Flashcard Sneak Peek: Don’t Be a Sapskull?

Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!

When writing these cards, we wanted to make sure that everyone could get something out of every card — even if you already know the word on the front. Sap is one of those strange words that hardly anyone ever thinks to look up, but that actually has far more definitions than you’d think. Check it out:

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Japanese Multiplication Trick, and What It Has to Do With the GRE

Watch this silent video for a new (to most of us) visual way to multiply!

What does this have to do with the GRE? Note that the 3 at right (which ended up in the ones place) was completed before any of the “big” numbers at left. That is, we didn’t need to know what our answer started with to know what our answer ended with.

Regardless of the method of multiplication you use (even if that “method” is a calculator), you will want to remember this very important principle for the GRE:
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Over 800,000 Take the GRE in 2011

Last week, an ETS news release gave us some statistics on the 2011 administrations of the GRE. The big news was the huge increase over previous years in the number of test takers. ETS reports a roughly 13% increase in test takers over 2010 bringing the 2011 total to more than 800,000 tests – an all-time record. Even considering the steady growth in the number GRE test takers over the past decade, this year stands out as a significant jump. Here is a chart of approximate GRE test takers for the past 9 years.
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In It to Win It

In It To Win It

This is a little story of a crucial epiphany one of my students (and I) just had.

Recently, at the end of class, one of my students began asking questions about timing and guessing on test questions. He’s really struggling with the idea that he has to let some questions go and that he’s not going to be able to answer every last question correctly. I told him he’s not alone; most students have significant difficulty accepting this idea – and those who can’t accept it almost never reach their goal scores.
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