Graduate Admissions Tests

There are several examinations used in graduate/professional school admissions. The most common are the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), and the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Bulletins for these tests and others can be found at the Cornell Career Services in the 103 Barnes Hall corridor racks.

GRE

For academic graduate study, the examination required is usually the GRE. The GRE consists of a General Test and Subject Tests in specific disciplines. The GRE General test can only be taken in the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) version. (The last GRE General test administration was April 1999.) The General Test is composed of three sections: verbal (30 minutes), quantitative (45 minutes), and analytical (60 minutes). Each section produces a score. There may be an unidentified experimental section that does not count towards your score. The scores are based on the number of correct answers without penalty for wrong answers. Some graduate programs will require the Subject Test in a specific discipline in addition to the general GRE, if prior knowledge of the field is essential to graduate study. The Subject Test covers basic terminology and concepts, and it uses a traditional, paper-and-pencil administration; currently there are no computerized Subject tests.

If you are receiving substantial financial aid, visit the Office of Financial Aid (203 Day Hall) to find out if you are eligible for a GRE fee waiver.

MAT
The Miller Analogies Test is occasionally required for psychology and education programs. The MAT consists of 100 analogies arranged in order of difficulty, and you are allowed fifty minutes to work through the test. The MAT is administered monthly throughout the academic year by the Cornell Career Services.

Disclosure packets are usually available from the test publisher. If your score on a test was low and you are considering retaking the test, be sure to obtain the disclosure packet so that you can see your weak areas and improve your test performance.

Graduate Test Preparation
Test preparation for the GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, and MAT is available at the Cornell Career Services, in local bookstores, and on the web. Taking released or sample tests produced by the test makers is probably the best way to prepare for these tests.

Work through the examples and explanations carefully, and then take the sample tests under simulated test conditions by observing time limits. If you find you have trouble with some kinds of questions, don't despair! There are several opportunities to do more of the same kind of preparation at low cost.

You can get copies of previously administered tests. The Cornell Career Services Library has a number of these tests, and the addresses where you can write to obtain more (or your own copies) are in the GRE, LSAT, and other test bulletins. The Campus Store usually has good materials in small amounts along with the other commercial test preparation guides. The official ETS test preparation software, POWERPREP, which has computer-adaptive GRE General tests, is available for purchase.

Commercial test preparation books abound, and local bookstores carry some of them. Few of them have any clear-cut exposition of problem-solving strategy. Since they cannot legally use copyrighted test materials, their questions tend to be of inferior quality at best and sometimes are quite misleading in emphasis. This is particularly true of the numerical questions, which usually put far too much emphasis on computation and too little on reasoning.

An excellent book that is considered a classic is How To Take Tests, by Jason Millman and Walter Pauk. This book covers principles of answering special types of test items as well as principles of taking tests measuring selected abilities (i.e., vocabulary, reading comprehension, numerical problem solving, etc.) and can be purchased at local Ithaca bookstores.

Commercial Test Preparation

Commercial test preparation courses are a growing business. Many are franchises and courses may cost up to $800 or more. The cost of commercial courses doesn't necessarily correlate with quality; courses may be taught by graduate students or professionals in the community, and there may be little training and no quality control of teaching. It will be important to investigate courses carefully and to learn who will be teaching the courses and what materials will be used. Feedback from Cornell students suggests that commercial courses can help build confidence and help to structure a program of study.

While it is essential to prepare for graduate admission tests, the method(s) you select to prepare will depend on your individual needs. Talk with people who have taken the test previously to find out how they prepared and what test preparation methods they thought were beneficial. Whatever way you decide to prepare, you will need to participate actively in the process. It is sometimes easy to assume a passive-receptive attitude when paying considerable money for prep courses. Skills improve with practice; listening and looking alone will not help you to perform well on the test.

Taking Graduate Admissions Tests

There are certain general guidelines and approaches that pertain to nearly all standardized tests. Test-wise people often describe admission tests as games; working from there, they try to discover the rules and strategies. These people recognize that standardized tests are altogether different from most course exams and should be approached with a different attitude. Clearly, there are specific skills involved which are different from other academic skills. Useful analogies for these tests are work or lab experience, rather than papers or quizzes. Standardized tests are not exercises in creative speculation, but rather jobs to be done with the tools and materials at hand. Keep that point of view in mind during the test.

Strategies for Building Confidence

People who believe they cannot do well on such tests are often unnecessarily intimidated by the very idea of the exam. They ask how they can be expected to think of an admission test as a game when their future rides on the result. Attitude is probably a factor in performance; the anxious test taker may not do as well as the confident one. In any case, it is clear that anxious people suffer more both before and during the exam. One solution to this problem is to make sure that you do not have all your eggs in one basket, that is, develop more than one career plan so that no one exam feels as though your whole career depends on it. Students who would like some help or advice with the problem of developing an alternative career should contact college career offices, faculty advisors, academic advising offices, or the Cornell Career Services.