Sunday, August 07, 2011

more GRE practice results

I may have to work on my data interpretation skills. A few dumb mistakes kept me from getting 100% on the following practice sets.

Basic set: 9 out of 10

Intermediate set: 8 out of 10

Advanced set: 8 out of 10

I've apparently forgotten how to read and interpret the type of bar graph in which a single bar is composed of different colors. It's easy to forget that, if the black part of a bar goes from 0 to 250, and the gray part of the bar goes from 250 to 300, this does not mean that the amount indicated by the gray color equals 300: it equals only 50. That mental slip cost me a question. Another answer was ruined by a simple addition error; a third question was answered incorrectly because I flat-out didn't understand it (but the answer key's explanation helped me see where I went wrong); and the fourth error-- well, it was actually the first error, in the Basic set-- wasn't my fault, really: the shades of gray on the graph were too subtly different for me to interpret correctly. I cry foul on that question, and will gladly scan the page and show you what I mean, if you're curious.

I'm now done with the intro section of the Kaplan GRE Math book. What happens next is a series of timed drills in which the various types of problems are mixed, as will occur on the actual GRE. After the timed drills (and I'm still trying to figure out why the book is set up this way), we've got several chapters' worth of tutorials taking us from arithmetic through algebra and geometry, as well as a refresher course on data interpretation. Hurdle after hurdle yet to leap.


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