GRE Preparation - Part 1 (Verbal and Analytical)

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
You may have heard that you can't study for the GRE. But that's just not true! There are a bunch of things you can do to prepare for the GRE, and the more time you spend preparing, the better your scores will be. In our first lesson, you'll learn the things you need to know about the general makeup of the GRE so you'll know exactly what you're getting into come test day. You'll learn how to relax when you start feeling panicky, how to eliminate the wrong answers the tests try to entice you to choose, how to guess when you're not sure of the right answer, and how much time to spend on each question.

Lesson 2
If you're not familiar with the kinds of GRE questions that test your verbal skills, you'll know exactly what to expect once you've completed this lesson. We'll give you a taste of the format of antonym, reading comprehension, analogy, and sentence completion questions and the analytical writing section. Then we'll cover the information in much more detail in upcoming lessons.

Lesson 3
The GRE antonym question is essentially a test of your vocabulary knowledge. If it's been awhile since you've thought about the meanings of words, don't despair. In this lesson, you'll learn how to improve your vocabulary without memorizing boring word lists. You'll also learn how to quickly eliminate wrong answers, even when you're unsure of word meanings.

Lesson 4
Knowledge is power, but practice makes perfect! The best way to a better GRE score is practice. And in today's lesson, you'll get plenty of antonym question practice on previous GRE test questions. That way, you'll know just how you're faring before you sit down in front of the actual test. You'll also be able to track your improvement.

Lesson 5
You've been reading since first grade, but that's not enough experience to get you ready for the GRE reading comprehension questions. There's more to these babies than just reading a passage and working through its questions, and after you finish this lesson, you'll have the tools you need to develop your own personal reading strategy. You'll learn how to glide through even the most sleep-producing reading topics by focusing on what's important and ignoring what's not. We'll go over how to eliminate answers that hook other unprepared test-takers. And you'll learn how to spot the distracters the test-makers use to make wrong answers seem right.

Lesson 6
In today's lesson, we'll steer through GRE reading comprehension passages that have appeared on past tests to give you a step-by-step approach for getting the most information from the passages in the least amount of time. You'll know just what a question's looking for and how to weed through all of the possible answer choices to pick out the right ones. You'll practice your skills on actual GRE reading test questions and have the opportunity to discuss your efforts with your instructor and other classmates.

Lesson 7
Another way the GRE tests your vocabulary is with analogy questions?but these questions come with a twist. Once you know what the words mean, you have to analyze how they're related and then find an answer choice with the same relationship. These babies can be tricky, but in today's lesson, we'll go over some time-tested tips to help you hone in on the exact relationships GRE test makers like to present year after year after year.

Lesson 8
We wouldn't move on without letting you get a little practice in, so today, we'll go through a bunch of analogy questions that have appeared on previous GRE tests. Today's exercises will help you analyze the way you approach each question so you know exactly what to do on test day.

Lesson 9
The fill-in-the-blank GRE sentence completion questions test your reading ability and your knowledge of vocabulary. In today's lesson, you'll learn the tactics for dissecting each sentence to extract its exact meaning so you know just what answer choice makes it whole.

Lesson 10
With practice, the sentence completion questions can become your favorite GRE verbal question type. Once you get the hang of how to approach them, you can probably answer most of these questions accurately. In today's lesson, we'll go through all the practice you need to become a proficient sentence completion question answerer.

Lesson 11
For years, colleges and universities have complained that even graduate students don't know how to write. So you're going to give them a sample of the way you write before you enter the classroom. If the thought of writing a complete analysis of an issue or argument in about a half an hour has you running for the hills, don't despair. Today, we'll go over a specific plan for making the most of your time so you can prove to the admissions committee of your favorite graduate program that you can put your thoughts together in a cohesive and interesting essay. And before you impress the GRE essay readers, you'll get a chance to wow your peers. During this lesson, you'll compose sample essays and share them with your instructor and classmates for review. You'll also get the chance to read what other test-takers write and provide them with your enlightened commentary!

Lesson 12
To put together quality essays, you have to know the essentials of proper grammar and writing style, and here in our final lesson, you'll learn all the essentials. But we won't go over every boring grammar rule known (or unknown) to the English-speaking public. We'll only review the rules that cause the most problems for GRE essay writers. Once we reinforce your grammar and writing skills, come test day, you'll be able to concentrate on the content of your essays.