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Interesting that Math and Science graduates barely scored lower on the verbal sections. I've always felt that the so called verbal section is really more of a
by Dilpil 18y ago
Interesting that Math and Science graduates barely scored lower on the verbal sections. I've always felt that the so called verbal section is really more of a discreet math/type theory test plus vocab.
- blackguardx 18y agoCan you explain? The verbal section consists of antonyms, analogies, sentence completion, and reading comprehension. I don't know much about discreet math. How does it apply in this case?
- ninguem2 18y agoWe don't talk much about discreet math.
- captainobvious 18y agoskreet skreet
- Dilpil 18y agoThe antonyms and analogies are usually a matter of figuring out which of the answers is a valid type- for instance, most of the antonyms will have 2 or 3 words that actually mean the opposite, but only 1 will be the same figure of speech, and usable in the same type of sentance. It's basically like acting as a compiler and finding type mismatch errors. As for the sentence completion, the task is to memorize a set of rules, look at an input, and once again act as a compiler. Reading comprehension is probably the most 'verbal' of the verbal questions, but once again math and CS students have the advantage here: we've been reading obtuse texts looking for the answer to a specific question for years!
- jerf 18y agoWell, I admit I was somewhat skeptical about your claim, but at the risk of engaging in some confirmation bias, that is definitely an accurate description of how I got through my ACT/SAT verbal section. (Never took the GRE.)
- blackguardx 18y agoI see what you mean. The GRE verbal section uses very difficult vocabulary. Learning new vocabulary well enough for the GRE was a very daunting task for me. If you know the words, the test is easy. The trick is knowing the words.
- plinkplonk 18y ago" It's basically like acting as a compiler and finding type mismatch errors." This is exactly how I answered many questions in the Verbal section. (Score: 800 (verbal) 790 (quant) 6.0 (writing)). as for knowing difficult words, I found that reading a lot helps (vs memorizing word lists). You've seen most words in context before, which helps to distinguish between similar words with different shades of meaning and so on.
- ibsulon 18y agoThere are many people who take the GRE for math and science who have English as a second language. This is less true for the humanities and social sciences (besides Anthropology, a major exception.)