TestMagic Forums - View Single Post - Q800: V790

ekitten · 07-17-2008, 03:00 AM

Digital dictionary:

I used a Franklin Merriam Webster dictionary. I'm not particularly partial to it, it just happened to be the only one available in a brick-and-mortar store (I was too impatient to wait for an online purchase). Just be sure to get one with a LOT of words in the dictionary, and get one that has a thesaurus. Addtionally, I found that the "My Flashcards" feature to be invaluable. It didn't hold enough words, but it was easy to transfer words I didn't know from the on-board SAT list to the flashcard list. Then, as I committed those to memory, I would write them into my little black book for later review. I remembered a tenet from the Pimsleur language courses saying something like you need to see/hear a word 6 times to learn it, and frequency matters. It was something like within 6 seconds, 6 minutes, and 6 hours. Just try to look at the words again after you think you've learned them.

Big Book:

I had also read threads here that say the Big Book doesn't help on quants. Honestly, I found those tests to be the most relevant, and I don't know why they're so readily dismissed here. Maybe it's because Big Book is among the easiest of all prep material, but as I said, I found the actual test to be easier than most of the prep material I encountered. Again, it might just have been adreneline, hard to say. In any case, Big Book is very helpful.

Permutations/Combinations - I had an "ah-ha" moment with the "counting" material during my review. Believe it or not, I found the prep matreial that the ETS provides to be most helpful. I also found material covering this in Kaplan and even Barron's, if I remember correctly - look under "counting". I can't remember off-hand which one is best, but each is around a page, you can probably just check it in a book store.

Stats - also, don't forget to review standard deviation & frequency stuff that ETS gives you in it's review material. Very straight-forward stuff, I think. That's all I did, but then again, I've had statistics courses in the past. Way past. Way way past. Like maybe 20 years past... OK, so maybe I was a little cold on the stats, but I found the ETS review to be more than suficient. You don't have to be a stats wiz, you just need to understand what a normal dist. is and what std. dev. actually means, get it?

Most importantly, don't forget to breathe :-) Really, the massage helped me more than anything else, I think. You really have to believe in yourself.

07-17-2008, 03:00 AM	#8 (permalink)
ekitten Trying to make mom and pop proud Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 20	Digital dictionary: I used a Franklin Merriam Webster dictionary. I'm not particularly partial to it, it just happened to be the only one available in a brick-and-mortar store (I was too impatient to wait for an online purchase). Just be sure to get one with a LOT of words in the dictionary, and get one that has a thesaurus. Addtionally, I found that the "My Flashcards" feature to be invaluable. It didn't hold enough words, but it was easy to transfer words I didn't know from the on-board SAT list to the flashcard list. Then, as I committed those to memory, I would write them into my little black book for later review. I remembered a tenet from the Pimsleur language courses saying something like you need to see/hear a word 6 times to learn it, and frequency matters. It was something like within 6 seconds, 6 minutes, and 6 hours. Just try to look at the words again after you think you've learned them. Big Book: I had also read threads here that say the Big Book doesn't help on quants. Honestly, I found those tests to be the most relevant, and I don't know why they're so readily dismissed here. Maybe it's because Big Book is among the easiest of all prep material, but as I said, I found the actual test to be easier than most of the prep material I encountered. Again, it might just have been adreneline, hard to say. In any case, Big Book is very helpful. Permutations/Combinations - I had an "ah-ha" moment with the "counting" material during my review. Believe it or not, I found the prep matreial that the ETS provides to be most helpful. I also found material covering this in Kaplan and even Barron's, if I remember correctly - look under "counting". I can't remember off-hand which one is best, but each is around a page, you can probably just check it in a book store. Stats - also, don't forget to review standard deviation & frequency stuff that ETS gives you in it's review material. Very straight-forward stuff, I think. That's all I did, but then again, I've had statistics courses in the past. Way past. Way way past. Like maybe 20 years past... OK, so maybe I was a little cold on the stats, but I found the ETS review to be more than suficient. You don't have to be a stats wiz, you just need to understand what a normal dist. is and what std. dev. actually means, get it? Most importantly, don't forget to breathe :-) Really, the massage helped me more than anything else, I think. You really have to believe in yourself.