7 Key Strategies to Boost your Score on the GRE from a Master

1.Error tolerance There are many opportunities to make mistakes on the GRE, and our Master tutor Greg has witnessed all of them. With over 500 hours of experience teaching with Cambridge Coaching, he is one of the most well-qualified GRE tutors out there. What are the most common problems he addresses? Some of the answers may surprise you. Greg shares his candid feedback below! 1.Error tolerance If you're absolutely convinced that it's 170 or bust, then this becomes moot. BUT someone who just wants to go north of 160 in Q can still miss a handful of questions in each section. This is important to note, because it's the inability to 'let go' that often leads to the double penalty -- you spent 4 minutes on a question you got wrong, but then you really paid for it at the end, when you had to rush through stuff that you coulda/shoulda/woulda gotten right. 2.Mental timer The ideal time for a GRE question is *roughly*1:30, with a buffer built in there for some thornier word problems that should go 2+ mins. By practicing new problems and/or flashcards with a timer, a student can develop his/her innate sense of how long 90 seconds really is. I had a GMAT student once who was scary good at this. I could time him on a question, and he'd work on it, and he would tell ME when the two minutes was up without being able to see my timer. This is one extreme, of course, but every GRE taker needs to build this awareness, because once you start going past 3+ mins, that's bad news. 3. Quant Comp -- The Pause I am working with a student right now who just got a 164Q/164V on a practice test. His math started in the 150s. He became a QC killer by doing one thing differently -- writing less. So often with Quant Comp, there's a single "a-ha" upon which the question turns. It's often something like "what if x is a fraction between 0 and 1?" or "what if x is negative?" It's a natural instinctive response on a timed test to see a question and IMMEDIATELY want to put pencil to paper. But the more someone is willing to resist this urge -- even if just for the first 10 seconds -- two great things will happen -- accuracy improves AND timing drops. A lot of students misunderstand this and think I'm saying not to write at all, but the idea is that you just take a long (awkwardly long at first) pause before allowing any scratch marks (and then write all you want!). It's during this time that you can often identify the *thing* behind that QC. 4. Practice and Confidence Let's say a problem looks *too* easy. x + 3 =7, what is x? Make sure the student doesn't overthink it. Just answer it. Just because you've got that1:30budgeted doesn't mean you can't solve and move on after 20 seconds when that's the right thing to do. Then save your time for others. 5. Mile markers Upper right corner of the scratch paper. At question 10, you should roughly be at the17:30mark. At question 5, you should roughly be at the 26:15 remaining mark. question 15,8:45. Just writing down those three "mile markers" is important, because then the student knows whether to either step on the gas or to slow down a little. Not an exact science, but it helps build some timing situational awareness in without having the student constantly looking at/thinking about the clock. 6. Revisits This is a controversial GRE topic. It varies from student to student. If you find that you'regetting frazzled because youskip past too many questions to return to later, you might want to mix up the strategy for a practice test -- try forcing yourself to find a way to limit these because they can become a head game (thankfully, this isn't a thing on the GMAT, you're not allowed to skip). 7. Subject knowledge Timing issues are often a symptom disguised as a cause. There's just no substitute for being good at prime factoring, at finding LCMs, at knowing how to manipulate an arithmetic mean in relation to a total, at knowing that you don't really need to find a standard deviation -- but need to know what the concept is, etc. I'm old school in this way -- make flashcards for every mistake, and then diagnose and fix until you're sure you know it. My experience/opinion is that students who are willing to embrace this concept and apply some elbow grease make the big score gains, and the students who are too interested in the magic tricks and in the idea that I can somehow limit what they need to know in some tailored way (as if I could say, "Everyone ELSE needs to know exponent rules, but YOU don't!") aren't going to improve. Are you feeling like you'd like some targeted suggestions on how to leverage your preparation time for the GRE? Talk to one of our New York or Cambridge GRE tutors to help you along! ; Craving more expert advice on GRE preparation? Read some of our previous blogs below! Tools to Cut Through the Quantitative Section of the GRE How to Use Logic to Trump the Vocab Section of the GRE GRE Vocabulary: Two Key Strategies to Boost Your Score

A Guide to Acrostic Poems

An acrostic poem is a cryptographic form in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, often the subject of the poem or the name of the person to whom the poem is dedicated. The first known acrostics date back to ancient times: The name â€Å"acrostic† was first used to describe the prophecies of the Erithraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves arranged so that the first letter on each leaf formed a word. And one of the most famous ancient acrostics is the Roman word-square found at Cirencester in southern England: S      A   Ã‚  T     O      RA      R   Ã‚   E   Ã‚   P      OT      E      N     E    TO   P     E     R  Ã‚   AR     O  Ã‚   T  Ã‚   A  Ã‚   S (This is not only an acrostic but a palindrome as well — notice it can be read forward and backward, up and down, using the same five Latin words. Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio also wrote acrostic poems in the Middle Ages, and the argument over the authorship of Shakespeare’s works has been fueled by some scholars’ deciphering of acrostic codes hidden in the sonnets, codes that they claim are hidden messages inserted by who they think is the real author, Christopher Marlowe. During the Renaissance, Sir John Davies published an entire book of acrostics, Hymns of Astraea, each of which spelled out the name of his queen, â€Å"Elisabetha Regina.† In more recent times, puzzles and secret word-codes have fallen out of favor as poetic modes, and acrostic poems no longer get respect as serious poetry. Most acrostics in the past 200 years have been written as poems for children or cryptographic valentines addressed to a secret lover. But rather than using acrostics to write hymns of praise to their leaders or loved ones, some contemporary poets have embedded acrostic insults in their poems so they are not visible to their objects or government censors. Poes Elizabeth Acrostic Edgar Allan Poes poem Acrostic  was not published in his lifetime but is thought to be written circa 1829. The publisher James H. Whitty discovered it and printed it in his 1911 edition of Poes poetry with the title From an Album, says the  Edgar Allan Poe Society on its website, eapoe.org.  The Elizabeth of the poem is thought to be  Letitia Elizabeth Landon, an English poet who was a contemporary of Poes, says the Poe Society.    Elizabeth it is in vain you say â€Å"Love not† — thou sayest it in so sweet a way: In vain those words from thee or L. E. L. Zantippe’s talents had enforced so well: Ah! if that language from thy heart arise, Breathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes. Endymion, recollect when Luna tried To cure his love — was cured of all beside — His folly — pride — and passion — for he died.    More Examples of Acrostic Poems Hymn I, of Astraea by Sir John Davies (1599)Hymn III, To the Spring by Sir John Davies (1599)Hymn VII, To the Rose by Sir John Davies (1599)London by William Blake (1794)A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll (1871)

Steroids in Professional Athletics Essay - 2570 Words

Steroids in Professional Athletics Just take the shot! It will help you this season; you will be able to do things that you never would have thought possible. Will taking steroids really help your performance as a professional athlete? Many professional athletes find that this is the best way to enhance their athletic abilities but it only promotes physical damage in the long run. If the use of steroids isnt stopped by professional leagues it just shows that they dont care about their athletes and will continue to watch many of them drop like flies from physical damage caused by steroids. The use of anabolic steroids on professional levels should be banned, and any athlete that chooses to use them should be suspended from their†¦show more content†¦?When late football player Lyle Alzado contended in 1991 that anabolic steroid abuse caused his inoperable brain lymphoma, which ultimately killed the retired football player (Denham 63) Yet athletes continue to disregard warnings of the harmful affects and persist on abusing the illegal substances. I think Barry Bonds current injuries can be blamed on his use of designer steroids. This just goes to show that he had his time to shine in breaking many professional baseball records but now he is paying the price for the abuse of steroids. The journal of the American Medical Association has tested many illegal steroids and has found that they give you mass results like all athletes look for in using steroids; however steroids do cause adverse effects such as breast enlargement, heart disease, and cancer. (Denham 64) A group of athletic trainers were brought together and began a 6 to 18 week study of the affects of steroids on several athletes; at the end of the study they came up with result of massive gains in strength but there were signs of cardiovascular disease developing in most of the athletes. (Hartgens 5) Most athletes have knowledge of these side effects. Nearly all the side effects are printed on every bottle of illegal substances at hletes buy, yet they continue to abuse steroids. Athletes know of these effects but they continue to use steroids, they get the results in strength that they are looking for but eventually allShow MoreRelatedAnabolic Steroids : A Fatal Attraction1734 Words   |  7 PagesAnabolic Steroids in Sports The market for top performing athletes in sports in the 21st century is a competitive one. Athletes are pushed to, be stronger, an heal from injuries faster. 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Success at work free essay sample

All of people want to succeed at work. However, there is success they must meet some qualities such as there are skills and conference to do this work, self- confidence, people skills. The skills and conference is the most important requirement. For success at work, the main question whether you possess the skills to do a particular job. If you are interested in a particular field, get the education relevant to that field and work hard to excel. Solid conference will take you father than social skills, and remain aware of new development in your field. If it is possible, create those new development yourself, and you will find yourself succeeding. Secondly people’s self- confidence is also necessary to succeed at work. Most people who succeed believe that they can. This is belief id conveyed to others in both subtle and blatant ways, and increases the chance that others will trust and believe in you as well. We will write a custom essay sample on Success at work or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page self- confidence will take you a long way, particularly in a corporate environment, where you may find yourself entrusted with increasing levels of responsibility. To some extent, self- confidence is self-fulfilling prophecy. Your belief in your ability to succeed increases the chances that you will succeed. And the finally factor can help you successful is people skills. That is your ability to be comfortable interacting with others, and to make people comfortable with you, can not be overstated. If you happen to be a genius, you can’t probably find success with no people skills. For the rest of us, networking, socializing and making friends is critical, and honest interest in the affairs,concerns and problemsod other people help to grease the gears of social interaction. People like to talk about themselves, and when they sense that you are interested in them, as well, they will more predisposed to working with you, promoting you and help you find the success that you are seeking. Those are some simple things that you can do to increase your chances of success at work. How successful you actually become is the result of combination of things, including your efforts, the surrounding situation and luck. Focus on the things that you have the power to change, and let the rest take the care of itself.