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GRE Psychology Subject Test


Psyoutlaw

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...

Hi Psyoutlaw,

 

I've not taken the Psychology Subject GRE exam myself but I know a lot people who have! If you are preparing for Psychology Subject test you can refer to the following resources.

 

Cracking the GRE Psychology Test, 7th Edition

Price: $18

 

Kaplan GRE Exam Subject Test: Psychology, Fourth Edition (Kaplan Gre Exam Subject Test)

Price: $19

 

How to Prepare for the GRE in Psychology (Barron's How to Prepare for the Gre Psychology Graduate Record Examination in Psychology)

Price: $17

 

Kaplan GRE Psychology

 

GRE Psychology W/ CD-ROM (Rea) - The Best Test Prep for the GRE with CDROM

 

Kaplan test prep & admission

Online coaching & test series

Price: $ 499.00

 

 

This is pretty much an exhaustive list. Apart from these you can also check out the site subjectgre.com for detailed information on test taking strategies and various information for Psychology Subject GRE test.

 

Hope this will prove helpful to everyone who lands up on this page in search of valid information.

 

Thanks :)

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  • 3 months later...

I haven't taken the GRE Psychology yet, though I will on Oct. 18th. I can tell you which books I have liked best, and which ones have helped me pass the practice tests, though.

 

Cracking the GRE Psychology by Princeton Review is the best book by reviews, so it's the one I started with. I do think it's good, but I don't think the sparse section on research methods and statistics will do it for me. I got Statistics for Dummies from the library. I pretty much transcribed this entire book into my notes by hand.(the Princeton one, not statistics)

 

Kaplan GRE Psychology is the next book I would recommend, I think it's "easier" than the Princeton one, and I kinda wish I had started with this one, to ease my way into all this.

 

REA GRE Psychology: 6 full length exams with explanatory answers, no study material. I still think it's worth buying to gauge the progress of your other studying.

 

ARCO Psychology is just OK. Buy it for reinforcement of your learning, save your money if you have none to spare for it.

 

And finally, Barron's Psychology. I hate this book. I think the version I have is too old or something though and whoever owned it before me marked it up so bad that it's distracting. I actually think a lot of material in here is harder than the real exam. Only 39 pages of review material, ridiculously long (380 questions!) diagnostic test.

There is one more GRE Psychology specific book that is no longer in print that used to be put out by ETS, but I didn't bother buying it because it is too expensive since everyone jacks the price up on books no longer in publication.

 

Anyway, that's my opinion so far, I'll try and update here if I have time after the test!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Test is tomorrow! I'm freaking out!

 

Anyway, I thought I should update my book reviews. I have changed my opinion of the ARCO GRE Psychology book. Now that I have gone through it more thoroughly, I think it is equal to either the Princeton Review book or the Kaplan GRE Psychology book. Those three are about the same, so anyone out there preparing--buy at least one of them, they're good.

 

And I gave in and bought the old ETS book. I noticed the price had dropped when I checked again on amazon. Does that happen every year right before GRE time? Regardless, don't waste your money on this one. The one I purchased is very slim. I really just wanted to get my hands on a real ETS practice test. I was disappointed, because the 1993 version in this book was crazy easy. I got a ridiculously high score on it. The 2000 version they send you seems more application/scenario based than the older version.

 

I still don't like the Barron's GRE Psychology book. I still think the REA book is a decent gauge of your progress.

 

I wish ETS would recommend some specific prep books for this. It was frustrating for me to know where to begin my studying. They recommend " a thorough review of your undergraduate courses." Or something similar. I only took one undergrad general psychology class!

 

Anyway, for all the people who come here after me looking for advice, I promise to update here after I actually sit the exam tomorrow. But in the meantime, here's a few things that have helped me so far:

 

I am a member of InstantCert.com: Leader in Online CLEP and Dantes Exam Preparation, and this is a really good site to review many undergrad classes. It's mainly for people who, like me, are testing out of undergrad classes via CLEP and DSST exams. It's only $20 a month, and I have found the flashcards very helpful. There is also a forum connected to this site, where I have shared more about my GRE experience. Here's the link:"CLEP discussion forum for CLEP Study Secrets and Strategies for the CLEP Exam to help you earn college credit by acing the CLEP test. I think there may be many others on this forum who are also members of Instantcert, but if you haven't heard of it, there you are. I suppose it's a bit of a shameless plug, but it's actually very educational. And of course the forum is totally free to join.

 

Also, I have taken to using mnemonic devices for remembering so much information. I have found this site: Episode 72 (video): Memorize the Parts of the Brain | The Psych Files Podcast very helpful for remembering parts of the brain and Erikson's stages of development.

 

Well, that's all for now. I sure hope this helps someone. I have had a really hard time finding meaningful advice for this test on line. This forum was the most relevant, and there's not much here for this test as of this posting. Hopefully more people will contribute their experience in the future. Although it's understandable, after I take this test tomorrow, I hope not to think about it ever again!

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I am too lazy to type it all out again. Even copying and pasting it would be too much trouble, so here's the link to where I talk all about my GRE Psychology experience:"CLEP discussion forum for CLEP Study Secrets and Strategies for the CLEP Exam to help you earn college credit by acing the CLEP test.

 

Hopefully this helps someone out there!

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  • 5 weeks later...
I just thought I would come back here and update on the GRE Psychology test I took Oct. 18th, 2008. I called and received my score by phone yesterday. I earned a 720 scaled score, 87th percentile. I am really, really pleased with this, since I just needed 80th percentile or above. Hopefully my book reviews and advice prove helpful to someone out there. Good luck to all future GRE Psych test takers!
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  • 1 month later...

Me again! The thread on Instantcert has been closed to members only, but I still highly recommend joining to anyone preparing for any DSST or CLEP exams, as well as for review for the GRE Psychology. I consolidated all my posts here where anyone can read them though:

GRE Psychology - Distance Learning Discussion Forums

 

Plus, I made a Listmania book list for this exam, rate it helpful if it is!

 

Amazon.com: "Books to prepare for the GRE Psychology Test"

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

I figured since I referred back to this page a bunch of times over studying for the psych gre, I should come back, and let y'all know how I did, and how I studied. I got my score today, I got a 790, 98th percentile. I realized I had to take the psych gre one month (really 5 weeks) before taking it so I crammed for a month straight. (I took it April 2011)

In the order in which I did it:

I basically read (ie not memorized) Princeton Review 2-3 times. Then I went through Kaplan very, very slowly and made flashcards for every single term. This took me hours on end, but because many terms refer to other terms etc, this was very good for learning the material. When I finished that I carried around a stack of flashcards (total around 950 flashcards, broken up into maybe 8-9 stacks) at all times, when I was standing still - I was doing flashcards. I then went through Princeton Review (quickly) looking for any terms that I hadn't done in Kaplan and made flashcards for those. Then I took Princeton Review's test. Then Kaplan 1 and 2. Then the ETS test that they send you. I went through the ETS test a number of times... I took the ETS practice test a week and half before the actual psych gre. I did pretty well on it, but freaked out because I felt like it wasn't so much stuff I had studied, more that I happened to know these facts from learning them in psych classes. I ordered REA on two day shipping and did four of their practice tests. I would take a test, mark it and then slowly go through the test looking up and making a list of every term and it's explanation. [Note that I was still doing the flashcards over and over again until the very end.] That's pretty much it.

My thoughts on the various things:

It really, really does help if you've taken psych courses in college. That being said, if I had more time, go through an intro to psych textbook, notes from someone or watch a course online... [i didn't but I wish I had.]

Kaplan and Princeton Review are very, very different. Kaplan explains things way more in depth, Princeton will give you more terms. In complement with each other, they are great. Using only one will probably hurt you. I saw a lot of people mention ARCO which I couldn't get my hands on, but I think between Kaplan and Princeton you should be okay.

REA is useful if you are incredibly anal and anxious like me. It gives you endless questions, note: many of which are way harder than ETS questions. The questions also refer to people and things that are quite obscure. The style is sometimes so far from how ETS makes up their questions. You should realize though, that Kaplan and Princeton's questions are easier than ETS. The truest score you'll get is taking ETS's. I would advise that you take it when you feel you would be comfortable taking the actual gre, since that will help you gauge where you are really at.

Also, look at the topics the gre covers, if you haven't taken a course in that, firstly, focus on that topic, secondly, if you have more time than I did: get someone's notes and read/study them. It'll help and will at least make you feel like you have a handle on the questions and not like they are coming out of left field.

the best piece of advice that I found about the gre: there will always be questions and terms and people who you have never heard of. Don't freak out - you can do really well with getting a good number wrong, or leaving them out.

Major good luck to everyone!!

 

I just thought I would come back here and update on the GRE Psychology test I took Oct. 18th, 2008. I called and received my score by phone yesterday. I earned a 720 scaled score, 87th percentile. I am really, really pleased with this, since I just needed 80th percentile or above. Hopefully my book reviews and advice prove helpful to someone out there. Good luck to all future GRE Psych test takers!
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