One often hears people talking about "all nighters", meaning a bout of studying all night in preparation for a test. At Kaplan, we strongly discourage this; in fact, we encourage students not to study at all the previous night! To maximize test performance, stress control is essential. If you're exhausted before you even start the exam, you can't expect a good score. Besides, if you don't know the material by this time, it's too late! Start practicing, using the Kaplan Method, as soon as possible, and stick as close as you can to a regular study schedule.


On the morning of the test, all you need to do is briefly review the Kaplan Method to get yourself into your "test taking mindset". If you tackle the questions in a strategic manner, you will maximize your score!


▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Improving Your Test Results】2009.04.22 (Wed)

Those of you preparing for the GRE have the honor (albeit a dubious one) of facing a question type that has become a dying breed in standardized testing: the quantitative comparison problem. Back in my day (think "Miami Vice, Duran Duran, and Reaganomics") we had to deal with quantitative comparison questions on the SAT, but no more. Now, only the GRE has them; lucky you.


Most of my Japanese students are good at math, to put it mildly. The Japanese public education system (rightly) stresses algebraic alacrity as a useful tool to produce the CEOs, stock analysts, and physicists of the future. But although skill at solving math problems is certainly one of the fundamental skills required by the GRE, that same skill gets many of my students in trouble when they face the QC problems. The reason is, QC only tests your math knowledge as a secondary concern; these problems are more geared toward testing your critical thinking skills. Although I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing firsthand the curriculum of Japanese public schools, I'm told that it does not cultivate critical thinking (by which I mean the independent, objective consideration of information, rather than rote memorization and recital). Because of this, I often have to chide my GRE students for looking for the SOLUTION to a QC problem, rather than simply gleaning the ANSWER to same.


The difference between the solution to a problem and its answer is this: the former represents the simplification of a problem down to its most basic form, while the latter is simply a matter of bubbling in A, B, C, or D on your GRE answer grid. Take the following problem for instance:


We're told that "x^2 - y^2 = 9 (that is, 'x squared minus y squared equals 9')," and that "x + y = 9 (that is, 'x plus y equals 9')." Then we're given the following two columns:

Column A: x Column B: y


A majority of my GRE students can solve for both variables in a matter of 20 or 30 seconds. However, if we're using our critical thinking skills, we can solve the problem even more quickly. Since we have two variables and two distinct equations, we can certainly solve for x and y if we choose. Hence, answer choice D ("it can not be determined from the information given") is incorrect.


We know at a glance that x has a higher ABSOLUTE value than y, because, whether x and y are positive or negative, when you square both, you get two positive numbers which in turn yield a positive number (9) when y's square is subracted from x's. Therefore, answer choice C ("the two quantities are equal") is also incorrect. Already we're down to only choice A ("the quantity in Column A is greater"), or B ("the quantity in Column B is greater").


Finally, there's no way that x can be a negative number, because the two variables sum to 9. Since x has a higher absolute value than y, adding the two together would yield a negative number if x were negative. If both numbers were negative, you'd get a negative number with a higher absolute value than x. If x were negative and y positive, you'd still get a negative number every time, since x has a higher absolute value than y.


Therefore, x must be positive, and hence bigger than y.


As you practice for the GRE, remember that it is, first and foremost, a test of critical thinking. Become familiar with common tricks used by the testmakers, and with the issues commonly tested. Every few seconds that you save can be used to help you work through more complex problems.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Douglas先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Indispensability of Vocabulary】2009.04.15 (Wed)

When you're trying to learn something, consistency is pretty important. Exactly how extreme the consistency needs to be kind of depends on the person and the subject. I think for language, no matter the person, the consistency needs to be very very extreme. Everyday of course. But then how often each day? Well generally the more the better. In fact all day would be ideal. (By this I mean living in the country that uses the language you're trying to learn and not speaking your own language while there.)

For other subjects you probably don't need to be quite as extreme. But still consistency. Sometimes I tutor people in math and meet them about once a week. And when I meet them I ask if they practiced during the week and some people always say no. These people never really learn that much and it's pretty sad because they're paying a lot of money.

If I'm trying to seriously learn something or memorize something I study it many times throughout the day. I normally write down some information on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket and look at it many many times throughout the day. In high school I used to write it on my arm, but this was only during winter so that my long-sleeved shirt could cover it up. And then when walking down the halls I'd pull up my sleeve and read my arm. But that somehow doesn't seem so appropriate anymore. Too much information at once isn't really helpful, so if I have a lot of information I need to memorize I put a relatively small amount down on a piece of paper and carry it around as many days as it takes to really remember it. Then I write a new piece of paper and so on. (If you have a time limit this would obviously take some planning out.) Sometimes I do this for kanji and it's really effective. But for kanji I actually have to write it to really practice and learn it. Soooo... I just write the kanji many many times throughout the day. On the train, while waiting in line at the supermarket, on the toilet, wherever. The more your brain thinks about information the stronger you make the fact connected to your brain. This is true of any kind of information: formulas, vocabulary, chemical names, geography, dates, anything.

So consistency. It really works.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【Get rid of your text book and your teacher】2009.04.08 (Wed)

A lot of students express reluctance to practice the really hard (for them) parts of the test. For example, most people really hate essay writing since writing is the hardest language skill, so they spend as little time on it as possible. Ironically, this may be the easiest skill to improve because, after all, you probably have a lot of room for improvement!

Therefore, I encourage my students to work on their weaknesses first, and then work on their strengths as they approach their test date.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Kurt先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【The Economy and Education】2009.04.01 (Wed)

Learning vocabulary is boring. At least I think so, and anecdotally I'd hazard that most of you studying for your standardized tests agree. Even under the most enjoyable of circumstances--when you are simply trying to expand your lexicon at your own pace, and to broaden your appreciation for and knowledge of your own language or another, simply learning word after word after word can be tedious.


One major reason that vocabulary building can seem like a waste of time is that, almost certainly, you will learn many words that won't be on your test, and fail to learn some that will be there. Thus, when you're bored out of your skull flipping flashcards on the crowded subway, there's apt to be a little voice in the back of your head asking "what if you don't even NEED this word?" It's hard not to feel like you're wasting time when you may very well not need much of the vocab you have learned for your test.


That having been said, though, vocabulary practice must be a major part of your preparation for tests like the SAT, GRE, and GMAT, and even for less vocab-intensive tests like the LSAT. This is so because these tests grill you on your lexicon in ways that are both direct and implicit. For instance, on the SAT and GRE, you must be able to complete sentences with missing words based upon the context of the sentence. There is no way to complete these tasks if you don't know at least enough vocab to whittle down the choices. Other tests, like the LSAT, doesn't test vocabulary explicitly, but treat you as if you were a native speaker of Americanized English, with a native's knowlege of idioms, expressions, and rhetorical patterns.


So since you have to do it, the only answer is to do it as painlessly and as efficiently as possible. That's where Kaplan and your instructors come in. Here are a few pointers:


Use Flashcards: Boring? Yes, but they're convenient, and you can use them during periods when you're not doing anything else anyway (like riding the train home from work). Keep a stack of cards in your pocket, and flip through them any time you have a spare couple of minutes. If you know a word, put that card aside; if you don't know a word, return that card to the back of the stack so that you see it again. Keep going through the cards, eliminating ones you get right, until there are no cards left. Shuffle the cards periodically so that you don't memorize them in sequence.


Read Tough Publications: Boring? No, because you get to pick a high-level publication that interests you. It can be World Affairs, The Economist, or even something less academic but still well-written, like Vanity Fair or The New Yorker. The bad news is that it takes a long time to improve your vocabulary skills this way, and you won't be learning the specific words that Kaplan has recommended you learn for your test. However, the good news is that you not only improve your vocabulary by reading, you also raise your comprehension, and even general conversation skills.


Learn Words in Blocks, not by Definition: Even if some of the words in your group have different nuances, or are different parts of speech, this is a useful method. You are likely to remember that "instigate" means something like "cause," for instance, whereas memorizing the full definition would be more time consuming. If you can also remember that the word "instigate" usually has a negative charge (i.e., a pejorative nuance), you're on your way to a strong showing on test day.