Course Structure

If you have taken practice tests, I will look them over to determine your weaknesses. If you have not taken practice tests, I will probably have you take a full-length diagnostic test.  If you have taken an actual GRE, I will have you provide me with a copy of the free ETS diagnostic report.  I will enter all this test information into your personal error log, which will be updated as you take additional tests. The error log allows us to keep a close eye on topics and question types that are costing you most points. I keep a record, which you can access at any time, of what we have done during each lesson. You can also access pdf files of every problem we do together and everything I write on the whiteboard.  Last but not least, I will make you a detailed, personalized day by day study schedule so that you just have to study, not wonder what to study.  My entire process, beginning with the information I collect during our initial free phone consultation, is very structured and data-driven; nothing falls through the cracks. 

Of the 27 Quantitative Reasoning (math) questions on the GRE,  19 or so will require you to solve a problem and select from five answer choices or type the correct answer into a space. In addition to teaching you the math concepts themselves, I will teach you techniques like choosing smart numbers and "backsolving." I will also show you how to read questions more effectively, to estimate, and to write a "game plan" before you start working on the problem. Finally, I will give you greater insight into the available answer choices.

Of the 27 Quantitative Reasoning (math) questions on the GRE, 8 or so will require you to select which of two quantities is larger, whether they are equal, or whether it is impossible to determine.  In addition to teaching you the math topics themselves, I will teach you techniques like "benchmarking," choosing numbers, and "removal." 

I feel it's very important to time you reading the passages so that you are aware of how long you are actually taking; I believe it is best to read the passages carefully the first time, and knowing how much time  is actually required (often less than it seems) is important.  I am not a strong believer in skimming: everything on the GRE must be read with extreme care. Much of the time spent tutoring this section is used to familiarize you with common ways answer choices can be wrong.

I will teach you to pick out key words or phrases that indicate the relationships between words/phrases and blanks as well as between blanks and other blanks. While easy blanks can be filled in with a reading of the nearby text alone, more difficult blanks can depend on text much later or earlier in the passage.  In addition, success on this type of question depends on having a strong vocabulary, so I will encourage you to build yours with lists, apps, and flashcards.

I will teach you to pick out clues to the general meaning of words that should be chosen, as well as to carefully examine the answer choices for the two words with the most similar meanings. Again, since success on this type of question depends on having a strong vocabulary,  I will encourage you to build yours  with lists, apps, and flashcards. 

While you may have turned in a lot of papers as an undergraduate, producing an Analyze an Issue essay in 30 minutes can be hard. After I provide you with guidelines, you will write essays, and we will go over them together.  I will emphasize, among other issues, taking five minutes to plan and outline; writing exactly what the prompt requests; always addressing the other side of the argument; giving concrete details; writing introductions; paragraph construction; transitions; and going one step beyond in conclusions to avoid them being mere restatements.