We’ve very excited because our latest book, the 5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems, is about to hit shelves! The book contains more than 1,100 pages of practice problems (and solutions), so you can drill on anything and everything that might be giving you trouble.

Let’s try out one of the problems! This Text Completion (TC) problem has just one blank, so give yourself approximately 45 seconds to get to your answer. Afterwards, we’ll solve the problem and also discuss how to approach TC questions in general.

After many years of war and bloodshed, some become ____________ suffering, casting a blind eye to scenes of misery around them.

inured to

exempted from

dominant over

effusive towards

maudlin over

© ManhattanPrep, 2013

 

There are several important steps that help us to answer TC questions both effectively and efficiently.

(1) Read only the sentence

Read all the way to the period, but do NOT then jump to the answer choices. Instead

Read more

The path to a good GRE score shares a lot with the path to rippling pectoral muscles.  Routine, repetition, and weight lifting are required.  And in just one week, we are going drop five pounds of GRE material.

Fear not, Philosophiae Doctorate-destined fitness fanatics! On February 5^th we will be releasing our new strategy guide supplement the 5 lb. Book of GRE Practice Problems.  No longer will you have to choose between working out and studying; carrying around this 5 lb. behemoth (real weight closer to 5.8 pounds) will help you keep both your mind and muscles limber.

This book contains over 1,800 GRE-style practice problems broken down by topic and organized by difficulty.  Using this book, you can home in on your weaknesses and then drill those areas to improvement.  Our comprehensive tome covers every GRE question type and subject area, including the essays.  Rounding out the book, is a list of over 1,400 key vocabulary words and idioms.  This is the largest and most comprehensive book of GRE practice problems anywhere.

Read more

Editors’s Note: This is Manhattan Prep GRE instructor Jane Cassie‘s first post on our GRE blog! Welcome her in the comments below.

If you’re a Manhattan GRE student, you’ve heard your instructor tell you over and over again to review your homework problems after you’ve completed them. Great. But what’s the best way to do that?

If you want to improve at the GRE, you have to find an effective way to review. The truth is that doing problems is an efficient way to test your skills, but it’s in the review that you actually improve your skills. Of course the time it takes to bleed a math problem dry varies from person to person and problem to problem, but ten or fifteen minutes is a reasonable expenditure on a tough problem.

While we’re all conditioned to think 1 GRE problem = 1.5 minutes, studying a GRE problem can take ten times that long. The good news is, that’s time well spent!

What does a good do-and-review process look like?

(1)   DO: Answer the problem in under one-and-a-half minutes.

Your first step with practice problems is to treat them like the real test. That means that once time is up, you should take a guess and move on if you don’t yet know the answer. In fact, you might even guess and move on after one minute if the problem seems like a bad time investment for you.

This is a crucial step to your success on the GRE. Guessing on problems you might be able to do in five minutes isn’t intuitive, and it takes a lot of concentrated practice to do this on the real test day.

I often find that giving six minutes for four questions gives a timing schedule rigid enough to mimic the real exam but flexible enough to allow you to choose where to invest your time.

Read more

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

Quantity A

Quantity B

a + 4b

Read more

Here are the free GRE events we’re holding this week (All times local unless otherwise specified):

1/28/13– Chicago, IL-Free Trial Class- 6:30- 9:30 PM

1/28/13– Online- Mondays with Jen– 9:00- 10:30 PM (EST)

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listing Page.

Here is a roundup of some of our favorite articles on graduate school from the week. Happy reading!

Can I Switch Fields and Go to Graduate School in a Different Area? (About.com Graduate School)

Some people find that their passion lies in a different field of study than their undergraduate major. Here is some advice for those thinking of pursuing a new path in graduate school.

Grad School Application Checklist: 3 Months Out (U.S. News Education)

Here is U.S. News’ 10^th installment of what you should be doing in the months leading up to your graduate school application deadlines.

Scholarship”Write First! (University of Notre Dame Graduate School Professional Development Blog)

Here are some tips and inspirational words to help you become a more consistent, productive academic writer.
Read more

Starting in 2013, Manhattan Prep is offering special full tuition scholarships for up to 4 individuals per year (1 per quarter) who will be selected as part of Manhattan Prep’s GRE Social Venture Scholars program. This program provides the selected scholars with free admission into one of Manhattan Prep’s GRE live online Complete Courses (an $890 value).

These competitive scholarships are offered to individuals who (1) currently work full-time in an organization that promotes positive social change, (2) plan to use their master’s degree to work in a public, not-for-profit, or other venture with a social-change oriented mission, and (3) demonstrate clear financial need. The Social Venture Scholars can enroll in any live online preparation course taught by one of Manhattan Prep’s expert instructors within one year of winning the scholarship.

More details and how you can apply can be found here.

Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides.

How many of the integers that satisfy the inequality (x + 2)²(x + 3)(x “ 1) ≤ 0 are less than 0?

Read more

Here are the free GRE events we’re holding this week (All times local unless otherwise specified):

1/22/13– Los Angeles, CA-Free Trial Class- 6:30- 9:30 PM

1/22/13– New York, NY- Free Trial Class– 6:30- 9:30 PM

1/23/13– Atlanta, GA- Free Trial Class– 6:30- 9:30 PM

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listing Page.

Here are some of our favorite tips and graduate school news links from the week. Happy reading!

Grad School Application Checklist: 4 Months Out (U.S. News Education)

This is U.S. News’ ninth installment of what you should be doing four months before submitting your graduate school applications.

Advocating for Analog: Why I Still Use Paper (Grad Hacker)

If you’ve replaced handwriting with digital note taking and research, you may want to reconsider. A current grad student defends the traditional pen and paper method.

Graduate Admissions Essay Dos and Don’ts (About.com Graduate School)

Before you submit your graduate school admissions essays, take a look at some tips for what to do and not during your writing process.
Read more