I taught GRE and LSAT for several years at Pagoda Academy in Seoul, one of the largest test-prep companies in South Korea and during that time. I helped many Korean students who spoke English as a Second Language achieve significant improvements in scores thanks to shortcuts and techniques I developed (after 4 years of studying for the LSAT) to get a 99^th percentile on the June 2016 LSAT (my 5^th try). 

Some people may think that the LSAT and GRE have nothing in common.  In actuality, there are many strategies from the LSAT that can be transferred to the GRE verbal.  As someone who has not only taught the LSAT and the GRE for years, but speak English as a second language, I have a unique perspective on verbal test taking strategies.  You may think it would be impossible for me to out-perform native speakers in the verbal section, but I received a perfect score of 170 in both sections of the exam.  I did this by deploying a few strategies, as outlined in my synopsis!

Basic Data Analysis Topics

Do not underestimate the data analysis section of the GRE. It covers a lot of material, one of which is probability (which is an advanced topic) and that isn't taught very well in school. But probability is also a very small percentage of the test, so think hard about whether or not you want to spend time on it if you have limited time to study. A lot of my students come to me and say straight off the bat that they want to start with probability. They know they are weak in it and want to attack it right away. But 100 percent of the time, I find that it is not the probability that is costing them valuable points, but basic arithmetic, word problems, or table reading. So don’t underestimate the basic topics!

Whatever the next chapter of your life that you’re getting ready for here, I promise you that being a more effective, thoughtful reader is not going to put you at a disadvantage.

Now the other two question types on the verbal reasoning section are known as “text completion” and “sentence equivalence.” questions. These are confusing terms for confusing questions that are essentially just college level vocabulary tests.

We all read so much these days -- texts, lists, ads, articles, more ads, email.  But really what we’re doing here (for the most part) is skimming.  We’re looking for the information we want, not caring much about what falls by the wayside, and moving on.  

In this blog I want to teach you a tactic -- we call it “active reading” -- that will help start to turn off that impulse in your head that says “BORING -- time to skim.”

I want to give you a few more GRE quant power tips. There are 8.

(8 also happens to be my favorite number.  I like that it is so symmetric.  I like that when I push it over, it is the infinity sign or a pair of glasses or the two wheels of my bike).  

Anyways…

I'm Andrew Jungclaus -- I've been a GRE tutor at Cambridge Coaching since 2012, and have tutored over 1000 hours, working with dozens of students to improve their scores. By day, I'm also a Ph.D. candidate in American religious history at Columbia University, so I am intimately familiar with putting in long hours to complete a major goal.  I actually just finished my comprehensives exams -- which required reading over 300 books in less than a year (!) -- and I promise I will not even ask you to do a tenth of that work on your path to acing the GRE.

How do you feel about math?

Let’s take a minute to think about math and how we feel about it. Good memories or bad? Or both? If I were to draw an analogy about math and anything else, it would be a foreign language. You can’t forget what you learned in arithmetic and expect to do well in algebra, just like you can’t forget how to conjugate French verbs and expect to write a full sentence. Math requires a great foundation and, once that foundation is built, everything else comes after.  I am here to help you build that foundation. I am here to tell you that math isn’t supposed to be scary or cryptic or over your head and I’m not just saying this because I am a tutor, I am saying this because I have been there, staring at a problem and blanking, putting the pencil down, getting scared, when another second spent ‘braving the storm’ made all the difference.

As many older siblings can tell you, sometimes your younger siblings would rather go hiking in Antarctica before they ask for the tiniest bit of help or advice. So you can imagine my surprise when I got this message from my youngest sister a few months ago: 

Sis : i’m finally kinda trying to maybe somewhat get more serious about gre prep

Sis : i’ve avoided it for a while

Sis : any helpful tips you’ve gained from tutoring? aside from like practicing and getting more familiar? any strategies you've figured out or resources that were surprisingly useful, xyz?

Me (replying within 5 seconds): OMG YES I’VE GOT THIS

I get it, endlessly drilling vocabulary, parsing paragraphs, and reading about complex astrophysics is not the most fun way to spend sunny Saturday afternoons. After all, Saturdays are for the Boys or perusing Thought Catalog on what kind of Saturday is the best Saturday. With a little strategy, you can study in a way that is efficient for your time to focus on the things you need to know for the test.

Here are the top 6 pro-tips I wish someone told me about understanding GRE Verbal, from a 99^th percentile scorer: