Block 2

Preparing for the Test

To be ready for the GRE, you need to know what’s on the test and get some tips for responding for the seemingly endless questions you must answer in a short amount of time. In other words, this block helps you put on your game face before you walk into the exam room. You’ll know what you need to know, or if you’re not sure of the answers, you’ll have some strategies for getting through it.

Exploring the Language Arts Test

The Reasoning through Language Arts (RLA) test evaluates your ability to do the following:

• Apply skills in reading comprehension.
• Apply writing skills to create a logical and effective extended response (essay).
• Apply concepts in grammar and language to correct errors in writing. Grammar is the basic structure of language — you know: subjects, verbs, sentences, fragments, and all that. Language includes vocabulary, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and other features of written English.

Most of what you’re tested on the RLA test is stuff that you’ve picked up over the years, either in school or just by speaking, reading, and observing. However, to help you prepare better for this test, I give you some more skill-building tips in this block.

Choosing wisely in the reading component

In today’s society, being able to comprehend, analyze, and apply something you’ve read is the strongest predictor of career and college readiness and an important skill set to have. In the following sections, you explore the four aspects of good reading skills: comprehension, analysis, command of evidence, and synthesis.

The RLA test Reading Comprehension component consists of excerpts from fiction and nonfiction prose. You’re presented with a reading passage (or in some cases, two related reading passages) followed by a series of multiple-choice and drag-and-drop questions.

Understanding types of reading comprehension questions

The questions on the RLA reading portion of the test focus on the following skills, which you’re expected to be able to use as you read both fiction and nonfiction passages.

• Comprehension: Questions that test your comprehension skills assess your ability to do close reading — that is, to read a source of information thoughtfully so that you have a precise understanding of what you’ve read and can restate the information in your own words. Items may also ask you to show understanding by ordering events in a passage or to rephrase what you read without losing the meaning of the passage. In addition, items can ask you to show how the details support the main idea. Other items ask you to determine the meaning of specific words in context and grasp how a writer’s use of a particular word or phrase affects the meaning of a sentence, a paragraph, or the entire passage.
• Analysis: Questions that test your analysis skills assess your ability to draw conclusions, understand consequences, and make inferences about the passage. To answer these questions, make sure your answers are based only on the information in the passage and not on outside knowledge or the online article you read last week. Items may ask you to explain how parts of the passage (such as paragraphs, sentences, and examples) work together to accomplish the writer’s purpose. Other items may ask you to show how transitional words and phrases (such as however and for example) signal relationships among ideas in the passage. Other items may ask you to analyze the writer’s purposes in writing the passage — to convince, to share knowledge with the reader, or even to amuse the reader!
• Command of evidence: These questions assess your ability to identify and evaluate evidence. You need to understand the passage writer’s point of view in order to assess the strength and weakness of their position. Some questions will ask you to identify the evidence that the author uses for support. Other times, you will have to identify among the options additional supporting evidence. Other questions will ask you whether the author’s evidence offers valid support for a position, or merely an opinion or belief unsupported by reasons, examples, or facts.
• Synthesis: Questions that test your synthesis skills assess your ability to take information in one form and in one location and put it together with information in another context. Here, you get a chance to make connections between two related passages and compare and contrast them. You may be asked to compare and contrast the tone, point of view, style, effectiveness, or purposes of the passages — and saying that the purpose of a passage is to confuse and confound test-takers isn’t the answer!

Some reading questions may ask you to use information in the source text passages combined with information presented in the questions. So make sure you use all the information that you have available. And don’t forget to use the tabs and scroll bars to reveal the complete passage and question — you never know where an answer may come from.

Developing skills to read well

To succeed on the RLA test, you can prepare in advance by improving your reading skills. Here are some of the best ways you can prepare:

• Read as often as you can. This strategy is the best one and is by far the simplest, because reading exposes you to correct grammar. What you read makes a difference. Reading catalogs may increase your product knowledge and improve your research skills, but reading literature is preferable because it introduces you to so many rules of grammar. Reading fiction exposes you to interesting words and sentences. It shows you how paragraphs tie into one another and how each paragraph has a topic and generally sticks to it. Reading historical fiction can give you some insight into what led up to today and can also help you with the Social Studies test (discussed later in this block).

  Reading nonfiction — from instructions to business letters, from press releases to history books and historical documents — is also extremely important. Nonfiction generally uses a formal style, the kind expected of you when you write an essay for the Extended Response item. Older documents can be a special problem because the writing style is very different from what’s common today. Getting familiar with such documents will help you get better results and even help with your Social Studies test.

  Read everything you can get your hands on — even cereal boxes — and identify what kind of reading you’re doing. Read about topics that interest you, which can include subjects as varied as new cars, sports reporting, healthcare news, or money-saving tips. Reading aloud to your children at bedtime also counts and so does reading on your phone while you are on the bus or waiting to see your doctor. Ask yourself questions about your reading and see how much of it you can remember.

• Develop your reading speed. Reading is wonderful, but reading quickly is even better — it gets you through the test with time to spare. Do a quick Internet search to find plenty of material that can help you read faster. Whatever method you use, try to improve your reading rate without hurting your overall reading comprehension.
• Read carefully. When you read, read carefully and think about what you’re reading. This is called active reading: Your brain is working as hard as your eyes are. If reading novels, stories, or historical documents is unfamiliar to you, read these items even more carefully and thoughtfully. The more carefully you read any material, the easier it’ll be for you to get the right answers on the test.

• Ask questions. Ask yourself questions about what you read. Could you take a newspaper article and reduce the content to four bulleted points and still summarize the article accurately? Do you understand the main ideas well enough to explain them to a stranger?

  Ask for help if you don’t understand something that you read. You may want to form a study group and work with other people. If you’re taking a test-preparation course, ask the instructor for help when you need it. If you have family, friends, or coworkers who can help, ask them.

• Use a dictionary. Not many people understand every word they read, so use a dictionary. There are many good free or inexpensive dictionary apps for your computer or smartphone. Looking up unfamiliar words increases your vocabulary, which, in turn, makes passages on the Reasoning through Language Arts test easier to understand. If you have a thesaurus, use it, too. Often, knowing a synonym for the word you don’t know is helpful. Plus, it improves your Scrabble game!
• Use new words. A new word doesn’t usually become part of your vocabulary until you put it to use in your everyday language. When you come across a new word, make sure you know its meaning and try to use it in a sentence. Then try to work it into conversation for a day or two. After a while, this challenge can make each day more exciting. If you don’t know what you don’t know, then you can find lists of important words online, such as “the 100 most commonly misspelled or misunderstood words” or “words important to pass the GED.” These can be a good start to increasing your vocabulary.

All the information you need to answer the reading...