As mentioned in the previous post, the "pre-allied health" student has a heavy load of courses to take to prepare for a graduate medical program. On top of this, they must take the dreaded GRE.
The GRE is basically an SAT for graduate school that is designed in one of two ways: As a general test which very much adheres to my previous analogy as a "grad-school SAT", and the specific GRE which can be focused in categories such as Biology or Psychology.
Most graduate allied health students take the general GRE.
Scores on the GRE are not everything in applying for grad school, however they can help or hinder quite a bit depending on scores.
In preparing for the GRE, I picked up the obligatory GRE study guides on the shelf at Barnes and Noble made by Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc. and studied for a few days for it to begin collecting dust on my bookshelf.
Not having set a date for my test, I had little motivation to really begin studying beyond memorizing some of the ridiculous vocab and refreshing myself on fractions (thats right, fractions) that is before I signed up for the the "Princeton Review".
The Princeton Review GRE Study Course got me on track and really helped me find time to dedicate studying the right things between a packed schedule of work and school. Even though the price was a bit steep (around $1,110) it boosted my pre-test scores up about 300 points and on the final test about 400 points. This is quite a bit considering the test is based on a 1600 point system!
As for advice I would give beyond that for any student looking to take the general GRE, study the vocab!! The verbal part is the most notorious for pulling down otherwise great scores. The math section is basically advanced algebra with minimal statistics and calculus. The writing is pretty easy but I would suggest writing a few of the essays given in the prep. books.
Also, I cannot stress this enough, the weeks before the test find time to take pre-tests (online preferably since the test is computer based) with a timer to condition yourself on working within a time limit!! This can make or break a test taker!
Otherwise, Good Luck!!!
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