Feb 19, 2008

Acing the GRE - How I learned to stop worrying and love the test!

Ok guys, I just recieved my score report. Here is the detailed stuff:
Biocmesitry test score 760 (99%)
Correct: 155, Incorrect: 17, Omits: 6, Formula score: 151
Subscores: Biochemistry 73 (98%), Cell Biology 71 (97%), Mol Biology & Genetics 74 (99%)

And if I may, this goes to the future generations: If you want to ace this exam, focus on ETS samples and topic list. Whatever book you choose to study, pick the chapters (and the time you spend on each topic) according to the ETS list, and give the fields questioned in the 180 samples extra attention. I had some 3 months with lots of intervals and other involvements to prepare myself and I manged to read Albert's MBOC and Lippincot's illustrated review of Biochemistry. I limited my study to ETS topics and omitted all the clinical or other irrelevant stuff, which saved me lots of time. Then during the last few days, I reviewed according to the ETS questions, like, if there was a question on photosynthesis among samples, I quickly reviewed the whole photisynthesis topic. I owe lots of correctly answered questions to those last-minute reviews.
There were some 10-15 questions in the samples which I had never come across with in Albert's/Lippincot's (like bacterial conjugation or viral life cycle). So I spent 5-6 hours searching google.com with the relevant keywords and quickly reviewed some webpages. I can easily say that that 5 hours saved me another 10-15 questions on the test day.
Also, the last 30 questions (experiments) usually tend to take some toll. Spend some time reading research articles and assimilate yourslef with research techniques and situations, if you don't feel much confortable with these sort of questions. You should also pace yourself to leave more time for those questions. So, whenevr you're practicing, time yourself.
Right now I can't think of much more, hey you other old-hands, please help and add whatever you think might help the future test takers!

1 comment:

twisty-scientisty said...

love the test, good advice. subject gre coming up in 6 days, v helpful website.