'm never quite sure whether I've answered all the questions correctly. The new test feels more like a series of juggling acts-- and I have yet to face off against the new math section! Que le bon Dieu nous protège!


_