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Huffpost article about the fight for Oak Flat

apache-stronghold.com

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When you find out the classmate you've always competed with is applying to the same DI as you

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What Is It?

The GRE is a standardized exam, a lot like the SAT/ACT, to test basic critical thinking, analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning skills that everyone acquires over an education regardless of field of study. It is a general test because anyone with a college background should be able to complete it. The math is very basic for this reason. This exam is used by universities to determine aptitude and anyone seeking to attend a US university is wise to take it, as most universities still require scores. There are three sections:

Analytical Writing: This section involves responding to two essay types, analyzing an issue and analyzing an argument. They are looking for the ability to articulate and support ideas, examine a claim and evidence, sustain a clear and coherent train of thought, and display a control of the English language. The thing is to maintain a focused discussion and answer the prompt. They want to see if you can give a measured and thoughtful response.

Verbal Reasoning: This section includes questions concerning vocabulary, reading comprehension, and word relation.  Knowing the word itself is great, but the test wants you to then complete a sentence or relate the word to an equivalent.  The reading comprehension questions are similar to most reading comprehension standardized test questions. It’s about figuring things out with the given information.

Quantitative Reasoning: This section includes questions on math topics such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. This section is mostly concerned with the ability to reason using math models and numbers. Like the Verbal section, its about figuring things out using the given information.

The exam is roughly 4 hours long, with the sections and 10-minute break with the intermittent one-minute breaks between sections You are allowed scratch paper to work things out on.

General Strategy

Since I will be spending days on each questions type. I will reserve specific strategies for those days. Here are general tips from the book and my McNair resources.

1.       Know administrative procedures, types of questions and instructions for them, number of questions, and the timing for sections. These save you hassle and time on test day.

2.       Keep a strong mentality. Try to remain composed and not get flustered. If the questions are getting harder, it means you are advancing, since the test is adaptive. Be confident since every new test is a new opportunity. This exam is just as combative as you make it.

3.       Experience is key. Take lots of practice tests to build up stamina. This exam is 4 hours with minimal breaks. And take practice tests in as similar of an environment as you can.

4.       The test is adaptive, so the difficulty of the next section depends on your previous performance. However, always do your best. Don’t try to perform a certain way to get an easier section.

5.       This test measures skills, not content. You won’t know everything. Just use context and puzzle things out.

6.       There is no penalty for wrong answers, so answer every question.

7.       The “Mark” and “Review” features let you mark questions and then see a list of what you marked Use this to mark questions you are unsure of or need to revisit. And always answer the easiest questions first. 

Setting a Goal

I took a practice test last summer. I have my scores below and my goal scores. Engineering requires a high Quantitative Reasoning score, so that is my main focus. However, a high holistic score is always best. My goals are in the highest percentiles to keep me competitive.

Keep reading

[miss-yesi]

Let me tell you about a thing

LearningExpress Library is probably one of my very favorite library databases. It’s got a little something for everyone, whether it’s job information, honing skills, or getting help with test prep. Here’s a rundown!

Adult Learning Center - The Adult Learning Center can assist in improving basic skills, like math, reading, writing, and grammar. Resources include tutorials, ebooks, and practice sets. It also includes a section for preparing for the US Citizenship Exam, which has articles about helpful hints on different sections and a practice test!

Career Center  - A way to prepare for career exams, explore different career paths, and improve workplace skills! There’s a section to Learn More About a Career, which could be a good resource for writers, as well as sections to prepare for entrance exams for nursing school and health programs. You can also prepare for occupation exams for things like Air Traffic Controller,  firefighting, plumbing, social work, ASVAB, and many more. There’s also info about workplace skills, job searching, and interviewing. 

School Center has resources for Elementary, Middle, and High Schoolers. Resources differ by library, but in general they should help students build and hone core skills.

College Prep Center is where it’s at for the college-bound student who doesn’t want to/can’t shell out for courses but wants to practice. There are practice exams for: ACT, SAT, PSAT, MSQT, AP tests, TOEFL IBT, and THEA. What I love about these practice tests is that you can take them in 3 modes: Simulation, meant to model the time you’ll have on the test; Practice, where you can see answer explanations after you’ve finished the test; and Learner, where you can view the answers to questions as you go to help you study. There are also some test guides for these tests.

High School Equivalency Center is for people who need GED prep (including GED prep in Spanish), HISET prep, and TASC prep. There are also a couple of skills assessments for different subjects to help people assess where their skills are. 

College Center has skill reviews, grad school admissions test prep (GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MAT, MCAT, PCAT) and a ton of other stuff like ACCUPLACER, ASSET, COMPASS, and CLEP prep.

And finally, there is Recursos para hispanohablantes, with  skill builders for reading, math, and writing/grammar, as well as GED prep. 

The different “Centers” offered by LearningExpress Library might differ by library, but all of it is super great!

tl;dr LearningExpress Library has a ton of shit to offer for different types of people and you should all check it out!

[miss-yesi]

hey, congrats on the gre score! any tips you can give us on studying since you did so well? i'm finding memorizing words rly hard. tips for each section please! & how was the timing? rushed?

Thank you very much! And sure, I’ll do my best, although I think studying depends wildly from person to person–for example, many of the grad schools I’m applying for explicitly state they don’t consider your math score, so I didn’t spend much time prepping for that. Timing is also quite subjective, because while I have time to check my verbal answers, I always have to guess on 2+ quantitative problems because I’m not that quick with sums.

First, invest in a practice book. I highly recommend Manhattan Prep’s 5lb Book of GRE Practice Problems, which is only $12 on Amazon right now. Not only is it as ridiculously expansive as the name suggests, it includes a diagnostic test, 9+ fully outlined and explained essays, maybe one thousand vocab words, and a solution explanation for each math problem, broken down by type (ie probability, triangles, sets, etc). In addition, a quick google search will pull up free online practice tests (three from ETS, the actual GRE-makers) which mimic the computerized test exactly–and they’re free, so why not at least power through a few sections?

Now, more specifically:

The Written: No one wants to spend 30 minutes writing a practice essay, but at least try to do a few full, typed essays from practice prompts (preferably from a source that also includes full 4, 5, and 6 essays to measure yourself again). Type it somewhere without spellcheck, because you don’t want to be like me and realize during the exam that you can’t remember if millennial has two Ns. Because I feel confident in my writing skills, I usually only outlined the essays for my practice test, but this allowed me to compare my line of reasoning to the examples given. Standardized testing demands a very particular type of logic. If you want to be especially thorough, you could mark up an example 3 or 4 essay with thoughts on what could have made it a 5 or 6–by learning to efficiently recognize others’ shortcomings, you may be better equipped to see your own.

The Verbal: Flashcards. All day, every day, until you despise the English language (but also start to recognize your expanded vocabulary in the wild–just the other day I heard both laconic and taciturn on Buffy). Manhattan prep has online flashcards, but I went ahead and made a huge set on Quizlet (because I love making flashcards). Quizlet allows you to star words you have a lot of trouble on. I found that 200+ words quickly dropped from my list, and I began to recognize others showing up repeatedly on practice tests, which helped me gauge what was really important to know. (Flue? Probably not going to come up. Quixotic? Most definitely.) On any of the passage summary readings that sound like trick questions, I write out what the question/answer is saying in my own words, along with any unspoken assumptions. This saved 5+ points on the test, because a lot of the questions are purposefully written with assumptions that logically follow–but if the question doesn’t ask you to make a conclusion, stay to what the text says to the letter. It’s not testing your ability to be a rational, practical thinker, it’s testing your ability to jump through its evil, evil word-hoops.

The Quantitative: Aside from a basic college algebra review, I haven’t taken a math class in almost six years. The math section is bittersweet: While it does rely more heavily on reasoning than on equations (and unlike math, reasoning is familiar to my day-to-day life), it still expects you to memorize obscure equations. And it forces you to use a tiny on-screen calculator with minimal functions. When the SAT is vastly kinder, you know they’re just screwing with you. (Have I mentioned how expensive this test is? Honestly, that price is a large part of the reason I was determined to get it right the first time. But I digress.) To supplement my prep books, I had a friend tutor me in concepts I’d totally forgotten, and I made a cheat sheet of formulas that the GRE excepts you to know. (Not a literal cheat sheet, GRE police–I know you’re watching me.) Some of those are as follows:

Quadratic equation

Slope of the line

Areas of equilateral triangles + assorted polynomials

Area of part of a circle

Standard deviation principles

THE GODDAMN COMBINATIONS EQUATION

Regular/compound interest

That’s not comprehensive, but it’s a start. Tailor it to your own needs, and decide how important math is to you/your top grad schools.This is the part where I repeat all the cliched stuff about going in well-rested, remaining calm even when the timer flashes the 5 minute mark, and remembering you can retake it in a few weeks. Really, it’s important to remember that this is a test designed to measure skills you don’t actually need to be a smart person. Decide ahead of time the minimum scores you’ll send (check data for your intended schools/programs and national percentiles). And if you have any more GRE/academic questions, I’m absolutely open to support you as best I can!

[miss-yesi]

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And office administrator Pamela Beesly Halpert is my best friend.

[miss-yesi]

Hey guys :) I’m Bea, from Exohypernova.

I wasn’t sure if I would post this because it’s my first ever printables pack and it has that overall design that is very very common in the studyblr comunity, and I didn’t want to post more of the same, but I had done this a while ago and thought maybe you guys would like it.

This pack contains:

✖      A habit tracker

✖      A life planner

✖      A month planner with productivity tracker

✖      A project management sheet

✖      A exam prep cheat sheet

✖      A book review page

✖      A book character review page

✖      A book tracker

✖      A glossary

✖      A task list

✖      A quotes sheet

✖      A formulas sheet

If you want to download all of them, you can click here to access my google drive folder. Also, if you have photoshop, you can download a totally editable version of those printables in this link (fonts included). ♡

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Last week of July has snuck up on me. Did not realize this is the last week of June. Dont let time get away from you. Make a plan to move your body this week in a way you dont normally do. Ride your bike, play on the monkey bars, go for a walk, maybe jump rope. Swipe for full workout. Snatches and dead bug mods are shown in 2 and 3 and full workout in the 4th. Like and save for the next time you're in the gym. I'm planning on paddleboarding this week. How are you moving? Comment below. I would love to try out something different and get ideas. • • • • #fitness #gymlife #fullbodyworkout https://www.instagram.com/p/BzHZSuugD40/?igshid=1jeubqi5cno9j

#fitness #gymlife #fullbodyworkout