So I'll be taking the GRE and GRE: Physics exams in the future, and was wondering if anyone here had taken either/both of the exams. In addition, I was hoping those that had may be able to share some tricks, tips, or just in general things they had observed about the exams during their time taking them. I had read that learning prefixes, suffixes, and roots was far more helpful in the exam than trying to learn a huge vocabulary list. Does that seem like helpful advice or more harmful?
I found the math portion much more difficult than the reading or writing portions, and I've taken math up through Multivariable Calculus. The quantitative reasoning problems are weird and rely on obscure algebra, arithmetic, and probability rules that you've probably forgotten. I've been told they test problem solving rather than mathematical ability, but I have no idea if this is true (not even really sure what that means, if they want to test problem solving why not give us logic problems?).
It could just be me. I did insanely well on the reading and writing portions (above the 90th percentile for both), which made the math seem harder by comparison. I did less studying for the reading and writing than for the quantitative, so I have no idea why. However, you can find a complete list of all possible prompts for the writing portion, so I recommend writing tons of sample essays.
