GRE 2022 for dummies

435 Pages·2021·29.606 MB·English

by  Ron Woldoff

®
GRE 2022
by Ron Woldoff, MBA
GRE® 2022 For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the
1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for
permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030,
[phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress
are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and may not be used without written permission. GRE is a
registered trademark of Educational Testing Service (ETS). This publication is not endorsed or approved by ETS. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor
mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS
IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR
COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES
REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE
SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH A PROFESSIONAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. NEITHER THE
PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at
877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone]. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.
com/community/support/dummies.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard
print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or
DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com.
For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937721
ISBN 978-1-119-81149-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-81150-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-81151-0 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: Getting Started with the GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Knowing What to Expect with the GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: Owning the GRE: Strategies for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTER 3: Gearing Up for Exam Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Part 2: Tackling the Verbal Section One Word at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
CHAPTER 4: What Are They Saying: Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
CHAPTER 5: Getting the Gist: Reading Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
CHAPTER 6: Critical Thinking: Argument Analysis Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 7: Expanding Your Vocabulary to Boost Your Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Part 3: Math You Thought You’d Never Need Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
CHAPTER 8: An Overview of GRE Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER 9: Simplifying Numbers and Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER 10: Solving Algebra and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
CHAPTER 11: Drawing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
CHAPTER 12: Simplifying Word Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
CHAPTER 13: Interpreting Data and Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
CHAPTER 14: Comparing Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Part 4: Getting the Essays Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
CHAPTER 15: Writing the Essays Well and Fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
CHAPTER 16: Practicing and Reviewing Sample Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Part 5: Full-Length Practice Exams: Show Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 .69
CHAPTER 17: Practice Exam 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
CHAPTER 18: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
CHAPTER 19: Practice Exam 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
CHAPTER 20: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
CHAPTER 21: Practice Exam 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
CHAPTER 22: Practice Exam 3: Answers and Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Part 6: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
CHAPTER 23: Ten Key Facts about the GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .385
CHAPTER 24: Ten Mistakes You Won’t Make (While Others Will) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
CHAPTER 25: Ten Ways to Build Your Skills with the Online Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
PART 1: GETTING STARTED WITH THE GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Knowing What to Expect with the GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Signing Up for the GRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Breaking Down the GRE into Bite-Sized Pieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Scoring Max: 340 Then 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Understanding how the scoring breaks down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Calculating your score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Confirming that your score is actually good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Throwing a mental dart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Seeing or canceling your scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Taking advantage of the ScoreSelect option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Catching Your Mental Breath: The GRE Intermissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
CHAPTER 2: Owning the GRE: Strategies for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Making the Best Use of Your Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Budgeting your time for studying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Budgeting your time for practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Taking control: Time management tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Plan B: Repeating the Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
It Isn’t You: Testing Under Adverse Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using Old Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
CHAPTER 3: Gearing Up for Exam Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Gathering Your Stuff the Night Before . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Knowing What Not to Bring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Taking the Test at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Training Physically and Mentally for Test Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Staying active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Eating well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Relaxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Mastering the Computer Part . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Bringing the GRE into Your Comfort Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Getting familiar with what’s on the exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Understanding the other admissions requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table of Contents  vii
PART 2: TACKLING THE VERBAL SECTION ONE WORD AT A TIME . . . . 25
What Are They Saying: Text Completion
CHAPTER 4:
and Sentence Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Clinching Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Keeping it straight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Trying it out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Developing Your Skills for Finding the Correct Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Interpreting the Text 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Getting the gist of the text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Taking the Best and Only Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Interpret the text without looking at the answer choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Complete the text with your own words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Eliminate wrong answer choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Interpreting Trickier Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Use transition words to get the gist of the phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Start with the second or third missing word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Getting Your Hands Dirty with Some Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Text Completion questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Sentence Equivalence questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
CHAPTER 5: Getting the Gist: Reading Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Recognizing the Three Reading Comprehension Question Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Multiple-choice questions: Choose one answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Multiple-choice questions: Choose one or more answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Sentence-selection questions: Choose a sentence from the passage . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Developing Strategies for Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Using the context as your road map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Grasping the gist of the passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Avoiding common traps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Answering the question yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Acing the Three Commonly Tested Reading Comprehension Passages . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The biological and physical science passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The social sciences passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The humanities passage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The social sciences passage redux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
CHAPTER 6: Critical Thinking: Argument Analysis Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Covering the Answer Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Reading the Question for What It’s Asking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Reading the Passage for What the Question Is Asking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Identifying the “because” and the “therefore” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Finding the unstated assumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Exploring common logical fallacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Answering the Question in Your Own Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Eliminating Each Wrong Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Applying the process of elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Testing your skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CHAPTER 7: Expanding Your Vocabulary to Boost Your Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Brushing Up on Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Memorizing the GRE’s Most Common Vocabulary Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
viii GRE 2022 For Dummies